Story Teller

In 2016 my grandmother died and we began the almost impossible task of cleaning out her house (she was a hoarder) while cleaning up we found some of her sister's possessions. Her sister was the great-aunt who told all the colorful stories and had died 10 years earlier. 

The sisters were 15 years apart in age, and the great-aunt was almost like a surrogate mother to my grandmother. But the two of them despised each other. Their older brother left about the time the youngest was born so he wasn't involved in their squabbles.  

I grew up on stories of hatred of one another. Their homes were a perfect example. The older sister found this cute little lot in a lakefront community she kept it a secret but somehow the little sister heard about it. Little sister swept in and bought a bigger corner lot that was ON THE waterfront. So a fuming older sister decided instead to buy TWO waterfront lots on the lake, next door to little sister. Little sister's lot was now cornered but couldn't be outdone so she bought the lot across the street that had a house on it. So older sister bought two other vacant lots just so her sister could never own them.  It was a Y intersection as you drove into the neighborhood, the two of them owned the land at each intersection of the Y.  My grandmother always complained that her sister boxed her property in so she could never expand. Meanwhile, her sister's husband built them this elaborate, very large, 2 story home that had a winter and summer bedroom and that hidden room between the walls. The second lot housed their boat, van, motorhome, and trailer.  One time the little sister tried to block the road so the big sister couldn't leave the neighborhood, but that just got the whole neighborhood mad at her.  

They lived next to each other for close to 20  years, always despising each other, trying to outdo each other, and always spying on each other.  Now there is a chance they got along at some point, but I don't remember it and anyone who did is likely dead too. 

So when we found the older sister's belongings in the little sister's house a lot of things clicked into place. The older sister had died 10 years before and had had memory issues, or at least we thought she did. She'd call complaining she couldn't find her glasses, certain jewelry, or even her dentures! She was a tiny woman in a huge house so it was a good assumption that she misplaced or forgotten where she'd put them. This made her turn a bit squirrely and paranoid which is why she began hiding things intentionally throughout the house. 

Turns out little sister HAD been sneaking into her house and stealing her glasses, jewelry, and dentures. Little sister was also paranoid about her sister doing the same so she left herself notes in the drawers. "16 yellow cloth napkins in this drawer matching placemats in my nightstand". Whether that was a note to remind herself or send her sister on a wild goose chase I don't know.  I do know that even after her sister had died my grandmother would tell me she could see her sister standing and staring at her from the fence between their properties. With such strong emotions between the two of them, I always wondered if it actually could be true. But I pray they are both at peace! 

One of the things I found in my grandmother's things was a spiral that had genealogy information in it that was written in my great aunt's writing. Since she always had nutty stories I was curious about it so I brought it home. 

Finally, one day I sat down and began looking through it, most were random notes on various people, some I'd recognize some I didn't. There were dates she'd found, and books/documents she'd looked at. And almost every page had a big X scratched across it, there was nothing exciting. But one thing hadn't been scratched out. It said, "The damn yankee's killed Caroline in Newton, MS during Civil War and cut her up and put her in a wash tub on the porch while he was at war." Now that's some strong language, a huge accusation, and paints a horrible picture at the same time. So I called my mom and asked if she knew anything about the note. She said she remembered hearing the story but no one had any proof it was correct. 

I have searched for Caroline for over 5 years. I still don't know exactly what happened to her. I know that her death would have been around the time of Grierson's Raid, The Union Army destroyed the railroad and parts of town to disrupt the Confederates from getting their supplies.  Champ Ferguson also went through this area that year, he was a vigilante guerrilla who claimed to have killed over 100 people because he thought they were for the Union. He was known for killing people with his knife and doing sadist things with his victims.  He was arrested, tried, and hung for his actions, It is unknown just how many he killed. Looking into Caroline made me sad, she left 6 young children behind, and if her husband was indeed fighting during that time, where did that leave the children? Were the children there to witness this attack?

As time went on and I began to feel too sad and depressed for Caroline I jumped trees and began helping my mom break down a brick wall on her dad's side of the tree. That is where I found Harriet, she changed the way I saw genealogy, you can find her story on the More than a Name page.  I found that this branch of ancestors often moved to the US because of religious persecution. One branch was French Hugeonut who settled in New Paltz, NY, a family home still stands and is now a museum. We found George Soule who sailed on the Mayflower. Jonathan Barber served during the American Revolution.  I found numerous relatives who died without children, or their children didn't have children. This once huge branch now resembles a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The DNA of this line will continue but the last name may die during my lifetime. 

Since my grandmother's family is so colorful I've jumped to other branches on that tree finding Mary Littlejohn Withers Coffer and being in awe of her strength. She was married at 15, a mother at 18, and a widow at 19, she was also the guardian of her 3 younger siblings. Because she was a woman she didn't have the rogjts to own the land she lived on, instead it had to be willed to her 9-month-old. Her father had named her now deceased husband as his executor, but with his death and her being a woman she wasn't allowed to manage her father's estate and the siblings she was guardian of were minor's so they couldn't manage it either. She was caught in a really rough spot and her hands were tied, so she did the only thing she could, remarry. But even that was't simple. She had to get permission from a man (her neighbor) and he had to pay a fee guaranteeing she'd marry her second husband. The neighbor who helped her was George Mason his son drafted the Virginia Declaration of Independence which was then used as a model for the US Declaration of Independence and was one of the writers of the US Constitution. She was also friends and neighbors with Augustine Washinton. Her son and his son George Washington would fund and build a church together before George became General George Washington and led the American Revolution. 

Thanks to my genealogy research we have: 

Visited the replica of the Mayflower, saw Plymouth rock, and stood on the spot where my ancestor George Soule lived when he sailed over on the Mayflower. 

We visited Barber's Pond, which is now a county park, and looked upon the same lake my Revolutionary War Patriot lived on. 

We have sat in the church pew that was owned by Thomas Withers Coffer in the church that he and George Washington helped build. We sat in the one across from it was George Washington's pew. We visited the house of George Mason who helped Mary get married and her siblings keep their father's inheritance. We visited Mt. Vernon, where there are documents written by George Washington naming my ancestors. And we sat and talked with the people who now live on the land that Mary Withers Coffer was able to eventually own, and where she, as a woman, was actually named as owning it. 

We have visited New Paltz learned about the French Huguenots and visited the house that was once owned by relatives and is now a museum. 

We have visited several cemeteries and my kids even helped me unbury a headstone. 

Life feels different when you realize what your ancestors did that allowed you to be where you are today. It's a life-altering feeling to stand or look upon the same thing your ancestor did centuries ago. 

Some family trees have beautiful leaves and some have a bunch of nuts. Remember its the nuts that make the tree worth shaking.