Finding My Roots

I am from the 14th generation of this remarkable family and loaded with wonderful stories - from Robin Hood and Bishops to Kings of England. The Spofford family's tales moved to the Colonies in the start of America back in the 1600's.

The family story of royalty and castles caught this little girl's imagination about princes and princesses - it was exciting. But, hey, it was just my grandparents just telling me stories, right?

Fast forward to the 5,000 letters found in two suitcases, known as portmanteaus or trunks, covered in decals from all over Europe. They were my grandmothers, her gift for graduation, a grand tour of Europe in 1910 for 3 months. She had graduated from Oberlin College, Ohio with a BFA degree in education and music.

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The famous portmanteaus were packed in a closet along with my grandparent's scrapbooks and photos. I had begun to try my hand with organizing the inherited items. However, plans change, I got married to the love of my life, Don, and moved from California to Oregon. Genealogy was on hold.

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I had a dream to return to college to get my BFA degree. Dreams really do come true and I returned to college. A class assignment had got me thinking about using the inherited letters.

Concept Seminar: Time and Sequence, a Durational Study, Time Keeping System. Synopsis: Learn a system for organizing and documenting research that is easy to use, expandable, and information is retrievable. The letters became my inspiration and returned me to geneaology. I got an A.

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In several of the letters from Aunt Alicia Zierdan to my grandmother were newspaper articles of Alicia's grandmother, Rebecca Spofford-Zierdan, and her 87th birthday celebration. She was born on March 7th, 1835. In those letters is where it is talked about the family of Spofford from England. It was Rebecca's death on March 3rd, 1931 announced in the local newspaper in DuBois, PA that made the stories true. However, time progressed and the people I could talk to had passed, these wonderful letters let me time travel back into all of their lives.

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This is how my story has unfolded.