Ancestors and Descendants

In the short period of one week, I have become awash in a sea of information about the ancestors and emails from the descendants. As I blogged last week, I went to the Braddock Higginbotham reunion Saturday a week ago. This prompted an inbox full of emails with the exchange of photos and photo identification and oooh's and ahhh's-lots of them from me!



Wednesday, Marcia and I set off for Madison to the old A&P now the home of Elmer's Genealogy Library. I knew he had a copy of my great, great Uncle Amon DeLaughter's journals, and I was rabid to see it. Turns out, it has been transcribed by Elizabeth H. Sims, who also wrote a history of Madison County, and I was able to photocopy it. Along with it were several other interesting documents, and I was able to get a copy of a copy of my great grandfather's obituary from 1910-barely legible, so I transcribed it. With these in hand, I left Marcia comparing knee replacements with Elmer while I trotted over the the "Old Bookstore" to get a copy of Elizabeth Sim's book.


Mrs. Cherry was running the store, and asked if I had relatives in Madison. Of course I bit, and she pulled out the phone book, a rather small thin phone book, and began to look up the phone numbers of our common relatives. I was curious to add these names to my memory in case I ever run into them, but I am way too shy to just ring them up.


However, back at the Library, Elmer encouraged me to take the email of one of my cousins from the DeLaughter file. This woman had convinced Elmer to open the library for her on Labor Day in 2003, and, since there was nowhere open to eat, he and his wife had provided a little cookout for her. So, I emailed her, and after making it past her screen, have been corresponding with her ever since. She has always lived in the Edgefield, SC area where the DeLaughter's call home (since the young American government gave the emigrating DeLaughter ancestor bounty land for his service in the Revolutionary War), so she knows the way to all the cemeteries, and has offered her services as guide should I head up that way. Sounds like an offer I would not refuse. Might be time to crank up the Cronemobile for an ancestry mission.




She also was able to identify the people in my unidentified photo.

For those of you who are family, here is the ID: L to R front row: Alexander A DeLaughter, Frances Janette "Nettie" DeLaughter Adams, James "Jim" Adams, and probably Thomas Jefferson DeLaughter. Back Row: little girls unidentified, big girls are Estella Adams and Martha America "Mattie" Adams. Alex, Nettie, and TJ are siblings-children of James Pickins DeLaughter who was brother to Amon and our grandmother, Annie Elizabeth.

So, we got home from Madison via Floyd's Diner in High Springs-we had missed lunch, a rare occurance! The trip home was pretty difficult for Marcia. She had forgotten to bring along her pain meds, and there was no elevated leg sitting, so it was complaining big time. Once home, she was able to get to sleep, and I read the journal till 2 am.

Amon's entries are short and he records only the things important for recording about the plantation and every letter he ever gets or sends-hence a virtual directory of family members. However, on his birthday and at the end of the calendar year, he spends about a pararaph in reflection on what he has or has not accomplished. Each year he makes a trip to the family in Alabama, the Days-his mother's parents, and from there on to Edgefield, SC where he enjoys being with the family and in the place where he grew up. I was not only rivited to the journal, but, together with information from Cousin Carol of Edgefield, I keep thinking about what life must have been like for them.

The journal ends with his trip to Texas via ship to Galveston where he is recording which land is best for farming and how much it costs. Within a year of the end of this journal, the Civil War begins and turns their world upside down. Amon survives, but has a foot amputated. His mother dies in 1864. His brother, Jasper is killed in 1862 at Sharpsburg. His baby sister's husband is killed leaving her with a baby daughter. This is my great grandmother, Annie Elizabeth DeLaughter Witherspoon Shaw. She will go on to marry (if my reading is correct) the overseer of the neighboring plantation-a marriage that would have been well beneath her social station just a few years before. The neighboring plantation belongs to Judge McGehee, who called together the convention of succession for the state of Florida. His overseer was Thomas Jefferson Shaw, my great great grandfather.

James Pickins DeLaughter, younger brother to Amon and Jasper, survives the war and goes back to Edgefield, SC. His son, JP Jr. becomes a state legislator for SC, and his descendants include my corresponding cousin in Edgefield.

Elmer says that Elizabeth Sims says that there were several other journals of Uncle Amon's in the possesion of a Mrs. Crandell, Amon's grandaughter. When Mrs. Sims went to her to ask if she could transcribe the other journals, Mrs. Crandell said that she had moved and couldn't find them. This drives Elmer crazy, and probably makes him wish for a genealogy and rare things police to conduct a raid of the DeLaughter house, which is now occupied by the great grandaughter of Amon and her husband who is somehow related to the bookstore lady. I too would be quite happy to read the other volumns.

So, this is a puzzle that never ends. Each discovery leads to at least 10 more questions. How did they get Amon's mother's body to SC in 1864 with the war going full guns, so to speak. How did Uncle Amon walk? (There is a newspaper article about the donation of his wheelchair to the American Legion Post in Madison-1971-donated by Mrs. Crandell-he used it for his "adjustment".) Etc, Etc. Endless puzzle.

For now, I have plenty of papers to study and spaces on the tree to fill in. I have maps and cemeteries and history books and biographies to read, and ideally, more photos in my inbox. Probably I should also water the porch plants.

KG

Front Yard Sunset

KG

A Walk Around the Gardens

When the Braddocks and Higginbothams are making my head swim, and it is after 5pm, I might just go for a walk in the gardens. Now you can come along too.

Just outside the back doors, next to the carport, the hydrangea is doing well. I am hoping to get some cuttings from it for a little bed in the front yard.

Occasionally, for no reason that I can discern, blogspot's photo brains override my photo orientation and do it their way. Whatever, this is my 9 in. mallow hibiscus. What's not to love???

This year, this is my favorite garden. The caladium are in full force, and there are little treasures in the middle of the garden. I just got a few more caladium for that little gap.

There are a few little fruits on this tree. Hope they make it!

Love these crepe myrtle! They are a little more blue purple than they appear in this photo. I have been eyeing other crepe myrtles as we drive, and I love the color that these appear to be, so it is ironic that my photo has changed the color. These are actually Catabawa.

Here, beside the row of Catabawa crepe myrtle is the first wide bed. Plan A was a bumper crop of a variety of heirloom tomatoes, peppers, okra and basil. Plan B seems to be a few little tomatoes and an occasional okra or pepper-no basil, alas.

This is the three sisters and a scarecrow. I'm surprised the scarecrow has held it's pants on so far, but it has. Plan A was stalks of corn that serve as support for two kinds of butter beans with squash groundcover. I'm sure the crows are laughing at my bonsi corn. There are some blosoms on the beans and maybe one squash blossom.

This is the pitiful tomato bed.

One little watermelon plant is valiantly striving to get out of bed.

The butt buggy spends quite a bit of time in the Cronemobile Cathedral these days. Forget using the chipper shredder. The Cronemobile sits ready with a full tank of $1.93 per gallon gas just in case we need to get the Dodge out of Hell!

This bed lies uphill from the Cathedral. It is the compost/papaya bed. Those little patches of green are groups of papaya seeds germinated. When we came home from our first RV trip two years ago, we had great papaya trees with lots of fruit. I'm thinking, maybe not this year.

Pitiful bush beans and zuchinni presided over by cardinal. Good that we had a few of the first blossoms, because subsequent ones fell off.

We did get a mouthful of blueberries. There are a few left as well.

Back to the front yard, this crinum is looking a little droopy, but it has been very fine. Love the color.

Next blog-we'll check out the sunset in the front yard.

KG

"I Wonder How the Old Folks Were At Home"

This was my first family reunion, as an adult. My only other experience was the 1960 reunion, pretty much limited to the descendants of my great grandmother, Emma Elizabeth Braddock Higginbotham. She was 84 at the time. I was 10.


Grandma Em with 9 of her 10 children.




Grandma Em with the descendants. I am front and center. Though it is hard to tell in this fuzzy 1960's photo, I think the little girl to my right is Frances. She now organizes the reunion.

The reunion I attended yesterday has been going on for many years and includes any descendents of Braddock or Higginbotham families. To give you an idea of how many people that might be, Jean Mizell, noted geneologist of the family, has listed 1,480 Higginbothams and 932 Braddocks in her family tree. These would be only those people with the birth name of Higginbotham or Braddock-not inclusive of children of women who married out of the family.

There were probably about 80 people attending this reunion-held in the Masonic Hall in Callahan, Florida. Amongst these 80 people, there were several who have photographs that give me such delight! Fortunately, these people are also computer literate, and they have been very busy sending me photos and documents that will fill my hot summer indoor days with interest and excitement! I am posting my two favorites.




This is Grandpa Malachi Higginbotham 1827-1899. I also have a photo of a photo that Frances and I remembered being on the wall of my grandma's house. We had no idea who he was, and probably would not have been very interested at the time.




This is Malachi's wife, Catherine Lang Higginbotham 1828-1869.

The Braddocks and Higginbothams moved to Florida when it was still Spanish East Florida. They were encouraged to do so for their own benefit-to have farm land, and for the benefit of England-to nudge the Spanish out of Florida. Wouldn't they be surprised to see the Spanish signs in Home Depot??? They eventually became "Americans", nudged the British out, chased native American's out, bought Africans, fought Federalists (aka Yankees), survived the losses of war, and more wars, and made lots of children.

They also made lots of children with each other. As I began to trace my ancestry, I kept returning to the same ancestors. I thought I was making mistakes. Eventually, I got out a huge sticky pad-the kind you use for teaching, and mapped them. I was not making mistakes. I am descended from 4 of the children of Burroughs Higginbotham and Isabella Donna Incy. Braddocks and Haddocks provided whatever variety we have in this gene pool, but that variety got played and replayed countless times.

Since this is not something our parents told us, I was not sure how much it is know or acknowledged in the family. The reunion set that to rest. The president/MC of the reunion told several stories about our "interconnectedness". Many of these families still live in Nassau County. He said that he played basketball for Callahan High, and they went to Jacksonville to play some prep school. Those preppies somehow knew that everyone was related in Nassau County and taunted the country boys about being cousins. In fact, they were, and they knew it, and they won!

Cousin Jerry Braddock, who has published a history of our early illustrious seafaring ancestors, gave us a little rhyme about our cousin marrying. Oh what a tangled genealogy they did weave,
When Braddocks, Haddocks, and Higginbothams first practiced to conceive.

Cousin Jerry's book is "Wooden Ships, Iron Men". I'm going to get around to reading it this summer. Apparently David Cutler Braddock drew the first map of the Floirda Keys, and it is in the Library of Congress. He had time on his hands while laying in wait for Spanish galleons to plunder. I like to think of him as a pirate, but actually, he was government sponsored and didn't get to keep all the loot. Appararently he was once accused of holding out, but was exonerated. I bet he did, though.

Another highlight of my trip was the row of photos of past grand masters of Masonery in the hall. I was able to photograph lots of the photographs, and quite a few were relatives. I would say, relatives one way or another, but I am quite sure it is several ways and others.

After the reunion, I made my way to the cemetery where my mother and grandparents, etc, etc, are buried. It started to sprinkle, but I asked for a little time to take photographs of headstones and was granted it.

So, I now have family data to keep me quite busy for quite some time. But am I content? Not!

I met a Mr. Ferguson of the Jacksonville Geneological Society at the reunion. I bought a book out of the trunk of his car. It felt rather illicit, but geneology IS my "drug of choice" these days.
Mr Ferguson encouraged me to go to Madison, Florida, the home of another of my family lines, to Elmer's Geneology Library. http://www.elmerslibrary.com/about.php He says that it is a wonderful place for those of us with the craving for family history-the old A&P converted into the best organized genealogy research library you have ever seen. I can hardly wait.

I have actually been in email contact with Elmer regarding a copy of a journal written by my Uncle Amon DeLaughter-ante bellum. Marcia and Holly are ready as well. Maybe this week....

KG

"Temporary" Failure to Launch

I'm glad we are home to see the new hawks get fledged this summer. We have been witness to these events before and have had the privilege of watching the "kids" on their first outing for flight school and trips to the hunting preserve we have cleared and mowed in the back 3+ acres. It doesn't always go well for the hawk families as our ears of often filled with screeching and pleading from the young ones and patient coaching from the parents.

This has been the case for the past 3 days as a mother hawk has again chosen our place to coach her young one on feeding itself. The babe has flying skills down and certainly can keep up with Mom but her feeding of the young one is dropping off to force self sustenance once and for all. Mom returns, usually in the early morning with some small tidbit that gets consumed in the trees. She preens her young one briefly and goes off on her day, leaving it screeching, pleading and in bounding fits of flight hoping for Mom's return. The hours of screeching certainly reveals the panic and perhaps hunger of this fledglings experience.

This morning the screeching began near sunrise and has continued most of the day. The young hawk is flying from tree to tree with agitated and panic filled calls. No sign of Mom yet. Perhaps today is the first day alone. Really alone, except for the company our ears and eyes offer. Plus, it's going to rain again today. These young birds look even more miserable when they are soaking wet, hungry, and lonely

Stella and I have been witness to the young hawk's attempt to walk down on the ground in hopes of some carrion or worm that might cross its path or perhaps a stray squished bug on the driveway. We drove the Glof within about 10 feet of it before causing the young bird to hop away to a safe distance. Our young guest is finding that just its presence can create a problem. Several times I've noted that other birds are chasing the young hawk. Ravens and cardinals alike have no qualms about chasing this temporary guest. Even the wrens have joined the insult process as they chased it off of the chainlink fence in front of the house. The calls and pleadings continue this afternoon. Still no sign of mother hawk.

Progress is tough and noisy sometimes but this is a good place for these babies to learn how to fend for themselves. It must be a beneficial and reliable place to educate young hawks since several mother birds have come this year and they seem to return to the same "launchpad" with their young year after year.

mdt

Summertime

The rains have started. We have no complaints. We actually enjoy sitting on the porch and watching the lightning and thunder. Stella has another story, however.

We didn't even complain as we drove through an impressive storm earlier this week. The temp was at 98F when we started, dropped to 69F in the storm, and resumed 98F after we drove out of the cloud (as recorded on the KIA thermometer). Our Mother can be pretty impressive when she chooses.

Marcia is indeed doing well. From my perspecitve, she is pretty much back to functioning as she was prior to surgery with the possible exception of an occasional outburst of something like, " Oh, Wow!!!", which means something is unhappy in the knee and letting her know it in no uncertain terms. We are both looking forward to the cessation of these and an even higher level of functioning. Tincuture of time, I do believe.

If you might enjoy a virtual trip across Canada, check in with our friends from Vancouver, BC. We know them as T&T and Maggie. They are bicoastal. Some of you will recall our visit to their float home last summer. They are leaving BC and heading for their other home in Newfoundland. This is the home they had just bought when we met them in a KOA in West Halifax, Nova Scotia. Maggie and Stella hit it off right away.

Maggie is a trained agilitist (???)-she does agility with Janna. They recently made it to regional competition including BC and Yukon. She and Janna have the summer off!

Check out their blog: http://coasttocoast-ontheroadagain.blogspot.com/

Our big summer events include dental appointments for cleanings, an occaional dip in the river, and some brief time outside-mostly in the evenings and mostly for oohing and ahhing at the summer flowers we haven't seen in two years. There is something hosta like in the blockhouse garden that looks like three big white tulips-very impressive. Amazingly, the other hostas have survived and are making bloom stalks. My new mallow hibiscus just got home from the garden shop and decided to give us three 9 inch diamater blooms in brilliant merlot. Ta-Da X 3! I promise to put it in the ground soon. Maybe I will get out with the camera. Maybe I will put the camera outside first for a few hours in the shade to acclimate lest I be shooting through condensation.

I would happily buy a truckload of plants from one of my favorite nursery stores, but the thought of digging a hole in this heat just puts me off of the idea. Maybe these plants will go on sale in October, and I will feel more like putting them in.

I have been tending to the ancestors on a regular basis. I cleaned out my on-line tree of all duplicates, and now must do some patching. Since I am going to the Higginbotham-Braddock family reunion in Callahan this Saturday, I should be well briefed on family names.

I am also reading Bill Bryson this summer. I started with "A Short History of Nearly Everything", and since it is on my palm pilot, I only read it in waiting rooms. It is rather long, so I am not done yet. However, since over 90% of my ancestors come from the British Isles, and Bill is a self confessed Anglophile, I recently started his "Notes from a Small Island".

I am taking great comfort in his explanation of how we all got here. He points out, (in "Nearly Everything") that if you calculated the number of people it would take to make you and calculated that back to Roman times, it would be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 people. Since there weren't that many people in the world then, you are the result of some cousin coupling.

Because my family tree contains quite a few cousin couplings, and the Braddocks and Higginbothams took this to new heights, my tree more closely resembles a web, and the center of that web is in Callahan, Nassau County, Florida. Do, if you will, hold a thought with me this Saturday as this lone lesbian enters the Masonic Hall full of Baptists.

I also got a copy of a book by one of my cousins, Essie Mae Washington-Williams. She is the daughter of cousin Strom Thurmond. The Thurmonds married DeLaughters-my maternal great + grandparents. They kept cousin marrying down to a minimum, as far as I can see. I am curious to hear cousin Essie Mae's take on the Thurmonds.

Tonight, the river is a mirror and the setting sun up lights the Spanish moss hanging over the river so that it glows X 2. As long as I look at it from my window, it is fabulous. Outside, heat and mosquitos rule. However, soon the lightning bugs will be out shining.

KG

Looking good at six weeks

My six-week visit was Thursday and I did drive myself as Kay noted. Driving short distances of 15 minutes or so has been do-able but longer than that creates a static position that my leg will not tolerate without some movement that includes some flexing. My short trips serve as some driving time and some important walking experience that builds some stamina. Once home, rest and elevation are still essential.

The surgeon visit included new x-rays that made it clear to me that there is a patellar button stitched into my patellar tendon. It was odd to see something there that has been somewhat annoying when I flex my new knee. The surgeon says it helps to lift the tendon off the new prosthesis but it will take some time to stretch to its new limits and that I am doing well with the exercise and stretches. He did smile when I told him that it took me some time to get used to the new "clunking" in the knee. When the old knee went through a clunk it was most certain that searing pain was to follow and it made me pause any movement immediately. I appreciated the fact that the new knee does not initiate this pain at all. Most of my pain is just muscle and tendon pain and/or spasms. My bionic knee brings much to be pleased about and we both proclaimed it a successful improvement .

I am somewhat impatient with the process and he seemed to understand this. I was advised that most of the transitional process will be completed in about two more months at which time I will see him again. My days will continue to be filled with the daily exercises and progressively longer walks to build stamina. Then we will think about what's next.

mdt

Driving and Floating

It is getting way too hot and dry. I spend my days moving the hose from garden to garden. The birds flock to the sprinklers. Last week, a Carolina Blue was seen sitting on top of one of the sprinklers and I swear to you, laughing and dancing.

After moving the hose, I look for a shaded place that needs weeding, or a task that can be done in the shade.

Holly has been coming to get a cold water workout and muscle treatment. This encourages us (me and Marcia) to get in the river. So, after slopping another coat of teak oil on the garden furniture, I doned swim atire and headed for the river while Marcia drove herself to the doctor for her check-up.

Marcia reports that he smiled. Imagine! He explained that the new patella has a button that holds a ligament up, or some such thing, and that is why she is feeling tightness, and that eventually it will stretch into perfection. She will have to explain more. I don't know what is involved, and that's OK with me.

Then, not only did Marcia get in the river and snorkel for awhile, she got in the float! We had a great time sitting and floating and chatting. Holly moves us around and ties the float up just right so we stay mostly in the shade. She draws the line at swimming under the float and blowing up the parts that become deflated. I would think that this is just another skill of scuba training, but guess not. She does chuckle at the view from down under when we move around on the float though.

The first time is the hardest for getting in and out of the float. After that, the physics of navigating bouyant devices and water kicks in and one remembers that falling off a log is pretty mindless and simple stuff. Since there are no extra points for grace...just roll!

Porch settin' is not as much fun as it was even last week. Just too hot! We did enjoy some watermelon on the porch for awhile, but had to go jump in the river shortly thereafter.

Stella mostly stays inside. In the rare event of thunderstorm, she stays in her little hidey hole made with old furniture cushions. She is close to the windows and door to the porch, but safe in her hidey hole. Some evenings, long after dark, she goes out to the porch. We think she smokes. She is very reluctant to come inside and go to bed.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to Tampa and stock up on our favorite ravioli, olive oil, and other Italian treats. It will be good to do a short road trip. We will top off the tank at Wal-Mart where gas is still under $4 a gallon. Not much under though.

KG