52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2021 (Week 14): Great

 Amy Johnson Crow from Generations Cafe is again hosting the blog writing prompt this year called 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2021.  I'm going to try to participate more fully this year.  I like that she gives us "permission" to interpret the prompt however we wish and share it however we wish.  It doesn't have to be a blog post; it could be a family video, a letter to a child or grandchild, an e-mail, etc.  

The Theme for Week 14 (Apr 5 - Apr 11) is Great.

My GREAT grandmother, Emma Vermell Harrell Drake (1867-1935), was my paternal grandmother's, Nealie Drake Tapley (1895-1970), mother.  I know almost nothing about Emma.  If I could meet her, I would have so many questions.  

Emma was born September 4, 1867 in Emanuel County, Georgia to William Robert Harrell (1838-1908) and Catherine M Odom Harrell (1841-1875).  Robert was born in South Carolina, as was his father before him.  Catherine's family, on both of her parents' sides, had been residents of Emanuel County since at least the late 1700s.  

Emma was one of three children born to Robert and Catherine.  She was the oldest.  Her sister, Nancy Jane (1869-1901), was 2 years younger, and her brother, John Milledge (1872-1951) was 5 years younger. 

Emma also had an older "half" brother.  Roan Perry Riner (1860-1941) was Catherine's child from her first marriage to Lawson Riner (1837-1863).  Lawson died in the Civil War.    

In 1875, tragedy struck the family.  Emma's mother passed away just 13 days after Emma's 8th birthday.  Catherine was only 34 years old.  Her obituary states that in her last moments, she turned "her attention to her four small children, [and] said many things to them." I cannot imagine how heartbreaking and confusing this would have been for the children.  

So Robert was left with three small children to raise.  In those days, the men had to go out and work to make a living to support their family.  So usually, in the case of a baby, another relative would take that child and raise it or the the man would remarry quickly.  Just a little over two years after Catherine's death, Robert remarried.  On January 1, 1878 in Emanuel County, he married Winford "Mimie" Barwick (1853-1939). Turns out that Catherine and Winford were 1st cousins.  Again, it wasn't that unusual for a widower to marry a member of his late wife's family, even her sister!

Robert and Winford had a baby boy in 1881, Robert Lanier Harrell (1881-1947).  Emma would have been 13 years old when this new baby brother was born.  As the oldest (and a girl), I am sure she had to help take care of all the other children.  In 1885, another brother was born named Grover Cleveland Harrell (1885-1928).  

Emma married William John Drake (1857-1927) on July 30, 1883.  She was 15 years old.  John had been married before (his wife had passed) and had a baby girl, Samantha Augusta Drake (1881-1966), who was only 2 1/2 years old at the time of their marriage.  Fifteen months after marrying, Emma gave birth to the first of their nine children:

Hattie Lay (1884-1912)

Kenneth Catherine (1886-1973)

William Lovick (1892-1912)

Nealie Vermell (1895-1970)

William Robert (1897-1927)

James Weldon (1900-1977)

Keland Lawton (1903-1972)

Nancy Mary Ann (1906-1931)

Martha Lou (1908-1986)

In my opinion, Emma had more than her share of tragedy during her life.  In addition to losing her mother so young, she lost two of her children, Hattie Lay and William Lovick, to typhoid fever within a few months of each other in 1912.  She experienced double tragedy again in 1927 when her son, William Robert, was murdered in June and her husband was accidentally shot and killed by their son, James Weldon, in August.  Then 4 1/2 years later, in 1931, her daughter, Nancy Mary Ann died at only 25 years of age.  (I do not know her cause of death.)  

In addition, her daughter, Kenneth Catherine, moved away to South Carolina, and I don't know how often Emma got to see her.

My grandmother, Nealie Vermell, "ran off" with a man twice her age with three children, and from what I can tell, Emma may have never seen her again.

Nealie's husband, Lusion K Tapley (1870-1935), passed away in July 1935.  Emma passed in October of that same year.  My father was shocked when I told him that because he said he had absolutely no memory of his mother attending Emma's funeral.  Of course, he was only age 7 at the time, so he may have just not remembered.  He also didn't remember ever meeting his grandmother.

However, I am led to believe that perhaps some of Daddy's older brothers may have met their grandmother because my first cousin, Gary, who is the son of Daddy's brother, Hugh "Dorsey" Tapley, told me that Emma was a little "off."  I am theorizing Gary got that from his father, but I don't know if Uncle Hugh witnessed it for himself or was just repeating what he had heard.  Either way, who could blame her if she was?  

I do not know that I have any pictures of Emma or her husband.  I do have  this picture that belonged to Grandma Nealie and is unidentified.  Could this be the Drake family?  

The little girl on the left looks very much like my Aunt Irene, who was Nealie's only daughter.  That makes me think the little girl in the photo was Nealie and this is a picture of her family.  If that's the case, the woman in the middle, dressed in black and holding the baby, would be Emma Vermell Harrell Drake, my great grandmother.  

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2021 (Week 13): Music

 Amy Johnson Crow from Generations Cafe is again hosting the blog writing prompt this year called 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2021.  I'm going to try to participate more fully this year.  I like that she gives us "permission" to interpret the prompt however we wish and share it however we wish.  It doesn't have to be a blog post; it could be a family video, a letter to a child or grandchild, an e-mail, etc.  

The Theme for Week 13 (Mar 29-Apr 4) is Music.  Yes, I skipped a couple of weeks/challenges.  Part of the beauty of this series is we can join in when we can.  

My family was not the ones who gathered around the piano and sang songs together.  There was no one in my immediate family trying to make it in the music business.  I mean music was a part of our lives.  I'm not sure there is anyone on this planet who could avoid music.  

I've told the story of my paternal grandmother, Nealie Drake Tapley, who played the organ at Powell's Chapel Church in Johnson County, Georgia, and how she would drive her horse and buggy more than 8 miles each way on Sunday mornings to play there.  

My mother plays the piano.  I took five years of lessons.  It was not my favorite thing, and I do not play very well today.  I've always said that my mother tricked me.  I told her I wanted to learn to play the guitar, and she told me I had to  start with the piano, to get the basics of playing music, so to speak.  I don't know if that was true or not, but I did the piano lessons and never got to guitar lessons!

My father was a country music fan.  He passed that along to me.  I grew up in the 1970s listening to Daddy's 8 track tapes of Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn and more.  I loved Charlie Rich, Charley Pride, Brenda Lee, and Tammy Wynette.  And of course I know every word to "Harper Valley PTA" by Jeannie C. Riley.  My father's favorite song was "Satin Sheets" by Jeanne Pruett.  

My mother also instilled the love of show tunes.  We had the album of the soundtrack of My Fair Lady, and I would belt out the song "Just You Wait (Henry Higgins)" on Saturday afternoons.  

As I got older (into my teen years), of course I discovered rock 'n roll.  I loved Chicago and Foreigner.  In the 1980s, I loved the big hair bands:  Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, and Poison.  

Nowadays, I still love country music.  But I also alternate between it, rock and pop music.  I think my tastes are quite eclectic.  (Though I do not enjoy opera.)  

During my ongoing search of relatives, I did come across a cousin who was an actual country musician in Nashville!  

Clayton Claxton (1944-2020) was my 4th cousin.  We are both descended from my 3rd great-grandparents, Zachariah William Claxton (1806-1895) and Lincelia Bush (1806-1872).  His obituary stated he had been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1999 and was a founding member of the band, Rode West.  

So I decided to do some research into his career.  I could not find much.  Here's what I did find on AirPlayDirect.com:

"Clayton Claxton, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, since he was 12 years old, loves to be in front of people. With his band, RODE WEST, they play stomp down Country music their own way, wherever they are called to play.  Impressionist, humorist, and songwriter, he has fronted shows for major Country stars for years.  Having his own #1 record in Australia and chart records in the USA, Clayton worked on the world famous GRAND OLE OPRY for 22 years.  The guys in the RODE WEST BAND have been with Clayton for over 20 years, one being his son, the lead guitar player. They do a family show that everyone can enjoy. They do some fifty's music, they do some old Cowboy harmony songs from yesteryear, and they bring the Grand Ole Opry to the stage with impersonations."

I particularly like this song:

He had an excellent, traditional voice. Here's another one that seemed to have been popular in Australia:

So this is my closest brush with an actual country music star, and I never even got to meet him!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Google Maps of Ancestral Homes

 From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  Identify an ancestral home address (preferably one with a street address...) for one of your ancestral families.  (You DO know where they lived, don't you?  If not, consult the 1900-1940 U.S. Census Records or City Directories.)

(2)  Go to Google Maps (https://maps.google.com/) and enter the street address (and city/town if necessary - usually you can pick from a list) for your selected ancestral home.  

(3)  Look at the street map, the satellite map, and the street view.  Zoom in or out or manipulate the image as you wish.

(4)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook.  

(5)  Do you have maps and street view pictures for all of your known ancestral homes?

Here's mine:

I picked one of the homes where my great-grandparents lived at 313 S. Sierra Way, San Bernardino, California.  Luther Boardman Ranney lived here from about 1938-1943, when he passed away.  His wife, Bessie Carter Ranney, lived there with him and then moved to Redlands in 1944.  Their eldest daughter, Alice, lived there with them the entire time.  Their youngest daughter, Ethel (my grandmother) moved there with them in 1938, but she married my grandfather the following year and moved out.  

Here is the Map View:

Here is the Satellite View:

A zoomed in view of the house on the Satellite View shows that it now sits on a very busy 4 lane road:

The Street View shows the front of the house:

I am sure the house looks very different now than it did in 1938-1944!  I could have sworn my mother and I visited this location in 2010 when we visited, but the place we saw was an empty lot.  This is definitely not.  

I do not have Google Map images for any of  my ancestral homes.  I will now add the project to save the ones that I have the street address.  However, so many of my ancestors were farmers and lived out of town on a rural route.  It will be almost impossible to pinpoint those places.  

That was a lot of work (I couldn't remember how to do a screenshot!), but it was fun!  I looked at several locations in California before choosing this one, however, most are no longer there.  When I found one, it was neat!