Roots Run Deep

On Discovering My Roots

Photo by Rusty Watson on Unsplash

Roots run deep. Like veins extending throughout the body, ancestral passageways of light break past every boundary on humanity’s path.

My paternal line dates directly to 1633, nine generations, to the shores of New England where I have lived for 35 years. I belong in Boston; it’s in my blood.

I was actually born in MN (b. 1957). After my father Richard’s death in 1963, age 36, my mother uprooted the 7 children to raise us in Los Angeles, CA. I married and finished graduate school there, unexpectedly ending up back in MA by age 34. Not until a brother handed me our family tree did I realize I had colonial origins.

I am the only Hardy descendant who resides again on the east coast. I have stood upon their very land. I studied the long list of my grandfathers’ names etched upon gravestones bent and worn by time. Like a loose thread on a worn quilt, I would weave myself back into frayed edges of familial perpetuity.

1633. First wave.

Thomas, Sr (b. 1605); Thomas, Jr (b. 1635).

Thomas Hardy, from Westmorland County, in the Lake District, was one of nine men sent to the shores of Agawam Village (now Ipswich, MA), from Boston by MA Bay Colony’s first Governor, John Winthrop.

DESIRED: religious freedom, self-governance and farm acreage.

The Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640) to do list: escape horrid memories of local famines (England, 1623; 1629-31) and recurrent diseases; infuse freedom’s uncertainties with one ambition and hope at a time; prepare the soil; scatter seeds; weather daily setbacks; celebrate God’s twist of fortune; yield a dozen Hardy children per family; live out the paradox of deep-rooted belonging and unstoppable expansion.

1713. Second wave.

Jacob (b. 1677); Jeremiah (b. 1713), Abner (b. 1735), Sylvanus (b. 1772).

Jacob Hardy branched out from Ipswich, MA to neighboring Bradford, MA. Hardys remained over 125 years to pursue ambitions, passions and dreams.

SOUGHT: land and more land, homestead and progeny.

Generations of 18^th century dreams and fears of stagnation ran barely ahead of disease: a Revolutionary War soldier, Abner died of small pox in 1777, age 44, one month after his father, Jeremiah, age 64 succumbed to the same disease in Bradford, MA.^[3] Both are named on a memorial in a Smallpox Burial Ground, Groveland (then Bradford), MA.^[4

1841. Third Wave.

Samuel (b. 1809); Albert (b. 1845); Arthur (b. 1899); Richard (b.1927).

Samuel Hardy branched further afield from MA to WI. Grandson Arthur Hardy split further from WI to MN.

REQUIRED: self-determination and strength of economic prosperity.

• 1841. By age 35, Samuel emigrated to WI. His son, Albert, is one of three of his 14 children who survive along the way. He served the US Cavalry during Native American 1863 expulsion from the Dakota Territory before returning to WI dairy farming.

• 1919. By age 21, my paternal grandfather, Arthur, emigrated from childhood farm in WI to post-WWI city-life in Mpls. MN to work as an insurance agent while raising two sons.

• 1949. By age 27, my father, Richard, returned to the land, raising his growing family on a farm until his accidental death at age 36.

“Manifest Destiny” plowed under generations of indigenous culture, land and life. With a list of impersonal names in hand, I circle back to examine and redirect their single-minded mission.

Visiting the Bradford area recently to track the location of homes and deeds left by my forbears, I felt the stark divide of 392 years. My roots run deep--so deep they elude me. Like a breath of fresh air infused into old dreams, I have an opportunity to reweave a thread from the past with an attitude of making good for future generations.

First, I acknowledge our indigenous predecessor’s land, cultural values and ecological knowledge covered over by the small, burgeoning New England farm community’s meeting house discussions. Renewal must allow for the different ancestral pace of those who preceded the arrival of Hardy kin.

And yet, because I am here as a result, I feel that I must accept my family’s defense against outside threats with armed militia, self-governance, land division, fence building, barn raising and houses of prayer. Their paths reflect a reaction to the more dire concerns of infant mortality, poor crop yields, dwindling natural resources. But from this point, there must be a fresh history with the widest possible reciprocal community of care.