MY FAMILY ROADSHOW

Thoughts and Ramblings I feel as though I have advanced beyond the mere collection of dates.  Many questions have  arisen like: how did my ancestors live, and of course, how did they die? How did my ancestors deal with the death that was all around them?  What about medical terms, herbs, influenza, cholera, tuberculosis, fevers, death at childbirth, burial methods, gravestones, the culture of death, and on and on and on! Some readers may not approve of some of the photographs that I have chosen to post. However, it's my blog.  I need to tell the story as it was and is - so on with the  Thoughts and Ramblings! FUNERALS I remember funerals being taken seriously.  I was young when my paternal grandfather died in 1964, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. I remember the somber reality of death that was with our family and community. I remember the 'quiet' in the funeral home.  The reverence.   I remember the funeral.  Family.  Love.   Within the p

ELIZABETH POYNTZ Elizabeth Poyntz was born around 1587-88 in Somerset, England.  Her mother, Elizabeth Sydenham died at the age of only 33 in Westminister, London, England. Her father was Sir John Poyntz born 1530 of Acton in Gloucestershire. Elizabeth's ancestral home was Iron Action Court (see picture below). Iron Acton Court,  Gloucestershire Elizabeth Poyntz's Ancestral Home Elizabeth became Lady Thurles around 1608-1610 when she married Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles, son of Walter, 11th Earl of Ormond.  Thomas was 14 when they married. The marriage was against her father-in-laws's wishes. They were probably the first of the family to take up residence in Thurles Castle in Ireland. *Thurles was an ancestral home of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. THURLES CASTLE She and Thomas had three sons and four daughters before he drowned on December 15, 1619, when the ship carrying him to England was wrecked off the Skerries near Anglesey.  He was 23 yea

'Smiling Faces Sometimes' by the Temptations   go something like this ~   Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes  They don't tell the truth. (The key word in those lyrics is 'Sometimes') People did not smile in old photographs!   What was up with that?   Bad teeth?   I'm sure that was true in some cases,  but not for everyone and every picture! Smiles were perceived quite differently centuries ago.  Although today we think of smiles as being indicative of happiness, humor, and warmth, they apparently had very different meaning back in the day:  "By the 17th century in Europe it was a well-established fact that the only people who smiled broadly, in life and in art, were the poor, the lewd, the drunk, the innocent, and the entertainment."  So if you wanted to be seen as upper class and as a person of good character?  Don't smile.   MORE POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR THE 'NO SMILING FACES' Probably the

Isabelle Caroline Burgess & John Martin Lafayette Stone Isabelle Caroline Burgess (My Second Cousin 3X Removed) Isabelle was born in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, on August 8, 1852.  She was the daughter of Nancy Grace Campbell and John Hiram 'King' Burgess.  She married John Martin Lafayette Stone.  He was born  in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, on April 6, 1845.  They were married on August 28, 1866, in Tennessee (she was 14 and he was 21) and had 10 children in 21 years.  Isabelle died on January 6, 1914, in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, at the age of 61.  Lafayette married a second time. He died on January 8, 1929, in Fordland, Missouri, at the age of 83. Isabelle Caroline Burgess   (1852 - 1914) is your 2nd cousin 3x removed Nancy Grace Campbell (1822 - 1897) mother of Isabelle Caroline Burgess Martha "Patsy" Toler Allison (1791 - 1871) mother of Nancy Grace Campbell John Allison JR (1762 - 1842) father of Martha "Patsy"