Amelia Aubichon Petit

Yesterday I had a phone call from a young man looking for a photograph of one of his great-greats, Amelia Aubichon Petit.  He had seen her picture in my Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula and, although he had other photos of her, had not seen that particular one before.

As we chatted, he mentioned several other forebears whose names I know well – Adelaide Taylor of the Taylor Hotel and her son-in-law, the ship-wrecked sailor, Billy Begg.  We talked about other descendants of these pioneers and the surnames Provo, Herrold, Allen, Wallace, Killien sprinkled our conversation – many of them local, related to him, known to both of us.

William Begg

We also talked about the data-gathering process and how we keep track of our sources which, of course, led to me telling him about the Community Historian project and inviting him to participate in the next go-round.  He thought that by the time it begins next January, he might be able to do just that.

I also shared with him my Family Tree Fantasy – probably more of a Family Forest Fantasy, really.  It has been growing in my mind for years and reached urgent proportions as I worked on the Legendary Locals book.  The more I talked to people about their forebears, the more relationships I found.  Wiegardts related to Prests.  Whealdons related to Williams.  Biggs to Andrews.  And on it goes.  Wouldn’t it be great to draw out a huge “family tree” to show the relationships?

I’ve gone so far as to suggest to Betsy Millard, Director of the Heritage Museum in Ilwaco that they might devote a wall to such an endeavor.  People from the community could come and add their names in the proper location.  Gradually, a diagram of our community would emerge showing the relationships and connections going back four or five or even six generations.  Fabulous!

It seems to me that there is only one crucial consideration remaining:  is there a wall big enough?