Billow? Hawaiian?

Well, of course, you are asking what Billow has to do with Hawaii. My daughter thought that the story behind it marked the beginning of my interest in genealogy and that it would be a great blog name. In truth, though, I became very interested in family history while in high school after a great aunt published information in a local family history – so much so, I used the blank side of a school book cover to make a family tree chart. I still have it.

Over the years since then I’ve sporadically looked into family history, but it’s only in the last several years that I’ve devoted increasing amounts of time to research. And, I’m at the point now where I really want to share some of the fascinating stories (at least to me!) that I’ve learned. So, a blog is born. And, one of the big decisions was what to call it.

In discussing it with my daughter one lovely evening outside while drinking a delicious wine, she was full of ideas on what to call it. First off was “Billow is Hawaiian,” followed closely by “Cherokee Indian Princess and other lies my family told me” (more about that another time). I admit her first idea grew on me – especially since I doubted anyone else would have such a blog name. So, here’s the story:

When I was in third grade, our teacher gave us a homework assignment to find out the origin of our family names. So, I went home and asked my dad. Now, my father has a dry (warped) sense of humor and is not a stranger to making up stories. But I was eight and still susceptible. My downfall was in not prefacing my question by saying it was homework. So – “Daddy, where does our name come from?” And…. My father looks at me seriously and says, “It’s Hawaiian, and it means ‘a wave.’” As to why this is so vivid a memory (beyond the cringe of embarrassment – to follow) is that his explanation was accompanied by a big swerve of his arm to imitate a wave.

Well, good little student that I was, I could hardly wait to share my family’s origins the next day in class. When my turn came, I proudly shared that my name was Hawaiian and meant “a wave.” Of course, none of my fellow students said anything. Who were they to say that it didn’t mean that – and there were all kinds of family name origins being shared. But the look of vague horror on the teacher’s face is not one I will ever forget. I remember being puzzled by her reaction at the time, but then promptly forgot all about it. Mission accomplished for that homework assignment.

It wasn’t until years later that I realized how badly I had been bamboozled by my father and, boy, did I feel soooo embarrassed, all those years after, for my little 8-year-old self. And, even worse, it wasn’t until MANY years later, well into adulthood that I had gotten past my internal embarrassment about such a minor incident in childhood that I shared it with my father – you know, one of those memories you share with your parents about how awful they were to you when you were young. Well, of course, he had absolutely no memory of it. But, he did laugh quite a bit when I told the story, with maybe just a tiny bit of consternation that I actually told my teacher his fable.

So, while this story is not the beginning of my pursuit of family history, I decided to go ahead with using it as a name for the blog, at my daughter’s suggestion. And, no, Billow is not/not Hawaiian. To the best of my family’s knowledge, it’s derived from a German name. But, there’s still much work to be done there to pin down who our Billow ancestors were – beyond the family legend.

This blog will cover a number of my family’s ancestors, not just the Billow line. I look forward to hearing of others’ research on these lines as time goes on.