Where to begin...

It's a bit hard to know where to start when tracing one family's history. There are so many branches leading in so many different directions. It's a bit like going down a rabbit hole. It's easy to get lost in all the fascinating branches of relatives that you were never aware of previously. Thanks to stories from relatives and some well-documented books I have been able to trace part of my family back to just after the Revolutionary War. Christian Feero, my 5th great-grandfather, as a colonist, was loyal to the King and for that, he was rewarded like many loyalists and given a one-way ticket out of the newly formed United States. Fortunately, the King rewarded him (and other loyalists) with a plot of land in New Brunswick, Canada. There, over the next few generations, he and his family made a go of it as farmers and such. Eventually, parts of the family made their way down to Maine. Some went to Wisconsin, Washington, while some moved back to Canada.

The part of my family that I'm most fascinated with, however, surrendered to the siren song of possible riches in the form of the gold rush and boarded a ship in their home Tacoma and moved up to the suddenly bustling town of Skagway, Alaska. Looking for a better life, John E. Feero first journeyed up to Skagway in the search for gold. John would quickly find the gold mining field too crowded and instead shifted to a business running pack trains for the miners. After he settled down and made enough money, he sent for his wife and children including Edith Feero, my great-grandmother. For now, partly because their story is well documented, this blog will focus on this part of my family history.

Why now?

Many of these stories, the loyalist, the gold rush, and more, were told to me in various levels of detail when I was younger but I didn't dig deeper at the time. So, why now? Well, for the past few years I have been happily living in Japan with my Japanese wife and children. My kids have enjoyed growing up in Japan. The environment is safe, the culture is rich, and they have many kind relatives from my wife's family nearby to shower them with affection. Still, partly because they can't spend that much time around their American relatives, I would like my kids to know more about the non-Japanese part of the family. Thankfully, in the last few years, I have been lucky enough to reconnect with many of the relatives outside of my immediate family, including my Aunt, granddaughter of Edith Feero, who is a family history book unto herself.

So this blog is as much for my children as it is myself. I hope that in time, through this documentation of our family's past, they will realize that their roots extend beyond Japan from California to Alaska, Maine, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, and beyond.

Great-grandmother Edith (right) with her twin, Ethel (1907).