Old Home Place

David Howard

Source

Down East

Date

8-2020

Pages

78-84

Abstract

An essay about the author's Maine ancestry and a trip to discover his roots. The author describes delving into family history materials collected by his late great-aunt, fueled by curiosity about his connection to Maine. He discusses his earliest Maine ancestors, the Wadleigh family, who settled near present-day Woolwich in the 1600s; how the last surviving Wadleigh eventually married into the Brookings family of Massachusetts; and how her son later reclaimed part of the ancestral lands, overlooking the waters still known as Brookings Bay. The author describes his mounting desire to visit this long-abandoned ancestral property, especially the old family burial ground. This material is interspersed with the tale of Howard's actual trip, as well as his musings about "belonging" to a place, and what it really means to be from Maine.

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