~ The library ~

 

Picture: Lulu's visit to the library
Music : Banks of the roses and decoupages

The old photograph of Aunt Mary
made me very curious
and I decided to go to the library
and see if she was filed there.

After all
she was famous enough
to be filed.

To my big surprise
she was born in my town
and lived there
all her life
when she was not on orbit .

Of course.
Being an artist
isn't exactly a job with one sit.

And according to files, she swerved
about around the whole world.

Not one corner that she didn't visit.
And lots of articles in newspapers.
And letters in different languages.

I even found her birth certificate.
Handwritten, as it was in those days.

After a while
I could even decipher
her full name:

"Julian-Anne DRIEWS"

According to the librarian
it was a very British name.
Because of the s.

"It means son of DRIEW", he said.
Whoever Driew was...

Well. I know for sure now
that my name BELL
is not British at all.
Because it has no s.

The librarian had some ideas on that too.

According to him it could be related to an old French name: BEYLOTTE.
The English would drop the OTTE and keep the BEYL.
And after a while it became  BELL or BYL.

So searching for POPPINS, I found DRIEWS
And possible French origins for my own name.
Not bad for my first day.
Not bad at all.

Just one thing bothered me.
Right now, there was too much documentation for my aunt Mary.
I could fill my life just with her.
And genealogy isn't exactly about one person is it?

So, I decided to skip her and
focus on DRIEW and BEYLOTTE.

The help of the librarian got me so ahead!
And it felt like we had solved my origins at one stroke.
Whoopee!

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Glossary

library = can be public or private
handwriting = to be deciphered most of the time
birth certificate = proof of existence
librarian = not irrefutable either