Writing a Family History Novel: Keeping the Watch: Caretaking the Hidden Value of a Family Heirloom

Reading examples of how other family historians share the stories, memories, facts, and photos they have acquired can inspire us with new ideas for sharing our own love of our ancestors. I recently read “Keeping the Watch: Caretaking The Hidden Value of a Family Heirloom ” by Patrick Blau. This is the story of five generations of Blau sons, each of whom becomes the caretaker of the family heirloom —a gold pocket watch. The book begins in Prussia with Nicolaus Blau’s emigration to Camp Springs, Kentucky, and continues telling the story of each successive Blau son and the effect the watch has on him.

The author incorporates narrative and dialogue into the family history he uncovered in his research, along with the family stories, to create a fictional account grounded in fact. This type of sharing family stories can engage family members who are not as interested in the documents and sources but want to know about the challenges their ancestors faced. I especially like the symbolism of the pocketwatch and what it came to mean to each Blau man who became its keeper. The author writes of his father passing on the watch to him.

Patrick saw his father’s heirloom, the Blau pocket watch, hanging there in its display case. He watched as Jerome slowly lifted it from its place, turned to face Patrick, the dome-covered watch held reverently in his hands. He held it forward, offering it to his son.

I’ve kept this watch for a long time, and now the time has come to pass it on. Like I’ve told you before, many times, this watch is meant to be passed on to the youngest Blau son of the youngest Blau son. You are my youngest child, Patrick. You are also my youngest son. It’s up to you to keep the watch now. And one day, when you feel it’s time, pass it on to Kevin. Just like it’s been passed on since the day my great-grandpa Joseph gave it to my grandfather, John. Each generation keeps the watch for the next.

I reached out to the author, Patrick Blau, for more background on his genealogy journey. Enjoy!

1. What mentors influenced you to get started in family history and genealogy research?

My father, Jerome A. Blau, came the closest to what could be called a ‘mentor’ for me to get started in family history and genealogy research. For most of my life, he would talk about certain ancestors of ours, and in my very early teenage years, especially, I remember him being deeply involved in genealogy. He would tell me about a new discovery he had made, or a new record that he had found, or some news from a contact concerning Blau history; and at that time, I’d just smile and nod my head and give some non-committal sort of answer. It wasn’t until a few years after my Dad died that I finally took up his genealogy torch, directly inspired by a random interest in the pocketwatch heirloom that he had given me a few years prior. Without Dad’s original interest, though, I’m not sure that I’d have found my own.

2. Why do you do genealogy? Why do you think it’s important?

Unless God decides otherwise, there will be more than a few generations after me who need to know the facts and also the educated assumptions concerning those who came before them. I always thought that ‘You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you came from’ was just a cliché saying meant to push people to become interested in genealogy. At the risk of sounding cliché myself, the saying is for sure true! I have learned a lot about myself by discovering things about those who came before me.

I hope that somehow, in some way, what I have learned and put down in print concerning my family will be an inspiration to my own descendants, in that they can learn, digest, and put into practice the lesson of the pocketwatch’s two faces. I believe that genealogy is important because unless we find and remember the lessons of the past, pocketwatch in hand or not, our futures won’t be nearly as blessed as they can be.

3. How do you preserve your family history?

First and foremost, by writing my book! There are so many names, dates, places, photos, occasions, and stories in there that are verified and factual. Along with the book, my wife Sarah and I took a trip to Camp Springs, Kentucky in June 2024, and both of my children came along with us so that we could all tromp around in areas where our Blau ancestors surely must have tromped around in before us.

We walked around and into Camp Springs Tavern, established by the brother of my 3x great-grandmother, Anna Kremer-Blau. There, we met the current owner, who ended up being a distant cousin of ours! We asked for and received permission from the current owner/resident of Blau’s Four Mile House to take pictures of the outside of the home and its plot of land, which was pretty special. We explored the cemetery of Saint Joseph’s Church in Camp Springs, where several of my Blau ancestors are buried.

Through my book, and pictures and memories made with my children, that is how I hope to preserve my particular Blau family history. They are both up to the task of passing on that preservation, of which I have no doubt.

4. What’s the best discovery you’ve made about your family?

That, as they say, is opening a big can of worms! There are so many discoveries that I made while digging further into my Blau roots! I found cousins, shirttail and otherwise, wonderful people who cheered me on as I wrote my book and who made the history that I was researching much more realistic and tangible. My ‘discoveries’ were acts of generosity from other people in the genealogy game, mostly those same cousins.

One shared the original deed from the 118-acre land purchase made by my 3x great-grandfather, Nicolaus Blau, to have a landing spot when he brought his family over from Prussia in 1843. Another cousin shared some photos of siblings of my 2x great-grandfather, Joseph M. Blau, which just about made my year for me.

And yet another cousin shared with me a ‘Reisepass’ (German for passport) that was given to Nicolaus Blau by the Prussian government in order for him to legally and safely be able to migrate across the nearby French border to the port at Le Havre and depart for the United States of America. I’ve since been told that those Reisepass things are extremely rare. That was a pretty huge discovery, in that there is a physical description of Nicolaus Blau incorporated into the passport’s information. Nicolaus was a blond-haired, blond-bearded, blue-eyed man who wasn’t particularly tall or broad of back. So much for my vision of fierce-eyed, dark-haired German ancestors!

5. What has been the most difficult part of your genealogical journey?

Mostly, it’s been difficult to come to terms with the fact that my father would have absolutely loved it if I’d have shown interest in his genealogical work, perhaps even thrown myself into it with him; but I didn’t. On both counts. Those banker boxes he had, full of documents concerning our shared ancestors, with a few photos thrown in, meant a great deal to him. I knew that at the time, but I just didn’t have it in myself to join in his interest.

Now, I would dearly love to share with Dad the new cousins I’ve found, the new documents, discoveries, and the stories that were unveiled, but I can’t. I know for sure that he would have been over the moon happy that I finally understood what he had known all along: that family history and memories matter. It’s difficult to know that Dad never saw me fully interested in our Blau family story, or in the pocketwatch that he entrusted to me nonetheless. Eventually, though, I got there in a way that I believe he would be proud of.