One of our classes is all about family. Looking into your family line and ancestry can be an interesting and fun way to gain information about where someone has come from. Learning about someone's family heritage can be a way to better understand someone and explain how their past might have influenced who they are now. Luckily, in my case, my family had a lot of information already located. My research into the family line was laid out and easy to obtain due to all the work my uncle, mother, and father, I learned a lot about family members I never got to meet and where my family has come from. This research on my ancestry, has opened my eyes to how important the past is and how it shows pieces and parts that came together to create and shape who I am. This paper will share information on my family background, secrets, and religion.
Family Background
Insight on one’s family background can be the groundwork to really understand someone at a core level. Without even knowing your past, it still might affect who you are and how you press on to the future. On my mother’s side I have learned we have come from mostly lower class and until recently lower education. Throughout my mother’s family line, it seems the personality trait of the ‘rebel’ shines through. My grandfather, while very intelligent and bright, dropped out of high school as a senior with straight A’s. He did not want to conform in his younger age and showed how much of a rebel he really was. He ended up rebelling in a different way later in life by obtaining his GED and also getting an associate degree being one of the first and highest educated individuals in the family. My mother grew up in poverty and in her own way she rebelled and worked hard to stay out of poverty. She worked hard throughout her life to move up and give her children more opportunities than she had. Another interesting thing about my mother’s side was the flexibility. Due to low education, it seemed the men, throughout the family line, had to become flexible to survive and the majority of the women were the traditional homemakers.
On my father side, it seems education was higher for both the men and women. One of the most interesting things about my father’s side is the progressiveness of women. Going back to my great-grandmother Ann, she had low education dropping out of school in the 8th grade, but she worked as an antique trade dealer with her husband. While her husband specialized in selling and making guns, she specialized in China and ‘Tarentum glass.’ My other great-grandmother Florence became a teacher in a 2-year program and also played piano for church, teaching piano on the side. Both women were doing these things in the early 1900s, a time where women were traditionally homemakers and not much else. My grandmother Luella was one of the first 500 female students who attended Penn State (Famous 500) and obtained a degree in education and art. She not only worked as an art teacher but also was a first-class girl scout and the director for her community of churches. Grandma Luella was a very involved women who broke norms and worked hard throughout her life to do so. Barrage women pushed past norms and traditional roles and started their own path.
2nd Great Grandfather George
One sad and gruesome family secret comes from my father's side. George Barrage was my 2nd great-grandfather and had an interesting story we recently learned about. This story was not shared or passed down, but rather hidden and not talked about probably because of shame and embarrassment he brought to the Barrage name. We know very little about George Barrage other than he came to Herminie, PA and worked as a coal miner. It is also interesting to note, there are no photographs of George and it seems someone made a point to remove pictures from all records. George had been going by another name until he and Kate Kallenborn were to be married and he disclosed his name as Barrage from Joliet, Ill. While no records were found to make this accurate, we might never know if he was being honest or where he was actually from.
He married Kate Kallenborn in 1907 and later in the year had his first child. They are believed to have married because Kate was pregnant, and they ended up having seven children during their marriage. In 1917, things turned bad quickly when Frank Packe, a mining friend of George Barrage, was murdered after a wake they left together from. George Barrage ran and became Mike Visnic to hide from his first crime. It was said that Kate tried to keep her family together, but ultimately had to send her children to an orphanage where one died of meningitis. After this death, she took all of the children to West Virginia and changed their name to Visnic to be with George. Things only became worse and in 1923 a fire burned and killed the youngest child. While not reported, Margaret Barrage, one of the siblings, said their father threw the oil lamp at the child and it exploded and killed her. Later in the year, Kate was shot and killed by her husband who claimed it was an accident and did not know the gun was loaded. He was arrested and his story became known. Shortly after being arrested his alias was uncovered and he admitted to the murder of Frank Packe saying Frank pulled the gun out over a $6 debt and he disarmed and killed him, then ran. Two of his oldest children testified against him in court for the murder of their mother and he was sentenced to death by hanging. It was said he had a friendly personality and made friends easily but struggled with alcohol which leads to his ultimate downfall. This childhood for the remaining five children had to be difficult, but they seemed to be resilient and I would say they all strived to create better lives than they were born into.
This family secret was not talked about and my father mentioned my grandpa becoming angry and adamant about not discussing his up bring or heritage, something he probably picked up from his father, one of the five children that were faced with this horrible tragedy. It is interesting to see the friendly personality from George and the resilience from Kate passed down to their children and in the Barrage of today.
Religion
The Lutheran faith seems to be a strong tradition on my father's side with my father being very involved in his church and raising me within it as well. Currently my father is the council president for his small church and is constantly trying to help the church grow and become better. My father mentioned his parents raising him in faith and it being a tradition to practice the Lutheran faith. My grandmother Luella was very involved and even became the Excitative Director of the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches. She worked hard and started organizations to help many within her community. She started a network for taking in the homeless and also started a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. My great-grandmother Florence was involved in church and played the piano for years. The tradition of going to church is often passed down, but the Barrage family seems to take involvement to another level. The passion my family seems to carry with their faith seems second nature and something I want to continue on in my lifetime.
Conclusion
Through research and gaining insight from my family, I have learned a lot about my family tree. Understanding how both parents and their family lines have come to be is interesting and led me to a greater connection of where I came from. Seeing how the family has developed and how certain traits seems to stick around through generations is thought-provoking. It is important to see all the traditions, religion, and aspect of the family that come together to show the overall journey. Taking in what I have learned, I am excited to continue on to discover more about my family and to also pass it down to the future, so they can also understand their origins.
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