My (currently unknown) Family History

How would I go about constructing my family history? In many ways I almost consider the Spiegelmans luckier in this regard. Art had Vladek in his life: his father was a Polish Jew who went through a horrible but complex and intriguing life struggle that was so traumatizing he is able to remember even minor details. I don’t have that luxury (for lack of a better word; of course going through the Holocaust was in no way a luxury). My ancestry is muddled and murky, and my family members are scattered and often withhold information.

Or am I just lazy? I have a vague idea of my ancestry, going back to around the generation of my great-grandparents. But I must admit, I am a bit intimidated by my Caribbean relatives (I am Haitian on my mother’s side and Jamaican on my father’s). They all have huge personalities, and many of them speak (or shout, it’s often hard to tell the difference) in Creole, which I can’t understand. But I’ve never really made an effort. My grandmother on my mother’s side is full of information, I’m sure of it, but she is steadily slipping into senility. Also, stories from my mom of her being highly emotional and irrational have implanted in me an almost instinctual desire to never get to close (emotionally and physically) to her. That is ridiculous though. I am her grandson, and she clearly adores me (as most grandparents do). She gives me gifts (small, but heartfelt) at every opportunity she has and she constantly brags to her friends about even my smallest successes. I need to just do it. I need to go over and just ask her to tell me her story. Maybe I’m in my Art-pre-Maus-writing stage except in my case I haven’t been estranged from my father for two years, I’ve been estranged from my older relatives pretty much my entire life. I can totally do it though….

With regard to how I would tell the story, were I to ever retrieve it, I am still pretty unsure. I’m not very artistically talented so I’m pretty sure a comic is out of the question. And I don’t know if I would be committed enough to a novel or memoir or something. But I love poetry. And I love pictures. Maybe I could connect the two somehow…a kind of epic poem with photographic illustrations (?). Hmm…that might actually be pretty cool.