52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week #10 Theme - Translation.

This subject had me stumped. I wasn't going to post as I haven't had any research that needed to be translated. So far, all our ancestors have been in English speaking countries. Then I realized... If it hadn't been for a translation, our family tree would have been very different. 6th Gt Grandfather, John Griffin, hailed from Wales before arriving in the colonies in about 1635. There is a possibility that John's ancestors' Welsh name was Pengruffwnd. I'm unable to find proof of this, or any proof of the timeline when John's name became Griffin. But I'm very happy that it was changed. And I'm sure that all the young men among his descendants, who carry Griffin as their first name today, would be very happy too.

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”.

Week #5 Theme is "Oooops!"

We all make mistakes, follow rabbit trails down the wrong path, fail to record our sources of information, etc. So every family researcher has probably said "Ooops." I had to choose just one. Early in our research, we used Gerry's Grandpa Grimes' family history booklet to begin following the Grimes family. He had recorded direct family lines back to John Power Grimes, born in Georgia 1814, and challenged Gerry to go further. When you first begin to do searches, you grasp and collect the new "facts" wherever you can find them. So we found the father of John Power Grimes, Thomas Miner Grimes. And on to William Grimes, father of Thomas. He claimed a land grant in Georgia, 1784, for his father's Revolutionary service. Not realizing that William Grimes was a common name, I latched onto a little news item of the era which said "William Grimes, nephew of Mr. Mebane, was scalped and killed by Indians on the Harpeth River in Tennessee." Our family ran with it even though that river is nowhere near Elbert County, GA. Every time we traveled from Georgia back to see family in Oklahoma, we had to cross the Harpeth River. I think we held up traffic on the bridge near Nashville, taking pictures of that river, stopping short of tossing flowers, (a la Billy Joe McAlister). Our kids probably told about it in Show and Tell. I wrote up a history as far as we had researched, including poor, scalped William, and passed copies out to cousins. After a couple of years of searching, I came across a will of OUR William Grimes. He died at age 49, and the will was submitted in Elbert County, GA. I'm pretty sure that William didn't write a detailed will before traipsing off to Tennessee, about 430 miles into Indian lands. About the same time, I discovered a William “Graham”, who was related to a Mebane and was killed by Indians in Tennessee. I have since apologized to all the close family, but distant relatives may be still spreading that news item. Now I guess I should make my apologies to the Grahams and Mebanes for glomming onto their family history. Oooops!

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. 2023 Week 4, Theme is "Education".

My cousins and I have contributed for years to the history of the family, especially my Griffin family. Our Gt grandmother Lizzie Terry Griffin has been our inspiration. A widow bringing young children from Kansas to Edmond OK soon after the Land Run, and homesteading on land near Portland and Waterloo Rd. Central State College, later University of Central Oklahoma, in Edmond was just getting started and she sent many children and grandchildren to the school. And now many descendants and their spouses have attended, since those early days to the present. There is a bench on campus to memorialize her. In 2015, she was honored post-humously to The Luminary Society at UCO. The Luminary Society was developed as part of the 125th celebration year. She was one of only 125 outstanding members of the UCO community to be chosen since the establishment of the Territorial Normal School of Oklahoma, from 1890 to the present. I believe this honor was well deserved and partly happened because of our family research together. Our matriarch has influenced so many, and the numbers have grown to include Lizzie's Great Great Grandchildren just at Central State/ University of Central Oklahoma... not to mention those who have gone on to other institutes of education.

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week #3 theme "Out of Place"

When attempting to complete the time lines of each of my direct ancestors, I try to find them in census or other records and add those to my Ancestry "Facts". But I could not find our Grandpa Charley Griffin in the 1900 census. His mother lived in Oklahoma, as did many other cousins, uncles, etc. on land that was claimed in the Land Run of 1889. I knew that Charley Griffin and Hattie McGill were married in Oklahoma in 1906, and my father, Dan Griffin, was born in 1907. I found a plat map where Charley owned property in Oklahoma in 1906. But where was Charley when the 1900 census was taken? My father had said that at one time Charley worked at a livery stable in Colorado. Could that be a clue?

I let it ride for a while and followed some other family members. Colorado? Hmmm. Now I've found that Edgar Griffin, a 1st cousin of Charley went from Kansas to Colorado and married in 1899. In 1900, his family is located in Central City, Colorado, where Andrew is working as a "Hackman" and neighbors work in the gold mines. I believe a hackman drove a wagon. Could that be similar to one who works at a livery stable? I can picture that Charley and his cousin took off for the Colorado gold fields, but ended up with a job at the livery stable. Charley made some money and came back to marry his sweetheart, Hattie, in Oklahoma where he purchased some land, and became a farmer. Somehow the census takers missed my grandpa. I believe he might have been out on his horse or looking for gold that day, not "Out of Place"...HE knew where he was.

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #51 theme is  "Perseverance". 

My siblings and cousins can tell you that one of my genealogy traits is "Perseverance".  In fact I think I've been accused of being like a "dog on a bone".  When we first began our ancestral search in the 1970s, all I had to go on were family rumors and a few names and dates in a sketchy tree. This was before internet, and grandparents were gone, so my research began in libraries... checking out old family and county histories and viewing microfilms and microfiches. I also, wrote lots of letters and discovered that you had to send SASEs to get replies.  Gerry's grandpa printed a little family history booklet which was a great start. He even "commissioned" Gerry to carry on his work, which we did, once we moved from Oklahoma to Georgia.  I bought the "Handybook for Genealogists" to study the formation of counties, and a huge fold out pedigree chart which could go on and on into the past generations.  So proud when I could conquer one more generation or branch.  

Over the years, and with the help of siblings and cousins, and the internet, we have gone a long way with our discoveries.   We have traveled to the locations where these ancestors lived, some as far back as the 1600s. And best of all, we met online and in person, many cousins we never knew of, and have been able as a group to collect photos, letters, and stories.   

There are still new discoveries to be made, but we will do it... with Perseverance .