Discovering Twins by Stella Claire ter Hart

Author:Stella Claire ter Hart [ter Hart, Stella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stella ter Hart

All those nebulous ter Hart relatives I had met in Holland in 1978, many now gone, received a final, loving placement on the appropriate tree branch, memories of them filling my mind.

The paternal side burgeoned past 600 individuals, dates and places uncovering migrations of Huguenot ancestors into Holland from my father’s maternal side, fleeing religious persecution in France.

In stark contrast, my mother’s maternal side, despite weeks of genealogy gazing, was virtually empty. I did not, however, find this at all unusual, or unexpected, given what I knew about the loss of the Hijman family during the war. I didn’t expect to find any.

Months into my research, an unknown My Heritage member confirmed various Italian family members on my maternal, paternal side. “Well, would you look at that—it's Opa and Oma Vittali!” I had previously entered my grandparent's information, but with only the barest of details. Here appeared new people, with birthdates, birthplaces, marriages, residences, and occupations. “My mother! And Tante Christina, Uncle Tony, and Uncle Joe. But … who are all these others?”

Clicking on the link for Giovanni Vittali unleashed a flood of Italian relatives with names repeating for generations—Pietro, Antonio, Giuseppe, Giovanni, Sophia, Margareta, Maria, Christina—tracing all the way back to the 1400s in Italy. I marvelled at this wealth of unfolding family history.

How the first Vittali wound up in a cold, adopted northern country is one of our family's dramatic sagas. At the age of sixteen, Pietro Antonio, enraged with his father over some unknown disagreement, stormed out the door of his home in Druogno, Italy, the despairing wails of his mother and loud shouts, fist shakings, and exclamations of his father trailing long after him.

Young Pietro trudged north, leaving Italy and continuing through Switzerland until his anger was all walked out, and he found himself in Amsterdam, Holland. Teenagers will be teenagers, whether it be the year 1808 or 2021.

And here he was. My great-great-GREAT-grandfather, waving at me through the dash between his dates.

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