Wisdom Wednesday: Maternal DNA and Women's History

Martha Bolhuis Timmer, a community midwife, and two of her granddaughters she helped deliver.

 

The timing could not be better to celebrate the accomplishments of my female ancestors and to call upon their memory, wisdom and strength for the future.

 

Ten years ago I had reached out to find out more about my living relatives who might also carry on my mitochondrial (mtDNA) and was able to take my mother to meet up with one of her cousins and her cousin's daughter Ruth (which would be my second cousin) for lunch. My calendar notes I still have from that time show that lunch meetup actually occurred ten years to the month from today! I wrote a blog post about it later that month highlighting the story of how we share the same mtDNA.

During that same trip to visit my mother, I met up with a local author and speaker, Janet Sjaarda Sheeres, who graciously shared with me information she was planning to present on Dutch Immigrant Women through the Western Michigan Genealogical Society. All of my maternal ancestors hail from the Netherlands, so this was a wonderful topic to discuss! I wrote a blog post about my Dutch immigrant ancestors at that time as well (which I realize now can be updated with new information that has been discovered since it was published).

While discussing these Dutch women, Janet shared about another project she was working on regarding midwives among this same community of women. As it happens, my grandmother had told me that her mother-in-law was a midwife and actually helped deliver her children. Janet was delighted to hear this and I gave her the small details that I knew. Other than attending a National Genealogical Conference held in the area a few years later at which she was also presenting, I have not had much more contact with Janet since.

That is until a few days ago into this month when I received an email from Janet. She wrote to let me know that after waiting five years from the month in which she turned in her manuscript, her book on Dutch Midwives was finally available for purchase. I went right to Amazon and placed an order and it didn't take long to arrive. I am ever so pleased that I was able to help bring to light the usually hidden histories of female ancestors.  

To add to the story, a few days ago my second cousin Ruth reached out to touch base and update me on more family information. We have managed to keep up with each other on Facebook since connecting ten years ago, but there has been a hiatus in the last year or so since life keeps us so busy. I was happy to hear from her and let her know that any day now my daughter was expecting a daughter which adds to the line of those who carry our same mtDNA.

As I waited for this momentous event in my immediate family's history, I was struck by the timing of it all: from midwives in the early 20th century to reconnecting with my second cousin to waiting on the birth of my first biological granddaughter...the interconnectedness with all things past, present, and future is awe-inspiring to me! 

Every time a child is born, so is a grandmother