2024 #52Ancestors, Week 19: Preserve

Let's talk about the difficulties of preserving family history.  If you're like me, you have a full-time job that takes up much of your time - time that you would much rather be spending tracking down elusive ancestors.  Maybe you are also raising children.  I have a daughter.  She is in elementary school, so her folder must be checked and emptied every night, and there are always birthday party invitations to consider and permission slips to be signed.  On top of these responsibilities, we also have a yard to maintain and a vegetable garden to manage.  The garden is substantial - it used to be a 20x40 in-ground pool.  Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I steal an hour or two in the evenings to work on genealogical mysteries with my distant cousin, Heather.  What I'm saying here is that preserving family history takes time.

Time, however, is not the only necessity.

I inherited this stack of boxes from my grandparents when my maternal grandfather passed away in 2022.  I have sifted through them multiple times, trying to organize the photos into Grandma's side or Grandpa's side.  I have made some progress, but as you can probably tell from the items unrelated to genealogy piled in the foreground, these boxes have been sitting on the table for some time.  In fact, these photos have been sitting on a table in our dining room since October of last year.  They had been sitting on the floor in my library, but we rescued a dog, and I didn't want to risk finding out the hard way that he was a chewer.

Speaking of the library, this old TV stand has been repurposed into a coffee table for our book room.  Inside it, you will find another collection of genealogy materials.  I have my mother's DAR application (putting in my own application has been on my to-do list for some time), a cabinet card album full of my great grandparents' relatives, a book on dating photos using fashion, an assortment of pictures my dad gave me of his aunts and uncles, books detailing the tips and tricks of genealogy, a CD of information about my Arter relatives...and who knows what else.  The point is that while preserving family history takes time, it also takes space.  

You might ask, what is the point of this post?  Just this.  Thank your family preservationist because he/she has certainly dedicated more time and space to this calling than you realize.

2024 #52 Ancestors #Week19 - Preservation

When I saw this prompt, thoughts immediately went to my maternal grandma's strawberry freezer jam. I can't write much about that, except to say that it was a delicious treat, that I miss it - yes, I know I could learn to make it - and that I have a strawberry tattooed on my right arm in her memory.

I confess to being more than a bit obsessed with family photos (the older the better) and I spend most evenings chatting with my lovely Cuzzin, not always solely about genealogy but at least mentioned almost every day. I enjoy the research, the "hunt" as it were, more than most other hobbies or genealogically related tasks, and I enjoy sharing what I've learned.

The chore of preserving the "finds" properly never ends, and I am still learning to site my sources. This is a significant learning curve when one web link or note noted down 20 years ago leans to many a rabbit trail and too often, few actual discoveries.

I plan to leave everything to my youngest daughter, who shares my interest, and anything that she doesn't care to keep can be donated to the library or historical society. In that interest, getting scraps of paper and their sources documented properly, photos sorted and labelled and everything in some semblance of order is extremely important, as well as making sure much of this is digitized. This is a project I thought I might make some headway on this year, but it hasn't worked out that way quite yet. Binders and boxes and piles, oh my!

Meanwhile, I'll keep recording bits and pieces here until the heavy lifting gets a bit more traction!

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 18: Love, Marriage, and Divorce

Something that you hear frequently is that "divorces just weren't that common back in the day."  As I have researched various family lines, I have found this to be distinctly untrue.  I tried to come up with a unique spin for Week 18's Love and Marriage prompt, but it just seems to make the most sense to link to some of my previous posts where love leads to marriage...and then to divorce.

Nettie M. Pearson (divorced in approximately 1915, 1916, 1917, 1933, 1939, and 1945)
Nettie wins the prize for marriages/divorces with a grand total of six husbands. The link above only mentions five of them, but I have recently uncovered a marriage to Ansel Gus Hursey in May of 1917. This brief marriage occurs between her marriages to Roy Hudson and Walter Miller. While I do not have divorce documentation for each marriage, I do have divorce dates for "The Two Walters." I also know that none of these marriages ended due to the death of the husband.

Jennie Grace Terpinitz (divorced in 1936 and 1941)

Jennie was a highly educated and independent woman, but she was married three times and divorced at least twice. As I don't know what happened to her after she returned from World War II, it is possible her third marriage ended in divorce as well.

Dora Isabelle Green (divorced in approximately 1882 and again before 1895)
This sister to my great great grandmother was married and divorced twice, and her third marriage ended with the death of her husband.

Ann Elizabeth Echols (divorced in 1869)
My great great great grandmother is my earliest documented divorce. She and Thomas Green divorced in 1869 after she could no longer handle the changes in his personality caused by his Civil War service.

And if you're looking for a divorce record, I recommend checking out Dade County, Florida.

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 17: Revolutionary War

Before reading this post, you might want to take a look at some other war-related posts on this blog:

2023 #52Ancestors, Week 45: War and Peace 

GGG Grandfather Thomas Green fought in the Civil War.

Nobody Knows About Jennie Grace (Terpinitz) Lambert Amey Johnson

Thomas Green's granddaughter enlisted in the WACS during WWII.

For one of last year's #52Ancestors posts, I wrote about the longevity of the name Thomas Pearson.  One of the Thomas Pearsons in question fought in the Revolutionary War.  This particular Thomas Pearson, my GGGGG grandfather (and son of my GGGGGG grandfather, also Thomas Pearson) was born in Yorkshire, England, but records indicate that he emigrated from England in 1774, and by 1776 he was fighting for his new country's freedom. 

Pearson was at the Battle of Waxhaws, also known as Buford's Massacre.  Here, Buford's 3rd Virginia Detachment (somewhere between 350-380 Virginians) was decimated by Banastre Tarleton's forces.  It was not much of a battle with the Patriots managing only a single volley before they were overcome by the British troops.  Survivors of the battle also reported that the British even massacred men who were in the act of surrendering.  Casualties (including killed, wounded, and missing/captured) totaled 316 for the Patriots.  The British lost only 17.  Thomas Pearson was among the wounded and was also captured.  On one Sons of the American Revolution Membership Application, it states, "Prisoner till May, 1783.  Thomas Pearson received 13 wounds; this and imprisonment brought on temporary derangement."

Thomas Pearson's last pension affidavit (November 1834) reads as follows: "Whereas it is represented to the General Assembly, that Thos Pearson, a soldier in the revolutionary war, belonging to the VA Line on continental establishment, and attached to the regiment commanded by Col. Abraham Buford, received  in an action with the British troops, fought in SC in the month of May 1780, sundry wounds in his head and arms, which have rendered him, in his present advanced stage of life, (being sixty two years of age.) incapable of maintaining himself by labour."  Thomas Pearson died 29 September 1835.

Sources:

"Buford's Massacre Site," South Carolina Department of Archives and History, www.nationalregister.sc.gov/lancaster/S10817729019/index.htm.  Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

"Waxhaws," Battlefields.org, American Battlefield Trust, www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/waxhaws. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

2024 #52Ancestors #Week16 - Step

Above is a photo from my own version of "My Two Dads."  You see, through a twist of 1970's communications, my mom was courted by and married into the same family twice.  Nothing to see here, "she just really liked the in-laws," has been the tongue in cheek comment for most of my life.

D & D were born 11 years apart, to sisters Dorothy and Margaret.  So many years later, we are certainly not "ONE BIG HAPPY" necessarily, but we do have a rich heritage of cousin connections, family stories about how we define each other, and some not very appropriate tales that get trotted out at family dinners about an antique family bed and its' generations of occupants (It's my opinion that this story needs to be recorded for posterity, then buried, Message me if you'd like to hear it).

I like to imagine that I have things in common with both of my grandmothers, but I've been compared to Dorothy a few times as well. She died when I was 6 weeks old, so I never got the opportunity to make my own opinion. However, this is really about the sons they raised and their daughter.

For my part, after 50 years of ups and downs, I have some really great memories: My Daddy (TM) read to me, carried me on his shoulders and gives fantastic hugs and backrubs. He buys me books and discusses global issues and social justice with me. My bonus Dad (TM) taught me how to ride a bike without training wheels, taught me about unionization and work ethic, helped us move and talks to us about financial and vehicle hurdles. He gifts me books too. Both tell me how much I mean to them, and I hope I do more than a fair job in return. 

I love both of my dads, both have given me much and loved me hard. Both have showed up for me in very different ways, and while they are not friends with each other, I would not be me if I hadn't had (and still have!) them both. It took a lot of steps to get where we are, so Thanks, Dads

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 16: Step

This post was moved to the Collecting Dead People blog:

Step Parent

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 15: School Days

This post was moved to the Collecting Dead People blog:

School Days