Today, a quiet, mostly empty park in Michigan stands where my ancestors lived for generations. In 1835, Toussaint Drouillard was granted just over 76 acres in what is now the Detroit area of Michigan — land he had been on for years already, but shifting borders and ownership of the area meant he had to re-affirm it was his. It wasn’t easy to locate the correct site of the Drouillard property I was looking for, in part because the area was home to many Drouillards. When my 2x great grandfather Peter Francis (also sometimes Pierre Francois) Drouillard died in 1947, his obituary in the Ecorse Enterprise stated that he died in the home where he was born, at 1130 Goddard Road in Lincoln Park, Michigan.

One of the things that is perhaps less known about Michigan is that before the assembly lines and the bustle of the modern Motor City, there was a quiet river settlement defined by "ribbon farms" and French-Canadian grit along with Native cooperation and business. To truly understand Detroit’s heritage, we have to look back to 1701 and the founding of Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit.

I was connected to my Aunt Marie before I even knew it. Marie O’Rourke was my great aunt, the sister of my paternal grandmother, and I grew up seeing her as often as I saw my grandparents. It was her first name that connected us, as my parents gave it to me as a middle name, in part to honor her as well as another family member. But along the way, I found much more that connects us.