Culture of One: Family History

My family has done a lot of migrating within the United States. Additionally, we've also done a lot of immigrating into the United States. Unfortunately, on my mother's side, we know very little about the history of our immigration, but we do know a little about our history of migration within the States. My grandpa on my mother's side knows a little bit more than anyone else about the specifics about them migrating from Wisconsin, but he's nearly impossible to get a hold of because of his activity regarding his health. We do however know a little bit about how my grandpa came to be a member of the Seattle community. My grandpa Pat spent the majority of his younger life moving back and forth between Green Bay, Wisconsin and Seattle until he eventually met my grandma Patty and settled down (Fun fact: my grandparents are named Pat and Patty, have a daughter named Patty and a grandson, my brother, named Pat). Pat's father, Neil Fry, came to Seattle when Pat was just a boy in order to participate in the booming lumber business of the pacific northwest. Something very interesting about Pat's relocation from Wisconsin is where his family ended up. Before we were Frys, we were Huepenbeckers. As far back as we can trace our lineage, we are Huepenbeckers and are related to about 300 other Huepenbeckers throughout the United States, primarily in Wisconsin, but there are also quite a few Huepenbeckers in Texas, around the town known as Lubbock. And why is that significant, you might ask? Well...

My grandpa Bob on my dad's side of the is a Seattle native through and through. Grandpa Bob has lived in the same house for his entire life and was actually left the house in his parent's will. He gets the house as long as he lives, but as soon as he dies the house must be sold and the money divided between his brothers. Bob, the youngest of three, was born in Seattle but his parents were originally from Minnesota. Bob's parents, Ed and Marion, were both born in Minnesota. They were a couple young love birds who fell in love but before Ed could ask Marion to marry him, she moved with her family to Seattle. Ed, head over heels in love, decided that he would do anything to be with her, so he rode the rails (English men are crazy) all the way to Seattle to be with her. They got married and lived in the same house for the rest of their unfortunately abbreviated lives. A few generations before the story of Ed and Marion, my ancestors came from the Kerry province of Ireland in the first wave of Irish migration, presumably escaping the famine. My grandma on the dad's side of the family, however, knows very little about how her family came to be in the Americas, only that her roots are Scandinavian and German and, as we've found out just recently, Cherokee as well. Now where Lubbock falls into all of this: my grandmother on my dad's side of the family, Linda, lived in the small Texas town of Lubbock. She was married to another man named Robert Matthews who, based on what I'll be explaining next, must not have been a very good man. After having three kids with Robert Matthews, my grandma Linda divorced him and took her kids to live with someone who offered to help them out. That person: Robert Matthews own uncle Joe, who lived in Washington near Seattle. Maybe it's just me, but I find it kind of strange that my grandmother, seeking refuge away from her ex-husband, decided to live with her ex-husband's uncle. But maybe I'm overthinking it. Eventually, Linda got a job at Safeco insurance and was eventually talked into a date by a young truck driver that she met at Denny's by the name of Robert English.

Why is this all so interesting, you might ask? Well, as you might have pieced together, my family lines have almost crossed paths at several different points in our history. My grandpa Bob's parents Ed and Marion lived in Minnesota around the same time that my grandpa Pat's parents, Neil and June, lived in Wisconsin. Though Wisconsin and Green Bay are not the same place, they are very close to each other and could've had some intermingling at some point. Some of the Huepenbeckers, of which I am one, now live near Lubbock, Texas, where my grandma Linda is from and where many of her siblings and cousins still reside. The two families which come together to form my household, both of Irish descent, have had the opportunities to cross paths for generations that we can see, and maybe even more before. Both the Huepenbecker and English families lived somewhat alongside each other for several generations until finally, one day, Lance English and Tammie Fry joined the two families as one and completed this crazy chain that is my family's heritage.