Family Story Matters

First Quarter of 2022 we planned our first snowbird trip. We recently purchased a Class A motorhome and wanted to try out the RV lifestyle. We planned to stay six weeks on the Texas Gulf (in the small town of Sargent Beach) and then travel to northern Florida for a couple of weeks before returning home to Kansas. In planning this excursion, I noticed Sargent Beach was less than 200 miles from Franklin, TX - Mom's birthplace. I also noticed that we would pass through St. Elmo, AL on I-10 as we headed into Florida. Dad lived here when his mother was diagnosed with Tuberculosis/ This trip seemed the perfect opportunity to do some on-sight genealogy research.  Franklin, TX As luck would have it, I found a property just outside Franklin that allowed RV parking. I thought this would be a great opportunity to experience (to some degree) what life must have been like for Mom growing up on a farm.  We arrived around 3:00pm... set up camp... got a tour of the duck-and-rabbit farm ... an...

Here's another example of how I spend fifteen hours researching a seemingly simple question.  I reasoned most families in the 1800s did not migrate hundreds of miles away from home as a solo venture. They more than likely traveled in groups. And they more than likely knew someone already established at the new homeland. My question: With Whom did each of my four families travel and/or follow to Robertson County, Texas? To find the answer, I had to research extended family members. LOTS of them. Then I had to synthesize all the names and dates into a manageable framework. While the above graphic concisely summarizes the findings, the following gives more detail: The MILES family came to Texas in a circuitous fashion. James Cornelius Miles (my great-great-grandfather) and Nancy Catherine Duncan - along with their nine children (ages 5 to 26) - were living in Hamblen, TN in 1880.  Shortly after, James, Catherine, and the younger six children moved to Robertson County, TX. I sur...

For the next several weeks, I want to delve into farm life in rural Boone Prairie, Texas.  I'm interested in knowing what Mom's childhood may have looked like ... and I'd like to understand why my grandmother chose to leave and sever ties with most relations. While it may not be possible to answer that last question, I hope to take a few steps forward in making an educated guess. First a bit of historical context. When, Why, and How did they travel across the South and settle in Robertson County? Migration to Texas When I first started this genealogy quest, I knew I was a southern mutt. What I didn't realize was the depth of those roots. With a high degree of certainty, I can trace seven of my eight family names back to the early 1800s. And all those families resided in the deep south (Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina). For now, however, I'm going to focus on my mother's side. The makeshift chart above reveals all four...

  L to R: Brother and his wife - Dad and Ma Dowdy Grandmother in the front - Mel and her son - Mom in back The question continues to plague me: Why did my grandmother uproot her grief-stricken daughter from this tight-knit community and place her with an aunt who lived two hours away? To date, I've looked at the extended family who lived in Boone Prairie, TX at the time of my grandfather's death. Several other family members experienced similar tragedies , and yet they found relatives in close proximity willing to care for the young left behind. Did they reject my mom? That seems doubtful. The family bonds were tight, going back for generations. Yes, perhaps Ma Miles " kicked them out " ... but there were many other relatives who would have opened their doors to an eight-year-old. Did my grandmother reject them?   To date,  I've leaned toward this theory. I think my grandmother wanted a way out of the small-town community. I think she yearned for adventure and i...

  Three weeks ago, I shared the inter-family marriages  of Boone Prairie, Texas -- Mom's childhood home. The image above is my visual interpretation of the 1930 census for those families. It's important to note that in rural communities, the census taker numbered the households in the order in which they were visited. Street addresses were not available in this location at this time. The number in the upper left-hand corner represents the house visitation order. Where possible, I identified the names of Mom's relatives. The blank spaces are unfamiliar names to me (so far). ** It is worth noting that Floyd and Maida Lee (Mom's parents) lived in the same house as his mother and older brother, Ollie. Mom was two years old. My next step is to overlay this census information with geographic location. However, I have yet to find an appropriate map. Until I do, I can only make inferences. I do not know how far apart each dwelling was (in terms of miles), nor do I know if the v...

  I often lose track of time when I research. Last week, I decided to document how I spent fifteen hours on what seemed to be a simple question: Why did my grandmother go to secretarial school in Houston? Actually, that's two questions. I'm not sure why my grandmother chose secretarial school. What other options were available to her? Perhaps I will tackle that issue another time. But I did tackle the question: Why Houston? It seems to me similar training would be offered in areas closer to Robertson County. Baylor University in Waco, TX was about an hour north-west. Texas A&M in College Station was a mere forty-five minutes in the opposite direction. From newspaper articles I've read over the past several months, I know the County Extension Service associated with Texas A&M made frequent visits to the area. This led me to question whether my grandmother knew someone in Houston. If she were starting out on her own in an unfamiliar city and a new profession, she migh...

  Last week I discussed a few inter-family marriages in the small town of Boone Prairie, TX. Specifically, I detailed the various connections between the Dowdys (Mom's maternal side) and the Miles (her paternal side). This weaving together of family groups creates a tight-knit community. Townfolk not only know everyone's business, but they also share in one another's joys and sorrows. This week I will focus on one year in the life of this family, culminating with a particularly harrowing month for the Dowdys. Family Connections I included the above graphic for easy reference. The four Dowdy brothers were born about two years apart. Three of them married within a two-year timespan. Certainly cause for much celebration. John Dowdy married Laura Jane Miles  (Mom's great aunt) in 1896  Charles Claude  Dowdy  married Eddie Carter in 1905 Robert Lee Dowdy married Mary Faye Crane (Mom's maternal grandparents) in 1906  Adam Dowdy married Beulah Starr Simmons ...

  The more I research Mom's family, the more interested I become in her small-town life. Around 1880, Mom's relatives migrated from Alabama ( Miles ) and Georgia ( Dowdy ) to Robertson County, Texas. They settled in Boone Prairie, a farming town about eight miles from the county seat of Franklin.  Over the next several months I plan to dig deep into this little community. But this kind of research is painstakingly slow. The answer to one question leads to three more inquiries.  So while I continue with this investigation, I thought I would share small-town family stories I have gleaned through my genealogy research. Inter-Family Marriage The two primary Genealogy worksheets I use are the Pedigree Chart (which shows direct line ancestors) and the Family Group Sheet (which includes the siblings of those ancestors). While this does create some overlap, it is not redundant information. Familial patterns emerge on Family Group Sheets that otherwise remain hidden. After I comp...