The Beginning

It started with the pictures. For as long as I can remember, they were always there in the second drawer in Grandma’s buffet. Even as a child of nine or ten, I was drawn to the people in them. I never tired of listening to the stories Grandma told me about them, even though I wasn’t sure how we were connected to most of those faces. And there were so many names. It was just too much for a kid to take in.

 

Clockwise starting at top left: the Bradish family, Margaret Kilburn, the Sealy family, Alexander "Sander" Palm

Fast forward to 1976. My husband and I have been married for four years and, in January, welcomed our first child, a son. My semi-annual trips back to Chautauqua County, New York take a little more planning and packing but, as always, involve visiting with family, including some of the people in those old photos. Maybe it was because I now had a child of my own, but somewhere along the line, I started to think more about the people in the pictures − who were they, where did they come from, and how did they end up in western New York? 

 

Chautauqua Lake New York (Summer 2019)

During the summer trip of 1978, I sat down with my maternal grandmother, Gertrude Sealy Scott, and her sister, my Auntie Kate, and asked them to tell me about the people in the photos. Only this time I made the identification process and reminiscing count − I took notes.

There was no shortage of tales on the Bradish-Palm side of the family, either. Dad loved to talk about his childhood and family life. He also had a fairly decent collection of family photos. I wrote to my Aunt Elaine, Dad’s older sister, to help fill in some of the details.

Finally, I was ready to dig into the research. I had the foundation for what I’m going to call Phase I of my genealogy journey. But a few years ago, I started thinking about something other than just finding more ancestors. I realized there needed to be a Phase II. Most people enjoy a family story, and that’s what Phase II is about − telling our ancestors’ stories.

L-R: My uncle, Allen Wood (married to my father’s sister, Elaine Bradish), June Bradish (my father’s sister, married to Claude Wood, Allen’s brother), and my grandparents - Frank Farnham Scott, Howard Edward Bradish, Ethel Tula (Palm) Bradish, and Gertrude Selma (Sealy) Scott

My genealogy journey started decades ago with a childhood curiosity about the people in some old family photographs. As the information I had about my ancestors increased over the years, they came to life – they were no longer just names and dates on some charts. My hope is that by preserving the pictures and as much family history as possible, we will all feel increasingly connected to our ancestors and each other as we discover their beginnings, their lives, and how we came to be who we are.

 

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Bradish-Scott Family History – January 2020