Channel Inspiration

I get asked all the time, where did the idea for Forgotten Lines come from? The answer is far from simple.

Like so many others, I set out to learn more about my last name - Doherty - and the men who carried it. My entire life was full of family stories and connections, but very few had anything to do with my paternal lineage. I wasn’t alone in trying to learn more about my Doherty’s and their Irish home. My father, sister, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins, 2nd cousins twice removed, etc had hunted for the origins of our Irish homeland for decades. We were all stuck on a man named Luke Doherty.

I will happily write articles about him in the future. For now I’ll simply say that he is buried in Charleston, South Carolina. He is our brickwall, and apparently arrived to America in 1847. Alisha and I made a family trip to Charleston to locate his grave. I thought that maybe there would be a small clue or even an epitaph on his stone (which wasn’t pictured on Findagrave). There wasn’t. In fact, there isn’t a stone. There isn’t a marker of any kind. No indication that a person is buried under the ground at all.

We searched St. Lawrence Cemetery for three days. It wasn’t until I got an administrator on the phone who could direct me to his plot by giving me directions. I reached a large grassy area and she said, “you’re now standing on him”. But there were no stones within 20 feet of me in any direction.

I found him, but it ate at me for years. The fact that this man went through an extremely difficult life and still managed to provide for two families at once, and is now completely lost underground. I suppose that’s ultimately the way it will be for us all.

Many times I’ve driven past memorials, historical markers, or named bridges. I’ve eaten lunch in restaurants with vintage photos of people staring at me through their small glass window from the 1930s. I find shoeboxes on bottom shelves of antique shops packed with forgotten people. I always wonder, what is their story? When possible, I like to find out. I’ve done this for years.

And I decided to share the ones I find.

To you who is reading this at this very moment, I thank you.