James Wm Garrett, and his baseball team

The is a picture of a baseball team in Fannin County, Georgia.  The player on the front row, center is a distant relative, James William Garrett (1867 - 1951).  The picture was probably taken before 1900.

Edna Garrett White

This is a distant relative of mine, Edna Garrett White.  We are both descended  from  Joseph Garrett  (1822 - 1900) and Nancy Elizabeth Mashburn (1823 - 1921).  They both died in Fannin County, Georgia.

Edna and her husband, lived in a very pretty white house on Frances Avenue in Marietta.   One day I spent the day with them going through old documents and photographs.  She is  one of the most hyper-super organized person I have met.   On my visit she praised me for taking the research initiative and turned around and in the same breath criticize her poor husband for just wanting to sit on  him rump.   

She and he probably died over 30 years ago.  

Sadly, after I visited her a couple of times and she took me on a private tour of a general's house she had the keys to, I went almost a year without contact with her, and when I checked on her apparently her and her husband no longer lived on Frances Avenue.  I don't know if they moved or died.  I couldn't find her in the obituaries.

I have found a lot of information about a lot of my relatives who have passed on, but this time I let a pair of live ones slip throuhg my fingers.

Edna Jane Garrett White

Edna Jane Garrett White is a relative on my mother’s side. I am descended from her grandfather, Joseph Garrett.

Edna was born in Fannin County, Georgia, but moved to Marietta after she was grown.

In late 1970s when I started working at my family tree somehow Edna got word that I was doing so, and got in touch with me. I suppose my mother told her.

Edna called me up and invited me over to her house, she had some pictures and things to show me. She had some pictures of the Garretts and their houses and barns in Fannin County and some Garrett Reunions there. She lived off Church Street in Marietta on Frances Avenue in a very pretty white house with a long front porch. – the whole house was spotless clean. Things seemed to shine.

She also had a lot of Garret heirlooms – bowls, silver, cabinets, and so on. She was probably in her 80s at that time, but had a energetic hyper full steam, nervous energy about her.

They way she rushed around showing me things to take pictures of she reminded me “Mother” in Psycho.

Her husband was very laid back and looked very tired. I think I would be too, if I had to keep up with Edna every day. His hair was snowball white, the same as her hair.

Not only did she have artifacts and heirlooms in her house, but over on Cherokee Street was a retired general that lived there at one time that she was friends with. If I remember correctly she had a key and we pulled out china plates and things that she had custody of to photograph. Since the guy was no relation to me, I gave her the pictures.

I think she died about a dozen years ago… and her husband died a few years before that, may he rest in peace.

Daniel Webster & Nancy Jane Garrett Petty

These are my great grandparents Daniel and Nancy Jane Petty on my mother's side and their marriage certificate. They were married Sept 6, 1873, in Fannin County, Ga.

After they were married they moved with Daniel's siblings to Murray County, Ga., which is over a big mountain ridge.

Daniel was a Confederate soldier less than 10 years before he married. He caught several types of diseases while fighting which stayed with him the rest of his life and spent a lot of time in the hospital in various cities. He got a pension from the State of Georgia for being receiving his disability in the service.

His wife Nancy Jane was known to have raging fits. Some believed she hit the bottle too much. The kids knew better than to get near her - she had a reputation of jerking them up and shaking them.