"Listen to my mom. She's talking to herself again."
"Oh, Booger Snots!"
"See?" Chuckle, chuckle. "I told you!" Their friends laugh out loud. "Why does she do that? What does 'Bumber Shoots' mean?" "I don't know. But she says a lot of things I don't understand."
I have a few choice expressions that just flow from my subconscious.I guess they are my version of swearing? My kids wonder where and when I come up with these unique phrases. They are born from extreme frustration, one source being one Olga Dorothy Eugenie deDenonville, aka Ottilie Scweigle my maternal great grandmother.
She says she was born in Paris, France, 1879, on the 2nd of April. But I can't document her birth or life before 1901 when she married Frederick Lester Lowrie as Ottilie Schweigl in London.
From then and there she's all over the place. She travels to Canada with three of her children, the oldest went ahead of them and THAT can't be documented. I'm thinking he either swam or went by canoe? Then she heads off to Manhattan, leaving two boys in Canada (I think, no proof), and one dead and buried in France after fighting with his brother for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force during WWI.
She goes to England and back to Quebec twice (maybe checking up on the boys) and finally dies in Connecticut in the same year and place that my mother was born.
Two of her remaining sons name her on their border crossings' and marriage records as Olga Denonville. I have NO idea where that name came from. The Denonvilles figure prominently in early Canadian and French history. All I want to know is who is she? Where did she really come from? Did she have any parents?
I've always felt so close to my ancestors while researching them. It often feels like they want to be found because I just trip over clues to their stories.These people, Olga and her sons, make me crazy! I honestly think that they are the most sarcastic, tall-tale-tellers I'll ever meet. And by the way, my 14-yr.-old can pull the wool over my eyes like nobody else I know. THAT'S what these nuts passed down through the generations.
I have to say, this is all very fun. Quite amusing to think that they're hiding so well and watching me pull my hair out trying to figure out name changes and whereabouts for the first decade of the 1900's. So few years, yet so many records to locate and peruse.
In the meantime I'm sure they're pointing and giggling, "Listen! She's talking to herself again," and "HAHA!" as another "Booger Snots!!!!" flies out to any and all passersby as I come to another dead end.
When I find Olga, and I will, I think I'm going to feel a bit sad. The game will be over. Maybe I'll just let her sweat it out for a couple of years?
Want to help? These are the records I've searched for and when found (*) have given me all I know about her:
*1901 marriage certificate / England
*1911 census /England
*1913 "Royal Edward"-England to Quebec w/3 children (can't find the oldest and when he arrived after the war)
*1923 "King Edmund"-Canada to New York w/ daughter
*1927-"Tuscania"- New York to England
*1928- "Aussonia"- England to Qebec
*1930 census- in Manhattan w/ daughter
Death cert/ died 1937 Greenwich, Ct.
I've searched for more census records, called Canadian Archives for apps. for Canadian citizenship, etc. I've searched under all of her alias' in all their variations. She didn't have to apply to become a Canadian Citizen because she was a British citizen. She never applied to become naturalized in the USA, as far as I can tell. I'm sending for a search of her app. for Canadian citizenship anyways, even though I'm pretty sure she never applied. I can't find William Schweigel, her father, on anything but Olga's death cert. which her daughter filled out and may not have been correct. He also went by Odilo Schweigl as a witness of her 1901 marriage in England. He was a colonel. Of what and with whom? I don't know. Can't seem to find him anywhere either.