Family Tradition

After writing about family stories, I got to thinking about one of the traditions in our family that had been going on ever since I could remember.  I figured there must be a story behind it, so I turned to my mother, Arvene (Stodolski) Van Hout, for the history behind our Christmas Eve oyster stew.

Here is the story, as recounted by my mother.  For clarity, her dad was Matthew Stodolski and her Grandpa and Grandma she is referring to, are Joseph and Lucy (Beaudry) Stodolski.  The story:
 

"In our family Oyster Stew started with my Dad's folks Grandpa and Grandma Stodolski.  Many years ago, we were not allowed to eat meat the day before a holy day, so we had to have a meatless meal Christmas Eve.  As a very young girl, we would go to Grandpa and Grandma's farm for oyster stew before Christmas Mass at midnight.  We would then come home and Santa would have come, so we had our Christmas.  When the weather was bad Grandpa and Grandma would come to town and Grandma would make stew here. We also had salmon loaf. So it started with the Stodolski clan.

  One time when we had to be in town Santa made a visit, another time I remember we heard noise in the basement and wouldn't you know Santa left the toys there."

 

 

This tradition remained relatively unchanged as far back as I can remember.  I recall going out to my great grandparent's house when I was very young.  When Grandma died and Grandpa was in the nursing home, we began going out to Grandpa Matt's house for oyster stew.  One thing that was added to the meal somewhere along the line, was Grandma Margaret's olive hot dish (for those who didn't want to eat oyster stew).  The tradition of Santa showing up while we were at Grandma and Grandpa's continued, with either Dad pulling out the gifts while we were getting in the car or slipping out while we were at Grandpa's and running home to play Santa.

After Grandpa Matt died, the Christmas Eve meal was moved to our house where my mother and Grandma Margaret would prepare the stew.  One of the things we looked forward to during that meal was whether or not someone was going to find a pearl in their oysters.  It always seemed that my dad would find a small one each year.  Of course, Santa couldn't come while we were eating anymore, so he came during the night.  By then, however, Santa had become that spirit of Christmas we all get when we are too old to believe he exists.  We did, however, continue for a while at least, the gift exchange we had done for years.

The tradition still lives in my family.  I have continued it over the years with varying degrees of excitement by my children.  None of them care much for the stew, so the amount we make is not much.  Tater Tot hot dish replaced the olive hot dish, since we didn't have the recipe and my kids love Tater Tot hot dish.

Like the stories of our families, often our traditions die off with the older generations.  I hope you will share some of your traditions that you either had, or perhaps still have.  We would love to help you keep them alive.

Stories Bring our Family History To Life!

How many of you can remember hearing a story from your parents, your grandparents, or perhaps an aunt or an uncle?  Mine were always telling me about visits by friends and relatives or how Grandpa Matt Stodolski had built something.  I found out early in live that my Grandpa Matt was a man of many talents.

 My mother shared a story with me about my Great Grandma Lucy (Beaudry) Stodolski and how she was known for her fried chicken and lemon pie during the harvest season.  The farmers would travel from farm to farm harvesting and the women would provide the meals for the workers.

Stories like these are what give a family history life!  For those of us who like to build our family tree and are constantly looking for a date, a name, a location, or some other fact to fill a place in our tree, we often forget to also capture those stories we have heard or been told.  Obituaries are great for filling in those blanks, but many also show interests that a family member may have had and may offer us an opportunity to ask other family members more about that person.

I recently made a good connection with the Scharnatta family up in Canada.  They descend in our tree from Marie Stodolski, who married William Scharnatta.   As I have been interacting with our family members from the Great White North, I have noticed how they share little bits of information as they try to remember people from their past.  "Hey, do your remember so and so who used to live on the corner?" or "Do you remember that family we used to always visit?"  As we have those conversations, these are the stories we need to keep alive.  The smallest story now may be a really cool story later on.  They are also windows into our past.

So if you are asked to provide information for a family tree, remember to also share things you are not asked for...stories, exciting events in a family, or just fond memories of a family member.  If nothing else, write down the stories from your family so they are not forgotten.  We never want our family tree to die, and the stories about the lives of the family are what give it life.

Our Earliest Beginnings

The Dutchman who educated me on the meaning of the name "Hout" recently did a little more digging on our family.  He began with Anton (Antoon) Van Hout, the man we consider the patriarch of our family and who brought the Van Houts to America.  We always had a name for his father, Peter, or Petrus and his mother, Elisabeth.  It is at this point that our information was sketchy.

Come to find out, Peter spelled his last name "van Hout" instead of what we use..."Van Hout".  We also had Peter's father as Coenraad, though there was no documentation to back it up other than what people have in their assorted family trees.  No mention of a "Coenraad" was found in the Netherlands, but instead his name was Christiaan.  He married Johanna Bastiaans in 1813.

Following the naming conventions of the time, it is possible that Peter van Hout had more than the four children I originally had listed.  Another daughter was found, named Johanna, who should have been the oldest, being named after her grandmother.  However, there was no son listed with the name Christiaan, which is what Peter's first son should have been named.  Instead, it was Hendrikus.  So it is possible that Peter and Elisabeth had a son named Christiaan who died early.  The only way to confirm or deny that would be with church records.

Christiaan van Houdt (another name change) was the son of Justin Hout and Gertrude Smits.  They were married in 1786.

Justin Hout was one of four children (that I know of) from the 1751 marriage of Jan (Joannis) Joosten van den Hout and Jenneke Dirck Tonis.

So starting with our oldest ancestor, our name has seen itself go from "van den Hout" to "Hout" to "van Houdt" to "van Hout" to the final spelling of "Van Hout".   It is interesting to see how last names change over time, as well as first names.  Anton Van Hout is also found as Antoon, Antonius, and Anthoon.  A challenge, for sure, when trying to do family research and the name is so much different than what we are used to.