Sindi Broussard Terrien
My mother inspired my love for history and learning about the past. I remember as a child how excited the adults were at a family gathering because someone had published a family genealogy. The buzz in the living room was electrifying. One story after another came pouring forth about the people in that book. I was hooked then but it was twenty years ago when I began my serious pursuit of family history.
There are several published genealogies for my family: one for my father’s side, the Broussards or the DeLauchessees –I don’t know which surname it was I saw so many years ago; and one for my mother’s side, the Provosts. I have a copy of Katherine (Kitten) Hill’s The Provost Family Tree. Kitten is my mother’s first cousin and she also inspired me in this endeavor. What happened to the genealogy of my father’s family is beyond me. I am also in possession of a Carrow genealogy but decided to do a deeper dive into the Carrow family to honor my mother and grandmother.
I was in for a surprise when I dug into my Carrow ancestors. Though my grandmother had an Irish mother, her father’s family came from France two generations earlier, but his mother was Cajun. Their story is very interesting and that is how My Many Mothers began. As I learned about each ancestor, I became more intrigued with the women and the story that isn’t told because traditionally genealogy focuses on the men.
It’s time to share the wonderful stories of My Many Mothers. It starts with my mother’s grandmother, Laura Walker Carrow. I’m not yet ready to write the stories of my mother Emily Provost or her mother Velma Carrow. The biographies include the migration from Acadia, Nova Scotia, in the 1600’s to France in the 1750’s to Louisiana in the 1780’s.
My plan is to share a biography of each mother over a series of blog posts. I hope you enjoy this experience.