Repost from Tuesday, July 18, 2006

On vacation this summer, chillin’ in hotels, I wound up on the phone with my brother chatting about the falcon people (hist. ref.), the basques of Spain, and the history of our family line. When I told him that it was our father’s grandmother who was Spanish/Cuban, he was really surprised. I guess he hadn’t realized how close to us that line truly was, but it helped to explain his insatiable cravings for cuban coffee and sandwiches.He helped to clarify the notion that the Yduate line, which came from Northern Spain, seemed to circulate around the region where the Basques were known to have passed through/frequented, and that they were reknowned for their superior ship-building skills. I remember coming across a website that quoted the impeccible skill of Captain John H Geiger for having selected the finest shipbuilders to construct the then Geiger, now Audubon house.

Surfing the net this summer has also helped to uncover a fascinating truth regarding the Geiger family and the yellow fever epidemic. There’s certainly a connection there. Some articles make mention that Lucretia Geiger, and 3 daughters fell mortally ill; 3 of the 4 people listed were wiped out by the Yellow Fever, and one died shortly after a nasty fall from a tree. I wonder just how tall the tree was that death could incur so soon after falling from a tree – perhaps there’s more to it than just that. Extended effects of Yellow Fever? A voudoun curse? The ghost tales of the Key West tourist traps speak of a doll that was granted to one of the members of the family – perhaps a custom in gratitude of the death of a child – which is still floating around the museum, but has a penchant for pulling a disappearance act. This winter, it is my hope to run across this thing, as I’ll be paying the museum a visit.

My father also clarified the birthplace of my grandmother Merriman; it wasn’t Saskatchewan as I had thought – but Collingwood, Ontario. Collingwood isn’t that far from Toronto. Perhaps next time we go to Toronto, we can make a trip out to Collingwood, in the search for Merriman headstones.