She was a beautiful, young Irish maid, working in a wealthy English household. Her employer’s oldest son fell in love with her. When he announced intentions to marry her, his parents said they would disown him. He married her anyway. Then, bride and groom ran away to live happily ever after. “Her name was Mary Cordial,” my maternal grandmother Marilyn Matilda Dietz told me, that distinct glimmer of pleasure in her eyes—the one she always had when she retold this story. “And you are her legacy.”

This blog is a resource for those who want to--have to--find out more about who they came from.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Kathleen's Genealogical Dictionary, Entry #1

JACKPLOT (noun): A burial plot that contains a multitude of unexpected relatives, breaking down a brick wall or two, allowing the researcher to trace his/her family back several more generations.

Used properly in a sentence: "I found eight relatives I didn't even know I had in the family jackplot!"
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