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04/18/2023 08:15 AMDoreen Hausler says she is no wallflower. She knows quite a lot of people and can even recognize people with whom she attended high school across the spacey and cacophonous floor of a casino.
“A couple of weeks ago…there were three girls that I went to high school with. From across this big, cavernous space in the middle of the casino with all these slot machines, I heard, ‘Doreen!’ We ended up on the dance floor together,” she says.
Doreen doesn’t just know people who are alive today, but she is also familiar with those of the past. In fact, quite familiar.
“My husband teases me lovingly…[my family] say, ‘Doreen sees dead people.’ Because, literally, I want to stop and visit cemeteries and find out who’s there, why are they there, where did they come from,” Doreen says.
But her genuine passion for discovering her family’s history is anything but a joking matter. Regardless of what medium, be it tombstones, highly-detailed town records, worn-out history hardcovers, or genealogical websites, Doreen, an East Haven native, is dedicated to finding her roots. In fact, they are deeply embedded in the town’s history and the area.
Sitting atop her desk at the Community Media Center are several history books on the New Haven area, which she uses to find the names of some of her ancestors. Using these texts, she has traced her lineage through the American Revolution to the settlers of New Haven Colony in 1639. One of her ancestral settlers was William Andrews, who lived and died in what is now East Haven. Some of Doreen’s ancestors also helped to build Old Stone Church—where she and her husband got married —and rest in the Old Cemetery adjacent to the Town Green.
Her family’s background is diverse; along with her father’s East English heritage, there is Northeastern Native American blood in her paternal family. Her maternal family is primarily Irish, while her husband’s heritage is German, Ukrainian, and Jewish.
Considering just out of many parts of her family, here is a snapshot of how tremendous her passion for extensive genealogical research is.
“We were in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, at Jiminy Peak skiing 25 years ago, and I saw an old cemetery, and I remembered in the back of my brain that I read Lanesborough in the family Bible. I said, ‘Pull over!’ We stopped. I found my whole Williams side of the family buried in the cemetery. Then I went home, and I did the research at the library, and I confirmed it.”
Doreen’s understanding of why many European migrants, like her ancestors, left behind their native countries for the New World informs her views on people still doing the same today.
“When I see current immigrants coming over looking for a new life, I always have so much empathy for them. And I realize that it’s part of the human condition,” Doreen says. “Everybody that comes here is looking for a new life; everyone that’s ever moved anywhere is either doing it because they’re forced to or because they don’t feel like they have any other choice. Very few of us…are moving because [they say] ‘Gee, I’d like to buy a lake house.’ It used to be that, ‘I need to put a house there because it has a source of water.’”
Doreen says she would love to do a genealogy podcast at her ETV workspace, just like anybody with a passion for any topic should do the same.
“I encourage anybody who has any interest in any podcast ideas to get involved with the station because it’s such a great resource.”
Coming to ETV, Doreen says her background in administration and community relations made her a good fit for her role as its community coordinator. She makes a point of getting to know people and “get the word out about how we’re not your mother’s local access television station,” she says.
One of the ways that is achieved is by informing content creators interested in ETV about the variety of its available technology and media, from podcasting to editing and film digitization. Doreen has seen the enthusiasm for the newly-christened ETV establishment since its grand re-opening in November last year.
“I get a kick out of the people that are coming in. People are joining, becoming members coming in, and shooting their own quick videos with the green screen. We have a realtor who comes in, and he shoots his green screen promos that he puts up on YouTube or on TikTok or wherever he puts them. That’s the beauty of the technology.”
Outside of ETV, Doreen has been the leader of Boy Scouts Troop 401 for 26 years and leads its members to receive the Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. This allows her to flex her broader interest in history even more, bestowing the importance of studying the whos and whats that come before people today.
There is more to earning the badge than discussing foundational American documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
“The requirements of that particular badge, they include that you have to find a national landmark, visit a federal building which could be as simple as visiting your post office and telling us what that has to do with your community and your nation,” Doreen says.
Taking after a history buff like Doreen, it’s a wonderful opportunity to see young people becoming more appreciative of the history that surrounds them every day and becoming more in touch with their community.
“I just think it’s great to see the kids get to learn about history that way and learn about the community, and the nation, and the world around them a little bit and having those conversations and learning their peers’ perspective.”