Family Stories Collection: This special collection contains a selection of family history stories submitted by our readers. Originally published Feb 03, 2013. Last year I spent some time researching the family history of my sister-in-law Susie. Along we way we …
I was married for the first time in 2007 at age 51, to a wonderful man. His father, Norman, walked me down the aisle that day, since my father had died many years before.
My mother’s maiden name is Watkins. One of her second-great-grandfathers is Absalom Craddock Watkins, who first shows up on public record in the 1820 Census of Bond Co., IL. With him is his wife Mary “Polly” Little, and enumerated just before him are his father-in-law James Little, Sr. and brother-in-law James Little, Jr. In the 1850 Census, A.C. and Polly are identified as being born in KY, which kept me running in circles for many years following many Littles and Watkins without a connection.
Robert Evans Griner (1767_1827) eloped with Priscilla Knight (1774-1848). They migrated to what they thought was north of Duck River near Hickman County Tennessee that in those days was the border of lands of the Native American Chickasaw Nation, and there they built a cabin.
Grandma was born in Nebraska on November 8, 1894 and died nearly 100 years later, in 1986. She grew up at a time when girls, especially daughters of immigrants on the Nebraska prairie, didn’t think about much except getting married and having a family. But Grandma was smarter than most, and more ambitious than most. She managed, after graduating eighth grade, to attend a nearby coed ‘college’ (as the word was used then), Luther College, and then get a job at a local bank, the Hordville Bank.
One of my great-grandfathers was a Swede named Charles Anderson (1859-1916), a boatman on the canals of northern Illinois—and he was quite a character. Grandma never talked about him—but being a big fan of black sheep stories (especially when the aforementioned stories come from within my own family), I think I shall.