CHATFIELD FAMILY LINE AND HISTORY
“You,” said my cousin LeRoy Chatfield after apparently one too many calls to him about his direct family line in one too many days, “are neurotic!”
“Neurotic? Neurotic? Well, I may be a tad obsessive-compulsive, but I’ve never thought of myself as neurotic,” I laughed back.
Those who delve into genealogy have an obsessive dedication and curiosity that surprises even us. For the past 15 years I’ve pored over ours, first researching with my brother, each of us compiling binders and books from our finds. He added to his Ancestry.com files and I, over time, uploaded each kin to Find A Grave. I then gathered more history and created posts on my writing and genealogy website. As of now, I’ve completed our Chatfield line which extends back six generations to Isaac Chatfield and Lucy Tomlinson; if you descend from them, or your kin married into this Chatfield lineage, you too are a part of this history.
I’m grateful to be one of the keepers of the lines, alongside my brother, Gordon Clemens, who has been at it for decades, along with a number of cousins near and distant. It’s given me a relationship with them along with untold others who’ve generously shared what family information they possessed. Some with whom I connected were in their 80s and 90s; they were thrilled to talk to someone who was interested in their life. They were happy to have a remembering of their past, and I’m thankful that they were able to contribute before they died. Along with the dozens of cousins and related kin who’ve shared photos, records, and stories, I specifically thank Gordon and his wife Marian, my 8th cousin Cheryl Chatfield Thompson in Illinois who also adds to Find A Grave and Ancestry and who checks my records and sends newspaper clippings, and my consort and cohort Steven Smith in Connecticut who has educated me on old cars, cemeteries, headstones. These pages would have been far less complete without them. It takes a village to raise the dead.
Catherine and brother Gordon Clemens, researching in Montana in 2006
Not everyone is fascinated by genealogy, their own, much less someone else’s. I’ve been to events where speakers rhapsodized at length about their kith and kin; it was painful having them ramble on, and, it was an “aha” moment. I realized we do all this work, and really, few in the room care. I also discovered nothing bores me more than listening to the drone of another’s family line, yet oddly enough, there’s nothing I like better than the puzzle of sorting out my own. I love the quest and the satisfaction of having missing pieces fall into place. I do it for my ancestors, for my family still living, and for those yet to come. Gathering my kin also fulfills a need in me; it’s part of my wanting to keep the family together.
After 15 years of research and record-keeping, after adding over 3,500 pages of kin to Find A Grave and managing over twice that many more, and after posting 70 pages of Chatfield kin every few days for nearly a year, I’ve come to grips with the possibility that, yes, I might be neurotic. I once asked my sons if they thought I was. They looked at me, then at each other, then back at me, then turned and walked away, quietly laughing. I don’t ask them questions like that anymore. Oh well, if being possessed by the dead is an unconscious effort to manage any deep anxiety that prevails in my psyche, there are worse afflictions from which to suffer.
Though this Chatfield line is as far as I can take it, when further stories, pictures, and newspaper clippings magically appear, I’ll add them to their respective pages. I would also appreciate any corrections. Someday I’ll send this compilation to a library or historical society, so when someone comes along who’s interested or as possessed as I and wants to know about our family, they’ll have it to explore.
As there is no 12-step program for people like me, I’ll start on the Chamberlin line in a bit, then move on to the Hoys, the Harringtons, and the Clemens. If I’m still around I might even do the Sevenaus and Clements. One post at a time…
P.S. I also thank Dianna Jacobsen, my webmaster and designer, who created, recreated, and recreated again my website so as to accommodate the organizing of this genealogy. Her talent and patience are extraordinary.
2020. Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau.
Susan Dalberg says
Reading what you’ve put together all these years, and the wonderful way you’ve put them out there for us to follow is much appreciated on this end, Catherine. I still have that Miller and Sewell line if you want to continue your ocd researching. Yes, for those of us trying to piece our family together, you give me the urge to open the books again and find those missing pieces and meet wonderful researchers like you.
When I read your work I feel part of the family, or at lease deduce they must have been related due to similarities in lives. I’m blessed that you and I crossed paths putting pieces of mine together.
Much love, appreciation and gratitude.
Catherine Sevenau says
Hi Susan, we are sisters in many ways. I can’t do Miller, that would be like doing Jones, Brown, Smith, Johnson, and Williams. I would have to hang myself. Sewell, maybe, but I doubt it! I too am grateful to have crossed paths. Your humor and encouragement have often sustained me. And maybe next time in, we’ll have the same mother. Someone perhaps more balanced than the ones we drew this time. But then, without them, we wouldn’t be who we are. Sorry I got the easier names to research. Just the luck of the draw.
Jette Franks says
Almost feel as if I am a Chatfield. Fun to read. Best, Jette
Marian Clemens says
Oh, Catherine, these two messages from your cousins LeRoy Chatfield and John Fabris are wonderful!!! It is so rewarding and special that they both wrote to confirm all that you have done. It is amazing that you have compiled all this in one place that is available to others. You have really done an amazing job. I love LeRoy’s humorous last words… “You saved our lives!” Indeed, you did save them all together in one space.
All the best and a big and loving Thank You! Marian
Catherine Sevenau says
I loved the play on words. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit the “Save” button after every edit. These posts have been saved and resaved so many times I could be mistaken for a preacher.
Karen Sternstein says
Catherine, As always I love your writing style and humor. You have a gift. You are not neurotic. You are very healthy following your passion. Karen
John Fabris says
Dear Catherine,
As your marvelous work comes to a conclusion for the Chatfield Line I want to thank you again for your dedicated efforts regarding the genealogy of that line, of which I am part. Though it appears that some in the clan are not fully appreciative (as you note) I want you to know there is no shortage of appreciation on my part. What you have done is to provide valuable documentation of our family tree that is now available to present and future generations to reference and enjoy as they may choose. The pictures alone are a treasured gift to have in one central location, thanks to you. The painstaking detail that you have researched and organized regarding the lives that are no more of relatives critical to our histories is something that otherwise would lack structure and accessibility.
I suppose, as you have found, information such as you have compiled has the potential to strike a “funny bone” with some people. My personal experience in reading your work and viewing the large quantity of old photographs was quite emotional — in a good way. I suspect some folks do not want to have their emotions surface or be disturbed. I do hope your work will find it’s way to future generations that may not have the same vulnerabilities that you have sometimes encountered. In many ways you have written a book for the select few whose presence on this earth would not be if not for the relationships you have chronicled. It is the future generations which will keep your dedicated work alive.
My sincere appreciation and thanks once again. And, good luck with your future work on other lines of our heritage.
With warm regards,
John Fabris
Catherine Sevenau says
My dear John, thank you for your touching acknowledgment. I cried as I read it. I appreciate how close you are to your heart, as it opens mine; I tend to keep my feelings at a distance with sarcasm and humor. Thanks for being on part of this journey with me when you came across it while searching for Madge Rosa Chatfield on the net. We never know what directs us to cross paths, but I think the ancestors have a hand in it. We come from an interesting line, and I have satisfaction in finally completing it.
LeRoy Chatfield says
Totally amazing! A labor of love! A library of documentation available online 24/7 anywhere on the planet if you have Internet access. Catherine Sevenau and her documentation project remind me of the cloistered monks of the Middle Ages who lived a life of compiling, recording, copying, and preserving the information of civilizations of the Western World. A thankless task really but thank goodness they felt called to devote their lives to documentation! Their lives have enriched ours ~ and so too has Catherine enriched our lives and that of our descendants. I offer a homeless blessing for the life and work of Catherine Sevenau: “Thank you! God bless you! You saved our lives!” • LeRoy Chatfield
Catherine Sevenau says
These days I could qualify as a cloistered monk! Thank you for your words and your blessing, LeRoy. Had I not been wading in these waters, you and I would’ve never met, and what a loss that would’ve been. And you are in the first line of the last piece. How poetic is that?