Where We're From – Waystations

So if I'd been thinking, this post would have been about any place in countries that had only a few locations, particularly those where we didn't settle. Canada nearly fits—the Howells lived in Saskatchewan when they first came to Canada, and later settled in Winnipeg, but all moved on to other places—mostly around Vancouver. Vancouver is the only place where we have more than living or marriages listed in Canada. The Britsh Isles are another—all the England locations were only waystations, as was the Isle of Man.

However, there were enough locations in England that I felt it deserved it's own post, and Vancouver had two generations of my mother's family born there, so I felt it deserved it's own post.

But that still leaves two other places where my family settled for a short time, and should I find more, I will add them when they are discovered. Which means this one will be a short one, but still, both were very instrumental in my family's journey to where they settled.


A map of the locations:

View Waystations in a larger map

1. Paris, France
The Hillinger family left Germany and settled in Paris in the early 1930s while my great-grandfather Alex sought asylum from the US. They stayed there for a year, and my grandfather learned a good bit of French while they were there, even picking up a job as newspaper boy to make a bit of extra money for the family. He later used French and German as a translator in the US Army during and after the war.

2. Antwerp, Belgium
My great-grandfather's father decided to move the family here when my great-grandfather and his brothers were still young. The fishing in the Lofoten Islands was in decline at the time, so he and his brother decided to find new avenues. He moved his family, and his brother stayed behind, between them setting up a relay of goods from one are to the other. Unfortunately, at the time, there was a good deal of animosity toward the British in Belgium over the Boar war, and our name, Bordewich (later changed by my great-great grandfather to Bordewick) sounded very English to them. They were shunned and even in one particular instance, spat upon, so after only a short time in Belgium, they moved again—to England.


And that's it, until I learn more about my family tree. The last two posts will focus on Galicia, which I have only learned of this past year, and the places my family may have come from in even earlier generations which I have yet been unable to conform.

Next up: Galicia