A Witness to History (CoG: There's One in Every Family)

Written for the 100th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy for the topic, "There's One in Every Family."

     Today, thanks to technology such as radio, television, the internet, cell phones and more, we witness history every day. We instantly know about a new discovery or advancement, a tragic event or one to be celebrated. But in the past the only witnesses to such an event were the people who were actually there. Everyone else would have to wait days, weeks or even months to learn what had happened. Looking back through the family tree, everyone can find someone who was witness to some historical event or movement. In my family tree it's my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, William A Craft, who was in Appomattox, Virginia for surrender of the Confederate Army and the end of the Civil War.

    William joined the Confederate Army in Elbert County, Georgia as a private in the 15th Georgia Infantry Regiment, Company C. He was joined by his brothers, John F and Willis M Craft. According to the National Park Services Civil War Soldier and Sailor System, the 15th was part of the Patomic District and later was part of Benning's Brigade with the Army of Northern Virginia.  This regiment fought in battles such as Chickamauga, Knoxville, Petersburg, Gettysburg and Manassus. According to a short news piece published in the Augusta Chronicle in 1938, William picked up a bible off the battle field at Malvern Hill (Henrico County, VA). The bible has been passed down through the family for generations as a family heirloom (not my line, unfortunately).

     Many families have multiple ancestors who fought in the Civil War, but what stands out about William is how he ended the war. Not only did he make it home after the surrender - but he was at the surrender. Now, I highly doubt that a lowly private was actually anywhere near the big-wig generals or the actual surrender, but he was in Appomattox, Virginia as part of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was among the first to learn of the end of the war. He would have received rations from the union army. He would have received a parole that allowed him to return home to his family. He might have been the first to tell others of the end of the war. William was a witness to history.

More Music in the Family

In a previous post, I wrote about the musical instruments on my ancestors, which are in the possession of my cousins. In the post, I mentioned that the family was related by marriage to two early country music recording artists.

One of those musicians was Christopher Allen Bouchillon. Chris was born in Oconee County, SC on 21 Aug 1893 and is credited with originating the "talking blues" style. He recorded a number of songs with his brothers as "The Bouchillon Trio" and as a solo artist. Chris married my Great-Great Aunt Ethel Waters, sometime after 1920. It was the second marriage for both of them.

I had no idea until I started researching Chris, but it turned out that Ethel's entire family was musical. Her father's and siblings sang and played musical instruments. The cousins who have their instruments say that the family played at barn dances. It's probably how Ethel and Chris met: mingling in local Atlanta musical circles.

In 1928, "Mr. and Mrs. Bouchillon" recorded a series of comedic talking songs.¹ You can hear a 30 second clip here. Ethel was about 25 years old when this album was recorded. It's very strange to hear a recording this old and knowing that you are listening to the voices of your ancestors!

It is interesting to note, however, that music was not Chris' main profession. In the 1930 census he's listed as a sewing machine salesman.

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Sources:

1. Tony Russell and Bob Pinson, Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942 (Oxford University Press, 2004), 119-120.

Monday Memories - At the Beach

For the 74th edition of Carnival of Genealogy: Swim Suit Edition, my mom provided me with a story about a family vacation, in which she saw the ocean for the first time.

"Ok '64 - so I would have been how old? 10? I turned 10 in August. See, I had the Red swim suit and your Aunt June had the blue swim suit. I they had the little white anchor embroidered down at the hem line. I remember that. We got those right before the trip. Everybody got new swim suits. Lloyd and Larry had matching swim trunks and Roy and Charlie had different ones.

And, the pictures were taken - we were going to Merritt Island, FL to visit my Aunt Katherine and Uncle Milton. Cape Canaveral? Uncle Milton worked at the military base there - I think it was Cape Canaveral. So we were going down there to visit them and they lived on Merritt Island. And it was a long drive by car. So, what mama and daddy did was they fixed up the back seat with pillows and stuff to make it like a little bed back there. 'Cause it was a Ford Galaxy 500. And those were big cars back then, you had big roomy back seats. So what we did was, we left out late at night so that, hopefully, us kids would sleep through the whole trip.

We didn't know about seat belts then. They were not required. There were six kids - there were not six seat belts. And I don't think there were even seat belts. But I think mama told me one time that daddy just pushed them down in the seat.

Now, I do know that we stopped at least one. 'Cause they woke me up to eat fried chicken. And did not like bein' woke up. And then, I think they woke us up at the state line - it might have been the next mornin'. I remember bein' confused 'cause it didn't look any different. And I do remember it was daylight when we finally got to Uncle Milton and Aunt Katherine's.

I don't know how long we stayed, but I do know it took a while - well, I know we kept having to be reminded to shut the door, 'cause she had air conditioning. And we'd never had air conditioning.

I remember when we drove to the beach, I couldn't understand why it took so long to get to the beach 'cause we were already in florida. And we were on an Island! But we had to go over these loooong bridges to get to the beach. And that we the first time I ever saw the island. And we had a wonderful time - except for [your] Grandmama. 'Cause she just kept saying "don't go out over your heads." There were six of us, and she was scared one of us was going to drown.

And I don't know if it was your Uncle Lloyd or your Uncle Larry, but one of them had no fear of the ocean whatsoever. 'Course, I was good and never went out over my head. The other thing I remember about the beach - I mean, about going to Florida was, in the afternoons, you couldn't go outside because the mosquito trucks came by. And that's mostly what I remember. I don't even remember comin' home, I just remember goin' down there and havin' fun."

iGene Awards, The Best of The Best!

For the Carnival of Genealogy, here are my self nominated Best of the Best blog posts of 2008.

• Best Picture - Posted in April of 2008, the post, True Love, features a photo of my Granny and Pawpaw when they were a young couple. My Pawpaw carried a copy of the photo in his wallet at all times.

• Best Screen Play - Posted in May of 2008, the post, Interviewing Mom, includes three stories from my mom.  My favorite, "The Chinaberry Tree," details a childhood adventure in which her siblings almost killed each other playing "Sheriff."

• Best Documentary - Posted in May of 2008, the post, Archival Preservation, details my initial findings on the best ways to preserve and care for documents and photos.

• Best Biography - Posted in September of 2008, the post, My Great-Aunt Ollie, is a partial biography.  Although not a complete description of her life, she wins for being unique among my ancestors.

* Best Comedy - Posted in July of 2008, the post, photo stories, contains a two series of photos that are just too cute.

The First Happy Dance

 I got started in genealogy during a college geography project.  We had multiple options for the project and my mom encouraged me to pick the genealogy project. We set down at the computer and started trying to find information on her paternal grandparetns, Charles Vernon Albea & Auline (Witt) Albea Wilson.  

We didn't know much about the family and knew even less about genealogy!  We found our way to rootsweb.com and from there to ancestry.com.  We searched for CV & Auline, but came up empty.  They should have appeared on the 1930 census, but we couldn't find them.  We searched for their oldest child, Frances "Tootsie" Albea.  No go.  Finally, we searched for my grandfather, Roy.  Jackpot!

We were so excited!  There was my grandfather, as a four year old boy, listed on the 1930 census.  We didn't jump, but there was hugging involved.  I think I bugged all of my friends about the find for days!

And we also saw why we couldn't search out the other family members.  Charles Vernon was Verna, Auline was Aulin and Frances was Ninola.  We had just gotten started and didn't know how to use wildcards or search for middle names.  Needless to say, this find taught us a lot and started an obsession.

Joyous snowfall

Living in Georgia, we don't get a lot of snow.  I can remember only three snows from my childhood. My Dad grew up in this county (Gwinnett) and my Mom grew up just one county south (DeKalb) - which means they can remember about as many snows from their childhood as I can.  That's why it was special to find some photos from my mom's childhood that show her and her siblings in the snow.

This is a photo of my mom, Ruby, playing in an early 1964 snowfall. I love the expression of joy on her face.  It seems to say "Can you believe this?"

I love her oversized gloves, which were probably put on quickly without thought so that she could go play in the snow right now. I also love her red coat.  What other color coat should a girl named Ruby have?

Another photo from this day features more of my Mom's family.

Everyone is outside, enjoying the snow - including my aunt, who's wearing a skirt.  I think it's very much a sign of the times that even in this weather she's not wearing pants.  It reminds me that my mother was never allowed to wear pants in school.  It wasn't until her last year in high school (1971/2) that she was even allowed to wear pants under her skirt while walking to school. And once at school she would then have to take them off and attend class in a skirt.

So I really love these snow photos. They remind me of the fact that my mother's childhood was both like my own and also entirely different.