I would say the weather report sounds like a broken record, but that would really be dating myself, wouldn’t it? I don’t think my youngest child even knows what a “record” is, much less what the term “broken record” means! Anyway.  This winter has been amazing.  We’ve lived in North Carolina for fifteen years, and have never seen anything like this!  There has been snow on the ground for two months!  I am starting to entertain fantasies about jumping in my car and driving down to Miami in search of warmth, but it is such a long drive, and my Spanish still needs some work. . .

I have been working on my genealogy today, and that has been fairly rewarding.  In particular I have been trying to learn more about the Estes branch of my family.  We are descended from David Shipton Estes (1776 – 1861).  I have some very old photographs from my great-aunt Bobbie’s “Adams Album”, that are simply labeled “Estes Family Members”, but nobody knows who they are.  So I am hoping to find names for the faces.  I will post them here, because who knows?  Stranger things have happened!  They are scanned from the original tintypes.  If anyone researching Adams, Estes/Eastes or even Freeman families sees these and recognizes them, please let me know who they are!!

I have been so busy lately, that I haven’t even had time to check my email, much less blog.  Faith and I have been trying to figure out why we are so much busier this school year than we have been in the past, and we really aren’t sure.  Maybe it’s the quilting, or the violin.  Who knows?  At any rate, we have been moving at the supersonic speed of life, and I am taking a few moments (that I really shouldn’t spare!) to do a little ‘catch-up’ on here!

Faith entered three items in the Western North Carolina State Fair this year: a appliqued denim jumper, a crib quilt, and a crocheted scarf.  She got 2nd Place Ribbons for the jumper and the scarf, and third place for the quilt!  I am so proud of her.  When I was her age, I didn’t know anybody who could sew or crochet or quilt who was under the age of, say, 110!  And I certainly didn’t have any friends who entered crafts in the County Fair!

We have also started “Quilting 102″, and it already seems like it is going to be a lot of fun.  In the midst of all the sewing and quilting, we picked up a bushel of apples, and have put up a run of apple butter, applesauce and pie apples.  Mom has baked and frozen several apple pies, and we have been enjoying fresh baked apple crisps, pies, and cakes almost every night.  (Yeah, I really need to get back on that treadmill!)

L-R: Kendall, Lishi, Faith, Alex, Valarie & April

Alex started classes at Blue Ridge, and that is keeping him really busy.  He is also still taking French from a private tutor, and that  seems to be going really well.  She assures me he’s doing great, anyway!  I have always thought French sounded like someone trying to speak with a mouthful of oatmeal, but that is, indeed, what Alex sounds like, so I’m guessing that’s a good thing?   In his spare time, he is working at the Outback and has just joined “Company” at the Flat Rock Playhouse. We had a really cool birthday party for him this year, too.  He decided he wanted a “Victorian Era Theme Party”, so we all dressed up like we were from that time, and had a blast!  We got a couple of cool family pictures, while we were at it. (I just wish Gaylon had been here.)

Kendall has been staying busy with his Journalism studies, and finally got interested in doing something with the blog he set up almost a year ago.  He hasn’t done a LOT with it yet, but it’s coming.  He is finally talking about it, and making plans, which is a huge step!  Check him out and leave some encouragement: Kendall Brooks, Unedited.

I am trying to find time to work on a genealogy website that I have been playing with for about a year, myself.  Hopefully, I will get some time this year.  I really have some great ideas, just no time to implement them.  But, hopefully I’ll get it up and running soon!

Anyway, that’s the update.  I have to get moving now, because Faith and I are headed to Mary Jo’s Fabric Store in Gastonia today, on our way to pick Gaylon up at the aiport!  Yay!

So I was randomly surfing blogs, and found “Catholic Mothers Online”.  Well, I’m a Catholic Mom, and I am online, so I had to check it out.  One of the blog names really jumped out at me:  “7th Generation Texan“.  That really intrigued me, because I know that my family has been in Texas a lonnngggg time, and I am only a 5th Generation Texan!!  Oh, the indignation and agony!!

I checked my genealogy records.  I rechecked.  No luck.  My earliest Texas ancestor was born in Texas in 1852. *sigh*  So Kendall, who is only 20, is a 6th Generation Texan, but still, no 7th Generation.  My hat is off to anyone who can claim Texas heritage back that far!

However, lest I be considered any less of a Real Texan, please do note that my GGG-Grandfather, Simon Peter Ford, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836.  He was born in Tennessee, though, and not Texas.

Now, before anyone has me committed for freaking out over not having deep enough Texan Roots, I should tell you that one of my cousins, who lived in Atlanta for the births of his first 3 children, documented in his genealogical records that each one was “Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on Texas soil.”  Not sure how he pulled that one off, but I am sure he did!!

I’ve been reading a lot of really good blogs lately, and can’t help but think that there are so many ways that I could improve this one.  I could make it look more “professional”, somehow.  I could focus on just one of the things that interest me, like political commentary, or family life & homeschooling, or genealogy (which I think I will still just make an entirely separate website for that), or Catholic Issues/Apologetics, or, or, or. . . .

The problem is, my brain goes in too many directions at once, all the time.  And I can’t even blame the children for that, I’ve always been this way!  For example, last week, I wanted to blog about so many things that I wound up not blogging about anything.  For example, I had a really great blog post floating around in my head entitled “Dude!  Where’s My Plane?” about Obama pretending he didn’t know that someone took AF-1 and did a low flyover of NYC, terrifying the people of Manhattan and causing them to evacuate buildings and have major PTSD flashbacks of 9/11!!  All for a “Photo Op”????  I hope Obama is smarter than that, but at the same time, that would simply mean that he really is that sinister, to intentionally terrify his own people like that.  (Good thing he didn’t try a stunt like that over Dallas or Houston!)

Or I could talk about homeschooling.  About Faith, and how she’s been so busy lately digging up herbs in our yard and woods, and drying them, chopping them and making herbal remedies!  Our kitchen smells kinda funny from time to time, but I am so proud of her! Or about Alex, and how he did so well in school this year, and how funny he was co-hosting the HCHA Talent Show last week (see pictures all over Facebook!!), or about how Kendall is finishing up his first year at UNC-A, and how much he is enjoying studying Journalism, and how cute he is running around with a digital microphone and interviewing everyone he can.  I could say that Gaylon is still in Texas, and that we’re still in North Carolina, and it still stinks!  Our house hasn’t sold yet (duh.) and we are going to move to Texas at the end of the summer anyway, to be with him and get the kids plugged in.

Then I thought about how I’d like to discuss how well my genealogy research has gone lately, and how much I have enjoyed getting in contact with cousins I didn’t even know about down in Central Texas on the Adams side.  We’ve exchanged pictures and information and it’s just been incredible! And did I mention I’m building a website just for genealogy?   That way I can not only separate my genealogy from my political and religious views, but I can keep from boring to death the few readers I have who are not related to me!

And then there is my Catholic Faith, which I am usually pretty low-key about, because I have so many friends who are not only Protestant, but have been taught that Catholics are not Christians, and must be ’saved’!!  My Jewish friends are much more understanding of me being Catholic, probably because of that whole persecution thing.  But I absolutely LOVE being Catholic, and there are so many things I could ‘blog’ about, that might help people understand our faith, our beliefs, our Christianity.  That would probably be best in a separate site, as well.

So, what to do?  What to blog about??  It’s not like there are all these people reading my blog, and hanging on the edge of their chairs waiting for my next post!  Most of my close friends don’t read my blog at all, and of my family, I think only Gaylon, Kendall, Mom and occasionally Faith read it.  And of course, Lishi, (Kendall’s fiance) who is one of the only people who ever leaves me a comment. (And of course, Laura R. and Laura S.!!  I love my Lauras. . .)  I know there are a few folks scattered across the country who read it, but they never comment.  I tried a Poll once, and only a few folks participated in that, so perhaps the bottom line is this:  I blog for me.  If someone doesn’t like what I have to say, they certainly don’t have to read it.  Lishi’s brother, Steve Skojec, always has really great taglines for his blog, like “Cogito, Ergo Blog” (I think that was it. . . . I don’t remember exactly, and now he’s changed it) or his current one “You Didn’t Ask, But I’ll Tell You Anyway”.  Okay, that one really fits my situation, as well. LOL.  I’ve never met Steve, but I love his blog!

So, yeah.  My blog will probably continue to be a collection of randomness, and my title, “Chasing Thoughts” is probably very appropriate.  Maybe someday I will actually be able to focus on one thing for a great length of time.  But then, I will finish writing those books I’ve started, and not worry about blogging!

Ready for the Father/Daughter Dance

Today has been a really wonderful, busy, day. This afternoon, we attended the Annual Homeschool Valentine’s Skating Party.  It is always a lot of fun, and the kids love it.  Alex gets to flirt with all the pretty girls, (and for some reason, they flirt back) and Faith gets to hang out with her friends.  I get to visit with all of my friends and try to not eat all of the amazing goodies that everyone always brings.  It is hard to believe that this is our 14th such party.  The skating rink has undergone a massive makeover during that time, and many of the faces have changed over the years.  I remember Kendall learning how to skate there, and today he couldn’t join us because he was in class. . . at college!!!  Wow. . . I can’t believe how old I’m getting!!!

Tonight, Gaylon took Faith to the Father/Daughter Dance at our Church.  Faith has been so excited for weeks now, looking forward to her special night with her Daddy.   She got all dressed up, and I even let her wear a tiny bit of makeup for the big event.  Gaylon made sure that he flew in from Texas this weekend, just so he could be here to take her to this dance.  They are so crazy about each other, and I think it’s wonderful.  I never had that sort of relationship with my own father, and am so grateful that God has blessed me with a husband who is crazy about our children.  It’s awesome!

Tomorrow morning, I will make my traditional Valentine’s Day breakfast of heart-shaped pancakes, and we will all stuff ourselves.  Food = Love, right?   Then, tomorrow night, it will be my turn to celebrate Valentine’s Day with Gaylon!  All of the kids are spending the night with friends, and Mom is even going down to a “Pajama Party” with some of her friends down in South Carolina.  So, Gaylon and I will have the house to ourselves for the entire night. . . I can’t remember the last time that happened!!!  Now our biggest decision is whether we want to have cornish hens or grilled steaks.  Ummmm . . .

I had a friend tell me that she wash hoping that I would post some pictures from my Aunt Bobbie’s photo album. And, actually, I have been meaning to, but well, one thing leads to another. So, without further ado, I am posting some of my favorite pictures. All the pictures here are scanned from the original “tintype” photographs. If you click on the picture, it will pull it up in a new page with a description. Just use your browser’s back button to get back to this post. (Also, if you click on the picture, the entire picture will be shown, not just the tiny ‘thumbnail’s!!)

I really love these pictures! They made me realize that my family really did live in the “Wild West”. Some of the pictures looked just like something out of ‘Tombstone’. They were all in Texas, though.

While we were in Texas, one of the most exciting things I got to do was scan all of the pictures in a photo album belonging to my Aunt Bobbie. Her grandmother gave it to her mother 105 years ago!!!  I was very humbled that Bobbie let me take it and scan it, because I know how precious it is to her.  I felt like I was carrying the holy grail with me for the four brief hours it was in my possession.

My mom was actually the one to ask if we could get it and scan it, to preserve the pictures in it.  Bobbie said she didn’t mind, and she called her daughter-in-law, who was in town, to have her bring it to the hospital for us.  She didn’t want to bring it, but she did.  For some reason, she had the ridiculous idea that we were going to take the album all the way back to North Carolina with us, then mail it back to Texas!  There is NO WAY I would trust the USPS with something that valuable and precious!!  I’m not sure why she thought that, because we never said anything of the sort, but apparently she didn’t trust us with it at all.  Apparently the woman also didn’t understand why I would want such a thing, and asked Bobbie “What does she want with all of our family pictures?”

Wow.  Bobbie is my grandmother’s youngest sister.  That makes her family and my family the same family, last I checked!  Nevertheless, we got the album and scanned it and had it back to the hospital in record time.  The album is in amazingly good condition; in fact, it looks almost brand new!  The photographs are incredibly clear, for the most part.  Twelve of the photographs in it are tintypes!  I was worried they wouldn’t scan well, but they turned out fantastic!

To give a general idea of how awesome it is to have these pictures:  one of the pictures (a tintype) is of my great-great-great-great grandmother, Sarah Graham.  (Graham was her married name, I don’t actually know her maiden name . . .  yet!) This woman died in 1860!  So that photograph, at the very least, is 148 years old!!

What did I want with my family pictures?  Well, first and foremost, I wanted to preserve them.  Now that I have them on my computer, I can share them with others in the family who may be interested.  I also plan to create a book with all of those pictures, and add some newer pictures and some pedigree charts and family group sheets.  So, yeah, to put it very, very mildly, I am forever grateful to my Aunt Bobbie for letting me scan her photo album, and thrilled out of my mind to have the pictures!

While I was digging through old records and documents down in Georgia, I found a lovely essay written by Sidney E. Stevens. The Stevens family was among some of the earliest settlers of Oglethorpe County, Georgia, along with my Boggs family. This essay was published in the University of Virginia’s “Corks and Curls” in 1924. It made me cry.

To The Daughter of The Old South

I plead for the old order which is passing away, for the old society which is fading, for that womanhood which created the gallantry and crowned the chivalry of the land of the South. I hate to see the Woman of the Old South go. She was my mother, my sister, my sweetheart. She had the form which the Grecian chisel traced in marble, and the character which the Roman orator framed in sentences. She had a face like an opal that had sipped red wine; lips that had been touched by the brush of a pink dipped in the blood of a rose; hands softer than velvet, smoother than satin and truer than steel. She had the princely graces of a maiden, and the royal virtues of a matron, the idol of her children, the model of her slaves. The crimson tides which flowed through her veins were full and bounding; nothing bold nor brazen; not a mere mollusk fattening upon the banks of life for the fishery of death. The ideas which possessed her mind were forceful and intelligent, never stupid, insipid, and insane. The feelings which throbbed in her heart were queenly and radiant, rich and luxuriant. Her speech was as clean as the face of the stream and her words were like jewels on a purple tray. Refinement and culture, elegance and modesty, charity and culture, sweetness and courage, piety and devotion waited at the altar where she made the offerings of the best that was in her. The tone of her life was as pure as the liquid note of the woodlark’s evening song when she charms her mate in the fragrant gloaming.

She loved poetry, music and art; dancing and laughter and songs; riding and boating; frolic and play; but pleasure unsoiled its shoe and whitened its lips when it crossed the threshold where she stood.

To her womanliness each morning emptied a golden goblet and each evening hymned a sacred lay.

I hate to see her go, this Woman of the Old South, who mothered the sons that followed Lee and Jackson, and who brought back from Appomattox an honor stainless enough ever for her lips, a fame like untracked snow on Alpine mountain tops. She laid her hand upon the pots and kettles, and sung the song of hope and cheer, while his brave hand created wealth out of poverty, and built homes out of ashes, and reconstructed society out of chaos. In the calm peaceful days, before the cannon’s broad strakes had trenched the land, she was the brightest star in the Southern sky; and in the days of battle and blood, she was the inspiration of courage, and the angel of mercy; and in the days of defeat of desolation she was the spirit of hope and the helpmate of man.

I am very excited to be headed down to Georgia in the morning to do a bit of research. My mother’s great-grandmother was Eulalie Boggs, and her family was from Oglethorpe County, Georgia. My mission tomorrow and the next day is to dig up documentation that will help me take the family back

Eulalie Boggs Scott (1869-1909)

a generation or two more. I think my chances are better than average, since the street one block off of Main Street is Lexington, Georgia is named (are you ready??) Boggs Street! If nothing else I can take a picture of the street sign for the scrapbook, right?

I am proud to say that Eulalie’s father, Choang T. Boggs was a Sergeant-Major in the Confederate Army. 1st Georgia Regulars, Company H. After the war, he was a School Teacher. They left Georgia sometime after 1880 and moved to Ouachita County, Arkansas. It was here that young Eulalie met her future husband, Armstead Lee Scott, who would eventually move her to Texas.

I am looking forward to my trip very much for several reasons. One, it has been quite a few years since I’ve been able to spend a couple of afternoons poking around in dusty old archives. I love that! Two, it will be gloriously Spring down in good ol’ Oglethorpe County, GA. It’s been a bit nippy up here, and I’m looking forward to the warmth. Furthermore, my friend Lisa is going with me! She is planning on studying and writing some sort of paper for her nursing class while I poke around in ancient probate records. But, come evening, we will have a wonderful time, I’m sure! It’s always more fun to have a traveling companion. It will be a nice working break for both of us!

Our Girl Scout troop is working on the ‘My Heritage’ badge. One of the activities is to create some sort of presentation about your family heritage. Our troop is planning on making a scrapbook page at our next meeting, so each girl will have a special keepsake about her own family. In the process of planning for this meeting, our wonderful troop leader, Christy, found a free software program, available for download, for creating and keeping track of a Family Tree. She inspired me to do some digging of my own, and I discovered that a program I paid around $50 for a couple of years ago is also now available for free.

So, I thought I would share the sites, in case anyone would love to start working on their family tree, but didn’t want to pay for software.

The site Christy found looks really great: MyHeritage.com. They have lots of cool stuff on their site to help you out. The program I used to use that is now free is called FamilyTreeLegends. They also have some neat stuff on their site, and both programs do ’smart matching’ where, if anyone else is using their software and has the same information as you, the program will notify you, and hopefully connect you with someone else who is working on the same family as you are! And, if you just feel happier buying a software program, I still recommend RootsMagic! (See my Genealogy Page for more information on this program!)

Recently, someone shared a wonderful resource with me for doing Online Genealogical Research.  It is a website with literally hundreds of links to other sites. I thought I would share it here, in case anyone wants to check out any of the links.  Who knows?  Maybe it will help someone get past a brick wall in their research.  I am also adding it to my Genealogy Links on the sidebar of this blog.

ProGenealogists: Genealogy Sleuth Search for your Ancestors on the Internet

I have been working on my family history a little today, and made some interesting, albeit accidental, discoveries. First of all, I noticed a young man living with my 3rd G-Grandparents, Hirium M. and Sarah Freeman, in the 1860 US Census of Franklin County, Tennessee. His name was Joseph Graham, and he was 22 years old. What caught my attention was the last name of Graham, because I knew that was my Mrs. Sarah Freeman’s maiden name.

So, based on the limited information of this Census, I looked back to the 1850 Census records, and sure enough, I found Sarah with her brother Joseph, living in Tennessee (although in Jefferson County this time), and lo and behold: her parents names were Joseph and Sarah Graham! Now, that’s exciting, because Joseph and Sarah were born in 1795 and 1794, respectively. I always get excited when I go back another century! I also discovered that they had at least one other brother and sister: Maria and William. Good, solid, Colonial names.

I thought it would be nice to dig a bit deeper, and see if I could find Joseph and Sarah Graham in the 1860 US Census. Instead I found an interesting little index (and eventually a digital image of the original document itself) called the “US Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1880″. I was shocked and saddened to find that the elder Sarah Graham had died in August of 1860. Of Paralysis. And that she had been paralyzed, apparently, for four years! How tragic! How in the world does somebody die of paralysis?? Was she bitten by a snake? Did she fall off of a ladder or something? Or was it caused by some terrible disease? Wow. The possibilities are staggering.

I have found some really interesting wording for causes of death in my many genealogical meanderings. (My favorite is still ‘a bullet wound to the head by his own hand’. Sad, but creative!) but I’ve never heard of anyone dying from paralysis! Poor Sarah Graham! Fortunately for me, Jefferson County, Tennessee is only a couple of hours away from where I live, so I plan to drive over there and see if I can get more information. Yeah, I know, I’m macabre, but I really want to know! And this is why genealogy is so addictive for me. I get totally into their lives, and I want to know more. Sort of like my own version of “Fried Green Tomatoes”!

If you are related to me, and wondering who in the world is Sarah Graham (or Hirium Freeman, for that matter) read on. If not, this will probably bore you to tears. (I am hoping you’re not to that point already!)

My grandmother, Edna (Hamilton) Westbrook’s mother was Sarah Laura (Adams) Hamilton. She went by Laura. Her mother’s name was Icy Dora (Freeman) Adams. (Isn’t that the coolest name ever??) Icy Dora’s mother was Sarah (Freeman) Graham, and it was Sarah’s mother, also named Sarah, who died of paralysis. I do not know the elder Sarah’s maiden name, but I have vague reason to believe it may have been Hill. I intend to do further research on that! At any rate, if anybody really wants all the details, facts and statistics, just email me, and I will be thrilled to send it to you!