If We Were a Tree In The Forest...

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This is my entry for the 110th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. "What tree best represents your family’s history?"
The Quercus alba L or White Oak is a great match for my Langley Tree. The White oak grows throughout most of the Eastern United States. It is found from southwestern Maine and extreme southern Quebec, west to southern Ontario, central Michigan, to southeastern Minnesota; south to western Iowa, eastern Kansas,  Oklahoma, and Texas; east to northern Florida and Georgia. The tree is generally absent in the high Appalachians, in the Delta region of the lower Mississippi, and in the coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana.
The west slopes of the Appalachian Mountains and the Ohio and central Mississippi River Valleys have optimum conditions for white oak, but the largest trees have been found in Delaware and Maryland on the Eastern Shore.
My wonderful family is 100% US grown.  I know that once I get back to the early 1600's it will be different, but for now they go back to the late 1600's in the US. They are as the Oak tree.  Deep roots that thrive anywhere but in shallow soil.  The family profession was farmers and planters, not city folk at all.
The Oak is long lived. Many of our family members lived to be 90 to 100.  
The tree is characterized by a short trunk with a wide crown. It is the tree on our farm that has beautiful character developed from resilience from storms, adverse growing conditions, and time weathering.  Just as our family has developed as it moved from the east to the central area of the US.  
The Langleys came from North Carolina, to Kentucky, to Missouri and ended up in Oklahoma where I was born. This family is still growing on my genealogy tree making tangled and interesting branches.
The Carriers, Kemps, and Hankins came from Virginia to Tennessee, to Missouri and then to Oklahoma. They had loss of family members from wars, illness, and anger, but survived and thrived.
Just as the oak has a large crop of acorns in adverse times to continue, so did this family have a fine bumper crop of children. 
The Gildons and Sellicks came from Connecticut to Georgia, to Texas, and then to Oklahoma where I was born (oh I said that already).This family is an object of my second submission for DAR.  
The resemblance of this tree and my family is so close, that I think it is the perfect match.

Surname Saturday Knapp/ Gildon

I wish I could find the descendants of this line.  they seem to be the line that prospered in children the most of my Charles Gildon Line.

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

Happy Fourth Of July!

I will be with half of my family having a picnic and celebrating the Fourth in the style of my fathers ancestors...we will be at a Tea Party...Our version is inspired by the Boston Tea Party, that was inspired by Samuel Adams.
To the left is my great grandfather Levi Gildon. His gr gr gr grandfather set a precedence for our family in loving our country. Richard Gildon took to heart the expressed feeling around the first Tea Party and answered the minute men call in Connecticut! He fought at the battle of Lexington.
I have been a lover of the Fourth of July since a little girl sitting on the court house lawn in Pawnee, Oklahoma watching the fire works after a day of picnicking and fun with the cousins.
Now it is not just fun, but a wonderful opportunity to teach my grandchildren about why they celebrate.
Hope your Fourth of July day was wonderful too.