I also would like to understand how I got to where I am today - and in part - the answer to that extends back in time, even before I was here. After all, my place in the world was determined by where my folks were when they had me. So in part, to me, this means needing to understand why some my predecessors moved from where they were, to where they ended up.
Lastly, I'm helping my mom with her Daughters of the American Revolution application. In the process, I've been learning how to find things I never expected to find on-line.
My dad's family never moved once it came to the United States. They arrived in Philadelphia and in the seven intervening generations, never moved to a place further than fifty miles from the William Penn statue on City Hall.
My mom's family on the other hand...
One of the links to "where I've come from" is a tangled one.
Meet my great-grandmother "Maggie" and the "Reverend", shown here sitting on the running board of an old Ford four-door sedan somewhere in Texas.
Maggie, or more formally, Margaret Jane Shipman, came to Honey Grove, Fannin county, Texas with her parents, John Madison Shipman and Paratine Avary in the autumn of 1880. Her mother's parents and her younger brother Daniel Perry Shipman, also moved at that time, from Mount Pleasant, Wayne county, Tennessee. Maggie was but 11 years old.
Why did this family uproot from Tennessee-Alabama border and move to Texas? I've a couple theories and no answers. One thought is that they moved to escape the carpetbaggers that made life miserable for folks in those parts after the Civil War. Apparently, this family of rather poor dirt farmers without pre-war slaveholdings, had no part in the "Lost Cause of the Confederacy", and just wanted to be left alone. Several of Paratine's family were hung after the Civil War by northerners who simply didn't like them.
Another theory is that they moved to Texas to settle on one of the Texas Land Grants given to distant cousins, Edward and Moses Shipman. They apparently had some role in the Texas Revolution and were offered land in Fannin, Red River, and Bexar (San Antonio) counties. I've not had the time to sort this possibility out yet.
At any rate, Maggie married a mysterious William Deary in November of 1891. She quickly had a little girl named Grace, and in February 2, 1893, she has a little boy named George (soon to always be called Bubbie). She is left a widow by November 1893.
In the meantime, Reverend Joseph Black Bush has moved to Texas with his wife Mary and two girls, Lizzie and Virgie, from Fountain Run, Monroe county, Kentucky shortly after 1880. Again, the "in-law" parents also make the long move.
In 1883, the Reverend and Mary have a third girl, who they name Tommie, and Mary dies in 1890.
Why did they uproot from the third or fourth generation family home in Fountain Run, Kentucky and go to Texas? Again, I don't know. My great-grandfather was a fire and brimstone preacher in the very southern baptist, "Churches of Christ". One of the leading and founding members of that church was in Texas. Perhaps my great-grandfather was "given orders from the church" to go there. Subsequently, he served as a teacher and minister in Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, Indian Territory. Maybe he was a "missionary" in a sense?
With five children between them from prior marriages, they soon have six more.
The first child the Reverend and Maggie Bush had, was my grandfather, shown here in his full "Masonic Lodge" regalia, in Boston, circa 1955.
14 comments:
As always interesting!
My Dad's family was similar, always lived in the Philly vicinity. My mother's family had roots in the South. I think I've mentioned before, my brother a genealogy of our families.
I hope you get to find more details on your ancestors' mysterious travels. You may have to seek some records from non-online sources! I didn't know your gr-grandfather was a preacher. Yes, very possibly, he was serving in a missionary capacity. And, oh, what a mess in the post-civil-war South. Those hangings seem so unjust, but make me wonder about the back story there.
So glad you are getting to research all these roots with your mom. There is something so intangible but arresting about connecting with your own past!
You certainly are finding all sorts of interesting facts about your ancestors. I'm sure this will lead to lots of questions, but at the same time, give you answers to some of those questions as well. Good luck and enjoy the adventure!
Keep up the good ancestory quest. Nothing like finding the missing pieces and putting them all together. One of my other friends loves to root around for her ancestors and she also loves to watch that Public TV show about finding people ancestors -- I forget the name of that show, but you probably know the name of it.
Lickety Splitter might be referring to Who Do You Think You Are... on NBC Friday nights. There's only a couple episodes left, but it's actors/actresses researching their family histories to see where they came from. Rob Lowe was on last Friday, his 5 times great-grandfather was a Hessian that fought Washington at the Battle of Trenton.
What can be so fun about looking for information on long ago relatives is the availability of information. With determination and help from the right people, you should be able to find out exactly why your relatives moved to Texas, instead of staying where they were.
I can't wait to hear more about your findings!
Wanting to know where you came from is understandable. And it sounds like you're finding out all sorts of interesting things from your family's past!
you had kinfolk along with my kinfolk about the same time pretty close together..we could be kinfolk...
I would really like to be able to trace my family back to medieval times, at least. It hasn't been easy. I love seeing you find "gifts" of the past to see how you got here. Thats a very interesting hobby to have.
There is a show on PBS called "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr". (had to run a search to find the complete name of the show) Terri and I watched it a few weeks ago when Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick was on it. I actually thought it was a better show than "Who Do You Think You Are?".
One of those blended families...we have a similar one - Robert S had 4 children with his first wife, who died. Married the housekeeper and had 5 additional children before SHE died, then married a third time and fathered 2 more. The whole giant family was spread over many years but weirdly they were somehow close.
Always so interesting. I'd like to know more about my family history, too. I should get ahold of my sister one day and find out what she has dug up. ;)
You have learned so much, but I bet you're dying to find out more and more. You're doing a cracker jack job! :)
Good job on what you have been able to find so far! AND you have some photos!! The whys and hows most of the time had to do with land or family..at least that is what I have found through my work at the museum:)
I've been watching that friday night show -- Who Do you think you are
... and the things that you are discovering are the same kind of things they find and share.
My brother and I searched for awhile and found that it can really become an obsession. My brother went to distant family reunions -- and met so many people and found out so many things.
DO you know Sue at Collect In Texas (blog)? She traces her family history and it is sooooo interesting! I Like this story. You write wonderfully.
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