In Search of...
Every now and then I receive requests for assistance to try and help families reconnect with the roots. Some successfully pan out, while others seem to hit a roadblock and remain frigid.
There are many reasons why a family or person may become initially de-linked from others members of their family: relocation, adoption, orphanage, children born out of wedlock, family feuds, abandonment, separation from war, and the list of possibilities goes on.
Somewhere and at some point down the line someone will begin to question the “why” or “how come” and pursue some level of investigation. When that person feels like his/her efforts have not been as fruitful, some will either discontinue or begin to reach out to others for help.
I usually have this saying that there is normally at least one family historian in a family. But what triggers a person’s pursuit to go above and beyond toward digging deeper for answers to unresolved questions? Passion? Incomplete identity? Material gain? Other reasons???
Recent Requests
In the past couple of weeks I have been approached by two people looking for help to learn and reconnect with their ancestral heritage.
In one case, the story, although not too clear, is one of relocation and adoption. Sometime in 1920, a Chamorro gentleman joins the military, becomes assigned in the mainland and marries a “Statesider.” The couple has children and one of the daughters is adopted by another “Stateside” family. From that point the Chamorro ancestral de-linkage begins.
Yet some 90 years later, a descendant of the adopted child, begins her journey to try and reconnect with her Chamorro ancestry. I am happy to say that within a few days of outreach announcements and shared announcements on FaceBook, she succeeded in reconnecting with her Chamorro family!
Non-Chamorro Heritage
The second story was a little unusual for me, yet somewhat familiar to certain degrees. After all, most people that reach out to me through the Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project™ are searching for their Chamorro Roots. In addition, many of us do not have an indigenous Chamorro surname. I am a prime example.
In this particular case, it was a request to try and help bridge information regarding non-Chamorro ancestry. This was actually my second-ever request to find and help reconnect non-Chamorro ancestry. And yes, thank goodness the first one was a huge success; but I digress from the current story….
Albeit a work in progress, it involves a family’s separation from their non-Chamorro father during World War II in Palau. After the father succeeds in helping his Chamorro wife and their children escape on a U.S. ship to Guam, the Japanese charged him with spying and executed him in Palau.
To this very day, the body of this person has never been recovered and the family continues to search for clues so that they may recover his remains and have some level of closure.
What provoked the request for my help was the recent passing of a grandfather, who was the son of the non-Chamorro that was executed during the war. Death has a way of making people re-evaluate and possibly adjust perceptions and outlook on life as we see and know it today.
With this particular case, it has been an interesting journey to learn more about the history and conduct of the U.S. Navy’s War Crimes Tribunals that were held on Guam from 1945-1949. Not to mention all at a time when even Guam, Sa'ipan, Rota, Tinian and its people were in the process of recovering from the destructions of war.
Pass it Forward
So I still wonder about what motivates us to look beyond what already exists.
I do believe that it is, in part, attributed to our ancestral spirit carried forward from generation-to-generation that drives us towards looking for and embracing our heritage…all of it…who we are…what had preceded us…and conveying the stories for future generations to come.
