Backstory: The Alchemist, part 2 · 9:52pm Nov 10th, 2021
In the prologue and epilogue to The Alchemist, I reference an apocryphal tale that some families have. It involves some ancestor who decided to give up the sea. There's usually a shipwreck involved. They put an oar over their shoulder and start walking inland. When they met someone who asked them what they're carrying, that's where they decided to settle. They're looking for a place where no one knows anything about the sea.
When I was young, my father actually told me that story. I believed it for several years. When I heard a non-relative tell the same story I realized I'd been had. 
There was also the fact that this ancestor had settled in Iowa, close to the Mississippi River... which has lots of boats... with oars... Hmmm...
So it was a joke. Except, there are a few inconvenient facts.
The first is that I have a long history of sea captain ancestors during the 1800's based out of Searsport, Maine (in the US). They're documented in the following books I own:
- Searsport Sea Captains, Colonel Frederick Frasier Black, Penobscot Marine Museum, First Edition 1960, 226 pages, copies 402/500 and 476/500.
- Searsport Sea Captains (Revised and Enlarged), Colonel Frederick Frasier Black, Penobscot Marine Museum, Second Edition 1989, 256 pages, copy 32/1000.
Then there's the fact that one of those captains really was in a shipwreck. On July 3rd, 1884, the Susan Gilmore was beached while being towed by a steamer off the coast of Australia. They were unable to get it back to sea, and within a few days it was totally destroyed by the surf. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/from-the-archives-1884-the-wreck-of-the-susan-gilmore-20190628-p522ad.html
Here's the beach that was subsequently named after the lost ship: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Susan+Gilmore+Beach/@-32.9194584,151.7797848,13z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x6b7314156392c379:0x781a517c03e57c6f!8m2!3d-32.939801!4d151.7710408?hl=en
And finally we have the fact that he took his wife and kid and moved to Iowa, about as far from the sea as he could get: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.org/pbho-1/collection/captain-william-mcgilvery-carver
William McGilvery Carver was the son of Woodburn Carver & Mary Pendleton Carver. He was born May 18, 1851, in Searsport, Maine and died October 15, 1909, in Beauman, Iowa. He commanded the Ship Susan Gilmore, 1878-84.
Captain William McGilvery Carver was my great grandfather: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157055986/william-mcgilvery-carver
So in my case, it appears the apocryphal tale is actually true, well, minus the oar. 
I see a time in the near future when you attend an informal family reunion at a second-cousin’s house. You glance above the mantle and see…an ancient oar.
So much for apocryphal.