The Essence of Genealogy

Here you will find a poem that I found in a "Birthday Book" that belonged to my Grandma. It was the book's dedication by Rev. Hugo W. Hoffmann. I think it represents some of what genealogy is all about.

"If stories of dry and learned lore we gain,
We keep them in the memory of the brain;
Names, things, and facts - whate'er we knowledge call -
There is the common ledger for them all;
And images on this cold surface traced
Make slight impression, and are soon effaced.
But we've a page, more glowing and more bright,
On which our friendship and our love to write;
That these may never from the soul depart,
We trust them to the memory of the heart,
There is so dimming, no effacement there;
Each new pulsation keeps the record clear;
Warm, golden letters all the tablet fill,
Nor lose their lustre till the heart stands still

Laurel Street, Napa, CA

Recently, my mom said that her aunts drove her by the house in Napa where her mother (my grandma) was born.  It's a house on Laurel Street.  She could not recall the exact address.  Also, the Vienop's lived in several different homes on Laurel Street over many years.  In fact, the house that my grandma (Dorothy Marie Borchers) was born in was Ernest's house.  My mom was thinking that it was Uncle Ernest's house (he was my great grandma's brother).  I told her that I actually think that the house was Uncle Ernst Vienop's home.  I know that sounds confusing but Uncle Ernst was much older and the brother of John Henry Vienop, Sr.  Uncle Ernst was born in 1848 in Germany.

My mom further indicated that the house was where the prune orchard was located.  My grandma and her siblings even had the great pleasure of picking prunes in this location.  My aunt indicated that her sister, Dorothy, did not like to do this and would rather have slept in on a Saturday morning.  I do love those stories and understand further why I am not a morning person.  It does not really run in my family to get up at the crack of dawn.

As I dig through the "other box of treasures" that mom has lent to me, I look for the address of the house on Laurel Street.  My mom can't remember it off the top of her head.  I looked over my grandma's birth certificate.  All it says is that she was born in a residence near Napa, Calif in the Rural Registration District of Browns Valley, no. R. 2, Box 21.

I do know that the the section of Laurel Street where the house is located falls on the west side of Highway 29.  It is also before Driggs Lane and the bend in the road where Laurel then starts to head north.