A Web of Family

Today was a reunion of deVanes, all being descendants of a Noble young Frenchman and his bride who voyaged to America about three hundred years ago. The legend of their journey from Scotland was one passed down through the generations; I had heard the revered story many times from my mother and grandmother. The most interesting part was how Marie the young wife managed to trick the ship's captain into thinking she was a boy. For some reason, she was unable to travel with her husband so she bound her breasts, disguised her womanhood, and posed as Thomas's page for the voyage. They arrived, settled, and prospered in New Hanover County in North Carolina. Today's reunion was held not many miles from where it all started, at Moore's Creek National Battlefield, a flat piece of sandy land with a few old live oaks and pines heavily draped with Spanish moss. It was a pleasant enough occasion for a group of people who mostly did not know each other and would never see each other again. A couple of attendees had computers set up with as much genealogical data as they could get but seeking more. Many brought scrapbooks or photographs to share. The main point of discussion was which lineage we were from, John or Thomas III, and were we of the Florida or the North Carolina deVanes. Pretty interesting how so many diverse people could trace their American roots back to one young couple who adventurously traveled from their home across the Atlantic to begin a new life in an unknown land. Noonish we had a Southern style buffet dinner followed by a speaker, a park ranger dressed in period blacksmith attire, and then a hike through the battlefield was offered for the interested and able. The damp gray morning had turned into a blue sky type of afternoon, but I sat it out anyway. (Really most girls just aren't that into battlefields.) Mostly I talked to my aunt and we caught up on what was going on in our family. But I enjoyed my hours there, the distantly related kin, the connection with a past era, and the reinforcement of half of my heritage.