From Randy (my cousin) over at Genea-Musings:
it's Saturday Night -
time for more Genealogy Fun!!!
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Did your grandparents know their grandparents?
2) Tell us about your grandparents and their grandparents in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook status post. Please leave a link on this post if you write your own blog post.
Here's mine:
- My paternal grandparents were were Lusion Keman "Loosh" Tapley (1870-1935) and Nealie Vermell Drake (1895-1970).
* Lusion Tapley's paternal grandparents were George Washington Tapley (1814-1880) and Elizabeth Hicks (1824-1880). Since Lusion would have been about 10 years old when they died, I like to think he knew them. I know they lived nearby.
* Lusion's maternal grandparents were Solomon Page Jr (1800-1860) and Elizabeth Caroline Scoggins (1802-1880). Solomon died before Lusion was born. He would have been about 10 years old when this grandmother passed away, so I hope he knew her. The land he grew up on originally belonged to these grandparents, and they lived right up the road.
* Nealie Drake's paternal grandparents were James William Drake (1829-1908) and Mary Ann Brantley (1837-1891). Her grandmother passed away before Nealie was born, but she would have been about 13 when her grandfather passed. Hopefully, she knew him. He lived in the same county. Grandma Nealie came from a long line of preachers, and this grandfather and her father were both preachers. I am sure they saw each other at church at Poplar Springs Methodist Church in Adrian, Georgia on Sundays, if no other time.
* Nealie's maternal grandparents were William Robert Harrell (1838-1908) and Catherine M Odom (1841-1875). Her grandmother died young and left three small children, one of which was Nealie's mother, who was about 8 years old at the time. This grandfather also died in 1908, about the time she was 13 years old. Again, I don't know if she knew him. He lived in the area. He remarried three years after Katie passed and had two more children with Winford 'Mimie' Barwick (1853-1939).
So perhaps Lusion Tapley "Papa" knew 3 out of 4 of his grandparents. Nealie Drake "Grandma Nealie" possibly knew her grandfathers, but not her grandmothers.
- My maternal grandparents were Charles Morgan Tapley (1907-1973) and Ethel Irene Ranney (1913-1973).
* Charles Tapley's paternal grandparents were James Madison "Jim" Tapley (1847-1912) and Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page (1844-1924). I know he lived very close to them. Unfortunately Charles lost his mother in April 1912 and then his grandfather, Jim, passed in November of that same year. Charles would have only been 4 and 5 when they passed, but I know he had memories of his mother. Perhaps he remembered his grandfather also. He would have been about 17 when his grandmother, Becky, passed so I am sure he spent time with her.
* Charles's maternal grandparents were George W Schwalls Sr (1837-1908) and Lincelia E 'Celia' Claxton (1839-1882). Celia passed away fairly young so he never knew her. He would have been only a year old when his grandfather Schwalls passed, so he didn't get a chance to know him either.
* Ethel Ranney's paternal grandparents were Comfort Ranney (1838-1920) and Mary Margaret Hesser (1842-1920). Grandma was born in Michigan, but moved to California about 1916-1917. I don't believe they ever saw the family they left behind again. So if Ethel did have any memories of her grandparents, it would only have been fragments at best.
* Ethel's maternal grandparents were Charles Kelso Carter (1843-1916) and Sarah Schoonover (1840-1918). Again, Grandma was probably too young when the family left for California to remember her maternal grandparents. They also passed almost immediately after her family went west. These grandparents lived in the same area in Michigan, so Grandma's older brother and sister might have remembered them, but I doubt she did.
Charles "Pop Pop" probably knew his paternal grandparents, but not his maternal ones. Ethel "Grandma" probably didn't know any of her grandparents much at all.
It seems to be a pattern in our family. By the age of six, I had no grandparents left. I never got to sit down with them and have discussions about their childhoods and who they remember. This exercise made me realize how little I do know. Ask lots of questions!
I'm going to hope that Comfort and Mary wrote letters to their son after the family moved to California, so maybe Ethel had some contact with her grandparents that way. Letter writing was how I communicated with my paternal grandmother.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what our earlier forbears would have thought of the changes wrought by migration, though perhaps even in the more distant past, children left the area where their parents lived, never to return...
ReplyDelete