One regret I’ve had from my misspent youth involves the utter lack of curiosity evidenced in my personal ancestry. Oh, I had some curiosity in the family background but not enough to sytemically gather information back when direct sources of that information were yet available to me. Alas, my grandparents passed when I was quite young and lacked all curiosity in such matters. The few questions I asked relatives from my parent’s generation usually resulted in vague information like … your grandpatents immigrated from somewhere in Ireland or Poland. That wasn’t good enough, especially if I now wanted to pursue Irish citizenship available to those who could prove a direct linkage to the old sod. That possibility, you see, became more attractive as America went into the crapper.

Any way, I finally got my shit together, so to speak, spit into a tube and then shipped that off to Ancesty.com early this year. Since then, information has been dribbling in on my roots based both on that DNA sample and on public records. You can get a rough estimate from the location where your family was from for a surprisingly modest investment but then they tease you into making additional investments as they occasionally share additional details. But I’ve wasted my money in more ridiculous ways.

One issue intrigued me. I knew my father’s parents came somewhere in Ireland. At the same time, I also knew that Corbett was not an original clan name from Eire. It likely was Norman in origins and my roots would be linked back to Northern France (Corbett with an e on the end) or even back to Viking roots which settled in the north of France during the period when the Norsemen expanded their reach to North America (well before Colombus) all the way into Russia before it was Russia. [NOTE: Normandy comes from words to describe men from the ‘north’ or Norsemen.] These Vikings even raided and settled along rivers like the Dnieper. The very word Russia come from Rus which referred to some aspect of the river boats used by Vikings as they made their way along rivers in that part of the world, or so I recall.

But I digress. It turns out I am officially half Irish. On my mothers side I expected to be Polish but that was more vague. The wizards at Ancesrty said I was 31 percent Baltic and 19 percent East European Russian. What the hell does that mean other than the people of that region moved around a bit before my mother’s parents emigrated from an area in Poland around the time of the the first world war. I did know that my mother’s older sister was born in what is now known as Poland. Exactly where I don’t know and parts or all of Poland was often gobbled up by their bigger neighbors from time to time.

They have come up with surprisingly little on that side of the family. My grandfather was named Constantin Spolinski who married an Isabelle Boguszewics. My mother was born as Jenny Anna Spolinski in 1920, not long after they arrived in the U.S. and just before the immigration crackdown on undesirable aliens like Eastern Europeans. They have provided little additonal information like immigration details, marriages, children etc. I do know they first settled in Wisconsin before moving east and eventually ending up in Worcester Mass, the garden spot of New England (LOL). Sometime in her youth, my mother changed her name to Jane Ann Spiglanin, which became the family moniker sometime after arriving here. I have no idea when or why.

Jane Ann Spiglanin married Jeremiah Thomas Corbett (he went by Tom) in 1942.

Here is the happy couple around that time. I look upon this picture in wonder. They seemed to like one another. I never experienced that, only the constant fights though they stayed together for reasons I could never fathom. I recall one or the other saying a divorce would be too expensive. Really? The real problem was that my mother married for love when she was seeking someone who would support her in the manner she thought she deserved. Bad choice. My dad was an exciing guy in his early days who operated on the edges of the Irish mob (he would be considered a ‘bad boy’ today), but he settled into a life as a factory worker after I was born. I have always felt guilty about that.

I have more info on my dad’s side of things. His father was Jeremiah Timothy Corbett, born in Munster Ireland (southwest) in 1886.

This was Jerry in the middle with his two sons. My uncle Timothy is on the left in his WWII uniform and my dad on the right. They are standing in front of the State Mental hospital in Worcester where my gradfather spent his later years for a condition never explained to me. I never met him though I recall as a tot staying in a car while my dad went in to see him [It wasn’t child abuse to let tots stay in cars back then].

My dad’s mother was born in 1880. Mary Agnes Boland grew up in Country Clare, just south of Galway on the west coast. Not sure when they came over but they were married in 1912 and settled in the South Boston Irish ghetto before moving to Worcester sometime later. There were several children born in the subsequent years including my dad in 1918. At least one, perhaps two, died in infancy since I never recall any mention of them. Who is Bridget?

However, my parents met when my dad worked for a Bingo operation (which was a form of legalized gambling then). He was, as I mentioned, an exciting bad boy at the time. They married in 1942 and I came along in 1944. They took one look at me and said … no more sex for us. That was a wise decision with which I have no argument.

Here I am on my grandmother’s lap.

Some of the mystery is being filled in but so much remains, especially on my mother’s side. I’m guessing the Irish spend a lot more time thinking about their roots. Ancestry did lay out an area where my maternal DNA is prominent. That area covers an expansive area from today’s eastern Poland, the Baltic nations, through Eastern and southern Russia far to the east. My stock very likely came from Eastern Poland and the Baltic region adjacent to the North Sea. These regions are located close to one another. I will need to do more digging one day.

However, I do have enough evidence to start the process of obtaining dual citizenship with Ireland. That might come in very handy if Trump or one of those Republican crazies captures the White House in 2024.