DNA Memory? What is it and does it exist?

On March 24, 1893, Elizabeth Johnston Shaw passed away at home, on the corner of Warren Avenue and Second Street in East Providence, RI.

She left a husband, John J. Shaw, and a three year old daughter Elizabeth Gertrude Shaw, known as Bessie. We know from documents that by 1894 Bessie Shaw was living in the Tobey Street Home, an orphanage.

1916, Bessie marries Adrian St.Germain and her family grows with five living children. The third child, daughter Martha Yerrick StGermain marries Anthony Davids and buys a house on Burgess Avenue, once known as Third Street.

From about 1960 until her retirement in 1984, Martha walked down the hill of Burgess Ave (3rd St) and stood on the corner of 2nd Street and Warren Ave waiting for the bus to take her to work. She never knew that it was once the home of her mother, orphaned as a three year old child. Again in the evening, she would get off at the bus stop and walk past the place on her way home.

Bessie never learned to drive. During those years, after Adrian passed away in 1966, Martha would pick up her mother Bessie on Friday nights and bring her overnight in East Providence. Think of Bessie sitting in the car every Friday as it passed the corner where she once lived. She was so close to home.