TwoCaledonias
From Scotland to the South Pacific
Why twocaledonias?
My maternal family is from the Old Caledonia and my paternal family is from New Caledonia. Read more...
About the Project
All good ideas start with a cocktail. Read about the photo database and book project.
Blog
Topics range from how to care for family photo collections to stories of our crazy history.
Huh?
Why TwoCaledonias
I was born in a Scots expat community in northern New Jersey, nicknamed “Little Paisley.” My maternal family, mostly Glaswegians who arrived in the early part of the 20th century, spoke with accents that got thicker with whisky. There were chip shops and Rabbie Burns suppers. My great-grandmother and grandmother would sail home to the ‘old Caledonia’…
what's this all about?
About the Project
All good ideas start with a cocktail. At a holiday party in December, I was chatting with someone writing their family history (the precise details are a bit blurred by the libations). I shared that I’ve often thought about writing the story of my dad and his three sisters, all of whom have different fathers (confirmed through some years of genetic testing and genealocial research). In each of the four siblings, different stories of colonialism…
The Photo Database
Image captions, clockwise from top left: Jerry Aponte (my father), seated far left, possibly John Aponte in rear with broken arm, Jeanette Martin, my grandmother’s sister (second woman from left), on the beach in Noumea, New Caledonia, c. 1943; Andy and Nell Sellars (my maternal great-grandparents) with their daughters, Marion (my grandmother, standing) and May (my godmother), Glasgow, Scotland, 1922; Me and my biological grandfather, Henri Stumph, Noumea, New Caledonia, 2010.
