Checking In

Hello and welcome back to my genealogy blog.  I have been away for almost 4 months!  Time does fly by.  I did not realize it had been so long.  I apologize for the hiatus, but hopefully I can come back with more interesting stories about the "family" I have discovered.  Tonight, though, I want to talk a little bit about the family I have known - the ones I have lost in the last year.  It's been a lot of loss, and I don't believe that I have fully processed it.  

Back in late February or early March, I received a call from my niece.  She asked me if I knew "Aunt Patty" had died?  Her Aunt Patty was my sister.  No, I did not know she had passed.  Turns out she had passed 4-5 months earlier on October 11, 2021.  Pat had not spoken to me in over 10 years, but my mom still spoke with her from time to time.  I would think her family would have at least let my mom - Pat's stepmother - know.  Or her niece. They didn't.  

Then almost immediately after receiving this news, I heard again from my niece.  This time her father - my brother - died on March 21.  Now I had not spoken to my brother in probably 25-30 years; neither had my mom.  I tried to be supportive and helpful to my niece - even stepping in and finding my other niece (her sister) and giving her the news.  I spent hours trying to find her, and when I did, it was another disappointment for me in this dysfunctional family.  She was only interested in what she could get, and I did not hear from her again when I wouldn't give her anything.  My oldest niece, the one I was trying to support and help in this difficult time, hasn't spoken to me since her father's funeral.  I have no idea why.  

Now what you may be thinking here is why don't I just call her?  I gave up chasing her many, many years ago.  I haven't seen her since I left Georgia in 2011.  We talk very rarely.  I used to try... a lot.  After a while, I got tired of being the one calling and trying to stay in touch.  So I gave up.  The (not so) funny and ironic thing is that she said to me after her father died that she didn't not want us to end up like the rest of the family - not talking or seeing each other - and dying without making things right.  And I haven't heard from her since.  

Yes, I was estranged from my brother and sister.  Our relationship has always been complicated.  First of all, they were 20 and 18 years older than me - my father's children from his first marriage.  He was 38 years old by the time he had me.  I was raised by my father.  He practically abandoned Harry and Patty.  He showed up in their lives very sporadically and did not support them at all.  My brother was in the military so he only visited occasionally when I was growing up.  I worshipped him, but he was a liar, a user, and an abuser.  I saw that once I became an adult.  So I cut off contact once my youngest niece was grown herself and out of his house.  

I didn't even meet Pat until I was 5 or 6 years old.  She had a lot of resentment toward my father.  I can remember many cards and letters he sent her over the years that would come back marked "Return to  Sender." I honestly believe she was jealous of me for having him in the house my entire childhood.  There were a couple of times as adults we tried to forge a relationship, and I told her then that growing up with our father was no picnic, and she didn't have a reason to be jealous of me.  In the end, my sister could not or would not accept who I am, so she cut off contact.  

Yet, it hit me hard when they both passed.  They were my brother and sister.  No matter what happened between us, they were family.  We had the same blood flowing through our veins.  My sister and I looked alike, talked alike, walked alike, and had the same sense of humor.  We both were like our father.  My brother used to write me cards and letters when I was young.  He was fun.  He could be kind, like when he bought me my first pair of contacts. Yes, I regret not having things right between us before they left this earth.  While my brain knew I wasn't at fault, my heart still hurt for the loss and what might have been.

On June 27, my Aunt Evelyn passed away.  She was 90 years old and tired.  She had been suffering for a while. I am sorry I didn't get to see her one last time.  She was a beautiful person, full of love and care.  She accepted me completely and loved me unconditionally.  She was my mother's sister, and the last aunt I had. I miss our talks. I miss the many times she would repeat how much she loved me before we hung up the phone.  Another pain to my heart.

Then on September 21, my first cousin, Ronnie, passed away.  Ronnie was the son of my favorite uncle, Hugh, and had been a part of my life my entire life.  He loved the genealogy work I did, and would drive all the way up from Jacksonville, Florida, to meet me in Johnson County and visit family cemeteries.  Ronnie was grumpy, hard-headed, a loner, and most likely depressed.  In other words, he was a typical Tapley!  And losing him has taken another piece of my heart.  

Mom and I are headed to Jacksonville this week for Ronnie's memorial service.  I will get through it, but I expect it will be difficult.  Life is very short.  This is brought home to us as we get older and begin to lose those we love.  While it is inevitable, it is not easy.  No matter the complications in the relationship, it still hurts me.  

So 2022 has not been particularly kind.  As always, I deal with it.  I have a roof over my head, food to eat, cats to love, and an unbelievably kind, sweet, and wonderful mother.  And I do genealogy "stuff" every chance I get!

Harry Earl Tapley 1946-2022

Patricia Elaine 'Patty' or 'Pat' Tapley Strickland 1949-2021

Ronald Hugh 'Ronnie' Tapley 1947-2022

Panther

My mother, 2009, Grand Canyon

Cupcake and Zeus

Biggie Smalls

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What Genealogy Activity Have You Spent Time On?

 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)  Quoting Randy: "I am completely out of ideas for the this week - and am late in posting.  What genealogy activity have you spent time on this week?"

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

Here's mine:

I have been continuing to add Ozmuns from Find A Grave to my family tree.  They seem to be going on forever.  Now that we're in July, this is my third month of doing this!  

I did find an interesting fact today... A man named Hale VanderCook, who was married to my 3rd cousin, founded the VanderCook Cornet School (now the VanderCook College of Music) in Chicago in 1909.  You can read about the history of the school here. The school is still going strong today -  113 years later!

I have also been correcting some source citations in Family Tree Maker.  Specifically the ones for Newspapers.com.  When Ancestry adds those citations, they do a separate citation for every single item you've saved from The Atlanta Constitution, for example.  I'm trying to combine them so all the citations for a particular newspaper are under one source title... if that makes sense.   

The only other things I have done this week is check out obits and hints that have come into my email.  Ancestry.com sent out hints from the 1950 census so I checked those out which led to looking at a whole lot of other hints.  Also, I have Google searches for certain key words (surnames).  So lots of time, an obituary containing that surname will drop into my inbox, and I'll research to find out if I am related to the person.  I find some interesting connections that way.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Paternal Grandfather's Matrilineal Line

 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)  Who is in your paternal grandfather's matrilineal line (i.e., the mother of your paternal grandfather, her mother, her mother, and so on)?

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

Here's mine:

My paternal grandfather was Lusion Keman Tapley (1870-1935).

His mother, my great-grandmother, was Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page (1844-1924) who married James Madison "Jim" Tapley (1847-1912) in Johnson County, Georgia in 1866.

Her mother, my 2nd great-grandmother, was Elizabeth Carolina "Betsy" Scoggins (1802-1880) who married Solomon Page (1800-1860) in Washington County, Georgia on July 14, 1839. 

Her mother, my 3rd great-grandmother, was Nancy E McClammy* (1777-1838) who married Wright Scoggins (unknown-1837).  Their marriage date and location are unknown.  

    *The identities of Wright Scoggins and Nancy E McClammy have not been proven.  This information has been gleaned from other family trees, but I have been unable to prove the information to be absolutely true.  

And that is the end of the line.  That is all I know for sure about my paternal grandfather's matrilineal line.  I have searched for Scoggins and McClammy information before, but as it is getting back to the 18th century, where entire families were not listed on the census, information has been harder to come by.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Grandmother Memories

  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)  

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

Here's mine:

Unfortunately, I was very  young when I lost both of my grandmothers.

I was just 3 years old when my paternal grandmother, Nealie Drake Tapley (1895-1970) passed away.  I only remember seeing her once.  She lived in a high rise apartment building in Augusta, and my mom took me to see her.  All I remember is her giving me a cookie, and being very tall and intimidating.  

My maternal grandmother, Ethel Ranney Tapley (1913-1973) passed away when I was 6 years old.  She and Pop Pop lived in Swainsboro, and I know that we went to visit them fairly often.  Honestly, I don't really remember her.  I have tons of pictures so I know things happened and we shared occasions, but I don't have a memory of them at all.  I only have two actual memories that include Grandma.  The first is my mom telling me that Pop Pop had passed away, and we needed to go to Swainsboro. (We lived in Jacksonville, Florida then.)  Then I remember vividly when we went to pick  up Grandma and her passing away in my father's arms right there in the parking lot.  (I wrote about this in a previous blog post.  If interested, you can read it here:  Sympathy Saturday: Charles Morgan Tapley and Ethel Ranney Tapley.  

So I really missed out on a couple of special relationships. I hope to see them again one day, and they will tell me all about their lives.

A Time Line for James Madison "Jim" Tapley (1847-1912)

        

 

Our connection:

Liz (that's me!)

↓↓↓

Gilbert Earl Tapley, 1928-2008 (my father)

↓↓↓

Lusion Keman Tapley, 1870-1935 (my grandfather)

↓↓ 

James Madison 'Jim' Tapley, 1847-1912 (my great-grandfather)

Time Line for the life of James Madison "Jim" Tapley:  

1847 Age 0	Birth	April 29 Emanuel County, Georgia, USA
1850 Age 2	Residence	Laurens County, Georgia, USA
1858 Age 11	Historical Event	Johnson County is formed from parts of Laurens and Emanuel County.
1860 Age 12	Residence	Johnson County, Georgia, USA
1861 Age 13	Historical Event	Civil War – Some 11,000 Georgians gave their lives in defense of their state – a state that suffered immense destruction.
1864-1865 Age 17-18	Military Service	March 15, 1864 – April 19, 1865 Private with Company F, 48th Regiment, Johnson County (GA) Battleground Guards.  Fought in the battles of Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, The Battle of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg (Battle of the Crater).  Surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865.  Walked back home to Georgia.
1864 Age 17	Death of Brother	July 30 Jim’s oldest brother, Francis “Frank”, died in the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia.  Frank was a 1st Corporal in the same company as Jim.
1866 Age 18	Marriage	February 18 Jim married Elizabeth Rebecca ‘Becky’ Page (1844-1924) in Johnson County, Georgia, USA.
1867 Age 19	Birth of 1st Child	Franklin Morgan “Frank” Tapley was born on April 7 in Johnson County.
1868 Age 20	Historical Event	The Fourteenth Amendment.  As one of the Reconstruction Amendments, the Fourteenth Amendment addressed the rights and protections that all citizens of the United States have. The amendment also limits actions of state and local officials in all states.
1868 Age 21	Birth of Child	A second boy, James “Jim”, was born July 17 in Johnson County.
1870 Age 22	Historical Event	The Fifteenth Amendment.  Prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s race, color, or previous condition of servitude.  It was the last of the Reconstruction Amendments.
1870 Age 22	Birth of Child	A third boy, Lusion Keman, was born on March 31.
1873 Age 25	Birth of Child	A Girl!  Elizabeth Virginia “Lizzie” was born on February 12th.
1874 Age 27	Birth of Child	Their second daughter, Magdaline, was born.
1875 Age 32	Historical Event	A New Civil Rights Act. During the response to civil rights violations to African Americans, the bill was passed giving African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and to prohibit exclusion from jury duty. While many in the public opposed this law, the African Americans greatly favored it.
1875 Age 27	Birth of Child	A daughter, Tabitha “Bosch” was born on March 10.
1876 Age 28	Historical Event	The First World’s Fair in the U.S.  The first official World’s Fair was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. 37 countries provided venues for all to see.
1876 Age 29	Historical Event	The Battle of Little Bighorn. An armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army. The battle was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
1876 Age 29	Birth of Child	George Washington Sentell “Tell” was born July 5th.
1878 Age 30	Birth of Child	On April 10, Bennett Olin “Ol” was born.
1880 Age 32	Birth of Child	A girl, Marry, was born February 10.
1881 Age 33	Birth of Child	Solomon was born on March 5.
1885 Age 37	Death of Child	Daughter, Marry, died on February 25, at age 5.
1886 Age 39	Birth of Child	Vianna Bell was born October 4th.
Abt 1886 Age 39-40	Death of Child	Daughter, Magdaline, passed away when she was about 12 years old.  Jim was out of town, selling timber at the time.  He did not find out until he returned and disembarked the train in Bartow.
1889 Age 42	Birth of last child	On August 5, Bascom Bishop Tapley was born in Johnson County.
Between 1880 and 1900	Death of Parents	Sometime between the 1880 and 1900 censuses, Jim’s parents, Georgia Washington Tapley (1814-) and Elizabeth Hicks (1824-) passed away.
1910 Age 62	Residence	Johnson County, Georgia, USA
1912 Age 65	Death	Jim passed away on November 5 in Johnson County, Georgia, USA. He was buried at Oaky Grove Primitive Baptist Church cemetery right down the road from where he had lived most of his life.

 Jim and Becky had a total of 12 children; 10 of which lived to adulthood.  Jim was a farmer and had enough land to split it between all of his children.  My father used to tell many stories about his aunts and uncles.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What Genealogy Search/Research Did You Do Last Week?

 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)  What genealogy search/research did you do last week? Did you have a research goal or  plan? Tell us about one or more search/research session(s).

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

Here's mine:

First of all, let me say how happy I am that Randy came through his bypass operation splendidly and is back home, recuperating.  And writing blog posts!

As far as my research, as always, I have been all over the place.  I have dabbled in several different genealogy plans.

My usual habit is to pick a line, either randomly or being lured by an obituary, and trace that line on Find A Grave and then Ancestry using their hints.  For over a month, I have been tracing the Ozmun/Osman/Osmun line in this way.  It seems that every line has many, many children.  So I go down many rabbit holes and must fight my way back.  My 8th great-grandparents were John Osman and Mary Wines, born in about the 1630s-1640s.  I have been working through their descendants on Find A Grave, and when I get bored with that, I switch over to Ancestry, search for those I have found, and use the hints feature to add to my research.

The hints feature at Ancestry.com is great, BUT you have to stay vigilant and make sure the hint they provide is actually for the person you are working on.   I have found that there is no name that is not a duplicate.  There are many Liz or Elizabeth Tapleys out there.  Even with a not-so-common name like Ozmun, there are many Isaacs or Marys or Abrahams in that line.  So each and every hint provided by Ancestry must be looked at and deemed whether it is actually for your person.  Even if it is, you must examine each piece of information to decide whether it is accurate or not.  For instance, your person's birthdate is January 16, but a social security record says it is January 23.  Well, I know that Social Security records are notoriously incorrect.  

Doing this research has added many people and information to my database.  However, it is time-consuming and seems to be taking FOREVER.  So I've been a little more bored with it as time goes on.  However, I am going to stick it out, because once I finish this Ozmun line, I am going to start working on Ranneys.  

Another way I am drawn into using Ancestry.com hints is when they send me an email about hints from the 1950 census or what is new in their record collections (These emails also come with hints.).  So I will follow those hints, which are about different family lines, and that helps ease my boredom.  This happened today, and I found out some interesting things.

My grandmother, Ethel Ranney Tapley (1913-1973) was married to Avery Hazel Plumlee (1911-1997).  He was her first husband.  They had one son together, my uncle, Robert Avery "Bob" Plumlee (1937-1999).  Grandma and Hazel divorced, and he married 4 more times in his lifetime.  In my grandmother's diary from the 1930's, she talks about Hazel a lot, since they were dating and married during this time.  She also talked often about his parents, his brother, Earl, and sister, Delma.  Earl was married to Verda and they had a little girl named Dorothy, who my grandmother seemed quite fond of.  Earl was killed in a car accident in 1933, when little Dorothy was only 3 years old. 

Today, in one of my Ancestry emails, I received a hint about Hazel.  When I followed it, I found that someone from the Plumlee line had been posting new and interesting information. Now I don't normally keep up with in-laws in my family tree.  I add the spouse, but I don't add their parents or other spouses, or any children from other spouses UNLESS it is someone(s) interesting to me.  For instance, the Plumlees.  I guess it's because my grandmother knew them, was close with them, and wrote so much about them.  So I was interested in this hint even though it is not a direct line for me.  

In the hints, I found a picture of Hazel from his later years.  Even more interestingly, I found that Earl and Verda actually had a second child, Donald, that I don't remember my grandmother mentioning at all.  He would have been about 2 when Earl died.  Then I discovered that Verda remarried, moved to Nevada, began going by her middle name, Viola, or "Vi", and her new husband adopted Dorothy and Donald.  So without these hints, I never would have known that Dorothy and Donald Plumlee were Dorothy and Donald Ferris. I was able to submit edits on Donald's Find A Grave memorial to show who his biological father was and explain his adoption by his stepfather.  

Tomorrow I will get back to work on those Ozmuns...