De This and von That

I mentioned the other day, as I was proposing to put together some sort of genealogical chart to help the readers of this blog to understand who is being referred to how, not to mention how the various whos are related to each other (if at all), that I was most grateful to have a small extended family of relatively humble origins.

My good fortune appears even greater if I consider what might have been, had circumstances been different - had I been born, for example, into one of the families of two of the members of my team at work.

I consider it a privilege to have in my team a real De Somewhere and a real von Somewhere (or perhaps I should say a De Quelque Part and a von Irgendwo).

Real in the sense that, for example, the family of the De Somewhere (who is the eldest of seven children, incidentally) has a family seat just outside Somewhere, in the Drôme, in France, and that the De Somewhere herself will be getting married there at the beginning of July next year (to a De Somewhere Else, I'm relieved to say), in the presence of many tens of her family members, and, if he plays his cards right between now and then, of the Paternal Optimist.

And real in the sense that, for example, the family of the von Somewhere recently celebrated its 800th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the von Somewhere in my team travelled to Berlin to attend the annual family meeting, at which not tens, but hundreds of members of the family congregated to meet and discuss, as well as, amongst other things, to coordinate the management of the Familienverband (association) and the family Stiftung (foundation). This is a family that has had, since 1823, its own foundation dedicated to helping out the less fortunate family-members, that has its own website (rather grander than the Paternal Optimist's humble blog) and whose genealogical chart is split into 5 separate PDF files, for Heaven's sake !

Part of me envies enormously these two colleagues their belonging to families with such long-standing traditions, the sense they have of forming part of an enduring heritage, not to mention the massive networks they have at their disposal.

But at the same time, part of me is glad not to have to experience the strange sensation of finding myself in the midst of a vast crowd of relations, the majority of whom are strangers to me, and with most of whom I can never hope ever to have much more than a passing acquaintance. And with every day that I write this blog, this part of me - more introverted, and less ambitious, perhaps - is fired by an ever-strengthening desire to know more closely and more intimately the few close members of my family.

Note : the PO hereby resolves to study and reflect upon the dossier of materials he has relating to the lives of some of his more recent forebears, and to share his thoughts thereon with his readers here.

Comments

[Brown Eyed Girl]

PO,

Growing up in a community of first and second generation Americans from Sicily, I was always jealous of their spontaneous multi-generation get togethers that seemed to happen wherever they went (gas station, grocery store). They were related to everyone else in town after only one or two generations! As the established American with no Italian blood I wished that I had a huge Italian family with at least five relatives named Tony. I'm sure if you dove into your family genealogy you would find a link to nobility, notoriety or both. During my financial accounting class we were studying how one executive was being investigated for corruption...he had only recently left the family (divorce); and I hail from a strange number of governors of Arkansas.

BEG