Wordless Wednesday

This is one of my favorite pictures. It's my granddad, L. C. Hosch, my aunt, mom's oldest sister, Elmira (Marie) Hosch Knox, and your's truly.

Until Next Time!

Tombstone Tuesday - Facing Mortality

Having a tombstone while still living, definitely forces one to face their own mortality.

During my childhood, youth, and even as a young adult, I thought of death but only in regards to my relatives and ancestors. I don't know if it was an only child thing, but when I was a child, I use to sometimes wake up terrified that something had happened to my parents. My mother would always reassure me that they were okay and that I didn't need to worry. Then throughout junior high and high school, every time the phone range, I was fearful that it was someone calling to say that my granddad had passed, yet when the call finally came during my senior year in HS, I still wasn't prepared.

In my 20s, like most young people of that age, I thought life would go on forever. It didn't phase me that I was already losing friends and classmates by the time of my 10 year HS reunion.

The first time I was forced to think about my own mortality was in my late 20s or early 30s. My mother called to tell me that she, dad, and my Aunt Martha, dad's sister, had been discussing burial plots. At the time, my aunt wanted to be buried near my parents and mom wanted to know if I wanted to be buried next to them or did I want to wait, in case I got married. Mainly because I didn't want to think about it (I couldn't even think about their mortality much less my own), I told her I would wait. Eventually, Aunt Martha decided to be buried with her parents and brother (she remembered there was a fourth plot there) and except for mom giving me all the details about her and dad's plots, the subject was actually put to rest until 2007.

In 2007, one of my childhood friend's lost her battle with cancer. No questions were even asked this time. Next thing I knew I had both a plot and a marker. I remember the first time I saw it, I still didn't want to talk about it. But somewhere along the way between then and now, I've come to terms with it and now am always pointing it out to someone. I must say that it was still kind of freaky when I pulled it up on findagrave.com.

Acceptance of your mortality is something most of us will have to face. Acceptance doesn't mean giving up but living each day to the fullest with no regrets because tomorrows aren't guaranteed.

Until next Time!

Madness Monday - Cousins

It's ironic that my great-grandmother Fannie fascinates me so, yet on a personal level, it seems that I hardly know her.

There has never been a mention of familial names with regard to Fannie yet it seems like my grandmother did know something about her grandparents. I desperately wish my grandmother or my great uncle JD, or my great aunt Ossie, were still here to tell me more.

I would even settle for my grandparents good friends, Lemon and Magnolia Tuggle, who also migrated to NC from Walton County. Mr. Lemon knew a lot of my grandmother's people but they are gone, too. So, I'me left to struggle and try to figure it all out myself.

I've got names of a few of my grandmother's cousins. I've been trying to work some of those lines, too. I've had success on some lines and the same frustration on others as I do on my direct line.

My grandmother's cousin that I had success with, Johnnie Lonnie Phillips, lead me back to the Pierce side of my grandmother's family. Turns out Johnnie was my mother's second cousin. His mother, Ella Pierce Phillips, was my grandmother's first cousin, her uncle Lonnie Pierce's daughter.

Now the line that has been just as frustrating as my direct line, the Durdens. These are some of my grandmother's people, but how?

Here's what I know about the Durdens

Timeline

1920 Federal Census- living in Richardson District 559, Walton County, Georgia.

Bud Durden, Head of Household, born abt. 1870, age 50, born in GA, Father born in GA, Mother born in GA

Cora, wife, born abt. 1870, age 50, born in GA, Father born in GA, Mother born in GA

Weyman, son, born abt. 1904, age 16, born in GA

Claud, son, born abt. 1907, age 13, born in GA

Ironically, in 1920, the Durdens were living beside another set of cousins (remember Aunt Mattie and her children, http://georgiablackcrackers.blogspot.com/2009/06/sister-nobody-seems-to-know-about.html)

1930 Federal Census - living in Sandy Run, Cleveland County, NC.

Bud W, head, born abt. 1870, age 60, birthplace GA

Cora L, wife, born abt. 1870, age 60, birthplace GA

Millie C, son, born abt. 1906, age 24, birthplace GA

Mattie, wife of Millie C, born abt. 1907, age 23, birthplace GA

Johnny Moses, Step granddaugther, born abt. 1913, birthplace, GA

1932 Death Certificate for a Warren Durden, date of death Feb 15, 1932, place of death, Cleveland County, NC, wife Cora Lee Durden, birthplace Mattison, GA, parents Peter Durden born in Little River, GA and Silvia Jackson born in Little River, GA


If I could just put all the pieces together, I could probably solve Mattie, the Durdens and my great grandmother, Fannie, all at the same time. I keep having this feeling that it's some little small something in all the documentation that I already have and I've just not picked up on it, yet. What is it and when will I have that aha moment?


Until Next Time

Tombstone Tuesday - Still on my Mind

NEVER FORGET!

Moore's Ford Memorial Committee, http://www.mooresford.org/index.html

Until Next Time!

Reflections on The Last Mass Lynching in America

I remember hearing about the Moore's Ford lynching practically all my life. It's one of those things that every time my mother mentioned it, I listened but it never seem to have much impact on me until the past few years.

This year, after resurrecting my genealogical research, I kept coming across the Moore's Ford lynching whenever I googled Walton County, Georgia. The more I read the more I wanted to read. Then, it finally started to click - mom's story, Walton County. This happened where my ancestors were from.

My mom was 17 when the Moore's Ford lynching occurred. Mom was only 16 when she left her home in NC to head to GA to the big city of Atlanta to attend Morris Brown College. It was the first time she had left home.

Although NC was and could be brutal, especially the northern end of my home county of Cleveland, and while I'm sure lynchings probably occurred, mom has never talked of them if they did.

My grandparents left Georgia and Walton county behind in the early 1920s, about 20 years before the Moore's Ford lynching occurred. My mom was part of their North Carolina kids and the next to the youngest. While my granddad had told mom and later me about the lynch mobs, the hanging tree, etc. that defined Walton county during his life there, it still didn't prepare a young girl, my mom, from a small NC town for what occurred on July 25, 1946.

I don't know if my mother had returned home to NC for the summer when Moore's Ford occurred or if she remained in Georgia as she has never said. I think she must have been home because she has mentioned she almost didn't go back to Morris Brown.

If you've never heard of the Moore's Ford lynching, it's the lynching of two young black couples, Roger and Dorothy Malcom and George and Mae Murray Dorsey. The four victims were tied up to a tree and shot hundreds of times, in broad daylight, by a mob of unmasked men using rifles, shotguns, pistols and a machine gun. Dorothy Malcom was seven months pregnant at the time and her fetus was cut out of her body.

Shortly after the lynching occurred, my grandmother's sister, Effie, who lived in Walton County, wanted to see her niece, my mother, because she had never seen her. While my mother wanted to see her aunt she was also terrified to go. Mom's cousins, some of aunt Effie's children, that lived and worked in Atlanta drove mom over to Monroe. I don't know how my mother survived that trip. Me personally, I think I would have figured out a way to say no. Anyway, once they got to Walton county, Mom remembers seeing a white man with a shotgun standing by a covered truck and being terrified that it was the Klan and that they were all going to be killed. Thank goodness it wasn't.

No one has ever been brought to justice for the Moore's Ford lynching. Back then folks were too terrified to talk and they still are. And yes, I do believe it still effects my mother, too. As I've tried to plan our research trip, she thinks we should stay in Atlanta and drive over to Walton County and Greene County because she fears that the mentality of Jim Crow hasn't changed much in small Georgia towns since the days she was in college, meaning we aren't going to find a place of lodging that will accommodate us and I must admit that although I myself never lived through the Jim Crow era, I silently am concerned about some of the same things that my mother openly voices concerns about because as the old saying goes "The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same."

This week as we approach the 63rd anniversary of the Moore's Ford Lynching, hopefully we as humans and Americans have learned something from this. And to George Dorsey, Mae Murray Dorsey, Dorothy Dorsey Malcom and Roger Malcom, I pray that one day as improbable as it may be, that the truth about what happened to you on that fateful day be told.

Until Next Time!

Wordless Wednesday - 4 Generations

My grandparents

2 of their daughters

5 of their grandchildren

1 great-grand

1 grand son-in-law

Madness Monday - Back to Ms. Fannie Pierce, my great-grandmother (1867 - 1889; 1910 - 1916)

I want to discover solid evidence of my great-grandmother's life prior to her marriage to my great-grandfather including her parents and whether she had any siblings. I'm also hoping to have solid evidence of her date of death including where she is buried.

Timeline

abt. 1867 - Fannie Henry or Henyard or White born somewhere in GA (date of birth determined from 1900 and 1910 censuses)

10 Aug 1889 - Frances White, colored, married Cornelius Pierce, colored, in Walton County, GA (Walton County, GA Marriage Index)

20 Feb 1892 Claud Pierce born in Watkinsville, GA (World War I Draft Registration Card)

25 Nov 1893 Willie Felton Pierce born in Watkinsville, GA (World War I Draft Registration Card)

11 May 1895 Roy Pierce born in Watkinsville, GA (World War I Draft Registration Card)

1900 Federal Census - living in Mountain Township, Walton County, Georgia as the wife of Cornelius "PIERCE." Fannie "PIERCE," Black, born Jan 1867, age 33, married 15 years, mother of 10 children, 9 living, born in Georgia, Father born in Georgia, Mother born in Georgia.

The following children are listed with Fannie and Cornelius

Evilela, daughter, born Apr. 1889, age 11 born, Georgia

Mary, daughter, born June 1890, age 9, born Georgia

Claud, son, born Feb 1892, age 8, born Georgia

Effie, daughter, born Dec. 1893, age 6, born Georgia

Felton, son, born Nov. 1896, age 3, born Georgia

Roy, son, born Sept. 1898, age 1, born Georgia

1910 Federal Census - living in Militia Dist. 419, Walton County, Georgia as the wife of Cornelius "PIERCE." Fannie "PIERCE," Mulatto, age 43, married 21 years, mother of 13 children, 8 living, born in Georgia, Father born in Georgia, Mother born in Georgia.

The following children are listed with Fannie and Cornelius

Mary, daughter, age 19, born Georgia

Clara, daughter, age 18, born Georgia

Effie, daughter, age 16, born Georgia

Felton, son, age 13, born Georgia

Carl, son, age 10, born Georgia

Ossie, daughter, age 9, born Gerogia

14 May 1910 - Cornelius Pierce dies (Tombstone)

1910 - 1916 - Fannie remarries (oral history handed down from my grandmother, Mary Pierce Hosch)

abt 1916 - Fannie dies (oral history handed down from my grandmother, Mary Pierce Hosch)


Additional information handed down - stated previously in an earlier post

1. Fannie's surname handed down through her daughter Mary, my grandmother, was Henry.
2. From Fannie's daughters Evelina and Ossie, her surname was White, which is what her surname was, as indicated on the Walton County Marriage index, at the time she and Cornelius married.
3. Mary Pierce always talked about her older sister Mattie, who was a half-sibling. I believe the unaccounted for child / children noted on the 1900 and 1910 censuses is Mattie. Mattie's descendants have always stated that their mother's surname was Henyard, which could be a change / variation of the name Henry or vice versa. If Mattie is Fannie's child, why didn't she live with my great grandparents.

Addition information / oral history not previously stated

My mother recalls that when one of Mattie's children, Ovella, was visiting her NC cousins that upon seeing the picture of Fannie, she said oh there is grandmomma Sanford. Knowing that Fannie remarried after Cornelius' death, we have always assumed that Sanford was her surname after she remarried.

Haplogroup M / L3

I start this discussion on Haplogroups by stating that ancestral DNA tests should never replace traditional approaches to finding and documenting your ancestors. However, it can be a valuable tool to help point the way or to confirm or reject data.

When it comes to completely understanding ancestral DNA and all the Haplogroups, subclades, etc., I could definite use a few experts. In real life, I'm a scientist, chemist to be exact, but DNA, genetics, biology, etc. are definitely outside my knowledge based.

mtDNA was done on my mother, Fannie's granddaughter, through Ancestry.com. The Ancestry.com results show Haplogroup M with no subclads. Their database showed no matches. The results from Ancestry include both the HVR1 and HVR2 region results.

I've taken mom's results and plugged them into a few other databases: Mitosearch (mitosearch.org); Mitochondrial Database (smgf.org); Genebase's indigenous database (genebase.com); and the Human Mitochondrial Genome Database (www.genpat.uu.se/mtDB). The following is a summary of the info from those databases.

Mitosearch

If you exclude the HVR2 region data, there are 4 matches indicated as L3. Sadly, none of the participants in the database have HVR2 data.

Mitochondrial Database

After inputting all of mom's information into this database, it was indicated that her Haplogroup was L3 and that her subgroup was L3e. Compared to the results from Ancestry, this actually makes sense, since Haplogroup M is thought to come from L3e. Once again though, no exact matches.

Human Mitochondrial Genome Database

This database was really interesting in that it did not matter whether I only included the HVR1 data or both HVR1 and HVR2, the results were the same, no matches.

Genebase Indigenous DNA

Similar to the others, when on HVR1 is analyzed, southeast Africa - Bantu speakers, but when both regions are included, no good matches.

I've searched the 1880 and 1870 census and have not come across any one that I think is a good candidate for being Fannie at a younger age. I've also searched the 1880 and 1900 censuses trying to find Mattie Henyard, but have been unable to locate a Mattie Henyard or a Mattie Henry.

I have searched Georgia's virtual vault for a death certificate for both Fannie and Mattie who die sometime between 1910 and 1920

If I can ever get my mother to set a date, I do plan to do a research trip later this year. I hope that some probate records can shed some light. Per the 1910 census, my great-grandfather owned his own farm. There should be records regarding the property after his death. I'm also hoping to locate a copy of the farm schedules

Where else to look?

The Black America Series by Arcadia Publishing

Genealogical perspective changes as one ages. When I was in my 20s, I have to admit that my mind set seem to be to get back as far as I could as fast as I could. And I did that until I hit the proverbial brick walls on all of my grandparents. Yet there was always a part of me that knew it was more than just finding my ancestors but telling their story, yet sometimes one still forgets that it not just names and dates. More than anything, this is the area where my cousin Nicholas has helped more than he knows. As you know Nicholas got me up of the couch after a ten year break. While I've been plugging away trying to figure out new angles for finding Fannie, confirming Cornelius' family, etc., Nicholas has been steadily reading up on the county histories. But it wasn't until I realized that the lynching mom had told me about many years ago (the one that happened while she was attending Morris Brown) was the Moore's Ford Bridge Lynching of Walton County. So, I've slowed down a bit on the documentation efforts in order to better understand what my ancestors might have gone through during their lifetimes.

This has lead me to a wonderful series of books from Arcadia Publishing, The Black America Series, and luckily for me one was available for 3 of the 5 counties I am currently researching or where ancestors resided and possibly still reside. I think I've even discovered one of my granddad's first cousins in the one for Gwinnett County.

The books are mainly pictorial, but they give a glimpse into the black communities of these counties from emancipation through the 21st century and have helped me to hopefully have a better understanding of all three. While these three counties are essentially in the same area of Georgia, they each provide a different prospective.

The following links provide an opportunity to glance at some of the pictures included in these books.

The Etta Hosch in the Gwinnett County one is possibly my granddad's first cousin. Grandad had a first cousin named Etta. I'm hoping to get more information from the writer of the book about the pictures of Etta.

Also, the Albert Martin in the book on Walton county is my Aunt Mattie's (mentioned in an earlier post) brother-in-law. I've come to know a couple of Albert's grandchildren, as I've tried to find out more about Aunt Mattie and if you ever hear me refer to my adopted cousins, that's them.

http://books.google.com/books?id=LaLjxs8pbXkC&pg=PP1&dq=Gwinnett+County+Georgia+Black+America+Series

http://books.google.com/books?id=dBV_UX-OadEC&pg=PA3&dq=Greene+County+Georgia+Black+America+Series

http://books.google.com/books?id=cBAwDQ3jiYgC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Walton+County+Georgia+Black+America+Series&source=bl&ots=zHNxQeK3Of&sig=n3GJBADivttBghGPPZc2DVIQQ04&hl=en&ei=kEdaSpuRC-CFmQe75tmHAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4

Till Next Time!

My Grandmother's Brothers

How do siblings just disappear and none of the descendants know what happened to them?

My grandmother had three younger brothers, Claud Pierce, Willie Felton Pierce, and Roy (JD) Pierce. Two of the three, Claud and Willie Felton, just seemed to disappear with no clues left behind.

Claud, born abt 1892, is the one absolutely no one in the family seems to know anything about. The next child after my grandmother Mary, on the 1900 census, he's listed as Claud and on the 1910 census he's listed as Clara, daughter. Other than the census, the only other information available on Uncle Claud is his World War I Draft Registration card. He was born in Watkinsville, GA and in 1917, he was single, and worked for George Tuggle. Given that during her life, my grandmother handed down a lot of information to her inquisitive daughter, also known as my mother, it's strange that no mention was ever made of Claud. Grandmom didn't name any of her children or grandchildren after him. Was uncle Claud the black sheep of the Pierce family? Did he die a tragic death, perhaps lynched, and it was too painful for my grandmother or her sisters to be reminded of him? Will I ever find out more about him?

Willie Felton, the second of my grandmother's brothers and the third child after grandmom, was born abt 1896. Like his brother Claud, the only documentation I've been able to find of Uncle Felton is the 1900 and 1910 censuses and his World War I Draft Registration card. His draft card indicates that he was single in 1917, worked for J. B. Brown in Monroe, GA and that he was short, medium build, and light brown with red hair. Unlike Claud, Willie Felton has left a legacy, at least in my grandmother's branch of the family. First my mother remembers at some point in time seeing pics of Willie Felton in his war uniform. While mom was attending college at Morris Brown, she remembers being contacted by Willie Felton's wife/ex wife/widow. But his greatest legacy is that grandmom named my uncle, Willie Felton Hosch, after him and I have a couple of first cousins that carry his middle name, Felton. I think my grandmom did a good job of giving us some insight into her family; however, the genealogist / family historian inside me is always wishing for more. Did uncle Felton die during the war? Did he have any children and if so, what became of them?

As I sit here, I'm wondering if George Tuggle and J. B. Brown had any type of records that would include my great uncles working for them? So many questions to ponder. Perhaps as I continue to search for my great-grandmother, my great-great uncles will be ever so kind and drop a few hints about their lives and what happened to them.

Till next time!

Blog for Paternal Side of Family Started

Conversations with my Ancestors, Documenting the Life and Times of my North Carolina Family, http://conversationswithmyancestors.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday

My grandparents

Lucillous (LC) Hosch and Mary Magdalene Pierce Hosch

Tombstone Tuesday - Webb Memorial Lawn

This past Sunday, July 5, 2009, my mother must have read my mind. The cemetery was calling us. This cemetery, Webb Memorial Lawn, is where my maternal grandparents, Mary Magdalene Pierce Hosch and Lucillous Hosch, are interned. When I went over to the hometown, this past weekend, I had meant to take my camera so that I could take a picture of my grandparents' headstone for Tombstone Tuesday, but I'm so glad that I didn't because this trip wasn't one of our usual trips. It was a remembrance of not just our ancestors but many friends, too, as mom and I decided to walk through the cemetery.

Mom reminisced about parents of some of her former students (mom was a teacher) and friends. It was almost like neither one of us had been there before as we commented on markers we hadn't remembered seeing. It had been awhile for both of us. I use to go there at least once a year to talk to my grandparents. Somehow the year never seemed quite right until I got them caught up on what was going on with me. These days visits seem to be more spur of the moment instead of planned.

I pray that this final resting place for so many doesn't meet the same fate as the cemetery my great-grandfather, Cornelius Pierce, is interned in. But I do worry because unless you know Webb Memorial Lawn is there, you don't know it's there. It's just outside the city limits of my hometown. There are no markers or signs that point you to it. And even when you arrive there, a stranger would have to search a bit for the name of the cemetery. For many years, it was the only cemetery that blacks could be buried in, but no new plots are being sold there. Everyone, both black and white, are now being buried in Cleveland Memorial Park Cemetery, which is in another part of the county. There are no tombstones at Cleveland Memorial, only the flat markers.

One day I will take a picture of my grandparents headstone but for now just know that they are through the trees, slightly to the left on the little hill / ridge in the background.

Till next time!

Working Toward a Research Trip

This year I was / am hoping to do my first research trip. I've pushed toward this date for many years, yet I still feel unprepared for this next step in the journey. Have I done enough before hand to even warrant this trip? Do I want to try to do too much? (I hope to be able to get to both Greene and Walton counties)

Even with all the questions I have, there is the need to make this trip, at this time, ready or not, if for no other reason than to provide my mother an opportunity to trod some of the same soil that her parents, grandparents, and great-parents did.

Here are the Goals of this trip

Walton County

1. Obtain a copy of Cornelius and Fannie's marriage certificate. (Praying there is additional information that might lead me to Fannie's parents, etc.)
2. Visit Sheats cemetery, where my great-grandfather is buried. (Look for additional relatives)
3. Visit Macedonia Church Cemetery. Recently discovered the death certificate for one of mom's brothers (don't think she ever mentioned him to me until this past week when I discovered the certificate) He only lived 3 months but possibly other relatives could be interned there.

Greene County

1. Look for possible marriage record for my great-great grandparents (Jasper and Jane Pierce)
2. Look for agriculture and tax records for Jesse F. Pierce, who was possibly their master.
3. Visit the Greene County African-American Cultural Museum.

Preparation

1. Information on my great-grandmother Fannie is in my previous posts.

2. While I've never been able to find my Pierce ancestors on the 1870 census, I feel that I've gathered enough information to place them in Greene county immediately after the Civil War.

• They were in Greene County on the 1880 census.
• Death certificates for uncle Lonnie Pierce, born abt. 1864, and aunt Nuna Pierce, born abt. 1871, indicate that they were born in Greene County and that their parents, Jasper and Jane were born in Greene County. The informant for uncle Lonnie's death certificate appears to be his daughter Nuna (married at this point - her last name is Jackson) and the informant on aunt Nuna's death certificate is her husband.
• The only thing that bugs me about not having the 1870 census is that it leaves me without actual documentation showing my great-grandfather, Cornelius, in the household of his parents. There is a Cornelius Pearce, 16, living in Greene county. There is no relation to the head of household and the age / year of birth is consistent with later censuses (1900 and 1910). For now, I think I've build a strong case with other supporting documentation through his brother and sister.

3. Based on the 1880 census and 1860 slave schedules, I'm fairly confident that Jesse F. Pierce was Jasper and Jane's owner. The 1880 census list Jesse F. Pierce followed by several black Pierce families. The 1860 slave schedules for Greene county list 2 Pierces that owned slaves. The other Pierce slave holder, Theo Pearce, only owned 2 slaves, a 22 year old male and a 13 year old female, which doesn't match the information for Jasper and Jane from the 1880 census.

In 1860, Jesse Pierce owned 15 slaves, of which two match the description for Jasper and Jane, a Mulatto boy age 12 and a Black Female age 17. The 1880 censuses indicated that my great-great grandfather was about 30 and mulatto and that my great-great grandmother was about 36.

Should I go?

Is there anything else that needs to be done before I go? Should I set more goals? Outside of planning the trip and getting my materials and information organized and making out a schedule, I can't think of anything but I've a nagging feeling that perhaps I've not unearthed enough information and it's that feeling that leads me to the feelings of unpreparedness.

Till Next Time!

Remembering Aunt Florence Hosch

Maybe it's the 4th of July Holiday, but this week, I've been thinking alot, more so than usual, about some of the ancestors, primarily the ones that I had an opportunity to meet in my lifetime. One ancestor, aunt Florence, my granddad Hosch's aunt, is the one I've thought of the most this week.

I'm not sure how we, the family, reconnected with aunt Florence after granddad and his older brother, Will, moved to NC. (I think it had been years since granddad and Aunt Florence had seen each other.) I just remember as a child, the trips down to Georgia that always seemed to include going by to see Aunt Florence. There is one trip I will always remember because looking back now, it seems like she knew this grandchild of her nephew would be the one. The trip that I always recall is the one where she called me aside and gave me a box full of old Christmas cards. I remember being so proud of my box and couldn't stop looking at all the cards as we journeyed back to North Carolina. Unfortunately, mom hadn't been bitten by the genealogy bug, yet, so the cards never even made it into our house. All these years later, ever so often, I like to remind my mom about the cards, which always elicits I'm sorry I didn't know they meant that much to you.

I really wish Aunt Florence could have lived long enough to be able tell me more about my great-great grandmother, Matilda Hosch, as well as my great-grandfather, Barto. Better yet, I wished I had been old enough (I was 13 when Aunt Florence died) to fully understand the torch that was being given to me so that I could have asked her tons of questions. I can imagine that I would have worn her out as I now probably wear my mother out on a daily basis with new tidbits of information or questions. Remembering Aunt Florence as I do, I'm sure she would have kept up.

Hopefully, next year, I can return to looking for additional ancestors on granddad Hosch's line. I wish I could figure out a way to work on all my lines simultaneously. But with so much to do (at least it feels that way) and so little time and now, officially being up to fretting over 7 g-grandparents, 9 g-g-grandparents, 1 g-g-g-grandparent, as well as all the ancestors waiting to be discovered, I doubt that it can be done. Every time I try, names and dates start overlapping and my head starts spinning. So my goal is to try to focus on two lines per year (one at a time).

Till Next Time!

The Hosches and The Romes

I've been concentrating so hard on my maternal grandmother's lines this year that the rest of my lines are essentially an afterthought at the moment but Georgia is not just about my maternal grandmother's line.

As I've traveled back through time via the censuses, to date, the one constant in this journey has been my Hosch and Rome ancestors. And yet, when I began, I thought I would get no further than my beloved grandfather, Lucillous (LC) Hosch. You see even though I knew my great-grandparents' names and knew the names of other relatives and ancestors, I also knew that both of my great-grandparents died when my granddad was a little boy and his maternal grandparents finished rearing my granddad and his brothers. While my great-great-grandparents instilled a lot into their grandchildren, it always felt like key pieces of information were missing.

Ironically, after finding the first tidbits of information via Granddad's World War I Registration card (he was born in Jackson County not Walton) and finding my grandparents and their young family on the 1920 census, the Hosch line has been the only line that I have found on every census between 1870 and 1920. And thanks to the hard work of a second cousin that I met on line and who lives in the Atlanta area, we've even managed to get back into slavery on granddad's paternal side, discovering along the way that our ancestors were written about in a book.

The paternal side of my granddad's family hails from Jackson and Gwinnett counties and his maternal side is from Walton county.

My ancestry from my grandfather's maternal line is me→ mom→ Lucillous (LC) Hosch→Sallie Rome→Wyatt Rome (Alice)→Eliza Stoval.

My ancestry from his paternal side is me→ mom→Lucillous (LC) Hosch→Barto Hosch→Matilda Hosch.

My granddad has been gone for almost 31 years and I miss him just as much now as when the Lord first called him home. I always admired his will to survive in spite of it all (the death of his parents, the mobs, the bo weevil infestation, and moving his young family to NC to seek a better life) In my early 20s, he was my motivating force and even now that I'm in my late 40s his life still drives me to try to do better.

Till Next time!

Wordless Wednesday - Me and Mom, 47 years ago