Kinship

Interviewee:

I interviewed my Grandmother (my father's mother) Viola Irene Hart. She was born on December 16, 1921 in the small town of Chariton, Iowa. She is of, mainly, English and Irish ancestry, and was raised as a Catholic. Her family was quite wealthy in this area of Iowa until the stock market crash of 1929. This event impacted her childhood and family to a great extent. Their family lost everything, including the restaurant that they ran in the town of Georgetown, IA. Her father ended up going into mining and the family moved to Darkspring, WY. She enjoyed it there and the family had enough money to feed all 9 children, but they had to leave after less than 3 years due to the deteriorating health of her mother who could not take the high altitude. Her father John ("Daddy") then worked as a miner in the natural gas fields of Iowa. The family struggled financially and her Daddy began to drink. His alcoholism and resulting destructive behavior eventually led to her parents' divorce in 1935 when she was 14. The divorce caused a dissonance between her family and the church which changed how she practiced her religion. She still does not attend services to this day, but calls herself "Catholic." She met my Grandfather, at a dance in Lucas Corner, IA. He had gone to school with her older sister Eileen and asked her to dance, even though he did not know how. They married in 1941 and migrated to California after World War II where jobs were more plentiful and better paid. Dancing remained a central part of their marriage for the next 69 years.


Methods:

I conducted the interview over the phone as my Grandmother lives in South San Francisco, CA. The interview took just over 4 hours. At the beginning of the interview I explained my goals and the type of information that I needed. We started with her earliest memory and then continued forward through her life and the family record that she stores in her mind. As my Grandma loves to talk, getting her to open up was not an issue at all. The hardest part was keeping her on track since she would end up telling me side stories about certain relatives that were not a necessary part of the interview, but were very interesting. Since I have heard about, if not met, the majority of the people who were discussed it was beneficial to the interview to be able to visually place where they belonged in the family tree. If I did not know the interview subject, I would not have that advantage. One other issue that occurred was that at the age of 90, she occasionally forgets simple words for items or objects, so I had to balance whether to provide them or wait for her to come up with the correct term. If I was interviewing someone outside of my family I feel that I would need to ask more basic questions to get a better understanding of their familial culture. Knowing the interviewee aided me in knowing which questions to ask.


Patterns:

 The main pattern in this part of the family is that the majority of the people get married. Those who do not, are the exception. Even those folks who divorce typically end up marrying again.
 Growing up, Viola spent most of her time with her grandmothers, mother and sisters. This is not to say that she was or is not emotionally close to the males in the family, but she quantitatively spends less actual time with the males. (This does not apply to her husband.)
 Another commonality that is evident is the great number of family members who were either part of the military or other governmental agency. The majority of the men were in the Navy or Marines, with just a single gentleman who joined the Army. There were also several members who were involved in clandestine activities with the CIA.
 For the time and given their financial constraints, a large portion of Viola's siblings attended and graduated from college. Many attended using the GI bill after World War II.
 The family of Viola who left Iowa mostly migrated west to California or Arizona.
 Children appear to be central to the family. Most adult members have at least one, if not multiple children. Although Viola came from a family with many children (9), the following generations did not have nearly as many.
 Women in this branch of the family frequently work outside of the home while also raising young children. Viola, her mother, her daughter and many of her sisters had the need to have outside jobs to help support their families.
 Most members that Viola discussed married within their same or a similar ethnicity and religious background. Holidays are family events and the family gets together frequently just to spend time with each other. Events consist of excessively loud talking, children running through the house (usually Viola's), discussion of bodily functions or medical procedures over a meal and large quantities of sparkling wine.
  Younger members of the group are treated as respectfully as the older members. There is no differentiation between the generations. Individual successes are celebrated. Deaths of a family member are used as an occasion to celebrate that person's life.
 The family also "adopts" friends as honorary family members.


Perspectives:

Because of Grandma's propensity to talk, I became quite familiar with the extended family before I ever remembered meeting them. Last year upon the passing of my Grandad "Dick" many family members came from out of state to remember and celebrate him. It was nice to put the faces to the names that my grandmother always discussed. I may have met many of these people when I was a child, but this was the first time I remember doing so as an adult. This assignment helped to clarify where everybody fit in the family tree. On this side of my family my grandmother is considered the matriarch. She is the one who makes decisions and influences the younger family members. As one of those younger family members we grant her that privilege since she has over 90 years of experience of living on Earth. She has no problem letting the family know what her opinion is regarding any subject. That is pretty much true for all the women in the family though. History has demonstrated that it is the women that rule the family and decides what direction it is going to take. I am not sure if the family is made up of strong-minded women, or if the men just learn to acquiesce at an early age. This is not to say that the men are wimps. They will stand their ground when they so choose. It just seems that they choose less often than the women of the family. Women work outside of the home either for financial support of the children or to fulfill their own desires. This practice is not looked down on within the family, most likely because it is the norm.
When members marry into the family they are treated the same as those who are born into it. There is no difference and the family is very accepting of the new-comers. While my older family members are not perfect and have endured struggles to overcome prejudices that were taught to them by the society that they lived in at the time, they are a welcoming and loving group. Holidays are filled with not just relatives, but many friends of family members who do not have family of their own to spend them with.

Spending time with the family is never boring at the Hart's. I learned through this project that although the members may be kooky and dysfunctional in their own ways, they are really an educated and accomplished group. I am very lucky that I still have my grandmother and several of her siblings to pass down the memories and stories of the past that I am too young to remember.


Here is the branch of the family that was covered in this project. 67 members strong!

Here is the interviewee's family of origin:
(Grandparents, Parents and siblings)

Part 1 of EGO's siblings and their families:

Part 2:

My family of origin with EGO as the Matriarch and Grandmother: