Memory Monday: Just How Accurate Are Those Family Stories?

My daddy, his sister, and their cousin

JUST HOW ACCURATE ARE THOSE FAMILY STORIES?

As I was growing up, it was always an exciting time when we got to go to my mother’s parents’ home. There were often a lot of relatives since several of my mother’s siblings lived somewhat nearby. And then there were the times when one sister decided to come “home” and then one or more of the sisters would plan on coming at the same time. It was during these visits that I learned a lot of family history. Later, after I interviewed (and taped) these get-togethers with my mother, aunts, and grandmother. I am pretty sure the stories that I got were accurate—at least, as accurate as older women wanted to share.

Now stories from my father’s side of the family are a little sparse. One reason is my father had only one sibling—my mother had six. Another reason is my father’s sister lived far away and we hardly ever saw them. While we visited my dad’s parents, those visits were usually day trips. We would leave early Sunday morning, stop along the way and go to church, then get to my grandparents’ home in time for a late lunch. We hardly ever stayed the night. Usually, when we went we just played outside while the adults visited.

All that was said to explain why I don’t have a lot of stories of my father’s family. From a few things my dad had told me, I was able to piece together some of his side of the family. And thanks to Ancestry.com, I have also been able to learn more about that part of my family (and a bit more accurately). My sister told me that when she questioned my dad’s sister (our dad had already passed away when she needed this information for a college class) that she was told our grandfather had run away from home when he was eleven because his new step-mother was so mean. When I hear a story like that, I’m thinking he never went back home (and my aunt never said he returned). Well, when I looked at the census for when he was a little older, he is listed there living with his father and step-mother. He might have “run away” to his older brother’s house, which was only a few streets away, but he eventually came back home.

Another story I heard years and years ago, was that after my granddad married for the second time (my dad’s mother had died eight years before) was that my dad went to stay with his aunt (his mother’s sister) and her family during his last year in high school because she and her husband had lost a son the year before. I always thought the cousin who died was in his teens, like my dad—see the picture at the beginning of the article. I thought this was the cousin who had passed away. But today, I was to look at Ancestry.com to see if I could find just when this cousin passed away and what his name was. I got another surprise. While it is true that my aunt and her husband lost a son the year before my dad came to stay with them, the son that passed away died the same day he was born. I really think the reason that my father spent that year with his aunt’s family was he didn’t get along with his new step-mother—he called her “Madam” then and I never heard him call her anything but “Myrtle” as I grew up.

I think I need to spend more time on Ancestry.com. Maybe I will learn more about my dad’s family. I wonder what other stories that I’ve heard aren’t exactly true.

Memory Monday: Two Unknowns in My Family History

My great-grandfather and his second wife

TWO UNKNOWNS IN MY FAMILY HISTORY

In the last few years, I have come to love working on my family’s genealogy. Both of my mother’s branches were from Mennonite backgrounds and there are many records to use. In the same manner, my father’s mother’s history is well-documented. I know where all three of these branches of my family came from, when they entered the United States, and thanks to US census records, I know where they lived, what their occupations were, and how many children they had and when/when they were born and died.

There is problem with my paternal grandfather’s family. I know what his name was, when he was born, and in what state. But that doesn’t narrow things down enough. There were a number of families in that state with the same last name and many of them named a son born about the same time with the same name. (GR-R-R). After following several of the different families in that state through the years, I was able to dismiss all but one. Several things point to this being the right family—the age for my great-grandfather’s birth is right, the states where his mother and father were born are correct, this man’s father and mother (although divorced some time before) both had moved to the county and state where my great-grandfather was married, and the man’s father later moved from Iowa to the same county in Texas were my grandfather was born. (Are you thoroughly confused so far?)

Now I have two problems with attaching this man as my great-grandfather’s father. The first is that on one—and only one, and that being when he lived in a boardinghouse— US census, this man is listed as having been born in Ireland. All the other censuses have him born in Georgia. The other problem is that on my great-grandfather’s death certificate, his father’s name is listed as “Isaac,” not “Michael” like the censuses I have been following. The information was listed by one of his sons, while the other son gave the information on their mother’s death certificate.  The second son listed their mother’s father’s name as “Isaac.” Were both of their grandfather’s names “Isaac” or was there a bit of confusion? After all, both of their parents died in their 70s, and their grandfathers had passed on decades before. Oh, well, I’ll just have to keep searching.

The other unknown is about my great-grandfather’s second wife—they are picture above. He and his first wife divorced in 1904 and he married again the next year—he was 53 and she was 26. Other than her name showing up on US censuses and city directories, I can fine no  other record of her—what her maiden name was, where she was born, if she had any other family, and what happened to her after my great-grandfather died after more than twenty years of marriage to her. It makes everything so incomplete.

Well, that’s two of the unknowns in my family. Do you have any of those kinds of unknowns in yours?

Memory Monday: Things May Not Always Be What They Seem

Picture Found in My Grandparents' Photobox

THINGS MAY NOT ALWAYS BE WHAT THEY SEEM

Ever since my mother passed away and I came across a box of my grandparents’ pictures, I have wanted to discover who came before me. I tried to remember things that my mother and her sisters had told me. That, along with Ancestry.com, I have been able to trace back both sides of her family. Of course, I was really helped by the fact that my mother’s side was Mennonites from way back, and a lot of the extended family had already researched and posted about them.

My dad’s side of the family was not so easy. Now his mother’s side of the family wasn’t hard to track down, especially since a lot of that family’s history had previously be recorded (before Ancestry). The problem has always been my paternal grandfather’s side of the family. From my grandfather’s (delayed) birth certificate, I learn my great-grandfather’s name was John. Using that info, I researched the 1880 census and found him, his wife and his children. But I wanted more. I wanted to discover John’s parents and siblings. Looking again through the pictures, I thought I had found a clue when I came across the children in the picture above with the names “John, Opal, and Emmitt” written on the back. Could this be “my” John?

I searched and searched but couldn’t find anyone with my family’s last name and children with the names listed on the picture that fit in with what I knew about my great-grandfather. Later, I was able to find my great-grandfather in the 1860 census, so I now know the names of his parents. But I still didn’t know who the people in the picture were. Who was this “John” and why had my grandfather kept his picture?

For my birthday this year, my husband gave me an Ancestry DNA test. With that, I keep checking on people to whom I might be related. One day, I came across something. When I researched it a bit more, I discovered that my grandfather’s brother had three children named (have you guessed it already) John, Opal, and Emmitt. That mystery is solved, but I’m still trying to track down my great, great-grandfather—John’s father. 

Memory Monday: All the Family History Is Not Lost

Papaw, Mamaw, and my father, 1940s

ALL THE FAMILY HISTORY IS NOT LOST

Both of my parents and all of my grandparents have passed away. They all died before I developed an interest in family history (at least for the most part. I remember having a conversation with my Daddy about 35 years ago when he told me somethings that he remembered about his mother’s family—just general things—but I didn’t think to write any of them down).

My mother lived the last 25 years or so of her life in the same town as I lived. Her sisters visited and we had several family reunions with her side of the family. Both of which allowed me to learn about her side of the family, especially about the years she was growing up.

I had nothing like this for my Daddy (this is the name we always called my father)—just a few facts he had given us for our daughter’s baby book. But I have learned of a wonderful tool to peek into the life of my father—Ancestery.com. Below are a few of the things that I have learned just looking into the past censuses.

1920 census

Lived in house on Kirkwood

Papaw worked in a grocery store

Papaw, Daisy (my grandmother), Daddy

1930 census enumerated on April 12^th

Papaw-Widowed, Same house, owns house valued at $3500, owns radio, works as a salesman in retail grocery

Daddy—12 years old

Aunt—9 years old

Grandmother—77 years old, widowed

Great-uncle (deceased grandmother’s brother)-salesman in bakery

Great-aunt

Their three children—ages 2, 6, and 9

1940 census enumerated April 10^th

Papaw-same house, worked as a stock clerk in a grocery store for 52 weeks in 1939 and earned $1560, a week before census he worked 48 hours, he had completed 4 years of high school

Mamaw (step-grandmother), worked in home—housework, she completed 4 years of college

Daddy—attended college, worked as clerk for 52 weeks the year before and earned $1020, week before census he worked 36 hours

Aunt, attended high school (fourth year), worked as a waitress in 1939 for 15 weeks and earned $120, a week before the census she worked 48 hours

Mamaw’s mother—71 years old, lived in the same house for 5 years, attended high school for 2 years

Daddy’s military service

Enlistment Date: 2 Feb 1942

Release Date:  9 Jan 1946

Branch  Army Air Corps

Grade   Private

Term of Enlistment:  Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law Component Army of the United States - includes the following: Voluntary enlistments effective December 8, 1941 and thereafter; One year enlistments of National Guardsman whose State enlistment expires while in the Federal Service

Height   69 Weight 132

From the information above, I have learned several things about Daddy that I can put together with the things I already knew. I was very familiar with the house my grandfather (we called him Papaw) lived in because we visited him quite often as I was growing up. It was a small two bedroom/one bath house with a screened-in back porch. I didn’t know that he had lived there from at least 1910. He still owned it at his death in 1974. I knew that his mother (whom we always referred to as Daisy, probably because we grew up with a step-grandmother we called Mamaw) died from double pneumonia when Daddy was 9 years old. I didn’t know that in 1930, Papaw had taken in his widowed mother and his brother-in-law, along with his family—that was 9 people living in that two bedroom house (with screened –in porch). He also owned a radio—can’t you just see them all sitting around in the evening and listening to it—just like the Waltons. Ten years later, Papaw’s mother had passed away (I know this from other Ancestry records) and his brother-in-law’s family had moved out. Also, Papaw had married again and had taken in his new mother-in-law. As Papaw worked in a grocery store all those years to provide for his family, Daddy and his sister attended school and worked outside the home.

Also, Ancestry showed me that Daddy enlisted in the Army Air Corps less than two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was released January, 1946. I knew that he had left the army with the rank of staff sergeant because that was what he written in a few books he had acquired during the war and were in the bookcase mother had built him (see the post from 12-14-2015). Daddy met the lady who became my mother about the first of July, 1946 and they were married in the middle of July (Mother always said they married two weeks after meeting and their marriage lasted 38 years).

Have you every researched your family on Ancestry? What did you learn about your family?