Ma Miles - The Story Behind the Photo
Mom rarely spoke of her paternal grandmother. The only story I heard was "she kicked my mother and me out of the house after my daddy died." Mom had no love nor respect for the woman, and quite honestly, neither did I.
When I first set eyes on my great-grandmother, I knew Mom's story must be true. "Ma" looked like a bitter old woman. Her hair was severely pulled back into a tight little bun. Round glasses framed her beady black eyes. I saw the quintessential evil stepmother who evicted an eight-year-old girl from the only home she ever knew.
Twenty years later, that scrapbook sits on the bookshelf, and I've plunged into the world of genealogy. Research helps me discover the truth about my ancestors. The vital documents and census reports reveal long lost stories that remained family secrets for generations.
Ma Miles Story (so far):
Mary E French was born on 20 JUN 1870 in Blount County, Alabama. She died on 28 MAR 1952 in Falls County, Texas.
Mary was the second child born to Joseph Benton French (1840-1924) and Elizabeth Howle (1846-1890). She had five siblings and eight half-siblings from her father's two subsequent marriages.
Mary married Mitchell Milus Miles on 15 JUL 1888 in Bount County, Alabama. They moved to Robertson County, Texas sometime prior to 1890.
Mary and Mitchell had a total of eight children. However, only four lived beyond the age of ten:
- Gilbert
- Ollie
- Floyd
- Ola Mae
However, I'm not sure the genealogy facts back up this narrative.
- She grew up in the Deep South post Civil War.
- She buried four young children.
- She moved her small, growing family from Alabama to Texas in the early 1890s.
- She started a new life in a community where she more than likely knew few if any other residents.
Questions still left unanswered:
- The 1940 census shows Ollie and Jessie lived "two houses away" from Ma. They lived in a house they purchased sometime after 1935.
- Did they live in the same house with Floyd's family until his untimely death?
- That same census shows Ma Miles now living with her granddaughter Mildred (Gilbert's daughter) and her husband and young daughter. Mildred's family and Ma are living in the same house as they did in 1935.
- When did Ollie move out and Mildred's family move in?
- Does this mean Ma, Mildred's family, and Floyd's family lived under the same roof for a year?
- Combining census data from the Miles siblings, I discovered four young female cousins who lived nearby. Cousins I never knew existed:
- Ollie's daughters Jacque (three years younger than Mom) and Billye (five years younger)
- Mildred's daughter Jeanine (seven years younger)
- Ola Mae's daughter Marguerite (nine months younger)
- I always dreamed of being a part of a large extended family with lots of cousins who lived nearby. I just knew we would be playmates for life.
- Did Mom live my dream for the first eight years of her life?
- Why would they ignore the emotional health of an innocent, grief-stricken eight-year-old girl?
- Why did my grandmother think it best to take my mother to her sister's house in a remote town two hours away?
- Why would this aunt keep an impressionable eight-year-old for three years when she clearly resented her in the house? (another story for another time)
- Why would my grandmother go to secretarial school in the "big city" so soon after the death of her husband? So far away from her family support system?
What interesting stories you are able to develop as you delve into the family history a little deeper. Isn't it amazing how much we can figure out by reading those census reports? I wish there were more of them in later years, but I have found them extremely helpful in figuring out my family history (my paternal grandmother's birth family that she never knew). Times were very different then. I sometimes forget that the women of that day did not have the wonderful conveniences and freedoms that we enjoy today. Their lives were very difficult, and if they did not have a strong man to help them with chores, etc., they had to find ways to survive where they didn't have so much exposure or hardship. I haven't started writing down my discoveries yet. Still trying to tie up a few loose ends, but you are helping me to get a better plan organized in my mind before I start sharing it with the "world". Thank you for doing this. I love that you have these pictures. I am still praying for pictures of my grandmother's birth parents. Somewhere out there someone has to have something!! I am still searching. Oh, the names you mentioned above:...the "Joseph Benton French"...Benton is a name that is in my mother's family. Her father's name was Benton F. Tedlie. He named one of his sons Truman Benton Tedlie. Many of the descendants have used the name Benton in naming their children. My own oldest son is William Benton Steiner, and he goes by "Benton". Now, the French name... I have discovered that my grandmother's birth father was originally married to a woman named Laura French, and he had a daughter and a son by her. He also had my grandmother by another woman six months after his daughter was born...that is part of the history I am discovering.. Anyway, that made his two children from Laura French the half siblings of my grandmother. Of course, she never knew any of them. And the woman Laura French and my grandmother's father later divorced and he ended up marrying my grandmother's birth mother a few years later. Of course, my grandmother had long before been adopted out of the family as an infant, so she never knew any of them. Just thought that was interesting that you and I have those names in "common" in our family histories. My family was in Pennsylvania, however. Like I said, it is so interesting what we can discover out there!! Keep searching!
ReplyDeleteThis NaNoWriMo challenge is teaching me that family history is never complete :) I thought I had enough data to write this story, but once I started, I realized I still had many unanswered questions.
DeleteBUT if I don't start writing now ... if I wait until I have all the answers before I begin ... the stories will never be told. So I'm learning to lean into the imperfect. I will write what I know, and as I learn more, I will revise the story. And if I never revise, at least there will be some record for the next generation.
I love this photo and the story behind the story, how it causes us to reflect on the "why" of our lineage. Amazing stuff !
ReplyDeleteThis picture gets me every time :)
DeleteHi molly! I'm commenting here because my grandfather's last name was Totoro!!! I thought this is pretty interesting!
ReplyDeleteReally?! It is such an unusual last name (I'll share the story on the blog someday...) My husband is Italian, but I know the famous 1990s cartoon, My Neighbor Totoro, originated in Japan.
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