Surprising Twists in Two Searches for Family Roots

Family heritage is vital to most of us. Today I’d like to tell you about two Orange County people who turned family love into books this year.

The first is a pioneer novel, written by a Mission Viejo woman whose mother taught her a deep appreciation of family history. The second is nonfiction, by a Costa Mesa jeweler who never knew who his mother was--he barely knew who he was himself. . . .

Jacquelyn Hanson, 64, learned her family tree dating back to the late 1700s from her mother. But in expanding on that, Hanson a few years ago retraced her paternal great-grandmother’s family journey from Illinois to Kansas, and eventually to California, by way of the old California-Oregon trail. Their destination was Hicksville, in Sacramento County. It is now Galt, but the Hicksville Cemetery, where Matilda and other Hanson relatives are buried, is still around.

The culmination of Hanson’s research efforts is “Matilda’s Story,” a lovely fictional account of her pioneer life. The cover is a captivating picture taken from an 1858 painting of her great-grandmother, Matilda Randolph, and her first child, John.

“God bless her,” Hanson says of her own mother, for seeing to it that that painting and many of the family stories have survived through the generations. The painting is now in Hanson’s home.

Matilda, just 22 in the painting, is wearing a dark flowing gown with a lace neck. Her hair is parted in the middle. From her expression, you’d never know the hardships and pain lying ahead of her. She helped bury a brother fatally kicked in the head by a horse. Baby John died a year after that painting was made. And Matilda buried three husbands who preceded her in death.

“The more I grew to know her, the more I admired her,” Hanson said. “She must have been a remarkable woman.”

Many of you know Hanson. She’s an active board member for the Orange County Natural History Museum. A registered nurse, Hanson is also part of a group that flies to rural Mexico every month to provide medical assistance.

Her research is one we can all envy. For example, in McLean County, Ill., she was trying to find the site of the house where Matilda was born. By sheer accident, she came across a marker announcing the home site for the first settler in the area. It was John Gardner Randolph, Matilda’s father.

In retracing the family journey, Hanson crossed along the Harrison Pass in Humboldt Valley in Nevada, the same as Matilda’s family had done.

“I don’t think the view there has changed any over the past 150 years,” Hanson said. “To look out at that sight and know that Matilda had taken in that same view, it had a lot of meaning for me.”

The book ends with Matilda’s second marriage--to Hanson’s great-grandfather. And yes, there’s a sequel coming.

Short History: Michael Watson, 39, came from a far different environment. Soon after his mother gave birth to him in an Indianapolis hospital, she left there without him. He was put up for adoption.

To his good fortune, he was adopted by a wonderful couple in New Albany, Ind., who raised him with love.

In 1983, Watson learned through public records that somewhere he had a half-brother, Michael David Price. But he could never locate him. It took years of research before he located any family member. He tracked down his maternal grandmother, Hattie Stewart, by telephone in 1994. He learned from her that his mother, Betty, had died of an alcohol-related illness 13 years before. She’d had a difficult life, his grandmother said.

His book, “In Search of Mom,” includes some gripping dialogue from that first telephone conversation with Hattie Stewart. She appears skeptical about his information.

She told him: “I’m very sorry. My daughter had a boy named Michael, but he was born in 1953.”

Watson: “Yes, I know! Michael David Price. My name happens to be Michael also, but I was named by my adoptive parents.”

Hattie: “Now hold on there. Betty had another child, but he was stillborn.”

Watson, unaware of Betty’s lie to the family about him, said: “I’m very sorry, ma’am. When did that happen?”

“It was in February. In 1958.”

Watson: “I was born in February of 1958. That’s me!”

Hattie, after a long silence: “You know, I’ve always wondered if you were really alive.”

That’s why no one had ever tried to find him; they never knew he still existed. His mother no doubt had lied to avoid the shame of family knowing she had left him.

This has a melancholy ending. Watson eventually got to meet his grandmother and learned he had two brothers and two sisters, plus several aunts and uncles. He has now found and met with everyone but his sister Debra Kay. None in the family know her whereabouts. Watson’s search for her continues. Watson also has no knowledge of his father. He knows only that his Mediterranean looks, as he calls them, had to come from his father.

Watson wrote his book in hopes of inspiring other adoptees to pursue their searches for their birth parents.

“Although it was painful knowing that my birth mother died many years before our reunion, I can speak with experience that the joy of knowing how one originates in this world, having a past, and finding biological relatives and siblings far outweighs any pain.”

Wrap-Up: Watson’s book ($19.95) is self-published and will be available in a few weeks through his store, Gallery of Diamonds.

I visited him there this week and he showed me the pictures to be published in it. One dramatic black-and-white snapshot shows his mother standing with relatives and her young son, Michael David Price. She is very pregnant in the picture--pregnant with Michael Watson.

Hanson’s book ($12.95) sells in several bookstores in the South County area. Hanson will sign copies at Borders Bookstore in Mission Viejo next Tuesday at 7 p.m.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by faxto (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com