Sunday, April 13, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #15 -Eleanor Thomas

Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small, issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The Premise: Write once a week about a specific ancestor.  

My grandmother taught me the women's side of our family.  "Eleanor had Catherine; Catherine had Sophie; Sophie had Emma; Emma had Gertrude; Gertrude had Eleanor; Eleanor had Eleanor; and Eleanor had you!"  These are the ladies that make me want to know about their lives and keep me researching.

The second Eleanor in our family was my grandmother and you can read about her here.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are is more to her story.


The third Eleanor (and ME) are still living our stories, so now you have the women of my grandmother's family!

Monday, April 7, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Gertrude Batterton

Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small, issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The Premise: Write once a week about a specific ancestor.  

My grandmother taught me the women's side of our family.  "Eleanor had Catherine; Catherine had Sophie; Sophie had Emma; Emma had Gertrude; Gertrude had Eleanor; Eleanor had Eleanor; and Eleanor had you!"  These are the ladies that make me want to know about their lives and keep me researching.

Gertrude Batterton was my "Nanny" (great-grandmother) and I can remember sitting in her lap, her 'powdery' scent, and her beautiful white hair.  I can also remember sleeping in her dresser drawer (pulled out and placed in the middle of the floor) the night my little brother was was rushed to the hospital.  I was only excited about spending the night with Nanny that I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about.  Nanny was all softness - her voice was soft, her skin was soft, and her lap was the best place to be.  

Gertrude Batterton Thomas
taken by Siegel Cooper probably
on her honeymoon in 1899.
She was born in August 1878 and married Clarence Thomas May 21, 1899. She had her daughter, Eleanor, in 1902. In 1909 Clarence died from TB and she moved back home with her daughter.  She was terrified of losing her daughter and made my grandmother sleep with her window open so she wouldn't get TB.  After the death of her mother in 1937 Gertrude moved in with her daughter and son-in-law and remained with them until her death in 1962.
Gertrude and her Granddaughter, Eleanor.
(taken about 1937)


Nanny had an aquarium and let her granddaughter put tadpoles in it.  They loved watching the tadpoles swim around - until one morning there weren't any in the aquarium.  My grandmother caught frogs for hours. But that didn't stop her, the next spring they got more tadpoles.  Unfortunately, even with the addition of a top on the aquarium, the results were the same.  That was the end of the tadpole watching.

Nanny never remarried and when she died on August 8, 1962 was buried beside her husband in Eminence, Kentucky.  









Sunday, March 30, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #13 Emma Arnold

Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small, issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The Premise: Write once a week about a specific ancestor.  

My grandmother taught me the women's side of our family.  "Eleanor had Catherine; Catherine had Sophie; Sophie had Emma; Emma had Gertrude; Gertrude had Eleanor; Eleanor had Eleanor; and Eleanor had you!"  These are the ladies that make me want to know about their lives and keep me researching.

Emma Arnold was born in Henry County on June 20, 1855.  Her parents, Sophie and Johsua Arnold were farming just outside of Eminence, so Emma grew up on the farm with two sisters and five brothers.  

On August 17, 1876, Emma married the boy next door and moved to their own farm.  She and William Batterton lived there until her death in 1937.  She had three children, two daughters and a son, and when her oldest daughter returned home after the death of her husband, Emma helped raise her granddaughter.  Years later her great-granddaughter would spend her summers on the farm  with "Ma" and "Pappy."

Emma loved decorating and passed many beautiful pieces of furniture down to her daughter, granddaughter, and now great-granddaughter, along with her beautiful quilts.

Emma died April 25, 1937 and is buried next to her husband in the Eminence Cemetery in Henry County, Kentucky.

Monday, March 24, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #12 - Sophie Barbee

Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small, issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The Premise: Write once a week about a specific ancestor.  

My grandmother taught me the women's side of our family.  "Eleanor had Catherine; Catherine had Sophie; Sophie had Emma; Emma had Gertrude; Gertrude had Eleanor; Eleanor had Eleanor; and Eleanor had you!"  These are the ladies that make me want to know about their lives and keep me researching.

Sophie's story starts in Georgetown, Kentucky, where she was born to Catherine and Nathaniel Barbee on Christmas Day in 1825.  She grew up on a farm in Scott County with her parents, 7 brothers, and 1 sister.  


Sophie married Joshua Arnold and they moved to a farm in Henry County, Kentucky. 

Sophie was the mother of 5 sons and 2 daughters. Sophie and her oldest daughter, Emma, pieced a crazy quilt that included pieces of Sophie's mother's (Catherine) wedding dress.  

Sophie died in Henry County on October 25, 1896.  She is buried in the Eminence Cemetery in Henry County.

Monday, March 17, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #11 Catherine Bradford Barbee

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small, issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The premise: write once a week about a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, a research problem — any that focuses on that one ancestor. 

My grandmother taught me the women's side of our family.  "Eleanor had Catherine; Catherine had Sophie, Sophie had Emma, Emma had Gertrude, Gertrude had Eleanor; Eleanor had Eleanor, and Eleanor had you!"  These are the ladies that make me want to know about their lives and keep me researching.  Eleanor's story is here.

Eleanor's daughter, Catherine Bradford, was born in Scott County, Kentucky June 27, 1798.  She married a cousin of her mothers, Nathaniel Barbee on November 26, 1816.  They had nine children most of whom stayed close by after they married, although two moved to Missouri. 

Catherine and Nathaniel farmed in Scott County and Nathaniel also served in the Kentucky Legislature.  Catherine died in Bourbon County (probably at her son's home) on December 22, 1837.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Man I Love

My husband and I have an anniversary of sorts coming up in the next few days. An anniversary of when we first met - 25 years ago.  "We" are now older than he was when we got married.

Sometimes I wonder where the man I met back then went.  Not that I don't love the one I'm married to now, but the one I first met and fell in love with was such a different man.  First of all he was 19 - I was 30 - and he was a rebel of many causes.  He came with a heavy metal presence - long hair, torn jeans, leather jacket.  To him the outdoors was a place between the house and the car.  He didn't have a job - and his mother told me he would never work.  He didn't have a car and the extent of his knowledge of car maintenance was putting gas in the tank.  He had dropped out of high school and didn't have any cares. But most of all he was cool.  Fonzie could have taken cool lessons from him.  Nothing ruffled that cool.  He was the leader of the pack. The James Dean of the 1990's.

He took some classes and earned his GED.  He got a job. He cut his hair - a little. He stole my heart.  We got married, bought a house, and had a baby.  He has changed jobs often and every job was a career change. He has worked two and three jobs at a time, but he's always had a job.  He is a craftsman of many trades - HVAC, construction, finish carpentry, roofing, sheet metal, electrical - but he always longed for more.

Years have passed.  His hair is not long anymore - but it's longer than most.  His favorite dress is camo, but he also wears khaki's and a dress shirt.  The heavy metal has softened to rock and roll, with some country rolled in.  He has graduated from college with a Bachelors in Social Work and he's planning to go back for a masters.  He still does all his old trades on the side too. He has kept our vehicles running for the past 25 years - changed motors and transmissions, as well as the more common fuel pumps, water pumps, etc. He lives to hunt and spend time in the outdoors.  He loves to camp and spent his university years studying in a hunting blind (where the deer were very safe, because there was more studying than hunting going on).

But there have been other changes too.  He is active in church and doesn't hesitate to tell people who are having hard times that they need to go to church in order to turn their lives around.  He became a father to his step-daughter; he taught her to drive a mere eight years after he learned himself, he screened her dates, he was there for her high school and college graduations.  He walked her down the aisle. He was there for her when her babies were born, very much the proud grandpa.   He has raised a son from the toddler who never stopped moving, to the teenager who wouldn't get off the couch, to a young man who has also graduated from college and is starting his own life, but is still happy to hang out with dad.  He is a wonderful grandfather.  "Pappaw" can do anything and his 5- and 9-year-old princesses are even willing to go hunting with him.

He is the light of my life. He supports my dreams and he works hard to make a better life for us. He puts with all the crazy that surrounds us.  He is more than the man I thought he would be way back then.  He is still cool, but it's an older, wiser cool. James Bond cool.

Yes, he is totally a different man today.  But all that means is that I love him even more.

Monday, March 10, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #10 - Eleanor Smith Barbee

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small, issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The premise: write once a week about a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, a research problem — any that focuses on that one ancestor. 

Even before I knew what Genealogy was, before I knew anything about family history, my grandmother taught me the women's side of our family.  "Eleanor had Catherine; Catherine had Sophie, Sophie had Emma, Emma had Gertrude, Gertrude had Eleanor; Eleanor had Eleanor, and Eleanor had you!"  Even today I have to stop and think about last names, but I remember the first names. These are the ladies that make me want to know about their lives and keep me researching.


The first name, Eleanor, is Eleanor Smith Barbee.  She was the daughter of John Barbee and his second wife, Phyllis Duncan.

She married Fielding Bradford on February 1, 1791.  Fielding and his brother, John, were partners in the Kentucky Gazette in Lexington, KY and Fielding moved his family to nearby Scott County on a land grant given to his father for his Revolutionary War service.  Eleanor and Fielding built a log cabin and raised four sons and three daughters.


Fielding and Eleanor Bradford's home.  Built about 1791.





Eleanor did most of the work herself - Fielding was away from home a lot.  He was a judge and served many terms on the Kentucky Legislature.


Photos taken 2009
 Eleanor's died August 14, 1835, but her legacy was just beginning.