Reflections on a Comment by a Russian Painter

I had the opportunity recently to view a group of paintings by the Russian artist Dmitrii Krasnopevtsev, b. 1925 at the Zimmerli Art Museum on the Rutgers University campus. When I read the brief sideboard description about the artist’s works, I was struck by this quote. “The past is our sole possession. The future is unknown and the present is illusive. As soon as it comes into existence it becomes a thing of the past.” The first sentence in particular interested me, and I would like to say something about how it affected me. “The past is our sole possession.” While I am uncertain, what the painter meant by that statement, it signifies to me the importance of remembering and cherishing our past—even the “skeletons in our closets.” However, remembering my past was a picture limited by my own personal experiences, which were few. I had no knowledge of my ancestors and little contact with my extended family except for a few McAdoo and Smith relatives. Funerals provided the only opportunities to renew relationships. As I grew older, I began thinking about my ancestry. Questions arose with no answers. The more I thought about it, the stronger the desire to find answers. I needed to fill a growing void of unknown information about the past. As the void deepened, so did the feeling of the importance of family, and the desire to begin closing the gap of ignorance and complacency about my McAdoo and Smith ancestry. The journey began in the summer of 2004 when I started searching for my McAdoo and Smith ancestors and that effort continues today. At the same time, I initiated a search for my wife’s ancestors. Like me, Ginnie had very little knowledge about her ancestry. I have developed a family ancestry web site at http://jhmc1.tribalpages.com (password: vpm). The ancestry tree contains information about the McAdoo, Butler, Smith, Hinchliffe, Peel, and Dripps families, as well as families related through marriage. The tree contains data on over seven hundred people and continues to grow. Family information can also be found at http://jhmc1.blogspot.com and at an inactive blog site http://mcadooclan.blogspot.com. Perhaps the most rewarding part of the journey has been the opportunity to write a book about my dad, Jimmy: Swimmer, Coach, and Dad (available at www.iuniverse.com or 1-800-AUTHORS). It has been a challenging and rewarding experience. I wrote the book not only to fulfill a need to understand a complex and charismatic man, but to augment the body of ancestral information that I have been developing. Krasnopevtsev’s words, “The past is our sole possession…” has had a meaningful impact on me because I now see clearly that my journey has been about collecting and identifying family possessions. Possessions that may enable present and future generations to draw closer together, strengthen family ties, and learn about the heritage of the McAdoo clan and its extended families. I invite you to join me on this journey.