A Different Sort of Family Tree

Bob Gray, June 2019

Through my genealogy work, I have assembled many family trees. When my youngest grandchild decided she wanted to climb the Japanese Maple in front of my house and the rest of the grandchildren followed suit, I decided it was a different sort of family tree.

Ian, Keeghan, Finnian, and Emerson forming a family tree, May 11, 2019.

Over the years, we have used this tree as the background for many family photographs.

Meghan, July 1977.

Meghan and her Aunt Steff, Summer 1978.

Meghan and Tyler, c. 1987.

Tyler and Meghan c. 1990.

Meghan on Prom Night 1992.

Meghan and Colin, 1992.

Tyler on Prom Night 1994.

Avery and Meghan, c. 2000.

Michael, Ian, and Meghan, Fall 2007.

Ian and Meghan, Fall 2007.

Our family, June 8, 2019. Back row: Emerson, Tyler, Mary-Alice, Ian, Keeghan, Meghan, Finnian.

Front row: Lauren, Bob, Faith, Julie, Michael.

About the tree

The tree is a multi-trunk Japanese Maple. It was mature when we bought the house in 1977. The house was built c. 1953 and the tree was probably planted around that same time. The leaves are red year round but turn almost crimson in the fall as noted in the photograph of Meghan and her family in the fall of 2007.

The tree is very prolific, sending seeds all over our front yard and our neighbor’s yards as well. Over the years, I have tried to transplant many of the seedlings, with marginal success. Most of the trees I have transplanted died. The singular exception is one of three I planted together in our back yard. I planted the three together in hopes of replicating the multi-trunk character of the tree in our front yard, only to have two of them die, leaving one that is now some 25 feet tall. Unlike the original tree, the one in our backyard does not seem to produce offspring. We have another Japanese Maple in our side yard that I never transplanted.

The Japanese Maple shares our front yard with a multi-trunk Saucer Magnolia tree. The Magnolia is at its peak beauty in early spring. Some years, the flowers are affected by frost, but the picture below is from one of its best years. The Magnolia also gets used as a background for photographs, but not as often because it is far less interesting once the blooms are gone.

The multi-trunk Saucer Magnolia tree in full bloom.

Brian and Robert under the Saucer Magnolia tree, July 1990.

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