Of Annalece…

An Idyllic Childhood

Growing up I nurtured an obsession with all things curious, due in large part to where I was raised: Northeastern Utah—not far from Skinwalker Ranch—if you’re familiar with the History Channel Series The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch—a place well-known for its mythology and mysteries and paranormal activities.

Constantly creating games of make-believe I recruited my younger brothers to join in, along with inclined neighborhood children.

A PAssion for ANCESTRY

I feel fortunate my family history is well-documented. I am acquainted with my ancestors’ names, stories, and often their faces for considerable generations, a number of lines stretching back quite far.

And although a sixth-generation resident of the Western United States, akin to multitudes of Americans—in particular those of us from the West—my roots originate elsewhere.

Overall my family hails from the British Isles, primarily England. I also come equipped with Welsh, Scottish and Scots-Irish ancestry, along with a Navajo third great-grandmother.

Moreover, the bulk of these ancestors were no-nonsense New Englanders prelude to their migrating West in the mid nineteenth-century.

(Fascinating side note: The tiny town they settled in southern Utah presents today with the sixth loftiest percentage of people in American cities in possession of English ancestry).

Be that as it may, in the late nineteenth-century a fair amount of my forbears arrived in the West squarely from the Old Country.

Hence, when they crossed the Atlantic en route to the New World I imagine their steamer trunks filled by no means with only their earthly possessions, but in turn stowaways: English Faeries, Scottish Selkies or even Y Ddraig Goch—The Red Dragon of Wales.

A Return to MY roots

A few years back we exchanged our family cabin in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains for a New England farmhouse in the woods of New Hampshire.

Why, you ask? My daughter received scholarships and my son a fellowship for their respective bachelor’s and master’s programs and needed a place to live.

Rentals were scarce. So out of necessity we bought a rambling property grown out from its original humble size. Each generation of occupants had built on, making it difficult to decipher the primitive form.

Truth be told this provided an excuse to own an antique home…one of my favorite things.

But little did I know this move would bring me into direct contact with the past, and in such an intimate way.

THE OLDE ROCKINGHAM MEETING HOUSE, CIRCA 1787

I’ll never forget my first visit to the Rockingham Meeting House. Pale spring blossoms, mirroring the bone-white of the ancient structure, shrouded the trees lining the drive as we traversed a slight hillside.

We were there because my son, a GIS specialist, had been hired to map the Meeting House’s burial grounds as part of his fellowship duties.

Unbeknownst to both him and I at the time our ancestor, David Pulsipher, my sixth-great grandfather, had donated a portion of his five-hundred acres for “a meeting house and burying ground.”

One of the first settlers in Rockingham, Vermont David Pulsipher arrived from Connecticut. He “went up the Connecticut River…went five miles back to a place afterwards called Rockingham, an entire wilderness country.”

In this remote territory he cleared the land and built the first tavern, a lofty edifice with a massive center chimney. (Today a private residence, David’s tavern rests a short meander from the Meeting House.)

And although David predicted a great meeting house, or prophesied as per written in my ancestor’s journal, he unfortunately never saw its completion.

My ancestor writes that one day while David’s son was away from home he “heard that the British Army had destroyed some Military stores at Concord, New Hampshire, and being fired with indignation he sought for a recruiting officer and enlisted for one campaign. When he returned home and informed his father of the circumstances, the old gentleman told him that he was too young and that he would enlist and go with him.”

Father and son fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Father and son died at the Battle of Bunker Hill. And David’s other son and grandson assisted with the Meeting House’s construction.

One night my son called and asked “Hey mom, are we related to any Pulsiphers?” after he learned one line of the Pulsipher family had migrated to Utah.

The name was familiar. I’d seen it plenty of times…Pulsipher…in the family history book gifted by my grandmother many birthdays ago…Pulsipher…scribbled on the lines of family trees and sketched in ancestry documents.

And so I made another pilgrimage to the Meeting House, this time the trees leafed out in the dark green of summer, the building open for touring.

I brushed off the dust and settled into a pigpen pew owned by the Pulsipher family.

Beneath the window beside me and veiled with ghostly threads perched a plaque with a portrait, and I met the somber eyes of the gentleman in the painting, the same portrait which hung on the wall in my grandparents home, the same unyielding gaze, the same thin pressed lips.

The name on the plaque read Zerah Pulsipher. (He was the grandson of David. He was the one who migrated West).

Zerah Pulsipher

As I turned from the portrait I thought about the quiet currents directing our lives, those silent streams ultimately guiding us to where we need to be. I thought about how buildings are often a conduit for such happenings. And while sitting on that old bench, I felt the whisper of the centuries flowing through me.

Not long after my visit I began studying in-depth the lives and stories of my New England ancestors and visited all the historical sites related to what I found, since I was staying with my children for the summer, thanks to my very patient husband.

But when the fiery foliage of a famed New England autumn smothered the countryside, I retreated to the parched New Mexico desert, a return to my quiet, empty nest home.

And I commenced working on a story…

I FELL IN LOVE

I loved the entire process of writing a novel, the taking thousands of fragmented ideas and piecing these ideas together, working with my imagination while simultaneously drawing upon my education.

I loved plotting, where anything felt possible as I immersed myself in research.

I loved the moment my characters and settings began breathing.

I loved the countless edits.

And quickly I discovered that when I was not writing I yearned for the moment I could return to my desk and escape into the world of my story.

I FOUND MY PATH

Another of my circuses. This time, I’ve included the neighborhood children. It looks like a nail-biting game of button, button, who’s got the button, with all eyes on my late brother, Bryson, wondering if he is the lucky receiver. But, knowing me, I probably spun a variation on the classic. On the house, you’ll notice the faint shadow of our backyard weeping willow. So many hours I spent reading away a lazy summer afternoon under the shade of that tree, watching the long, slender branches swaying in the warm, desert breeze. In the background, I love the relics present from another era: the silver trash cans, the yellow tractor sprinkler, and the red plastic tub, our recycling bin before curbside service was available.

I’ve included the neighborhood children here. It looks like a nail-biting game of “Button, Button, Who’s Got The Button” with all eyes on my brother, Bryson, wondering if he is the lucky receiver.

But knowing me, I probably spun a variation on the classic.

On the house you’ll notice the faint shadow of our backyard weeping willow.

So many hours I spent reading away a lazy summer afternoon beneath the shade of that tree, watching the long, slender branches swaying in the warm, desert breeze.

In the background I love the relics present from another era: the silver trash cans, the yellow tractor sprinkler, and the red plastic tub, our recycling bin before curbside service was available.