Genealogy American History

On the genealogy program WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? last night did the heritage of TV star Scott Foley.

Interesting, one of his ancestors was in George Washington's "Life Guards".  I thought life guards were people that hung around swimming pools with little red cross patches on their bathing suits that would jump in and save you if the need came up. 

But in the Revolutionary War Life Guards were about 50 elite soldiers who had proven themselves and their primary duty was to protect the Continental Army General, namely George Washington.  I did not know there was such a unit.

They got about 100 of the top soldiers together and George himself picked slightly over half to be his Life Guards.

The requirements to be considered to the Life Guard Unit:  Obedient, combat ready, good physical shape, handsome, and height 5'10".

Those last two requirements are strange.  Did George Washington want to be surrounded by 50 handsome men?  And why be 5'10"  tall?   I think I know that one.  George Washington was 6'2".  Four inches taller would make him about a head taller than the people around him.  He wanted to be seen and recognized.

Also on up the same family line of Scott Foley, I think it was his eight time great grandfather in Massachusetts was suspected of being a witch.  He confessed he was a witch.  Then later, said he was lying, he was not a witch... which got him out of any burning at the stake they might have had in mind.  Smart move. 

What, Me Cute?

On my Family Tree genealogy program and Ancestry.Com I have picture of family members and this picture is the one I put up of me. By the dates it was when I was in the first grade.   This evening  I called the help desk at Ancestry.com for technical help.  The lady tecky went to my family tree to get a better idea what I was talking about.  She came across this picture.  She exclaimed , "Oh!  How Cute!"

Aww Shucks!  

William Jason Hunter

One of these men is  William A, Hunter/Trammell's son Jason William Hunter (1875-1896).  It looks like a formal portrait made in a studio.  He lived only 21 years.  The picture was taken within a year or two of his death. 

Jason married  Fannie Emaline Medley.  Fannie was luckier than Jason on living a long time.   She lived within three months of 102 years.

Jason and Medley had two daughters.:  Lois and Jacie. 

Jacie Hunter married Vernon Tip Ingram.  They had three children.  Their son Hunter Davenport Ingram became a councilman of Woodstock, then Mayor.

Lois married a Carraway but it did not last long.  They had no children.  Lois worked for Western Union in Atlanta.

Lois or Jacie never knew their father.  Lois was a baby and Jacie was not born yet.  

William A. Hunter/Trammell and Emeline Ray Hunter took the two girls and their daughter-in-law in after Jason's death and their welfare was became the grandparents responsibility.

William A. Hunter/Trammell was the only father they knew.

Lois ended up with the house that her grandfather had built.

Then, in the 1980s I came along doing genealogy research.  Lois showed me around the house and pointed out things of historical interest and  old family pictures . She also showed me the barn William fell out of and broke his leg which put his health on the incline.  I also  waw grapes on a vine on a little fence by the barn that William had planted.   I shooed them away the wasps  and picked some grapes for Lois and I to enjoy.

 

We were buddies.

During my visits I asked her did she know about William being adopted?  She said she didn't.  I asked her about the story that William killed  a man in Franklin, North Carolina.   She said she didn't know anything about that but it was probably untrue.

As research time went on I found out more of the details of killing and the adoption. 

William was the  bastard son of Jason Henderson Hunter, so the court of Macon County, declared, and his mother Rebecca Trammell died before 1850 and he was raised by his grandparents, Jacob and Polly Hogshead Trammell.    He did not murder someone but his uncle Van Trammell did, over an argument about the Civil War and William provided Van with a false alibi, which was proven wrong so a warrant went out for his arrest for being an accessory to murder, so he skipped town and changed his name to his paternal name.

I typed up a letter and sent all my uncles and other interested parties, including Louis Hunter Carraway, my findings.

Lois called me up so mad she was sputtering.  She told me she knew all that and that was the only father she knew and she  wanted to carry that trashy information to the grave with her to protect his good name.  She said she had a some correspondence between Jason and William recognizing their father son relationship.  I first instinct was that wanted to see those letters but I let her rant and rave.  And knew she hated me at the moment so much I was not going to see those letters. 

That is the trouble when doing family research:  Not every family member is highly successful and some of those who are did it my unscrupulous means.

Like her mother, Lois lived a long time,  over 102 years.  She is buried at Bascomb Methodist Church  Cemetery,  near Woodstock.

DNA Results

A few weeks ago I sent in my DNA sample to Ancestry.com.  The DNA sample was  just plain saliva; spit.   I spit in a little tube and sent it off.   Today I got the results.  Here is what they  said was in my saliva:

47% Coffee

33% Kit Kats

10% Chicken-fat

05% Gummy Bears

03% Pulled Pork

02% Unknown

Just joking!

What it really reported:

Ireland 40%

Great Britain 34%

Iberian Peninsula 11%

Scandinavia  10%

Europe West 5%

Ancestry.com also provided me with a list of names with very first similar DNAs that they estimated what relationship they are to me.   The first two were just as they predicted:  which are my first cousins, which I knew anyway.   

But the rest of the names, about  25 or so might provide me with a lot of information. 

HOWEVER!  The DNA report threw a monkey wrench into my findings:  It said my heritage is 100% European. 

From research my ancestor was full blooded Cherokee Indian.  She drowned between 1850 and 1860 in the Little Tennessee River while tending to her fish traps.  My line from her:

Polly's daughter Rebecca Trammell would be one half Cherokee.

Rebecca's son William A. Hunter would be one quarter Cherokee.

William's son Frank Paris Hunter would be one eight  Cherokee.

Frank's son, and my father Ed Hunter would be one sixteenth  Cherokee

And I would be one thirty-second Cherokee.

Great Greats

The above picture is Anna's mother Marie and her great great grandkids, that was taken six or so years ago.  I posted it on Facebook yesterday.

Ironically, hours after I had posted it, the same boy, now age 11, and his grandmother dropped by Marie's for a visit.  We were already there.   His grandmother is Anna's niece.  I found it interesting that two people in the same room were great great to one another.  How many people can claim to have personally known their great great grandparent or great great grandchild?

Three of my great grandfathers fought in the Civil War over 150 years ago, and they were not even "great great". 

My great grandfather William fought in the Civil War and his great grandfather William Trammell fought in the Revolutionary War.

Hi! I Am a Flying Tiger Relative

Years ago I bought the book THE HERITAGE OF CHEROKEE COUNTY, GEORGIA (1831-1998).  The bulk of the book are little family essays  of families in Cherokee County.   It has a lot of genealogy information.  As a matter of fact, I wrote two of the articles.  Now that I updated my Family Tree Maker genealogy  program I am re-reading the book to see if I missed something, which I am finding I did.  This morning for instance,  I found that I am related to a member of the famed FYING TIGERS aviators of WWII.   Lt. Col. Orlando Waller Wood, Jr. and I are both descended from Eugene Hargraves Tyson and Elizabeth Huey Tyson.   He is a little too distant relative  for a claim to fame, but interesting anyway.

Along those same lines as claiming my distant cousin  Lt. Col. Orlando Waller Wood, Jr., FLYING TIGER member, as a claim to fame, I was thinking it would be funny if I pulled out my leather aviator jacket and buying me a pair of  goggles and take on the personality of a FLYING TIGER pilot.... as a joke, of course.

Which reminds me of a first cousin and her in-laws.   At her wedding , her brother-in-law, actually who would become her brother-in-law before the evening was over, seemed like a  studious sort of person, polite and quiet.  I think he lived near his parents in Chattanooga.  About  ten years rolled by and I saw him at another funeral.  It seemed he was taller and heavier.  Also, he had on Indian attire.  I think he had a lot of leather on and a feather someplace and maybe some color markings on his arms or something .  J asked my cousin what  about her brother-in-law and she told me he had gotten into genealogy and found out he is 1/32nd Indian.   Kowubungi!

Family Researchers: Find a Grave

The grave here is of my 1st cousin, 3 times removed of  Rev. John Henry Lance.  He was practically decapitated for preaching against moonshine.  He is buried in Old Salem Cemetery, Union County, Georgia., just a few miles from Vogel State Park.  I used his marker to get your attention.

I have hundreds, maybe thousands pictures of grave markers.  In the process of getting more mileage out of my pictures I decided to go onto the website Find a Grave and submit my pictures to their vast library.  I was surprised they already have a good many pictures of the same graves I was going to donate, so far.   I just started doing this.  I first chose Bascomb Methodist Church near Woodstock.  I have about 30 pictures of relatives' graves there.  Of the 30, they had already had about 24 pictures of the same graves.  I only donated 6, no need to duplicate what is already there.

I am posting this message to suggest, if you are into family research and genealogy visit findagrave.com.  There is a good chance they have a picture of a grave that you are interested in.  And it would be nice if you have any pictures to contribute it would  make them even bigger and better, for research.  Of course, you may very well already be doing this and I am the Johnny-come-late announcing the biggie long after everybody else already knows it and utilizes it.   

CONSCRIPTION, a new old word.

The act of conscription has been around a long long time.  I just read its definition, so it is new to me.

It more or less is the act of drafting the mass of young people in a given country for a single purpose, usually a war.

I discovered Conscription while reading  Sharyn McCrumb's book THE BALLAD OF TOM DOOLEY.

Sharyn also explained what extras of the Conscription concept the North and the South added during the Civil War.  Essentially, large land owners and people that were well off were exemped.  It was the working class who put their life on the line.  The rich man got the benefits but sacraficed little.  What else is new?

I heard another case of the priviledged and under priviledged  under Consription is that in the Revolutionary War it was a rule that officers would not be assaulted.  Of course, it was fine for an officer to kill an enemy enlisted in combat but for an enlisted man kill an officer enemy was a no-no.

I'm sure an officer made up that rule and the enemy officers quickly agreed.  But it officers got shot at just the same.

The Civil War codes of Conscription reminded me of one of my ancestors.  He was a large land owner which made him exemped from fighting.  He didn't have to go, but money is money, so he was paid a sum of money to fight for John B. Tippens.  During the Siege of Vicksburg he went AWOL from his unit and signed an Oath of Allegiance to the U.S.A., a day or two later he was AWOL from the Yankee unit he was assigned to and he appeared back on the roster of his CSA unit.  Then, he was AWOL again.  It appears that he had a hard time deciding which was the winning side.

Fort Payne, Alabama - Old Post Card

This is an old post card of Fort Payne, Alabama.  While doing family research I come across Fort Payne, and nearby Sand Mountain, Alabama, fairly often.  It is almost like this area was a gathering place for unrelated people who their off-spring would be someday be related to me in one surname line or another.

Who Do I Think I Am Anyway?

I will hopefully be doing some genealogy tinkering and research this weekend. Did you know I am distantly related to myself and also a distant in-law to myself? True!

Who Do I Think I am? Wow! part 35

This is actually a family story I heard. I don't know if it is true. Even though the people involved have been dead a long time I will not say the names involved. It is an age-old story that the same plot has been in EC horror comics and other venues.

I will call the man John because that is not his real name.

John's wife had a stroke which left her paralyzed and could not speak. She could still see. John had a farm to tend which required a lot of time so John hired a young lady to look after his wife.

It wasn't too long before John made advances towards his wife's care giver. They carried on an affair behind his wife's back. Then they got bolder and made love in front of the paralyzed wife, just for the meaness.

After not very long the wife died and John married the young lady.

After they settled in a routine married life style she left him for a younger man, more her age, and took all his money and died a pauper.

There Are Kin Folks in Those Hills

The other day I made an interesting discovery while looking at that some genealogy data that I compiled. It was right under my nose for several years.

But first, I have to introduce you to two of my cousins:
(1) My 4th cousin, 3 times removed, James McDaniel Stinson. James was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, 26 April 1851 and died there 29 June 1919. He is a Tyson descendant. I am also a Tyson descendant, on my father’s side of the family.

(2) My 5th cousin, 2 times removed, Mary Stacy Petty. Mary was born 2 April 1852, in Lee County, North Carolina, and died 29 June 1919, in Chatham County, North Carolina. She is a Petty descendant from the same Petty stock I am descended from on my mother’s side of the family.

James McDaniel Stinson and Mary Stacy Petty were husband and wife. They married 6 February 1873. Two very distant cousins that were unrelated married and instantly also became my distant cousin in-laws before even my grandparents were born. I just thought it was interesting and slightly amusing, that’s all.

Another Name Added

Yesterday after I added another name to my genealogy program data base the program flashed up a message saying I now have 34,100 entries and it went suggested I share with the Family Tree Maker company the names. Select Yes or No.

I selected No as I do every time I progress to the next hundred mark. As you may can tell, I don’t mind sharing.. On this blog I am sharing the information on my data on the Petty family now. And already I have shared the information of the Hunters, Ridleys, and Pullens.

I rather do it my way than for Family Tree Maker to put it on a CD and sell it and make money on my compiling. . This way I usually get a few emails from the family name I am showing and they generally share more with me It is never ending cycle.

Of the 34,100 names probably over 60 percent are blood kin. The rest are in-laws or in-law’s parents.

Hmmm. My shoulder is hurting from trying to pat myself on the back too hard.

How I Became a Genealogy Addict

William A. Trammell/Hunter (1842-1928) and Emaline Ray Trammell/Hunter(1846-1925)

As far as inspiration to do family research, the above, William A. Hunter, my great grandfather is the granddaddy of all the other genealogy inspirations I have had.

After my grandfather Frank Paris Hunter had died I heard for the first time that Frank often wondered what his real name was. He said his father was adopted.

I wished I had known that before he had died I would have pumped with questions. In the last years of his life he and I were buddies. We lived with him. He taught me to ride my bike and we talked about this and that…. No biggies.

After my oldest son Rocky was born I thought when he got older it would be nice if he knew his heritage; his ancestors… and what messes they got themselves into. Then when I really involved in research my son Adam was born so I had twice the enthusiasm.

I thought I would take the hardest first, my Hunter line, because as far as we knew it stopped with my great grandfather, the guy above.

I knew a few things already about William: He was born in Franklin, North Carolina; he was shot on Kennesaw Mountain during the Civil War; he died in Woodstock, Georgia; and was buried at Carmel Baptist Church just outside of Woodstock.

The first thing I did was went to Carmel Baptist Church and found his grave and wrote down the dates. While there, I wrote down other Hunters and Tysons buried there.

I went to the Kennesaw Mountain Museum. On a data base they had a listing of every CSA soldier that fought in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain – maybe Yankees too - in June 1864, William Hunter was not listed.

By the way, this research involved his wife Emaline Ray too, but at first William was my main target – at first, any research I did on Emaline’s Ray family was merely to shed more light on my Hunter research.

I asked around and researched genealogy research also. I found that census enumerating can give very good information. The Cobb County Library at the time was on Atlanta Street where the Old Post Office was, and currently is the Marietta Art Museum had a genealogy research room and censuses on microfilm.

I learned that Federal Censuses were taken every ten years, on years divided by ten, such as 1850, 1860, 1870, and so on. William was born in 1842. I needed to look at the Franklin, NC, census for 1850 and look for a Hunter family with an eight year old boy name William. NOT!

I soon found out that censuses are taken by counties, not cities, and I learned that Franklin was in Macon County. So, I got the 1850 Macon County, NC, microfilm threaded on their readers and slowly went through it…. I did this every morning after I got off work….. I am not sure I was slow because I didn’t want to miss anything or because I was tired.

There was no William Hunter, age 8, on the 1850 Macon County Census. There was only one Hunter family in Macon County at the time, Jason H. Hunter.

What I did next was a little unorthodox but it got results. I had a neighbor who worked for Bell South get me a telephone book of Franklin, NC. I sent each Hunter and Ray family that was listed an inquiry asking if they had any information about William Hunter who married Emaline Ray – and included a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope). That was an expensive endeavor for a family trying to get by on a Postal employee’s pay, so I sent out 10 inquires a pay day.

Finally I received a letter on RAY’S NORTH CAROLNA HAMS letter head saying he didn’t know anything but his cousin William Hess Ray probably did. He said William did not have a phone so I probably didn’t have his address in Otto, North Carolina, just south of Franklin, almost at the Georgia state line.

I wrote William Hess Ray. He wrote me a short letter back. These aren’t the exact words, but he said something to the effect that my g-grandfather was named William Trammell and he after the Civil War he and his brother Van Trammell killed a man over a horse and fled. Van went to Arkansas and William went to Texas.

BONG!!!! I hit pay dirt. Over the years I sent William Hess Ray many letters asking for details, but I guess he figured he did his duty and told me the basics – then it was up to me to find the details. Which I did.

I went back to the library and got the same census microfilm and went through it looking for William A. Trammell. I found him in the Jacob B. Trammell household, age 8. Now we were on to something.

I went back to the Kennesaw Mountain Museum and found William A. Trammell, who fought for south in 139th NC Regiment, Company I – out of Macon County, NC.

And last but not least, I received a copy of the marriage log of William A. Trammell marrying Emaline Ray.

Later looking at estate papers of Jacob Trammell, I learned that Jacob was William’s grandfather and his mother Rebecca Trammell had died before 1850 and Jacob and his Indian wife Polly adopted William.

Further studying court records I found that the Jason H. Hunter was Jason Henderson Hunter and was a womanizer. He was brought up before court several times with women suing him for bastardy.

Also, studying it all, I found out Van, just about William’s same age, was his uncle, not his brother and his real name was Jacob Van Buren Trammell.

Then everything came together.

Just in the past few years did I learn about the killing: Van fought for the south. He and Bert Lambert was discussing politics in Lambert’s Cove and the discussion got heated. Bert fought for the north. And, simply, Van hit him with either his rifle butt or a big stick and killed him.

The sheriff had sufficient reason to believe Van did the killing but then William step forward and was Van’s alibi… William said he and Van were together that day, no place near Lambert’s Cove. Which was enough for the sheriff to release Van.

Then the sheriff found definite proof and had warrants for Van and William. They both, with their families quickly moved out of the county.

There are many details I found out while researching all this – for instance, Polly, the Indian grandmother, drowned in the Little Tennessee River near Franklin while attending her fish traps.

There are letters between Jason Henderson Hunter and William recognizing each as father and son… many years after the war.

Jason was a dashing war hero battling the Yankee iron-clad ships on the Mississippi.

By then I was addicted to family research. I continued to fine bizarre happenings with other ancestors and relatives…..

Well, I can’t find a point to shut-up, so it might as well be here.

The Invisible Man Almost Got Photographed

The reunion we went to Saturday had group photographs. The common ancestors of us all were John and Nancy Sumner Ray.

Someone made a diagram on the wall. The top showed John and Nancy’s names, then across the wall were 12 sheets of paper. At the heading of each sheet of paper was one of their children’s names. Beside the child’s name was the spouse(s) name and under that were their children. Sometime during the afternoon, each of us was to go to the board and put our name beside the closest kin. In my case, it was Frank Paris Hunter, the 5th of 7 names under William and Emaline Ray Hunter/Trammell.

Near the end of the day someone decided to take group pictures of everybody descended from each child. Some of the sheets of papers had maybe 10 to 20 people standing by the name posing.

In the case of William and Emaline Ray Hunter/Trammell it was only me, along with my spouse Anna. I suppose we were the last ones to be called up to have our picture taken.

We went up to the wall and waited for the guy with the expensive camera to take the picture of the group ahead of us.

After he took their picture we walked up ready to have our picture made. While the other couple was walking off the photographer was putting his camera equipment in the camera case. He thought he was over.

That makes sense to me… us invisible people always gets lost in the shuffle.

So, we left without anybody taking our “group picture” for the people there to represent William and Emaline.

Blowing Rock, NC postcard

One Fall we went to Blowing Rock, North Carolina. It was a very scenic trip.

While in the area we also went to Grandfather Mountain. I was interested in seeing the whole area, which covers Boone and Burke Counties, NC. I have been in those counties before but not since I became interested in genealogy. For some reason I have yet figured out, I like to walk over the terrain of where my ancestors walked. It probably means I am nutty as I can be.

We spent a good while on Blowing Rock, which the tourist town is named. Indians said if you throw something off the big rock it just might come back up to you. I think they probably used more mystic terms.

I think I know why things might come back. The rock named Blowing Rock in on a high mountain chain ridge. It also at the inside point where two ridges from different directions meet, forming a V. Blowing Rock is inside the V, behind the point.

So you have wind coming from the west that gets corralled in the V, like in a funnel

And when it reaches the inverted point it cannot bounce back because the wind is still blowing behind it and the only way its force can go is up.

Years ago when my friend Sam was going to Georgia Tech once he and I went to Allatoona Dam to try something. Sam, with his study of aviation and physics was pretty certain if you sailed a paper airplane off the top of the dam the air draft would carry it up and keep it up. We tried it and it worked. A little notebook paper folded airplane stayed airborne for a very long time... well, long enough for us to lose interest... remember, I have a short attention span... so, maybe we left... it might still be there, about 30 to 50 feet over the dam lazily swooping up and down with the air currents.

Boy, were we smart!!

Bill & Clyde

These are two brothers, Clyde and Bill, are Anna’s not-so-distant cousins. Clyde was born in 1915 and Bill was born in 1914. I would think the picture was taken about 1920.

They were born in Americus, Georgia, the oldest of 5 children of Home and Louise.

Americus, Georgia, is just 10 or 15 miles from Plains, Georgia.

Bill married Henrietta and they had 3 kids, all born in Atlanta. I do not have Bill’s death date.

Clyde married Agnes in 1941 in Washington, DC, and they had one son. Unfortunately, Clyde died in 1945 as young man at age 30.

Time does a number on everyone.

Genealogy Research Stuff

I went to the Cobb County Genealogical Society meeting last night at the Main Library in downtown Marietta. I was reluctant to go because of the bad rainy near freezing weather but I think it was good that I went. For one thing I found out my library card had expired.

Another thing, I enjoyed an informative lecture on genealogy research by Kenneth Thomas. Ken has a genealogy column in the Living* section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday edition.

Ken Thomas’s lecture was different method’s of research and what is available on the Internet. Some of it was common sense and some I already knew, and some I didn’t know.

One interesting tactic is if, when in a cemetery, you come across a relative’s grave that you would like more information about him or his family, and there are flowers on the grave leave a note in a clear plastic zip-lock bag and ask the person leaving the flowers to get in touch with you….. I thought I knew all the backdoor methods, but I never thought of that.

But unless I really snag a good interesting trail I think my researching days are over.

I need to start putting my researched material in order. I have a big 4 tall 4 drawer filing cabinet, and about 12 big boxes in the basement all stuffed with stuff I have come across.

I have just about decided to scan all the articles and everything else I accumulated in the way of family information and have it all on electronic files and throw away the paper files. The paper stuff just takes up too much room and is an eyesore. I think what I accumulated will be safer digitized… I think the paper stuff is going to end up a dumpster one way or the other anyway – either I do it, or somebody else will do it after my body gets cold.

I have spent the past two days scanning and giving file names…. Hey! It is kind of fun!

Also, this evening was the first time in a long time I have been to that library that homeless people were not in the magazine reading area holding a book or magazine and dozing, or giving themselves a wet paper towel bath in the rest room. Does this mean there has been a surge in the economy and all the homeless people have jobs and warm homes to go to?

No, it probably means they found a legal way to keep the homeless out. No Lottering!

*The Living section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday edition was much better when it was called “Dixie Living”.

Roaming on a Hot Fridy In Smyrna, Ga

Yesterday, I was in neighboring Smyrna, Georgia, with about a two hour wait. Anna had a hair appointment. I have found two hours to be about right for a good long walk in Smyrna’s downtown uplifted section and while there visit the Smyrna Library. They have MAD magazine as one of their magazines on the magazine rack and they also have a good genealogy section.

It was too hot to walk. Being the softy I am, I decided to spend the time in the air conditioned library.

I went to the magazine section and went to the magazine wall, and the place the MAD magazine was marked there was no MAD magazine. I picked up an Archeology magazine instead. Walking to nice cushioned armchair I passed a black man sitting on a double couch. He was young with a fatigue shirt on… and patches with statements sewed all over his fatigue shirt. He was asleep. I suspected he was the one with the MAD magazine. He was, it was sitting on the other seat of his couch.

I flipped through the magazine looking at the pictures and the descriptions under the pictures and then got the latest National Geographic off the wall and flipped though it. The guy was still sleeping, hogging the MAD magazine.

I picked a Dog World magazine off the wall and flipped through it. I was hoping there would be articles about dogs’ habits and instincts. No, they were more interested in breeding. Article after article about breeding. It is not a magazine for rescued dog owners.

Then, I decided to take a chance. I walked over and took the Mad magazine from the seat next to the guy. I felt like George in Seinfield.

I flipped thought it… it seemed slightly better than last month’s issue, but still not a premium humor as it used to be… I think now they are going after the young women’s market – or so it appears.

Then I got sleepy. Maybe the MAD gave me the same boredom as the guy I got it from.

I went to the rack and got something else but by then I was pretty much a goner. I was just too drowsy to read.

To wake up I needed to get circulation in my body. I walked up the stairs to the second level. There, I went to the Genealogy Research Room, which is an interesting room.. it is like a little rotunda or maybe a miniature Oval Office with a large amount of research book. I found a good book which I found an ancestor’s will, transcribed word for word. Since I didn’t plan on this I didn’t have a pen or paper. I used the copier machine.

I put a quarter into the machine. I think the copies were 15 cents each. After I took the first copy I saw I needed more pages copied but did not have any more change so I fed the machine a dollar and took several more copies. Then, I was through and had $.40 left to use. I looked around and found a possible two buttons to press to get my change back. I pressed each one at a time and each one at the same time and the 40¢ remained on the digital readout. It wasn't going anywhere. I was in the room along - for a brief moment I considered raising that cover over the glass, lowering my pants and sitting down, and show them what I think about their machine change giving ability.

I left the library happy. I had genealogy notes and had read the latest MAD.

But I was still drowsy, so I went to the drive-thru at a Chic-Fi-and ordered a small coffee. When it was my time at the window to receive the coffee the Latino lady took one look at me and said, “That’s OK, its free!” Did I get it on my looks? Yep, the Senior look.

Next we had lunch at an upscale place my son has high regard for, also in Smyna. The sandwiches were delicious – but costly. It was nothing like Brandi's Famous Hot Dogs where you face a sign when you enter that says, "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service." When we came in you can see the chef’s section. They had a huge fish of some kind cutting it. Somebody said something about heating a cookie in a microwave and one of the chefs said they didn’t have a microwave, then he scoffed, “Not in my restaurant!”

Did he mean me or a microwave?

Wallace and Thelma Cox Petty

This is Wallace Petty and his wife Thelma when they were newly weds. They were both school teachers in Murray County, Georgia. Wallace went on to become a school principal and later over the Georgia Rehabilitation Department.

Thelma died in 1994 at age 85. Wallace is still living, in a nursing home, at age 96. If he lives to September the 9th he will be 97. But it is doubtful he will live to see 97. His daughter emailed me Monday saying his health is declining. He is down to under a hundred pounds.

Wallace is the last of my mother’s siblings still living. He is the last of 15 children. Three died young. He was part of the dozen that reached adulthood.

Wallace was the next to the oldest son. Once, as a child, his family moved to Gillette, Wyoming, to try to live off the land. They almost starved. They returned east in about a year. Gilette is where my mother was born, in 1918.

Their mother, the girls, and the youngest children went back east in a train. The father, Wallace, and Tom, the oldest son, went back by horse and wagon, which took months. That was quality time spent with his father that is priceless.

11:32a.m. (same morning). I just received word from my cousin Wallace died.