RIVERS FLOWING GENTLY



My hometown is situated between the parentheses of two gently flowing rivers, once named the Mishicot River and the Neshota River. Unfortunately, the names were eventually changed to the more generic East Twin and the West Twin rivers. For many years, these rivers supplied a variety of fish that my dad caught and my mother fried for our meals. These same rivers produced muskrat and mink pelts for my father to sell, allowed for many enjoyable boating excursions, and even supplied an alternate route for my grandfather to travel in his automobile during the winter when the water froze solid.

While I was researching the lives of my ancestors, I noticed that European rivers seemed to play prominent roles in their lives, also. With the researched genealogy information, I wrote a series of short stories, using the collected facts to mold the lives of my ancestors.

One tale is set in a village of what is now known as the Czech Republic and revolves around my father’s great grandparents. The narrator is the great grandfather’s older brother, who remains on the family farm while his brother immigrates to the United States. At one point he muses over the inevitability of his brother’s life:

Years ago, Adalbert had told me that the Blanice river cut through the farmland owned by Jan Novotny. This was something he’d learned after he married Jan’s daughter, Marie, and moved up to Horni Hrachovice, a village divided by the Blanice. He always believed the river, which flowed through our land also, had connected him to Marie from the time of their births.

Because of this, I knew Adalbert and Marie were destined to leave our bucolic South Bohemian countryside and travel far. Like the river that drew them together, it was not in their nature to remain still.

Do rivers play a prominent roll in your family history?