An interesting discovery

My entire life, I have been interested in our family history. I have asked my mother and father, "What is our family history???" I have almost always received "Irish/Scottish" from my father (which I have yet to research his side of the family. With a name like "Russell" which is my maiden name, I am not going to argue with the Scottish part, as I have found records of Russell's in the internet, which were connected to Scotland in some way or another. I have always been told by my mother that her side was almost completely Irish.

Well, recently, my mom was given a complete record of her family history by a distant cousin who has spent 20 years researching the family name. Come to find out, I'm French...she has French heritage on her maternal and paternal side. Wow. We are all from the Burgandy region of France and there is even a picture of a castle that had once belonged to ancestors of mine.

Now, to be honest, to find this out, I was a little disappointed (sorry to any readers that are of French decent) I had rather fallen in love with the idea that my family was almost completely Irish and I had celebrated St. Patty's day throughout the years with a sense of family pride. French?? I knew nothing of France other that what I had picked up from high school history classes.

So, I set out to learn what I could about all things French in my spare time, especially French art. I was pleased with what I had found and I think that I will let it influence a few pieces of art that I am setting out to create.