Dee Christophel D'Errico

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My mother moved from Cincinnati, Ohio to Miami, Florida during the second world war. She had been dating my father, who lived in Cincinnati for 9 years. I have all the love letters he wrote to her before he follwed her to Florida. They were married in Florida and I was born here in Miami. Since I am an only child, I think of my friends as brothers and sisters, some of whom I have been friends with for over 50 years. I think of my pets as members of my family as well.

My mother was an artist, as I am, and as both of my daughters are. There has been a very strong vein of artistic ability running through my mother's family, both in fine arts and in music, for many, many years. Usually, people with artistic ability are terrible at mathematics, which uses the opposite side of the brain. My daughters both needed math tutors in school, just to make it through. I, however, had a seemingly natural ability in math, and I work in the accounting field.

Periodically, when bored with being in an office with numbers all day, day after day, I quit and do something entirely different. For instance, one time I became a sailor, crewing on barefoot cruises, around the Caribbean. I had never been sailing in my life before; but, by the end of the first trip, I knew how to keep the boat on course, cook, sew sails, and oil teak. I both loved and hated sailing. It was fun, it was work, and it was dangerous. I learned never to go out in blue water with someone who did not know what they were doing. Fortunately, I was always with a captain who did know what he was doing; but, if you spend any time at all out on the water, you come to realize that the ocean can easily kill you.

When I found the Diary of my maternal great great great grandfather, William Whitteker, and read about his two trips sailing to China on a clipper ship, I immdediately felt an identification and connection with him. Of course, my trips were not as eventful as his; but, still there were some close calls. I still signed up to go out again......and, so had he. I still wonder why history repeats itself like this in families. I may never find an answer to this; but, I have found a connection to those who came before me; and, for that, I am grateful.

I love both dogs and cats, not to mention ducks, rabbits, turtles, lizards, and all of God's creatures, really. I enjoy them so much; and, they bring light to my life. Please check out my dog Rudy's site at the following link:

Rudy's Memorial Site

Please be sure to check out his video, "Puppy Love", and his photos which appear on the home page. I still miss him and love him. He was my very best friend.

He was very instrumental in getting me up off my butt to find out about my family. Rudy was a Maltese with a set of papers that gave me his lineage for many generations. I had always had a question mark in my life about my family. I knew nothing except some stories my mother had told me; and, I knew only one grandparent in my life who also had given me some sparse information. He was my father's father, Peter Adam Christophel (name later changed to Christopher; but I prefer to use the original form). Anyway, gazing upon the papers of my beloved dog, I was ashamed that I knew more about his family than I ever hoped to know about my own.

It was the year 2005 and my parents were both in the next world already. I could no longer ask any questions of them. I had always imagined myself paying someone to find out about my family someday.....when I got rich. Well, by 2005, I realized I was not going to get there. If I was going to find out anything at all, I was going to have to do it myself!

It was not just my own curiosity, but the well being of my daughters, Michelle and Joni, which also prompted me to find out the stories of my family. They both seemed to be in the throes of identy crisis; and, I hoped that finding out about our ancestors would give them a much more solid base to live from than the divorce torn world that they came from (I turned out to be right about this; and they have soaked it up like sponges).

I kind of envisioned a scrap book for them. Of course, it was not very long before this "scrap book" had grown into 3 filing cabinets! During the process, I literally fell in love with some of my ancestors. I became consumed, I found favorites, I went wild! I am going to try to put everything within the wikitree pages; but, it is going to take some time......so, check back often as the pages will be growing for quite some time....if ever they stop......

In the meantime, since I started in 2005, I have the following websites which you may click on the links to visit:

My family tree with over 100 Photo Albums:

Taming the Tree

A Chronicle of the See Family and Their Kindred by Irene See Brasel:

The See Family Chronicles

Main Surnames: Baron, Berens, Carroll, Christophel/Christoffel/Christopher, Cobb, Davis, Donahoe, Ervin, Garcelon, High, Howe, Kerley, Kuntz, Luttmann, Meyer, Morris, Muschler, Norvell, Porter, Ringsby/Ringlesby, See, Shields, Skinner, Wenzel, Whittaker/Whitteker/Whitaker, Zeh, Zimmers