The facts

   What could have been. I spent some time yesterday thinking about what could have been. That happened after I ran across an old advertisement. This advertisement concerned Greenport Gasoline Engines. The manufacturer of this product was J.S. Gaffga. John Schnidt Gaffga is my great grand uncle on the paternal side of my family. That is what caught my attention and triggered my imagination. John Gaffga began manufacturing these engines at some point in the early twentieth century. I haven't found the exact date or many details. But I did find that he established the Eastern Gaffga Shipyard Corp in 1922. This shipyard went on to build ships for the United States Navy in WW1 and WW2. They were wooden ships like minesweepers and possibly PT boats. I have some researching to do. I knew nothing of any of this and I don't believe my father did either. That is what fueled the whole what could have been thing in my mind.

  I have to explain a little bit. This John Gaffga is brother to my great grandmother Katherine Gaffga. Now grandmother Katherine married Christain Reichart my great grandfather. That was in 1895. She was nineteen years old. They had two children together Elwood and Mildred. Katherine passed away when she was thirty eight years old. I don't know the cause. Her husband my great grandfather lived until 1940. He passed away of stomach cancer in the Alms house in Yapank, New York. From what I can gather he became estranged from his children and the Gaffga family after Katherines passing. From what little family history I heard growing up I can only assume something was wrong. As I said as far as I know my father knew little of any of this. HIs father, my grandfather passed away in 1932 when my father was just eight years old. He was living with his grandmother at the time. His Mom, my grandmother passed shortly after his birth in 1929. I know, it's complicated. But that is where the what if and what could have been is all generated. The Gaffga family weren't millionaires but were certainly well to do and held a position in the society of Greenport back in the day. It just appears that Christiam Reichart, my great grandfather, became estranged from the entire Gaffga clan following the death of Katherine. A great mystery that I'm certain will go unsolved. The shipyard, under various names, continued to operate until 1986. 

 The Reichart and Gaffga families were both German immigrants. They both arrived in this country in the same era. It's little wonder they discovered each other. The whole birds of a feather thing I suppose. A hedge against discrimination as well, as being a German wasn't always a welcoming thing here in America. The first Reichart of my line to set foot on Long Island did so in 1859. Christian Reichart with his mother Maria and wife Mary Susan. The how and why his son would met and marry Katherine Gaffga is lost to time, at least to me it is. I did have contact with a Gaffga descendent some years back, but we never discussed any of this. Perhaps the story is out there. I have found the final resting places of the majority of these people. The whereabouts of great grandfather I have not found. He is not with the Gaffga family, nor is he with the Reichart plot. I wonder, what could have been? 

 That's the thing about history though, what could have been. In these modern times we seem to spend a great deal of time and effort trying to change what was, to make it what could have been. We have taken to calling it some form of historical justice. Some groups are demanding restitution for what was, but should not have been. They believe they can change what could have been, into what is. It doesn't work that way in the real world though. What could have been? I could have been heir to a shipyard and manufacturing empire! If only Katherine hadn't passed away. If only Christian hadn't become estranged. If only Elwood, my grandfather, had stayed in Greenport and not married Clara in East Hampton. If only Clara hadn't died when she was just twenty years old. If only Elwood hadn't died in Florida of appendicitis leaving his children to be raised by Great Grandmother Lester. What could have been? Well, what matters is what was, no changing that. It's fun to think about though. And that is what history is for. To learn from, to relive, and reimagine. What could have been? Every civilization that has ever existed asked that question. It is always, after the fact. The facts remain. It is just the interpretation of those facts that change.