Week #7 Theme is "Outcast"

Although our family tree doesn't show anyone who was shunned or cast out. We have several cases where a parent disapproved of a child’s choice of a mate. We also have a few cases where a child left the home on his own due to a dispute. Every family probably has these stories. I’ll just mention a few here. Charlotte Clark of Kent, England was daughter of a man of military position. John Clark was Steward of Royal Ordnance Hospital, in Woolwich. When Charlotte was in her early 20s, in 1836, she married William Terry, a wheelwright / carriage maker. He was also from Kent, but further east near Dover. I always wondered how they met, as their classes would not have associated (think of Jane Austen novels of the era.) They went to live in Deal, and later sold their carriage making business and migrated to America in 1848. An early letter we have found written by Charlotte's daughter, Amelia, says that Charlotte married against her parents' wishes, and was disinherited by her father, for marrying beneath her station. William and Charlotte had 10 children, 7 of whom lived to marry and have children. They were such an adventuresome family, with descendants pursuing education and business ventures all across our country. We have met (in person and online) cousins from each of those family lines, and are thankful that Charlotte met and married William, our Great Great Grandparents. In my husband's family, we have Rose Marguerite McCool, Gerry's grandmother. Her mother, Anna Roselee Powell McCool, had died in 1893, when Rose was only 14. The next year, her father, John, married a second wife. The older children had left home, but there were 5 children under 10 in the family. Story has it that Rose did not get along with her step mother. She probably had to help keep house and be a nanny to the babies. After about a year, Rose met Jordon Burris, a southerner who worked on the railroad, which didn't set well with her father, a staunch Union veteran. John was also a very strict Presbyterian, and Jordon may not have lived up to the standards John had set for his daughters. After their marriage, Rose was estranged from her father for 30 years, although she remained close to all her siblings who had scattered through several western states. She was able to see him again before his death in 1933. A sad story that is repeated in too many families. But as I am writing this on Valentine's Day, I think that both the young women above married for love, and their marriages stood the test of time.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2023 - Week #6 - Social Media

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away (well... 24 years ago) before Facebook or Instagram, there was a site called MyFamily dot com. It was somehow a step child of Ancestry dot com. There were private group sites with a small annual fee. Members could be invited, similar to the private groups on Facebook. In August of 2000, a few 2nd cousins (descending from a common Great Grandmother, Lizzie Terry Griffin) got together on the above site to reminisce about our childhoods and find out more about our family. We nicknamed the group "The Lizzie Site" or just "The Liz". Soon we found more about Lizzie and her life, her Terry parents, and her husband's Griffin family. Each one of us contributed photos, letters, and memories. We contacted more relatives and picked their brains. A few of us did a lot of genealogical searching and built out our family tree to share. We got acquainted across the miles, and planned a couple of reunions in Oklahoma, where Lizzie had homesteaded. I'm not sure how we were able to "branch out", but we quickly added Terry and Griffin descendants.... 3rd, 4th cousins and maybe further. We found friendships and even traveled to visit one another. This group lasted from 2002 until 2014 when it was closed down by its parent company. During that last few months, a couple of us salvaged all the photos and many historical finds, gathering them according to the appropriate family lines. It was a sad time when the site closed. We had added over 150 relatives from all different branches. Many didn't want to go over to Facebook and we lost track unless we were in email conversations. Today the many posts from MyFamily dot com groups have been saved by a group called Spokt. One can access with his or her old email and password, and search for photos or articles. I often go to the Spokt site to find posts that were memorable. Many of us have also joined private Facebook group, still finding new relatives and sharing photos and stories. If you were part of a MyFamily group who didn't know about Spokt, you should do a search and try to access using your email which you used “in those days”.