Jennifer Keniston | Threads That Connect Past, Present, Future

Stories in Our Roots 0:03
Welcome to the Stories in Our Roots podcast. I'm your host Heather Murphy. In this podcast, we dive deep into how knowing the stories of our ancestors can make a difference in our lives today. Discovering our family history is more than a hobby. It is the way to connect deeply with ourselves, those we love, and the world around us.

Heather Murphy 0:26
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Stories in Our Roots. I am Heather Murphy. Stories in Our Roots is now six months old. And in an effort to best serve you my listeners, I would love to have your feedback on what is working well on this podcast. And what you might like to see more of in the show notes is a link that you can go to fill out this brief survey it only take you a few minutes. And as a thank you to you I will send you 27 lessons learned from stories in our roots. It's a little PDF mini book that I put together, highlighting great takeaways from each episode of stories in our routes up to Episode 27. Today, I talk with Jennifer Keniston. And we talk about what it was like for her to travel to Europe and connect with her grandfather's on both sides in different ways. We talked about how learning her past has helped her better understand her present, and will influence her future as well as future generations. Here's the interview with Jennifer Keniston.

Hello, Jennifer, thank you so much for joining me today. Could you start and introduce yourself, please?

Jennifer Keniston 1:38
Sure. Hi, my name is Jennifer Keniston. I live in Southern California. I live with my husband and several fish right now. And soon to be a new baby girl in a couple of months. So very exciting time.

Heather Murphy 1:53
Well, congratulations.

Jennifer Keniston 1:58
Thank you.

Heather Murphy 1:58
Start your family tree the other direction.

Jennifer Keniston 2:00
Exactly.

Heather Murphy 2:03
Well, how did you first become interested in learning about your family history?

Jennifer Keniston 2:08
When I was young, probably about when I was 10 years old. My great aunt passed away, and my family and I travel to see family and attend her funeral. And it was really the first time that I realized a family tree could be more than just parents and grandparents and first cousins. There were all of these new people all of a sudden saying oh, I'm your cousin. And I'm your you know, great aunt great uncle and and it was a brand new experience to me. So then, years later, I started to get interested in my own genealogy. And I've always remembered that experience. And it's it's just always sort of almost fueled me to keep keep going and to keep seeing who's out there.

Heather Murphy 3:00
And what was it when you actually did decide to get into the researching to putting everything together? why and when did you start?

Jennifer Keniston 3:09
I started probably I want to say maybe eight years ago, I started on family search. And I was actually prompted a little bit by an article that I read in a Martha Stewart Living. And they talked about ways that you can research your family history. And they talked about family search. And I had never heard of this. And I thought oh my gosh, this sounds really cool. So I I went online and I looked at family search, and I started I started my own account, and I just started adding really not knowing what I was doing. So I got really enthusiastic. And at the time, I didn't realize that family search was just one big giant family tree. And it was really hard for me to to figure that out and to navigate it. So eventually I I migrated over to ancestry, which I just I love ancestry, the things that I found and the hints that have prompted me to keep going have been just just amazing things that I would have never expected to find wartime records for distant ancestors. It's just addicting. It's hard to hard to explain.

Heather Murphy 4:21
Can you tell me a story that you've learned in your family history that has been meaningful to you?

Jennifer Keniston 4:26
Sure. I never knew my maternal grandfather. So my mom's dad, he passed away before I was born. We found out years ago when my grandmother sent some of his documents to my mom, that he had actually been a ball turret gunner during World War Two. And he was involved in the D day invasions, which we never really knew about. It was pretty amazing. So we we have the records of his FLIGHT LOG and it details the dates. of his flights, that details where the destination was. And on that those particular entries, it just says invasion coast. And there's two entries for it, which I never understood until quite recently that there were, there were three waves. And so to see, to see that my grandfather took place in two of the three waves was just amazing. And that really prompted me to do research into his time in the military, I was able to reach out to the pilot of his plane, who at the time was still alive, and have a great conversation with him, really learn about the time and the context of what my grandfather experienced. And I've even been able to travel to the airbase that he was stationed at in England and tore it and visited and see the runway that he would have flown out of and landed on. It's amazing.

Heather Murphy 5:54
What was it like to put a sense of place to these stories that you've been researching?

Jennifer Keniston 5:59
It's pretty powerful, you don't, I don't think you really realize how powerful that can be until you're in that situation. I was there in England at the same time of year that my grandfather was there. So to be able to see the clear skies in May, and to see the bright yellow flowers of the surrounding fields was just incredible. It just made me think, wow, this is what this is exactly what he would have experienced, you know, the weather was beautiful spring, I really tried to think about all of the planes that would have been coming in and landing and try to try to superimpose this sort of chaotic, noisy atmosphere over this really peaceful countryside and just really, really put myself in his place. It was really, really powerful.

Heather Murphy 6:48
What was it like for you, as you research this grandfather to get to know him?

Jennifer Keniston 6:53
It was very interesting. You know, he's, he's somebody who, like I said, I never knew Him, who has to wait, when my mom was was young, probably in her 20s. And I know there are things that she would have liked to have asked him that maybe she didn't think to ask him. So through doing this research, I've been able to provide her some answers that maybe she didn't realize she had questions to. And that's, that's been very meaningful to me, I that's really kept me going. I love just being able to make that kind of connection for somebody.

Heather Murphy 7:28
That's not another ancestor that you've been able to research and get to know better.

Jennifer Keniston 7:32
So another ancestor is my paternal grandfather. That's my, my dad's dad. And he it, he came over from Germany when he was probably about 18 years old. And he came over on a ship, he had $25. in his pocket, he immediately signed up to be a chef on an oil tanker. So he came into the country with nothing. He was brought over by his cousin. And he started his life here, right away. Through looking at census records, I've been able to see where he lived when he was actually on land, not on the ship. He was in New York in Harlem, which is pretty, pretty amazing. Because he came from Germany, I had this, you know, this desire to go and, and see where he came from. So after college, I went backpacking, and ended up in the small town in Germany that he came from, I thought, you know, it would be great to, you know, to see where he lived and see if there's any relatives still around. So I actually went to the local post office, and I looked for, I asked them if they knew where the local town hall was where there were records because they direct me. And they said, Well, what are you looking for? And I was looking for some some family members from a long time ago. And they said, Well, why don't you look in the phonebook. Okay, and I'm thinking, you know, everyone's, everyone's gone. I don't know that I'll find anybody. But I looked through their phone book, and there was a name that I remembered my father saying, this cousin, and I said, Oh, I think this might be this might be somebody and they said, Oh, that's right around the corner. These stonemason You know, this is how you get there. They drew me a little map. And so I just sort of turned up on the doorstep and almost chickened out, and I was walking away and somebody came out and said, Can I help you in German and I? And I said, Oh, yeah. Hi, I'm Jennifer. I think I'm related to you. My grandfather was Paul and, and the man that came out said, Oh, right. Yes. Good uncle Paul from the United States. Yes. I remember. Though it was it was really funny and they were so welcoming and just so kind. There was a language barrier. My my German is awful. So there, there was definitely a barrier there. But they were just so kind and amazing. And they were having a birthday party in a few days time. And they actually invited me and my, at the time boyfriend, who's now my husband to come and celebrate with them, which was just so great. So we had a wonderful family celebration to celebrate someone's birthday.

Heather Murphy 10:23
And were you with the language barrier. It might have been difficult, but were you able to learn any more stories or things about the family that had stayed there?

Jennifer Keniston 10:32
Not a lie. What I did learn and actually my, my father did pretty much the same thing. A few years later, he turned up on the doorstep. So some of it comes from his experience with them. And some of that comes from mine. We found out that the stonemason shop that they they are currently working in that's currently there was the stonemason shop that my grandfather's father owned and ran back in around I would say 1900 or so. So it's been in the family for years and years and years. And it was just really neat to see our last name right on the front there and carved into stone and all the all the examples of their stonework.

Heather Murphy 11:16
Was there anything else of significance that you were able to see or places that you really had a connection to when you're on that trip for your family history?

Jennifer Keniston 11:26
On that particular trip, I actually did get to go to the Normandy beaches as well, which my grandfather, my other grandfather would have flown over during the day. And my husband's grandfather had also taken part in the invasion as a in a tank for the British Army. Okay, so it was meaningful for both of us. Yeah. Great.

Stories in Our Roots 11:52
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Heather Murphy 12:36
Oh, one of the things you wrote about and when we're conversing with by email is that family history helps you to feel grounded. Can you talk about why that is?

Jennifer Keniston 12:48
Sure. It's, it's an odd sensation, because it to me, I almost didn't really feel like I was loading until I realized that there were all of these great connections to the past sort of holding me by these thin little strings. And then it's hard to describe it's a really strange sort of grounding sensation. But it's almost like you understand your place in the world a little bit better. If you understand your past, you understand your present, and maybe your future maybe where you're going. It's interesting, there's been these little tugs on the strings over the years that have just sort of said, Hey, we're still here. Hey, remember me? You don't forget us. And they've just sort of reached out time and again, and really unexpected ways. There was a time when I was working at a job. This man came in, and we started talking and he mentioned his his last name. And it was very, very similar to my maternal now, I'm sorry, my paternal grandmother's maiden surname. And I commented on it and I said, Oh, that's, that's very similar to the family name in mind. And he said, Oh, where was she from? Pennsylvania. She's from a little town called OCL. And knows, and he knew exactly where that was. He said, there's plenty of us spread out. And this was really before I got really interested in the family history. Thinking about it now my past just walked right into my place of employment and said, Hi, I'm right here. come and find me. It's been pretty, pretty incredible. Yeah.

Heather Murphy 14:32
Have you had experiences where you've found commonalities with your ancestors, as you've learned more about them?

Jennifer Keniston 14:39
Yes, there. There have been a lot of times, you know, learning about, say my, my grandfather's family, the stonemasons from Germany, that takes a certain level of creativity. My father's creative, he is a woodcarver, I'm creative, my background is really in fine art and photography. So seeing this, this thread have, you know working with your hands and making something out of nothing? It's great to me, it's great to see that it really comes down through the different generations, your family members on my mother's side, they worked really, really a lot in the silk mills in England in mackerels field. And then when they came to New Jersey, and Patterson, they worked in the silk Mills, they're all the women in the family have sold, they spent a lot of textile work coming down through the generations, and I and I love sewing, a lot of fun, that's really relaxing. To me, it's just been great to see these different things that I actually have in common with, with my ancestors who are at this point, you know, long gone, but but yet they're still there, there are still parts of them that live on in everybody.

Heather Murphy 15:47
Okay, so through those examples, I can see what you mean by when you said before about these threads that hold you, but you didn't really know they were there until you've been learning your family history. I can see that now, how your family's always been creative, but you didn't know it was a generational trait until you started researching.

Jennifer Keniston 16:06
Right.

Heather Murphy 16:08
Are there any other things that you've learned about yourself, as you've researched your family history?

Jennifer Keniston 16:15
I think learning about my family history has given me more of a sense of strength, I can think back to different family members who have faced challenges, like my grandfather, who came to the United States at age 18, with $25 in his pocket, that took a tremendous amount of courage and strength to do that. And when I face challenges in my life, I think, you know, if, if my ancestor could do this, I can do what I'm doing. I can forge ahead.

Heather Murphy 16:46
One other thing that you said in the email that I thought was interesting, you said that family health history helps you understand who you are in the present. And that influences what mark you're going to leave on the future. How does learning your past influence how you view your future?

Jennifer Keniston 17:05
So learning about my past, really hard to describe. So learning about my past informs my future, because it makes me think about the things that my ancestors did. That to them was just very commonplace, they didn't realize that they were leaving their mark on the future for somebody like me to come along and find. And it makes me think that we're all just going through our lives doing that we're all creating records and documents, of course, but we're also creating memories, and we're creating traditions and family stories that will be passed down just like the people who came before us did that. We're doing that right now. And so our children and our grandchildren are going to one day talk, hopefully, when they talk about, you know, I remember when my mother did this, or my grandmother did that. And my mom taught me to sew or we have this great family tradition that, you know, my my dad brought over from England. So you know, all of these great things that are happening right now are really informing our future that will one day become somebody's genealogy.

Heather Murphy 18:19
Well, thank you. If you could go back and give yourself some piece of advice before you started into the researching your family history. What would you tell yourself?

Jennifer Keniston 18:29
I would definitely say, don't just add hints from other member trees. I think that's probably a really common thing that people do. You get really excited to see all of these different things that are coming and you get super excited when somebody else, excuse me has a tree that is very similar to yours, and oh, wow, they have all these ancestors, I'm going to add them. But you shouldn't do that. You need to really think about the sources. You need to think about where this information is coming from. It's great to look at these things, but don't just blindly add them. Just always, always think with a critical mind. And just do your own research and find things that that will backup your own research.

Heather Murphy 19:16
I have one more question for you. How do you think you are going to use family history to influence the next generation of your family?

Jennifer Keniston 19:28
That's a good question. I think we're definitely going to use family stories. My husband and I are going to use our family stories to teach our little girl where she comes from. My husband is English. So we want to incorporate the English traditions and things that my husband grew up with into her upbringing. We want her to know where he or she comes from. Whether that's cooking a special meal that's been passed down. From his mom to us to, to her, or celebrating a holiday in a certain way, I think we're just always going to tell her, you know, this is why we're doing this. This is the tradition. This is where this comes from. And let her do what she wants with that she may hate it may think it's the most boring thing in the world. But we'll try.

Heather Murphy 20:23
But I bet she won't always feel that way. And at some point later in life, she'll be glad today you did what you did.

Jennifer Keniston 20:29
I hope so. Yeah.

Heather Murphy 20:32
Well, it has been great talking with you. Thank you so much for sharing your stories and how they have made a difference in your life as you've learned about your ancestors.

Jennifer Keniston 20:42
Well, thank you so much for having me. It was a real pleasure. Thank you.

Stories in Our Roots 20:47
Thank you for joining me today for Stories in Our Roots. Please help this podcast grow by subscribing, leaving a review and sharing your friends. If you have feedback, or would like to recommend someone to share their story head to storiesinourroots.com and fill out the form. Thanks again for listening and I look forward to being with you again next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai