Matrimony - Patrimony: A Family Memoir

“When does a journey begin? With the first step out the door, as the Chinese say? And if that’s so, are we free to go in any direction? Or do we take a direction predetermined by our family history, conscious or unconscious? Are we really free or do we carry as a compass within us the ambitions and limits of generations gone before?” So begins an intimate story of a family, a personal reminiscence of history that sets the stage for many lives. This investigation of origins, of backgrounds and backlights provides a context in which lives today can be interpreted. A spotlight is trained on the founder generation which came as immigrants to America and left their past behind only to have their heirs seek to understand the inheritance they lost and could only partially retreive.