Way back in 1696 #mfrwauthor
Welcome to the second year of the Marketing for Romance Writers yearlong blog hop. This week, the writing prompt is:
My Earliest Memory
[image error]I don’t quite remember Grandpa Polydor (Pol, or Paul after he moved to the New World). He died when I was three and a half, and it was close enough to Christmas that there was a present from him under the tree. He must have been really important to me, because I still remember opening that present, a wind-up train. The train lasted for several years, and I always remembered it was from grandpa.
My memories don’t extend back to 1838, but that was when grandpa’s dad — my great-grandpa Edouardus — was born. One of my Belgian relatives produced a book about Edouardus’s progeny. The earliest relative mentioned is Michael Hoornaert, who married Joanna Witdouck in 1696. For some reason, I don’t remember Michael at all.
In the book’s frontpiece my son, Chris, stands with local relatives in front of the house in Ardooie where Edouardus was born in 1838. I like to think Frans chose to highlight this pic partly because Chris towers over him and cousin Koen.
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Useless yet neat factoid: According to the book, the surname Hoornaert comes from Hoorndrager, meaning cuckold. Apparently, I had a naughty great-something grandmother. Did she stray out of true love? Was it a tragic tale of jealousy and marriage to the wrong man? Is there a novel in there somewhere?
What about you?
What’s your earliest memory? Be sure to check out the other writers taking part in this blog hop — though I doubt any of them will go further back than 1696!
