I knew when I told my parents that I was getting a divorce “it: would hit the fan.” The whole “we don’t get divorced, marriage is hard, you have to work together” thing that plays in your head the entire time you try to bring up the topic. You would think that there had never been a divorce in history for my family tree, ever.
It is funny how short a memory can really be.
Once I had started looking back into the family tree and not so distant either, out crawls an interesting situation. My father’s grandparents did not live together. One lived “in town” with their teenage son and the other lived “up on the hill”. From stories told, great grandfather, born and raised in Belgium before coming to America to brew beer, was less than a soft hearted man, he was a mean old grump. So not all that surprising that a separation happened. Granted this wasn’t a divorce.
My mother’s great grandfather and great grandmother lived in separate houses too. They were the photographers mentioned a couple of days ago. The cause of this separation is still a mystery; although I would guess that it had something to do with my great great grandfather’s interest in oil production and his taste for more expensive living. Granted they too never did divorce legally.
So maybe dad was right.
Nope.
Searching back through the Burgess line, on towards the entrance of the Pilgrims, yup there it is. The first recorded divorce in the New England Colonies belonged to – my family. Not just my family, dad’s side.