TRAVELS WITH THE WNP
 

Texas Roots: A Journey into a Novel
By Lorelle Marinello
Wet Noodle Posse | Lorelle Marinello

My journey to Texas to uncover my family roots inadvertently began in the pages of my third novel, FAIRHOPE. Shortly after writing the first chapter, I mentioned to my aunt that I was writing a book set in Texas. She promptly informed me that my maternal great-grandmother was from a place called Bells, Texas. Oddly enough, the working title of my story was GRANDMA'S GHOST. The next time we had lunch, it was nearly Christmas. As I was leaving the restaurant, she handed me my Christmas present with a secret smile on her face. When I arrived home, my children were eager to see what was inside. I opened the package and found myself staring into an image of my own face. It was my great-grandmother, Lutie Kidd, a woman I barely knew through my grandmother's sad memories of her mother's early death. My children were so spooked, they tiptoed past the picture for days, afraid to go near it. Thus began my fascination with Texas and my journey to uncover the lost side of my family history.

In the summer of 2004, five years after I'd completed my novel, I was finally able to make the trip to Texas. Like the heroine in my novel, I traveled north away from the flat Dallas landscape into the gentle roll of green hills. The names and pieces of history I'd been able to gather off the Bells Web site, www.bellstexas.com, began to come to life.

My first stop after a long day's travel was the Grayson County seat of Sherman, the nearest large town to Bells. Bright and early the next morning, I grabbed my notebook and headed to the county courthouse to gather records. The clerk handed me enormous leather-bound volumes of marriage certificates and death records, dating back to the 1800s. Then she led me to an old library table and let me get to work. If you have a yen for history, there is nothing more exhilarating than sitting in an old courthouse leafing through documents that sketch your family history.

After I'd made copies of my family records and solved a few family mysteries, I took a tour of Sherman. The courthouse sits in the town center and is surrounded on four sides by quaint, 19th century, brick buildings. I wandered through antique shops then rambled over to the library to do more research. Sherman, though a growing city with modern conveniences, still retains its small-town, friendly atmosphere and shows pride in its rich Texas history. There are a wide variety of lodgings in Sherman. If you are in the mood to savor the past to the fullest, I recommend the Three Sisters Victorian Inn bed and breakfast, on North Grand Avenue. http://www.threesistersvictorianinn.com/

My next stop was Bells, my great-grandmother's hometown, a small close-knit farming community with a population of 1,002, located approximately 10 miles east of Sherman. I'd started my search with a list of names from a cemetery I'd found on the Bells Web site. Gradually, I was beginning to place them in my family tree. I stopped at the Old Bells North Cemetery, a quiet spot where the moss-covered marble headstones jut out of the grass. Tall trees bordered two sides of the graveyard. The warm summer air hummed with the sound of cicadas as I climbed the rise. The first cluster of markers I stumbled on belonged to my family. It was almost as if I had been there before. I had a strong sense of coming home.

My third great-grandmother's headstone was lovingly carved with this inscription: She was a kind affectionate wife, a fond mother and friend to all. Her sons' headstones carried similar dedications of love. I left with a sense of pride and a better idea of who my ancestors were.

I'm writing this article after recently completing another revision of the novel, which started my journey into my family history. I've since discovered place names in the area where my ancestors lived are actually character names in my story, names I chose at random from a California phone book before my Texas search began. While looking for my great aunt's grave, I discovered one of my character's names, first and last, on a tombstone. Whether my experience is just part of a greater collective unconscious which writers are often privy to, I don't know, but it's made the journey all the more exciting for me. I can't wait to gather more insights into my family history and find seeds for my next novel. If you have a desire to learn more about your family roots, I encourage you to take a trip into the past. Almost every state and county has a Web site with links to genealogy archives.

 

To read last month's Travel article, click here

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