Oakley Vincent’s Bible

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My oldest daughter told me she saves these stories I share on this blog.  Good!  I don’t.  Someone should.  Copy and save them on your home computer or print them like my cousin Phyllis in New Mexico does if you wish.  That’s why I created this blog, so you could have the photos, heirlooms, and the stories that go with them.

One of these heirloom stories is about my grandfather’s bible.  Grandchildren who knew their grandparents are the lucky ones.  By 1955, when I was 8 years old, all 4 of my grandparents had died.  I never really knew them.

I have only a few vague memories of my Pawpaw, Oakley Vincent (<—click highlighted links).  Aunt Evelyn and Uncle John lived next door to us when I was growing up.  My brothers Rick & Larry, Cousin Cassie, and my childhood friend Arthur will remember their screened in front porch which faced our house.  That’s where Pawpaw Oakley stayed the last days of his life.

I remember him there.  It was shielded from the insects and he could get fresh air.  My brother Rick would be out in the yard and Pawpaw would shout to my aunt, “Evelyn, there’s a man in the yard!”  He didn’t realize it was his grandson.  It was on that porch I recall him reading his Bible.  He loved reading the scriptures.  I was fortunate to inherit that Bible and still have it.  It’s falling apart but you can still read my grandfather’s name on the cover.

On the inside flyleaf, is a dedicatory page that shows it was given to him by my Aunt Evelyn and Uncle John for Christmas.  Here’s a close-up that shows it was presented to him December 25, 1939.  My Pawpaw didn’t write much in it.  There are no markings except for the New Testament.  Aunt Evelyn told me he read from the book of Revelation a lot.  That’s where almost all the markings are.

He made vertical marks with a pencil either side of the verses he marked.  I’ve created a PDF file of those verses.  You can READ THEM HERE.  They are: Rev.3:7-12; 5:9,10; 6:12-17; 7:13-17; and 14:1-5.  They speak of the last days but are mostly about temples and Mt. Zion which Oakley said in his only margin note that it would be in the United States.  Oakley was a Methodist.  I don’t know if they believe that.  It’s my belief, though.  As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this belief can be found in our Articles of Faith #10.

I hope you enjoyed the links to the photos.  For those who are from my generation, it’s a trip down memory lane.  For the younger generations, I hope you can learn to cherish these heirlooms and stories for what they are – another little piece of family history.

Deep in the Heart of Texas – our grandmother?

Milam County, TX
Milam County, TX

My brother sent me a bunch of interesting, little known facts about Texas.  Like El Paso is closer to California than it is to Dallas and the King Ranch is larger than Rhode Island — stuff like that (what a BIG state).

Our own grandmother, Oma Seay Vincent, once lived in Texas (early 1900s).  Her dad, John N. Seay, returned the family east in a covered wagon. Her mother, Fannie Pace Seay, kept a diary of the trip which Fannie’s daughter, Johnnie, had ’til she died.  No one knows what happened to it.

The 1900 Census shows grandmother Oma living in Milam County, TX which is 154 miles due south of Dallas and 221 miles west of Beaumont.  Oma’s sister, Sam Houston Seay, died in Texas according to Aunt Celia. They kept the girls clothes which Oma’s daughter, our Aunt Celia Vincent Bass, later wore as a child (clothes were expensive back then).

Moving to Texas was not uncommon back then.  In a 1905 letter to her cousin, Marion, Oma’s future sister-in-law Ida Vincent mentioned several family members who had moved to Texas.

On the 1900 U.S. Census for Milam County, Texas, our grandmother is listed as “Ora Seah” (Her name was Oma Seay), a 12-year-old white female born in Alabama Sep. 1887.  Family records and other sources all agree she was actually born in 1888.

The census was taken the 8th of June, 1900. It says Oma and her siblings had attended school for two months that year.  Kids back then attended school far less than they do today because they were needed to help work the farm.  It says she could read and write.

On Jan. 10, 1993 I interviewed Aunt Ceecee (Celia) who told me her mom, Oma, was 7 years old when her family took a train and moved to Texas to raise cotton.  She was 14 when they returned to Alabama by covered wagon just 2 years after this census was taken.  The trip took them 6 weeks.

Our grandmother Oma named a child Houston.  You have to wonder if Texas wasn’t always deep in her heart even though she didn’t live deep in the heart of Texas.

A Tiny Little Book from 1911

Cover

In our day we have high school annuals.  Had ‘em for decades.  They are nice, hard-bound books with pretty pages and lots of glossy photos.  But it hasn’t always been so. 

I came across a little book about the size of a post card.  You’d call it a booklet, paper bound, stapled on the edge like a magazine.  It probably belonged to Aunt Lillie Blake Warren, Uncle Sam Warren’s wife.  He and my grandfather married sisters.

In the book, Aunt Lillie was in the second grade attending the Morrison Public School with her siblings.  I suppose it was a one-room school house where every grade met in one large room all taught by the same teacher.  Mine is a photocopy of the book Lillie received that I found amongst my mother’s things.

Aunt Lillie’s must have gone to her son Grady after she died.  His signature is on the page where his mom’s name appears.  He added these words, “My mother Lillie Blake” along with his and her birth dates.

The cover of the little book appears above.  Like all photos and documents linked in this blog, click the link, right-click the photo or document, then select the option to save a copy to your computer if you want to keep one.   CLICK HERE  for the cover.

A poem from “My Teacher” as well as other poems are on spare pages.  Look at THIS ONE on PAGE-1.  Turn the page and on PAGE 2 the names begin.  There is Aunt Pearl Blake in the 4th Grade (Misspelled “Pearle”) and Uncle Rufus Blake in 3rd Grade.  He’s right under George Jones (Naw, not THAT George Jones).

On PAGE-3 I found Cousin Grady Warren’s note that says, “Born 10/23/23” with an arrow pointing to his signature.  Below that, he wrote “My mother Lillie Blake Born Aug 17—1902.”  Grady died Oct. 2010 at the age of 86.  Aunt Lillie died in back in 1987.  She was 84.  In the little book from 1911, Lillie Blake Warren was in 1st Grade.  Uncle Ernest Blake, Lillie’s brother, was in 2nd Grade.

There was another Blake in 1st Grade with Lillie.  Her name was Winnie.  Never heard of her.  Who could she be?  I did some investigating.  To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, this story began to get “curiouser and curiouser.”

You see, Chester A. Johnson, he’s dead now, was an archaeologist and an excellent family genealogist.  I stumbled across his book while doing family research in the late 1980s.  Cousin Chester wrote about every member of the Blake Family in Bibb County, Alabama, who was there from 1819 to 1988 – all of them except for some of our family.  I filled him in on our branch.  Unfortunately, he already had the book published.  Chester died before he could add us in a later edition.

But Cousin Winnie was in Chester Johnson’s book, page 64, something like a 2nd cousin to Lillie, Rufus, and the rest of our bunch.  After she was grown, Winnie married Fred J. Ballenger.  They had no children.  In 1947, Fred was out golfing one day and died suddenly.  Maybe a heart attack or something.  Winnie couldn’t bear the grief of living alone and hung herself.

While searching through Chester Johnson’s book looking for Winnie, I stumbled on yet another cousin.  His name was Ross Franklin Gray.  You won’t find his name listed in the 1911 book from Morrison Public School but I should mention it anyway.  Ross Gray was my mother’s 3rd cousin. 

I worked at the phone company with a guy named Gray from Bibb County.  The name of “Gray” shows up elsewhere.  On the road from Greenpond to Shelby County we used to drive out “Gray Hill Road.”  Maybe they’re the same Grays, you say?  Yeah, I’d say the same thing. 

It doesn’t stop there.  Ross Gray is famous.  He fought and died at Iwo Jima in WWII.  He won our nation’s highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor.  He was an amazing hero.  There’s an old 1940s black and white, silent film on YouTube that shows everyone gathered on the football field at Bibb County High in Centreville.  In it, a U.S. admiral is awarding the Medal of Honor to Ross’s dad while the Governor of Alabama and other dignitaries look on.

I’m looking forward to sharing the rest of Ross’s story on my other website RonVBlog.com at a later date, maybe around Veteran’s Day.  I consider it quite an honor to claim this man as my cousin, however distant.

Sometimes family research is boring, sometimes it’s interesting, and sometimes we hit pay dirt!  What a story this turned out to be.  And it all started with a little paper bound book from 1911.  Makes you feel like you were there, doesn’t it?

1947 Letter from Fannie Pace Seay to Oma Seay Vincent

Doris_envelope

My grandmother Vincent was Penoma Ophelia Seay before she married, better known as “Oma.”  Her mother was Fannie Walker Pace.  Fannie was a very artistic woman.  Our family had a oil painting Fannie made in 1896.  You can see it by clicking HERE.  You can read and save a document about her artwork and craft skills by clicking HERE.

My main reason for this blog post is to share a letter Fannie wrote in 1947, the year I was born.  It’s an interesting letter.  It doesn’t have any Genealogy information in it but it is fascinating for Family History.  It’s a mirror into her life the year before she died at age 86.

You can view the images and transcripts of the letter by clicking HERE and clicking on the individual filenames, “.jpg” for image files and “.txt” for transcripts.  Click on the README.txt file first for an overview.

Here’s where I need help from everyone.  The letter is very hard to read.  If you have time and can decipher some of the words that we haven’t yet been able to interpret, please let me know via email or by posting comments on this blog.  If you don’t have time to review all this and would just like to see what we’ve been able to figure out so far, here’s our interpretation of what Fannie told her daughter Oma in 1946 or ‘47.

In the transcript below, words added by the editor (me) are in brackets.  “[sic]” means I didn’t make a mistake.  In the letter she actually wrote the word “I” twice.  Original spellings are preserved as best I could while at the same time trying to properly interpret what Fannie was writing.  You’ll have to interpret poorly spelled words in context.  For instance, the word “Money is spelled “Moy” in one place and “Monny” in another.

[PAGE 1]   Sunday Eve

Dear Oma, I wrote you a letter, it came back to me. I had the pneumonie in [my] right side.   my nabor kids would not come in until they heard me cough.   Mr Craft & Johnie [Fannie’s daughter] was all the ones to help me.   Staid in bed 3 weeks.   this last week was all [the time] I I [sic] have [been] able to stay up.   the grass & weeds

[PAGE] 2 has taken the place.   Most of my tomato died but law at the peaches I have had.   I saved [aa*]   a lot of [them] so do you wish any?   had 1 trre [??? bb*] of enough mad[e] pickles all from 4 serve [cc*] elbird & new derving.   this spell got me strong.   am notion [to] sell & get away.   What will be the best to sell at so you 3 kid & me will have a portion equal divid in 4 parts? [dd*]   I can sell to a man in

[PAGE] 3 town for cash if you will all sign it [ee*], if not will borrow moy on [the] place.   tel the one that loans me the monny [they can] have it for 2500 year without intest [ff*].   best to sell if I can get a place to live [that] will feed my self so write what you think is best.   haven seen of Buby[‘s] folks since last spring B cause near being killed.   not able to walk [gg*].   ever where I stay I

4 give [away] my junk.   how is your Sore?   get 1 oz of Glycerine, 3 oz of Aa iodine[, and] mix.   rub over it.   if it burn[s use] grese [to cover it] with [for] 6 hours [hh*].   have cured with this Dr Harry perscrption.   it will turn skin black of go the groth.   some[one] broke open [my] house last [night???]   [They] broke [the] lock [and] stole some cotriges.   all I went after was gone [in] 1 hr.   [They] stripapad my yard [ii*].   write & tell me who you think best stora ge no who can walk.   write soon. with lo[ve] to all,          Mother

LEGEND:

aa = Evelyn? Emily? Eula? Erika?

bb = She is obviously talking about pickled peaches.

cc = She probably means varieties of peaches.  Elberta is a common and very old variety but I have no idea what she means by “derving”?

dd = Fannie is talking about selling her place and equally dividing the proceeds 4 ways, one part each for:   Fannie (1861-1947),    Fannie’s son Beaury Walker Seay (1884-1966) aka “Buby”, a child’s nickname for “Brother”,   and Fannie’s two daughters, Penoma Ophelia (1888-1955) aka “Oma”   and Johnnie Christine (1891-?).

  NOTE: Fannie loved nicknames and had one for each of Oma’s children.  Maud Kelly writes about this in her Vincent Family History.

ee = Perhaps her husband’s will required that his property be divided equally among his living heirs.  This was once common with the wife as executrix, requiring the children’s signatures upon selling the place.

ff = This is hard to read.  If Fannie can’t sell, she plans to mortgage her property, but for how much?  It appears she is willing to sell for $2,500.00 and no interest if the loan is paid within a year.

gg = I wish I knew more about this event.  Was “Buby” (Beaury) nearly killed and not able to walk?  Perhaps one of his descendants would care to comment.

hh = This is a best guess at sentence structure and word interpretation.  If you look at the actual image file for this page of Fannie’s letter, it’s really difficult to tell what she has written.  Her sentence structure is so broken at this point that she may have meant something entirely different.

ii = This sentence and the one following it are almost indecipherable.  We’ve transcribed what we can comprehend and left words we can’t decipher as they appear.  It appears someone broke her door lock and burglarized or vandalized Fannie’s home.  In the second sentence, she may mean that whoever stole the ammunition (cotriges) also stripped (“stripapad”?) her yard of anything of value while she was gone for only an hour.  In the sentence following she may be asking Oma if she knows of a place she can store things safely that would work for someone (i.e. Fannie) who can’t walk very well.

Oakley “Pawpaw” Vincent

I can’t recall if I’ve let kin know about all the photos of our Pawpaw Vincent (Oakley Vincent 1870-1955).  I just posted a couple more so here they are.

These first two photos are the most recent.  A 1950 of Oakley at Calera, Alabama:
http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Vincent_Photos/Vincent%20-%20Oakley%201950-05-30%20closeup.jpg

This is Oakley and Oma Seay Vincent taken at the same time:
http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Vincent_Photos/Vincent%20-%20Oakley%20and%20Oma%201950-05-30%20closeup.jpg

The remaining photos have been on the website a while.  If you’ve already downloaded them, no need to do so again.  Here’s the oldest, Oakley probably taken on or before 1906.  Before he married he was the overseer of a plantation in Selma, Alabama.  On the back, this photo mentions the Selma address:
http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Vincent_Photos/Vincent%20-%20Oakley2%20large.JPG

This is Oakley, Oma, and Aaron about 1908:
http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Vincent_Photos/Vincent%20-%20Oakley%20Oma%20&%20Aaron%201908a.JPG

I have no photos of Oakley between when he was a young man and when he was old.  Here’s when he was maybe 75 years old:
http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Vincent_Photos/Vincent%20-%20Oakley%20about%20age%2075.jpg

This photo is a pencil drawing obviously created by a Camera Lucida from the 1906 photo.  This was a technique used by artists to make a large portrait since only small photos were available until much later:
http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Vincent_Photos/Vincent%20-%20Oakley%20pencil%20drawing%20edit.jpg

Another photo of Oakley, date unknown:
http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Vincent_Photos/VINCENT%20-%20OAKLEY3.jpg

A final photo of Oakley taken at Calera, Alabama when his youngest son, Harry, was still in the Navy sometime between 1941 and 1945:
http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Vincent_Photos/VINCENT%20-%20OAKLEY%20AT%20CALERA.JPG

I hope you enjoyed these photos of my grandfather, D. Oakley Vincent.  (<— for more on Oakley, click the link)

Hap & Doris — When and Where?

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I always wondered at what dates, during what years, my parents lived at previous addresses.  Mother and dad would mention previous places where they lived, where me and my brothers were born.  They would mention that dad served in WWII and later went to college but I never knew exactly  when.  I always wondered.  I’d ask my brothers but they were just babies themselves.  Mother always had difficulty remembering the exact dates.

While going through some old papers I received after mother died, I discovered dad’s G.I. insurance from  WWII.  I called the VA to confirm that mother redeemed it when daddy died in 1993.  The paper is worthless financially but historically it and many other old papers confirm the addresses where they lived at various times.  I’ve uploaded them all to MyKinFolks.org./Photos.  Here are the file names (links) and dates on a timeline:

1942

Vincent – Doris 1942-05-05 War Ration Book.JPG
This May 5, 1942 ration book shows Doris living at “Box 257 Fairfield, Jefferson, Ala.” This is Browntown.  (see “Rutledge_Springs_Bethlehem_Church.pdf” below for more about Browntown)

This says Doris was 5 ft. 2 in. tall, weighed 102 lbs. had gray eyes (hazel) and brown hair.  She was 18 years old.  She had married when she was 16.

Vincent – Richard G 1942-05-05 War Ration Book.JPG
War Ration books could be issued to parents in behalf of their children. This one is for my brother “Vincent, Richard G.” issued May 5, 1942.  He and his mother’s names are in her hand writing. The address shows “Box 257 Fairfield, Jefferson, Ala.” (Browntown) The ration book shows Rick was 7 months old, 2 ft. 3 in. tall, weighed 19 lbs. and had red hair. His hair color changed to brown as he grew older.

1943

Vincent – Wilburn 1943 War Ration Book.JPG
This 1943 War Ration Book is key to the “Box 257, Fairfield, Ala.” address.  That’s the address written in the Post Office field.  In the address field it shows “110 Browntown” and is how we know the Fairfield box number was located near the Bethlehem Methodist Church.  This ration book also shows that, in 1943, Hap was a 24 year old male who stood 6 ft. tall and weighed 170 lbs. A May 5, 1942 ration book incorrectly shows his height at 6 ft. 2 in. but shows he had blues eyes, brown hair, and weight of 160 lbs.  It also shows he was 22 years old (he wouldn’t turn 23 ’til July).

1944

Vincent – Wilburn 1944 June.JPG
Insurance certificate dated June 14, 1944 shows mother’s name and address of “Box 257, Fairfield, Ala.”  (Browntown)

Vincent – Wilburn 1944-05-02 draft notice.JPG
Hap and Doris were still living at Browntown when he received his draft notice April 18, 1944. The address on the envelope shows “Box 257, Fairfield, Alabama.”  He was told to report May 2, 1944.  The war in Europe didn’t end until May 8, 1945.

Vincent – Wilburn 1944-06-14 pink slip.JPG
His pink slip shows his last day of work at TCI (U.S. Steel) was June 14, 1944.

1945

Vincent – Wilburn 1945-01-20 Navy advancement.JPG
By Jan. 20, 1945, Hap had completed his basic training and was aboard the merchant marine ship, Theodoric Bland.  This is his recommendation for advancement to “S1/c” (Seaman 1st Class). By April 10, 1945, according to a similar record, he received a recommendation for advancement to “GM3c” (Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class).  He received the higher rank April 20, 1945.

1946

Vincent – Wilburn 1946 March.JPG
Insurance certificate dated March 14, 1946 shows Hap’s address as “2313 20th St. Ensley, Birmingham, Ala.  Doris always called this neighborhood “Shadyside.”

 

1947

Vincent – Wilburn 1947-10-27 VA education.JPG
Hap applied for his VA education money Oct. 27, 1947 while living in Shadyside.  His college courses were offered at the Old Phillips High School in south Birmingham, then called “Univ. of Ala. Center” now called the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where 3 generations of Vincents have received their higher education.

1947 and 1948

Vincent – Wilburn 1947 W2s 47-48.JPG
Form W2 for 1947 (the year I was born) which was received in 1948 shows Hap and Doris were still living in Shadyside at “2313 20th St. Ensley, B’ham, Ala.”  Also shows he earned nearly $3,000 that year.  That was a handsome wage back then when a new car could be bought for $1,100 – $1,500.  They didn’t move until 1949 when he received his 1948 W2 showing the address as “28th St.” in error on his W2 from U.S. Steelworkers, apparently pay for union activities.

Vincent – Wilburn 1947 to 1949 grades.JPG
Hap only attended college for two years from about September 1947 to June 8, 1949.  He majored in engineering and took courses in Math, English, Drafting, and Physics.  For grades he made  mostly A’s and B’s.

1949

Vincent – Wilburn 1949 building permit.JPG
The permit for construction of the house in Hueytown we grew up in was granted in August 1949. It shows a starting date of Aug. 8, 1949.  The blurred “Minimum Requirements” appears as an inked stamp on the original.  The cost of construction is estimated.  Dad and Uncle John Farris cut huge trees off the property and traded them for seasoned lumber.  His total cost for the house and 2 acres of property was probably less than $2,500.  A 1950 Real Estate Tax Return List shows he purchased the property from Betty R. and Virgil Harless.  This record was filed July 7, 1949. The following year, 1951, the property was valued at $500.  By then he had filed for Homestead Exemption.  He paid $5.04 property tax in 1949, $4.73 in 1950, and $7.25 in 1951.  Taxes shot up in 1952, the year after his home was completed, to $26.35, back down to $26.10 in 1953.

1951

Vincent – Wilburn 1951a house front.JPG ,
Vincent – Wilburn 1951b house back.JPG
,
Vincent – Wilburn 1951c house plan.JPG
This book was provided by Home Builders Plan Service in Birmingham.  It contained dozens of floor plans with builders’ blueprints available.  I don’t recall whether he ever had any blueprints for the house we grew up in.  A floor plan is found toward the back of the book with a photo of what the house was supposed to look like.  You can see where he drew sketches of proposed changes on that page and on the back of the book.  Compare the photo in the book with a 1951 Photo of the actual House.

He made a lot of changes in the design: hip roof instead of a gabled roof, longer eaves for better shading against the southern sun, a dormer instead of a gable in front, no shutters, and casement windows which he later hated because they were high maintenance.  He later replaced them, and dug out the basement.  Over the years he made many improvements in the little home.

He walled the side porch, added a garage, and eventually added a dining room and rear deck.  We grew up without central heat or air conditioning.  Heat was provided by a gas floor furnace shown in the hall floor plan below the “Disappearing Stairs” to the attic (which were never installed). Doris’s kitchen looked more like the kitchen pictured on the back of this book.  A large window A/C was installed in the kitchen but could not be put in the window since these were solid steel casement windows, not sash windows.

He had to cut a hole through the wall instead.  To provide circulation to the living room, he cut another hole through the wall between it and the kitchen and installed a small vent fan to suck the cool air into the living room.  Return air went through the open doorway so there wasn’t much cooling.  Both bedrooms, the bathroom, and office remained hot.

1952

Vincent – Wilburn 1952 March.JPG
Veteran’s Insurance Receipt shows dad’s name and address of “R D 1 BOX 651-N BESSEMER ALA.” This is Hardy Rd.  Mail was delivered from Bessemer because Hueytown did not have a post office at the time.  Mail was delivered “Rural Free Delivery (RFD or R D) via route & box number as opposed to “General Delivery” which required the addressee to visit the post office to pick up mail as was more common in my grandparents’ day.

Vincent – Wilburn 1952 TCI badge.JPG
This is Hap’s I.D. badge for him to gain entrance to the blast furnaces where he worked, first as a repairman, then a millright, then a gang leader, and finally a foreman.  He was in management when he retired.  The badge is not dated but says “TCI DIV. – U.S. STEEL FAIRFIELD STEEL.”  TCI didn’t become a division of U.S. Steel until 1952.

 

1959

Vincent – Wilburn 1959 Jan Termite Bond.JPG
Termite Bond shows address of “146 Hardy Rd., Bessemer, Alabama” dated 31 Jan. 1959. By then the official postal address was for Hardy Rd.  They were no longer on a route/box.

 

1963

Vincent – Wilburn 1963 March.JPG
Change of beneficiary shows address of “146 HARDY ROAD, BESSEMER, ALA.”  No zip codes as yet. Witness is “Mrs. Ann Hale” of “148 Hardy Road Bess., Ala.”  She was renting Aunt Evelyn’s old house next door.

Rutledge_Springs_Bethlehem_Church.pdf
A 3 page PDF file containing the history of the areas surrounding the 1817 Bethlehem Methodist Church obtained from http://www.hueytown.org/historical/.  The church is still there. Dad was a Methodist and we attended this church before I started school.  I remember the basement and looking up to see the huge, hand-hewn beams.

README.txt
This .TXT file.

Bethlehem Methodist Church 1818.jpg
Photo of the church mentioned above.  It was established in 1818, the oldest church in Jefferson County, AL.

FINALLY!  The mystery is solved.

A Thompson Mystery Solved

AndrewT

A few weeks ago, on a Sunday evening, I had a discussion with some of my children and grandchildren about some photos a distant cousin, Ted McClellan, had sent me.  I “met” Ted in December 2013 via Family Tree DNA.  I had taken FTDNA’s Family Finder DNA test the previous July.  The test shows Ted and I are relatives.

This story actually began back in the 1970s when my Aunt Evelyn Vincent Farris promised me some heirloom family photos of Andrew Thompson.  He’s the guy in the above photo (click HERE for a larger version).  Before I begin, let me share a pedigree that helps connect the dots.  Click HERE for a photo pedigree of my grandmother, Oma Seay’s line, marked in RED.

I inherited photos of Oma’s parents.  I had seen her granddad, J.N. Seay’s father in a group photo.  But I didn’t know of any photos of Oma’s mother’s family.  The photo we had of her dad’s father was a group photo taken during the Civil War.  That photo is courtesy of one of my cousins (thanks cous’) but we didn’t know which person in the photo was our ancestor nor did we know our ancestor’s correct name.

Cousin Ted identified Oma’s grandfather, Nathaniel David Seay.  He found his Civil War record from his name which matches Thompson Family Bible records where he was shown as “N.D. See.”  (His name is also spelled “See” in the Civil War record)

N.D. Seay’s height and rank are in the record.  The group photo only has one man who would have matched N.D. Seay’s height and rank – the back row, 2nd man from the right.  The original black & white photo was later colored by hand.

Finding Cousin Ted was a story in itself.  Actually, he found me.  I had connected with another cousin who Ted already knew.  Since our DNA matched, he contacted me via FTDNA.com and we began emailing back and forth.  It was Ted who explained to me where Andrew Thompson comes in.  Ted is my 2nd Cousin Once Removed.

As it turns out, N.D. See died in the Civil War.  His wife remarried a man named Thompson.  My grandmother’s father, J.N. Seay, never liked his step-dad but he was very fond of the man’s son, his younger half-brother, Andrew.  J.N. Seay ended up with at least 3 photos of Andrew Thompson which were passed on to my grandmother Oma when he died.

My Aunt Evelyn got the photos when my Oma died.  My Cousin Cass got them when Aunt Evelyn died then Cass sent them to me.  Andrew Thompson was Cousin Ted’s grandfather!  What a revelation.  He knew all about the family and literally covered me up with information about my grandmother’s ancestors, all sorts of stuff I never knew.

I was very grateful and thought, since he’s a direct line descendant, he should have two of the three photos of Andrew Thompson.  So I scanned hi-res images as copies and sent him two of the three originals.  I kept the one with Andrew and J.N. Seay together.  In return, Cousin Ted sent me a stack of wonderful old photos of my Oma’s mother’s family I never knew existed.  Wow!  Those are the photos I showed my children and grandchildren that I mentioned in the first paragraph of this blog post.

As you can see from the photo at the top, Andrew must have been a skilled blacksmith.  If you’re curious to know more, please email me.  If you think the rest of the family might want to hear your comments or questions, please comment to this blog.  Thanks.  -Ron.V

P.S.  Here are photos of Andrew Thompson, Seays, & Paces:
A photo of him standing outside his shop with an unknown man
(the black man in the background was related to “Aunt Febby”)
A photo of Andrew with Oma’s father, J.N. Seay
A photo of my grandmother’s sister Johnnie sent by Cousin Ted
(Our Aunt Celia Christine was named after Johnnie Christine)
A photo of Oma’s Uncle Joseph Brown Pace, her mother’s brother

   (Many of these and photos on The Pedigree are courtesy of Cousin Ted McClellan)

 

Hap & Joe

Hap & Joe in Hap's Living Room.

 

Hap & Joe in Hap's Living Room.
Hap & Joe in Hap’s Living Room.

This photo is a great first post for our family’s genealogy photos blog.  By the way, in case you don’t know how to migrate here on your own, just go to MyKinFolks.org and click the Link to “Photo BLOG” at the lower-right.

This is one of my favorite photos in the collection.  I didn’t know it existed until cousin Judy sent it.  She’s Joe’s daughter and my only 1st cousin on mother’s side still living.  That’s Joe on the right sitting next to my dad, Wilburn “Hap” Vincent.  His grandchildren called him “Giddy.”

These two WWII veterans represent both sides of my family, my father’s side including the surnames of Vincent, Seay, Finch, Pace, etc. and my mother’s side (she and Joe’s wife were sisters) including the surnames of Warren, Blake, Farmer, and Smith among others.

Hap and Joe are sitting in Hap’s living room which us older folks will remember.  The photo is not dated.  It was in Joe’s wife’s collection.  She was called Tincy by the family.  I’m guessing that’s because she was small when young and the name stuck.  We called her Aunt Tincy but her given name was Mildred.

The photo was in Tincy’s collection when she died.  Cousin Judy inherited it and shared it with me so we could all enjoy it.  Thanks, cousin Judy!  In fact, Judy shared a lot of photos with me which I’ll share on this blog in future posts.

According to Cousin Judy, this photo had to have been taken in ’67 or ’68.  My dad was pretty gray headed by the 1980s.  Please check the comments to this blog post for the most current information.

The full-sized copy of this photo can be viewed and downloaded 1) by clicking the photo above, 2) by going to MyKinFolks.org then Photos, then Abels, or 3) by clicking the following link:

http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Abels/Abels%20-%20Joe%20%28right%29%20&%20Vincent%20-%20Hap%20%28left%29%20in%20Vincent%20Family%20living%20room.jpg