Hi everyone! As a writer, I love to be able to use my imagination and come up with wonderful (I hope!) ideas for stories that are entertaining, no matter what genre I’m writing in. As a reader, I feel the same way—a reflection of the writer side of me. I want to read about characters and situations that are not cardboard “cookie-cutter” stories. I’m sure most readers feel that same way about the books they choose to spend time reading.
Since I’ve delved into trying to learn more about my ancestors (and believe me, I have not spent nearly the time on that I wish I could spend!) I’ve discovered some interesting things about people in my own family line from the past that would make great “fodder” for some very interesting tales.
Ancestry . com has a feature now called “stories”—and the stories are about people they believe are related to you! I haven’t gotten all that far on my family tree, but this story feature of theirs really makes me interested to just drop everything else and work on nothing but learning about my family of the past. These stories are put together in a way that is kind of generic, and tells about things that were of great importance to the people of that time in general.
For instance, one of their stories mentions things like, “Josie Belle Walls—your great grandmother. Your great-grandmother’s right to vote was recognized nationally with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.” It goes on to give a few facts throughout the story about how many women voted, who the candidates were, and has a picture of the census page with my great-grandmother’s information on it, along with her family. Further information calls to our attention that it was indicated on the census page that she could read and write. It even tells what the weather was like at the place where she would have voted that day, Bentley, Oklahoma, in Atoka County! Some pictures are included in this story, but none of her specifically—more general pictures of people of the times, women with suffrage banners, and so on, but the stories have some good information in them that might not be gleaned elsewhere without really digging for it. At the time, there were 12 people listed living in her home—she and her husband and a passel of kids—she was 38. I wonder if she found time to go vote! I do wish there had been pictures of her as a younger woman. I only have one picture of her in her 20’s, and after that, most all the pictures of her were after she was much older. The picture below is the earliest one I have of her, and I think she was in her mid-twenties when this was taken. At that point in time, she had married, had four children, lost her husband and remarried a widower older than she who had several children. They had children together as well, for a total of seventeen kids in a “yours, mine, and ours” situation.
This picture is one of my great grandmother, Josie Bell Walls McLain Martin (also pictured above), with grandkids of her own. She looks absolutely worn out, doesn’t she? I wonder what hopes and dreams she had as a young girl, and I wonder what moments made her heart happy as she grew older. The grandkids from left to right are my mother, El Wanda; the current baby in the family, my mom’s (at the time) youngest sister, Betty; their sister, Opal, who is third in that line of siblings; and Mom’s just-younger sister, Joyce, with whom she was always so very close to. This picture was taken in 1930, so my mom was 8 at that time, Joyce only about 19 months behind her, and Opal around 4-5, with Betty being around 2 or so. My great grandmother Josie was born in 1882 and had her first child (my grandmother) at age 16. In this picture below, she was 48 years old.
My other great-grandmother (both of these were on my mom’s side of the family) was 53 at this same time, 1920, and only had she, her husband, and one daughter (age 19) living at home—a huge difference in family situation and age for two peers. She was born in 1867. I’ve seen one picture of her. (SEE BELOW) Her name was Emily (Emma) Christiana (Ligon) Stallings—all her grandkids called her “Mammy”, and my mom has told me so many stories about her and her life. My mom was the oldest of 11 children, so she spent a lot of time with Mammy, since they lived across the street from one another as my mom was growing up. Much of the information provided in this “story” from Ancestry about both my great-grandmothers here is the same—the talk about voting, the weather, and so on. But the interesting part to me is being able to have all the facts in one place to compare the two of them side by side, since, by that time, they were both living in fairly close proximity, and not much later, both lived in the same small town.
I’ve mentioned before how my Aunt Marilyn did a lot of genealogy research, and something my sister and I still laugh about is my mom’s reaction to learning we were related to Lyndon B. Johnson. She begged my aunt to “Please don’t tell anyone, Marilyn!” (Mom didn’t feel nearly as awful when she found out Benedict Arnold was also a past relative…)
I’m really loving learning about my ancestors because there are so many interesting ‘bits and pieces’ of their lives that I can incorporate into my writing—including a few skeletons in the closet, which I’m so excited about getting to learn more about! Next time I’ll talk about some of the men from our ancestry line –there seems to be a lot more about their escapades than the women, and I can’t wait to read what’s in their “stories” too.
By the way, there is also a feature where relatives, friends, and so on can contribute memories and stories about ancestors as well, and some of those are really fascinating, too. I do remember my great-grandmother Josie that I mentioned above. She passed when I was young, but I have pictures of her and I remember meeting her and being around her. I would love to have known her when she was young.
It’s wonderful to just think about how, in the historical stories we write, we are writing about people just like these women (and men) from our own past bloodlines. Amazing to think about, isn’t it?
Is there someone in your ancestry line that you would like to have met, or like to have been able to spend more time with in your lifetime? Tell us about it! Did any of you know your great-grandparents? I love to hear your stories about the past, and the people who lived it.
A native Oklahoman, I've been influenced by the west all my life. I love to write short stories and novels in the historical western and western romance genres, as well as contemporary romantic suspense! Check my Amazon author page to see my work: http://www.amazon.com/author/cherylpierson
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I didn’t meet any of my great-grandparents, and only three of my grandparents were alive in my lifetime. I knew my grandparents on both sides well, and that’s enough for me. I do have some ancestry information, and recently helped my youngest cousin, because she doesn’t really know much about our extended family and ancestors, and her mom wasn’t very helpful.
I also know a lot about my husband’s family, and when we were going through his mother’s stuff, I seemed to shock his sister by relaying history to them that she didn’t know.
Denise, you made me laugh about shocking your hubby’s sister by what you said that she didn’t know. My mom and dad grew up together in a VERY small town–everyone knew everyone else very well. I can only imagine what stories (If I’d only been old enough to ASK) might they have told about each other’s families!LOL I knew both sets of my grandparents pretty well, too. We didn’t live down in the same area of OK that they did, and that many of my cousins, aunts, and uncles did. As I got older, I wish there were things that I had thought to ask them about and learn more about their lives.
I am related to president Grover Cleveland! Mom’s maiden name was Cleveland a 7th cousin and on Dad’s side related to President Grant! I had many grands and great grands when I was a child and pictures of 5 generations when my daughter was born and granddaughter (all women!) Thanks for sharing this info!
Wow, Teresa! President Grant and President Cleveland! I can’t wait to find out more about who I was related to, even just the common every-day people. I saw something in one of the things I came across that was correspondence between a husband and wife during the Civil War. But at that time, I didn’t know who they were or how I was related. I saved it though! Can’t wait to get into that! And what a great picture to treasure of FIVE GENERATIONS! WOW!
One of my great grandmothers died the same year I was born. I believe all of the others were already dead. My grandfather’s family were Quakers, although I believe my great grandmother’s parents must have already left the faith because they named their daughter Cinderella. I can’t believe practicing Quakers would name a child that. Cinderella married several times not because her husbands died, but because she divorced them. All of this happened in the early 1900s.
Karijean, I worked for a very short time with a girl named Cinderella when we lived in West Virginia! But you are right–it would be odd for a Quaker family to use that name, I would think. (I have to admit, I love that. But having grown up with a weird pronunciation of my name–CHAIR-yl instead of SHARE-yl, I would never do that to my child.) Wouldn’t you love to know what made them name her that, though? I am fascinated by names.
Yes, I would like to know. Is your name pronounced that way because you were named for someone whose name was Charles? My aunt was Charlene (pronounced like Charles) after her father (no boys).
No, I was not named after anyone, so I’ve often wondered why they picked that pronunciation. But, my sisters were named kind of “different” names for that time period they were born into, as well. My oldest sister was born in 1945 and her name was Mary(both my grandmothers were named Mary)Annette. She went by Annette. My middle sister was born in 1947 and was named Karen Elizabeth (my mom’s middle name was Elizabeth) and she went by Karen. Then I came along in 1957. Who can know why they decided to say “CHAIR-yl” instead of “SHARE-yl”–just weird. I think my dad kind of came up with my middle name–Kathlyn. Not Kathryn. I used to think I had to be the only person in the world named either one of those names, but I’ve med 3 people during my life that pronounced their name like mine, and I met two people who were named Kathlyn! Pretty amazing. I was glad, because then I didn’t feel like the Lone Ranger anymore! LOL
I love to follow my ancestry. As to knowing my great grandparents, the answer is “no”. In fact, I did not even know either of my grandfathers. They died a few years before I was born. I believe in health issues. My grandmothers were an integral part of my life. My mother came from a family of 10 or 11 siblings, with her mom married three times. She was very active until her death at 76 from uremic poisoning. (Liver issues) My father’s mother died at 76 also of cancer, but she also had diabetes which ran through my family starting with dad and all my siblings. Fortunately, not me.
Judy, that is one thing I did try to learn about after I had kids–family tendencies toward certain diseases, illnesses, and so on. From the time I was little, my mom always cautioned me, “Remember, in our family we don’t need as much medicine as some other people do, so always try to start with a very low dose and you can always raise it if you need it.” SHE WAS RIGHT! I always told my kids the same thing, and I’m glad I did. When my daughter had surgery a couple of years back, I was becoming pretty alarmed because she was not waking up from the anesthesia. She had told them about not needing as much as others, but with anesthesia, I definitely get it–you wouldn’t want someone waking up in the middle of a surgery! Still, it took a very long time for her to come around and the nurses were in there too, trying to get her to wake up, etc.
My dad’s parents lived longer than my mom’s. My mom’s dad had had a couple of strokes and finally had the one that killed him–we were on vacation, had driven from OK to NC to visit my sister and her husband who was in the Marines at Cherry Point. When we got there, my sister immediately took my dad aside and then he came in and told mom. I was 11. Then my grandmother, Mom’s mother, died when I was 16. I was never especially close to any of my grandparents. I think they were tired by the time I came along. LOL
My mom’s mom died of a stroke during her final term of nursing school, so I never had a chance to meet her. She was widowed with 3 sons when she married grandpa, a widower with 2 daughters. Their “ours” children were my Uncle Phil, Mom, and Aunt Theresa.
Grandpa came to my christening (I’ve seen a photo and heard about this) when I was 3 weeks old. I’d really have liked to be able to know both Grandma and Grandpa. We had my Dad’s parents longer; Grandpa died my junior year in high school and Grandma almost lived to 100 (1998).
Oh, wow, Mary–that’s a goal for me–to live to 100. LOL Having diabetes, I probably won’t make it, but I’m going to try! I wish I had been around my grandparents more and been older when I was around them. As a kid you don’t ever think to ask them what happened in their lives.
I would love to meet my grandmother. She died when my mother was eleven years old, so I never met her. She and I have the same birthday, December 22.
Janice, December 22 is both of my grandmother’s birthdays, too! They were born in 1898 and 1900, but on that same date.
Wow, so sad for your mom to lose her mother so young. I think that would be the hardest thing to deal with for a child. My mom and I had some “turbulent teen years” but she was always a person who could find a solution to any problem, and that’s something I admire so much about her to this day.
I did know some of my great grandparents.
Bridgette, I wish I could have been old enough to ask what would be something good to talk about with them, and with my grandparents, as well. When you are young, it’s always the same topics you talk about with older people because you don’t know them well, so they ask how’s school going? What’s your favorite subject? Do you have a boyfriend yet? LOL
Cheryl, genealogy is really fascinating. I, too, uncovered a lot when I researched my family. Oh gosh, there are so many questions I wish I’d have asked before my mom passed. No one is alive now to provide those answers. It’s really sad. I don’t know what it would feel like to know grandparents. My mom’s passed before I was born and we only saw my dad’s parents once a year because they lived so far away. My great grandfather on Mom’s side vanished without a trace when he was in his 30s. We’ll never know what happened to him.
Linda, my mom was like “Aunt Pittypat” in Gone With the Wind. LOL She knew everyone (being the oldest) and how they were all related and so on. She was also the one who would go over and spend the night with Mammy after her husband (Pa) died. Mammy was lonely and she always wanted Mom to come spend the night with her, probably because Mom was interested in the past and liked to hear Mammy’s stories. Since Mammy was born in 1867, she told Mom about all the beautiful balls and clothing and so on. She was from Tennessee. Of course, Mom loved to hear the stories and I think Mammy’s family had been pretty well off, before the war.
Speaking of vanishing–my great grandmother, Josie, had an older sister who just left home out of the blue one day–took off walking down the road and never came back, and was never heard from again, either. I think she was about 15 or so, and Josie was maybe 11 or 12. So Josie was the one who had to take care of their little brother and their grandpa that they lived with until she married, and she married young–I think she was only about 13 or 14. Had her first baby at 16.
I am loving searching for my relatives and learning about them, but gosh, we’re talking about learning about WHOLE LIVES that no one knows anything about–so it’s just the bare basic facts, and that’s a shame.
So glad to see you, my Filly sis! Thanks for stopping by today.
Hugs,
Cheryl
Good morning Cheryl, yes genealogy is so very interesting. I only saw my grandfather on my dad’s side only once and I was very very young. My grandmother and my grandfather got divorced, so I never really got to see or meet my dad’s father-my paternal grandfather at all. I did get to spend time with my great grandmother and my great grandfather on my dads side, but not on my moms side. So many questions I wish I would have asked, but can’t any more as both my mom and dad are no longer with us.
Alicia, I feel the same way. I just keep thinking, if I’d been older and cared more about their pasts, I would have learned so much, I think. But on the other hand, some of those older folks didn’t like to talk about the past and their lives when they were younger–probably because there were so many hard times.
This was so interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Barbara, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I wish I had more pictures of all of them, too, but I guess I’m just lucky to have what I’ve got. Pictures were such a luxury back then.
None of my great grandparents were alive when I was born, and I never knew my paternal grandmother as she passed the year I was born. I have vague memories of my maternal grandparents, but they died when I was four and five. I knew my paternal grandfather, and I’ve heard some stories about him, too, and definitely not good ones!
Trudy, I was lucky to have at least gotten to know my grandparents somewhat–though I lost my maternal grandparents when I was 11(grandfather) and 16(grandmother) and my dad’s mom suffered with dementia for several years. When she passed, it was not long before my grandfather followed. Luckily, my dad’s sister, JoAnne, knew a LOT about their family and she told my sister Karen and me a lot of stories. I wrote them down–now I’ve just got to find where I wrote them!
Our family has a wonderful picture of the whole family at my maternal grandmother’s father’s 75th birthday. My cousin who was three months older than me and I are the babies on his lap. He was the only great grandparent alive when I was born and I don’t remember him. I do remember his second wife whom we referred to as Grandma Agda. She was much younger than he was and died when I was in my twenties. And like others I wish I could have asked her questions about her life. She came to this country from Sweden and arrived in Saratoga Springs as a maid with one of the wealthy families from NYC who summered there. We do have a lot of information and pictures of my dad’s ancestors much of it found in the attic of the house we grew up in that my great grandfather bought in 1868. My mom, one of my aunts, and a cousin did a lot of genealogy research long before Ancestry came into existence. The cousin went back to the 1500’s in the Netherlands for our maternal grandmother’s family. He printed his findings for the rest of the family.
I sometimes wonder who in the next generations will be the keeper of the family history and the one to store the many items my sister and I are currently storing in our homes.
Alice, finding that treasure trove in the attic of that old house had to be a thrilling experience for everyone in your entire family! Gosh. I wish I had more pictures and so on, but I’m just glad to have what I have. My mom’s distant cousin in Tennessee did a lot of genealogy work before Ancestry, and really before computers. I don’t believe she even owned a computer. My mom and my sister and niece drove out from OK to TN to meet her and her sister, and her entire little house was filled with pictures and such, memorabilia, etc. of sooo many of our ancestors. But she had no kids to pass it all down to and I don’t know whatever happened to all of that when she died. I’m glad both my kids are interested in our genealogy and I’m hoping that once they aren’t having to work so hard they’ll be able to cut out some time for themselves to work on it, too.
One of the items I have is a family Bible with a list of my paternal grandmother’s family members beginning in the 1840’s. We know it isn’t complete but it has given us a long list of ancestors and helps us understand the connections to people we were told were distant cousins.
Oh, that is just wonderful! What a great piece of the puzzle to have!
Somewhere there exists a photo of me as an infant, held by my mother, with her mother and grandmother, so four generations of my direct female line. Great-grandma was a baseball fan and enjoyed attending Milwaukee Brewers games. My family tends to long generations, so GG would have been nearly 100 at the time. And Grandma (Mom’s mom) also made it to 100. I’m keeping me fingers crossed, as I’m still having way to much fun to say goodbye…
Thanks for sharing, Cheryl!
You made me laugh! I’m having too much fun to say goodbye too, so I’m hoping it’s a very long time in the future. I used to have this plan. My thought was that when Halley’s Comet came around again, (It will be on my birthday, July 28) the year I turn 104, so 2061, I think it is, and I always said, I’m going to see if Jimmy Buffett will do a Comet Concert and we could all just rock out for my birthday and Halley’s Comet coming back. LOL But sadly, Jimmy passed and put and end to my plans, so if I’m still here, I’ll just have my own little party and play some of his music and drink a margarita or two while we watch the comet. LOL (of course, my plan probably would have been totally unrealistic because Jimmy was quite a bit older than me, so he would probably not have been around anyhow by then.) My parents were 84 and 85 when they died. I would love to make to 100!
I met my step-great-grandfather, but I was only 7 and he was ancient and I only remember an old man in a rocking chair on a screened porch. He isn’t the one I wish I could talk to now, though. That would be my great-grandfather who was a reporter/writer in Chicago during the late 1800s.
NAN! Gosh, yes, your gr-grandfather probably had some fabulous stories to tell! One of the men in my family that I’d like to have talked to is my gr gr grandfather who lived in southwestern OK, close to the TX border. He lived near one of the cattle trails, and would work as a drover from time to time when the herds were coming through. But he didn’t want to go too far from home, so he’d work from about 20-25 miles south of his home to 20-25 miles north of his home, just for that stretch of the trail drive. However, that was Kiowa/Comanche and Apache land, much of it, and I figure he had some pretty exciting tales to tell!
My grandfather was interesting. He was railroad man and he told stories of driving a bus that went on tracks and on the road.
Oh my gosh, Debby! I never heard of such a thing, but how cool is that??? Speaking of odd occupations, in one of my creative writing classes, there was a woman whose parents met during the time when movie theaters would hire someone to play the piano during the silent movies to accompany whatever action was going on on the screen. Her mom did that! and her dad was the projectionist for the movie itself, so that was how they met and ended up getting married. Isn’t that cool? I love that your grandfather had such a different job. I am going to look that up now, and see what I can learn about it. I’ve never heard of it and never known anyone who knew about it, either. I’m so glad you mentioned it!
I never got to meet my dad’s parents. They both died before my parents even met. I only knew my maternal grandparents. I wish I got to know my maternal grandfather longer but he died when I was 13 from a heart condition. Fortunately, I was able to know my Grandma (my maternal grandmother) much longer. She lived until she was almost 90.
That is really a good, long life. I bet she had some stories she could have told, too, Diana. I regret so often that I didn’t ask questions and wasn’t old enough to be interested in the past as they remembered it, and probably would have talked to me about it had I shown any interest in it at all.
We moved in with my paternal grandfather when my grandmother died – he was in his 70’s at the time and no one expected him to live much longer. Little did we know that he would live until he was almost 99! Living with him, though, gave me a family history that I probably wouldn’t have learned otherwise. His father, who fought in the Civil War – Grandpa was the baby and was born after the war – had worked for the railroad but took his last pass and traveled to Valentine, NE. From there he walked to Chadron where he homesteaded. Growing up like he did, Grandpa met Red Cloud and saw Sitting Bull. I always wished he could have lived to see “Dances With Wolves” because that was the story he always told of the Indians. There were so many stories he told me and my biggest regret is that I never got it down on tape.
Wow, Ginni! Such a life he had! But even though you didn’t get it on tape, you got to hear those stories straight from the person who lived them!