Petty Bus Driver that I am forever thankful for
About 20
years ago I was active on-line searching for my genealogical links. It was worth the time. I found out plenty of gene-related kin-folks
and met some interesting folks.
On my Petty
line, a lady with the maiden name Petty
that lived on the west coast told me her father lived in Fannin County,
Georgia. Fannin County, back in the mid
1800s, was a hotbed of Petty kin. After
communicating with the Petty lady more I learned that we were probably not
related, her father is from the northern part of the United States and retired
from the service and retired in Fannin
County.
Also, on
on-line I mentioned one time that I read of a Petty cemetery in Fannin County,
which my g-g-g grandfather and his off-spring were buried and looked for it on
the back roads but could not find it. I
even found the road it was supposedly on, but it was all woods on both sides of
the road. I still couldn't find it.
The father
of the west coast Petty lady emailed me and told me he found the cemetery I was
looking for.
We agreed to
meet at a closed service station in Morganton, Georgia, after my visit the same
day to the Hunter Reunion, in nearby Union County.
We met at the closed service station. He was a middle aged tall man. He pulled up, rolled down his window, and
said, "Hop in and I will show you the cemetery!"
Suddenly, my
self-surviving alarm went off. I always
heard not to get into a car with a stranger.
I said,
"I will follow you, OK?"
He said,
"Is there some reason you don't want to get in the car with me?"
Whoops! I offended him.
I said to
the effect, "Of course not!"
and got out of my car and got into his.
On the way
to the hidden family cemetery he told me he was retired from the Air Force and
retired in Fannin County, scenery beautiful and land cheap. For the past few years he has been a school
bus driver.l
Being a
school bus driver he had taken up a new past time of looking at old cemeteries. That is how he found the Petty Cemetery.
We went to
the cemetery. It is about 30 feet off
the road, but, with all the trees and foliage hard to see from the road.
And I got to
take pictures of my ancestor and some of his off-springs graves.
I have been
very lucky having stuff like this forced on me when I have been reluctant, like
it was meant to be.
Elijah Petty (ancestor)
Sarah Parker Petty (Elijah's 2nd wife)
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