Family Trees Are So Much Fun!

I've been visiting with dead relatives lately and finding a few new ones. It's amazing to find people you never knew you were related to in documents and census records. Marriage records are a valuable source because they reveal the maiden name of the wife and open up all kinds of hidden delights for the family researchers and genealogists. 

If you are interested in looking into you family history, begin with yourself and your parents. Ask lots of questions about where your parents and grandparents lived and worked. Write it all down. List the years they were born, where they went to school, and where they worked. Look for interesting facts like family traditions and names of friends and acquaintances. In a narrative these details make your story come alive.

As you research your families, you will learn to recognize original sources and identify hints to pursue to find the most interesting events in your family history. .

Haynes Family History

Old Van Wert Sign, Polk County, Georgia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ElebMonroe Haynes was born in Georgia and he is found in the 1870 Census in his father's household in Polk, County Georgia. His father's name was Thomas and his mother's was  Mary.They attended church at the Van Wert Baptist Church.

Eleb's sister was 13 in 1870; her name was Missouri..The household included his father Thomas, his mother Mary, his sister, and three others, 2 white men who may have been relatives and one black man who may have been a former slave. Eleb was noted as 16 years old. By 1880 Thomas and Mary were in Mississippi and they lived alone.

Eleb  came to Texas sometime after 1870 and married Rhoda Louisa McCuiston on December 30, 1877 in Athens, Texas. They had six children: Bertha, Thomas Benton, Mary Emaline, Anthony Samuel, Carrye Lee, James Grady, and one infant who did not survive. 

Most everybody that will attend the HAL Family Reunion knows who Frank Haynes was: First, he was my husband, but more importantly to the family, he was Lillie Emaline Alexander and Anthony Samuel Haynes' youngest son, and grandson of Eleb.. 

Southeastern Georgia? (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)

In the 1910 Census the Alexander and Haynes families were recorded as next door neighbors.  Romance flowered between Lillie and Anthony and they were married in Athens, Tx. on August 7, 1911. They moved to the La Rue community.

Are We Related?

1920 Haynes 12-cylinder, 4-door Roadster (Photo credit: dok1)

In my studies of successful aging, I have come to value the history and the memories of individuals.  Not all memories are true to history.  Sometimes we remember things as better or worse, more devastating or more romantic than they were when they were experienced.  The things that are provable like where our ancestors lived are the framework against which those other stories are set. The ones that are a wisp of smoke or mist are the meanings we put on the stories. They may become a moving tribute or an agonizing loss in retelling.

For the next year or so I am going to use this blog to explore and analyze some of the stories of my family.  I may choose to do those of my husband's family since that's the Family Reunion I will share this information with, but I also want to recount some of the stories of my side of the tree.

I'll probably send notices out to family members to see if they want to add to or correct my information.  I'll start with the Haynes, Alexander, and Lightsey families. who lived in Georgia and came to East Texas  before 1910. These three families are related by the fact that one of the Alexander daughters married a Haynes and one of them married a Lightsey. The family reunion I referred to is called the H-A-L Reunion, Haynes, Alexander, Lightsey. In genealogy research this is a pretty short time. We can follow the Alexander, Haynes, and Lightsey families through at least 200 to 300 years and find interaction with other families and historical events.

It is tempting to try to identify someone in your history and follow the trail to yourself, but genealogy doesn't work that way.  You have to identify your connections in the other direction beginning with yourself and .working backward to idenify those who came before you.

Wrong End of the Chain

Chain Link (Photo credit: small world)

The procedure I had done yesterday did relieve most of the pain in my neck. I slept well last night, and I could get out of bed easily. It is still sore, but that is a small price to pay.  Will I have the second injection? I doubt it. I blame most of that horrible week on the fact that they required me to cease my pain medication before the procedure. It is supposed to pose a bleeding risk. I have never had any bleeding form a needle.

 I suffered torture and excruciating pain from lack of meds.  It did show me how severe my arthritis is.  I will make plans to consult a rheumatalologist as soon as possibile.  It's not good to start at the wrong end of the chain to control where it ends up..

On High Expectations!

I recently brought to the attention of my doctor that I have some pretty severe pain in my neck.  He dutifully ordered an X-Ray, and then a MRI.  Those procedures confirmed that I have pain because I have lost carlilage in my neck Two of the discs have fused which results in a stiff neck.

I have dealt with this for many years,  dismissing it as a crick or I slept on it wrong. The doctor assured me that it was not a recent occurance. I did raise 6 kids.  I canned a garden every summer when Frank was gardening. When the kids were little I, did a lot of sewing, and Frank liked for me to make western shirts.  I was stupid to let him know that I could do it.

Then, I read and studied a lot completing my Master's Degree when I was 50. When I think about the strain and demand on my neck, I remember, too, that my neck has spent significant hours in prayer.  In the Old Testament, God refers to Israel as a "stiff-necked" people. All this bending and twisting of my neck have brought skills and experience that have blessed my life. It seems sad that I had to pay this price. On the other hand, maybe that is the cure for  Israel's /stiff neck.