Memorable Halloween Stories

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun suggested posting our most memorable Halloween.  That took me off into another area of memory that my dad told us of his teenage Halloween antics.  They were not quite what we think of in our day and age. 

Looking at this innocent face you just would not think that in 6 years from this time he would be a naughty mischievous teenager.  

His most memorable Halloween was when he and about 6 other teenage boys got together and decided to trick on of their "grumpy" neighbors.  Now neighbors were not next door like what you think of today.  More like miles apart.  Back to the story.  

These boys began by thinking up mischievous things to do weeks ahead of Halloween. 

They waited until dark, and how they did these things I don't know, but the first farmer was awakened then next morning to his mules on top of his shed.  (They were really naughty, they didn't tell they did it or go by and offer to get the mules down).  Shame.  

The second farmer didn't have to wait for morning because his son went out in the night and fell in the hole where the outhouse had been.  They had moved the outhouse just behind the hole. Yuck!

Apparently, these farmers had not developed a good relationship with these teenagers.  My dad said no one ever owned up to the deeds and he was telling me when he was 60 years old and explaining the difference between Halloween then and now.  He still thought that the face of the farmer would have been funny to see when he saw his mules on top of the barn.

Wordless Wednesday Elizabeth Porter Vance

 

A picture of Mildred with a picture of her Great Grandmother Elizabeth Porter Vance and some great grandchildren in front

Tombstone Tuesday My quest

Elizabeth's father's line is my quest.  Her father was John G Porter.  He used G all the time in his documents.  He died in the 1840's and his mother married 3 times.  I am trying to retrace his steps to prove his father.  None of the unsourced information I have so far fits what I see in the censuses I have found.

This is the family I wrote about that the saving grace information of John's mother was at the Alamo.  More as I find it.

Keeping My Purpose in View

The last few weeks I have been looking back at why I started a genealogy blog.  I was enamored with the new group of bloggers I had found.  I wanted to be a part of their community.  However, I began to look for ways to blog for the day and not accomplish why I started out, which was to inform and pull my family strings together.  I have a quote that expresses the deeper parts of my belief at the end of this blog.  My hope is to find through my blogging, others interested in the same places, times, or people that I am searching.  That has not happened yet.  Some of my blogs have been helpful to cousins and we have begun to share some of our memories to put together for our families.  I want to bring my family to an understanding of the history of their beginnings and what happened along the way.  I love finding out the why and whats of what happened to cause a move, to cause a rift, to set into motion a series of events. The desire is to present the information in a manner my grandchildren would want to read.

I will move back to my task at hand and hopefully keep on it.  If one of the community events fits with the family I will participate. I want it to be clear; I am thankful for the community as there are wonderful helps and hints of how to blog and where to go for information.  They are a wonderful warm-hearted group of people.  I am grateful for their comments and direction.  I must however focus on what my purpose of doing this is.  

I will become more focused as the year goes on by trying to cover one family at a time so as to keep continuity if I can. 

If you came by to read. 

Thank you 

Frances

"The Genealogical Society has always fostered the idea that wars would become unheard of, men would beat their swords into plowshares, and the earth could easily become a delightful garden for all men if we could only learn enough about each other and something about our origin to understand and appreciate one another" Howard W. Hunter

Treasure Chest Thursday

When I was just a little girl, I asked my father.... That song just popped into my head.... When I first started researching my family history, I asked my father, where did his grandfather come from?  His answer was "He came across the Mississippi River and he lost his wife and child while crossing.  My mother never talked about it."  I was also led to believe they were from Oklahoma, but that's for another post.
I searched and finally found the true story of Charles Gildon Jr.  It was not my dad's grandfather rather his great grandfather who had come across the Mississippi River.  He had lost his wife but it had been apparently in childbirth and not in the river an it was in 1841.  In 1842, a man called Charles Gildon Jr was advertised for in the Macon Telegraph and presumed murdered.  That was about the time Charles showed in Texas.  Two newspaper articles proved to be my treasure chest and provided me with more mysteries.  I had only transcibed copies until I searched the newspapers on GenealogyBank.com and there were my articles.  It is great to have the 'Real McCoy' and not hope that it had been abstracted well

Wordless Wednesday

Tombstone Tuesday Surprise

I found John Sackley brother of Lillian Sackley Sherman on "Find A Grave" website.  There was only an obituary posted so I requested a picture of the tombstone.  I included that there might be other Sackleys in the area if they saw them would they include those too.  Imagine my surprise when the picture came and it was a tombstone for the son, the father, and the mother.  I am very grateful for Sue(and volunteers like her) that took her time and effort to take the picture and post it.  This is what makes this site so neat.  Loving helpers that know what it is to want to see an ancestors tombstone, but can not get there.
Thanks Sue.

Family Mosaic

Little Red House hosted Mosaic Monday.  I am afraid I am about 10 minutes late.  But...slow start great finish...lol  This is my wonderful family and how it has grown.
All but the last child is married.  I have 13 grandchildren and 2 more on the way...

When We Need An Uplifting Hand Angels Appear to Help US

I was an only child.  My parents kept close to their extended family so my cousins began to feel like extended brothers and sisters.  When I moved,  what seemed far away, we lost contact.  I developed some wonderful friends that filled the loss of family.
In my picture on the right is my cousin from Oklahoma with his daughter, in the smaller picture are cousins from two families.  The darkheaded girl on the end is who I will be speaking of.  The butterfly is symbolic of a special friend that I don't have a picture of.
I was very blessed by each of the pictured loved ones.  When my sweetheart was in the throes (this is a great word to describe the pains of fighting cancer) of struggling with pain, doctors, chemotherapy, and all the fields of battle in cancer. These wonderful angels jumped in to lighten our load.  My cousins and I had not seen each other for several years, but the ties are very strong.  They couldn't be there with us, so they did what they could, such as sending funny jokes for us to laugh at...that is a biggie.  There were calls to check on how we were doing and share something funny.  I can't tell you how much it meant to my sweetheart to get those emails, and calls because he worried about me.  He didn't want me to be alone, and he was uplifted by their response to our need.  They have not stopped now that he is gone.  I still get the funny emails and calls.  I am very thankful for their loving gifts.  I pray for them to be blessed for their unselfish giving of time and love.

This is from Lori's writing prompt.  I have put a link to her blog on the side bar.

I purchased several elements from StoneAccentsStudios to start creating my own family digital scrapbooks

The gingham background and the butterfly are from http://scrapsationalscraps.blogspot.com/ .
The quickpageframe is from mITSYBELLE  

Cade Cemetery in Streetman, Texas - StoppingPoints.com

Cade Cemetery in Streetman, Texas - StoppingPoints.com

Posted using ShareThis

Making Family Heirlooms Accessable

Today, I was walking into the grocery store and there in front was a group of Shriners taking donations for their hospitals in Texas.  I walked up and donated because I know what a wonderful job their hospitals do.  I also asked whether my mason's apron would be viewable by the public if I were to donate it to them.  I received a resounding yes that anyone could go see it if desired at the museum in Waco.  I will be donating it to  the Masonic Grand Lodge in Waco, TX, which has a Library (that does genealogical research or allows you to do the research yourself) and a Museum,in December. I am excited that it will be available for any family member who desires to go to see it, because I can not always be available when others would like to make their visit.  This is a good thing.

Keeping Up With Pedigree Changes

I work with the New Family Search program which shares information with others and they can change and add to your pedigree.  At first I was very perturbed (that word probably dates me), then I understood the dynamics of the process and how it actually related to real life and personal perceptions of a family. Now I actually am enjoying the working together and how it widens your knowledge.

I made the picture above to demonstrate how my perceptions of this family has grown as others have shared their information with me otherwise, I would have been stuck, as I really am on some of this family, seeing them as youth never grown up.  I love finding out what happened to the members of the family.  Where they went, if they had children and what life held for them.  It is a wonderful adventure.

Reaching Across The Gulf Of Time

I spent the other day cruising through the website "Find a Grave".  I have contributed pictures for people from my area, but had not really searched and looked at the website itself.  I was excited to find the grave of my ancestor in Savannah, Georgia from the Colonial times.  I had heard about it from several different members of the family who had been able to visit it and was always sad I could not go there myself.  As I was reading the site, I realized it was not a family member who had presented the photograph, but a kind person who was assisting in building virtual cemetries yards.  Finally, I saw the call for someone to sponsor the page so it was not an advertisement.  The cost was not great and I thought, I never knew this ancestor, but she and her son and her grandson had had a huge effect on my family.  I decided, I must sponsor this site to let others know that she was a loved and cared for woman.  So many of graves of our ancestors from the 1800's and before are not remembered any longer, partially because we live so far away from where our origins were. 
I am thankful to those who conceived the idea of a virtual cemetery and made it possible for those of us far away to pay our respects to our kindred dead.   Sophia Sellick Gildon's Memorial

First You Have to Look to Find The Treasure

This week has been an awesome week for treasure hunting and finds beyond what was sought.  A sweet friend of mine who was intimidated by reaching out to try and find the real ancestor, sat down with me and we went on a hunt together.  At the end of two days of looking at all the possibilities, and offerings, we pinpointed her ancestor as well as back 3 generations.  She sat back and sighed and said "you just have to stand back and look at the big picture."  Ancestry was invaluable for comparing census, and family trees as well as Family Search.

 Now she is taking the next step.  She is emailing the

 people who have posted their trees and is filled with hope she will quickly get feed back and find the biggest treasure in the ancestor hunt...extended family.  Many time it is just a small clue or feeling "impressed" to pick up a book, that sends you down the path to the hidden treasures.

My personal experience was enhanced by finding proof of an ancestor in the land records when looking for a different ancestor.  All long term researchers have their moments of A HA!