Since I started researching my genealogy, I have discovered all sorts of interesting facts about my family. It seems as though every month or so, I find a surprise, or even a shock. The latest surprise came last week. For those who get their DNA analysis through Ancestry, they provide an updated list of DNA matches, ranked in terms of how close a match they are. One new distant cousin turned up who had the name Sadilek in his family tree. Sadilek is a name in my own family tree, so it’s pretty likely that this person’s great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather were closely related, though I don’t yet know the particular nature of the relation. Learning the specifics of that relationship will probably require a trip to the Czech Republic.
It turns out that this person is a descendant of a woman named Anna Maria Sadilek, who was born in Bohemia, and then traveled as a child to Nebraska with her family. In her youth, she met and made friends with the young Willa Cather, and decades later, Cather wrote the novel My Antonia, whose title character was based on Anna. So what this means is that “Antonia” is my cousin!
I had read My Antonia about 30 years ago, and then sent it off to my mother. She liked it so much that I started giving her Willa Cather novels for Christmas for years to follow. I think she would have been charmed to know that her deceased husband was related to “Antonia” as well. (Anna is related to my father’s side of the family.)
When I told my sister about this, she proceeded to dig up as much information as she could about Anna and Cather. She also wanted to see the books I had given my mother. I think I claimed them and brought them home with me after my mother passed away, but not being the most organized person in the world, they’re no doubt buried in some box somewhere that I haven’t bothered to open for the intervening decade, and I’m not relishing the prospect of pursuing this search right now.
Cather, as you’re probably aware, was a lesbian. I always imagined that Anna was her first straight-girl crush. In my experience, all gay or lesbian people in their youth get a crush on an unattainable same-sex friend. In my own case, I was unable to even identify the emotion as love until years later, when I finally came out to myself. Eventually, you get over it and then proceed with greater caution, knowing to avoid falling in love with somebody who is incapable of returning the emotion in kind. It’s just seems a remarkable coincidence that Cather’s straight-girl crush would just happen to be a cousin of mine.
I found one other cousin of significance. I’ll devote a later diary about him some time in the future.
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Top Comments (February 15, 2018):
From Elizabeth NYC:
In a diary by Laurence Lewis comparing tRump's response to the latest school shooting with how Obama responded, I refer you to the comment by rugbymom. In her comment, rugbymom added information to the conversation in the diary. It was something I didn't know, or perhaps just didn't remember. Her description of Obama's interactions with grieving parents also brings further stark contrast between our former president and our current one. Obama's focus was on others. tRump's never is.
rom JamieG from MD:
This comment by Navy Vet Terp in Barbara Morrill’s front page post on Rubio’s response to yesterday’s school shooting in Florida.
Top Mojo (February 14, 2018):
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