Another Visit

Yesterday found me over at the local historical society to do more research...and boy did I find a lot! The curator helped me in so many ways to picture the historical and cultural landscape of the times to better understand how the missing pieces came about.

While the misspellings and multiple records were no surprise to me, the introduction of other relationships did.  I now know about my great-grandmother and her life before she married my great-grandfather. Although I now know her maiden name, her parents' names, siblings' names, and the identify of her daughter's father, I am still wondering about a relationship she had with another family that could possibly explain the 1930 Census household count.  And I am in the process of researching my great-aunt, whom I am having the toughest time tracking down. She may have moved out of the county at the time and was living in a surrounding areas...possibly Lexington or Louisville, the possible last address recorded before her death.   I will follow up on that when time permits. 

Another important discovery...and quite interesting, I might add...is the story behind my great-great-grandparents.  Together, they had eight children...four of which were the great-great-grandmother's by someone else.  I assumed that these children, born between 1855 and 1870, were the progeny of a slave owner, but the findings say different.  My great-great-grandmother was a cook for a mulatto family in the area, who were freed people in the 1850s and who owned significant amounts of property and assets (and were probably slave owners themselves).  The children, along with her, are on the 1870 Census as household members.  I am researching the identity of the children's father and his relationship with great-great-grand.  It was not until 1875 that she and my great-great-grandfather got married.  They, along with her children, are on the 1880 Census as a family....along with three more sons born to them.  A fourth son came along two years later and is on the 1890 Census (destroyed in a fire). 

I am glad to have tied up some of those loose ends; the picture is getting clearer as I get more information.  You may wonder why I am interested in this information.  First, I am an avid reader and storyteller....I love literature, folklore, poetry...anything written.  Second, I enjoy learning about history and culture. I believe there is a story behind every historical and cultural event.  There is a story...a tale....a lesson to be learned. I also believe that history is about context clues (there I go with my English teacher vocab), about knowing the hows..the cause and effect, if you will.  As I learn, I am getting to know myself...and as I do that, I grow in wisdom, knowledge, pride, and connectedness. To me, that is what it's all about.