2020 - Gratitude Day #12 - My Grandparents

 Gratitude Day #12 

Today I am grateful for my grandparents.

It's difficult to imagine that my grandparents were born in the late 1800s. And I knew each of them personally.

My Dad's parents were Richard Lee and Fannie Collier Clemens. Dad was #5 out of eleven children, so I can only imagine how difficult it would have been to raise a family of that size in the hollers of eastern Kentucky. They would raise all but two of those children to adulthood. 

Older brother Cecil had died at three months old from whooping cough. 

Little Betty died while sitting in her big sister's lap in a rocking chair. As she rocked, she would push off on the pot belly stove in front of her, not realizing that with each "push", a pot of beans inched toward the edge.

And, it fell on little Betty. 

This sweet 3 1/2 year old girl suffered for three days before her eventual death. Their feelings on the death of any of their children would be no different than mine today.

I don't think my Dad's family had much money, for it doesn't appear that they lived in one place for very long. I am working on two big projects right now that include ICAPGen renewal, as well as for the First Families of Ohio lineage society. Tracing my dad's family began with him and continuing on back. All I can say at this point is that their life was extremely hard and poor.

But, they made it. It's funny how my sisters and I returned to Olive Hill, Kentucky to look for the house we can all remember making visits to. It was a huge white house with a red roof and a wrap-around porch.

Suddenly it just doesn't seem so huge anymore. My sisters kept asking:

"Where's the apple orchard?"

"Where's the hill grandpa rode a hog on?"

I don't know. I can't help you.

The house on College Hill.

Richard Lee and Fannie Collier Clemens

Richard Lee and Fannie Collier Clemens

My mom came from a good family lineage. I have more memories of her parents than I do of my dad's, for when his parents died I was only about age 5 & 6.

I often wonder how any of my grandparents made it through the 1918 flu epidemic. Mom was the oldest of a large family of boys, and two of those boys were lost during that time. Her aunt Harriett lost three children. It wasn't unusual for people to lose many children or other relatives.

Mom's parents were Corbitt Sullivan Stevens and Bertha Agnes Gearheart. For years I wondered how papa Corb got his name, for we have found no one in the family named either Corbitt or Sullivan. No one. 

So, a few years ago, I asked my uncle if he knew where the names came from. He said, "Sure! It was from two prizefighters!"

I wrote about it here: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8363417267053930444/1144019730923837419 

I am grateful for the good and happy times I had visiting their homes, eating their food, and listening to their stories. They are the ones who connect me with history - my history, their history, American history.

The house built by Corb Stevens, Lawton, KY

Corbitt Sullivan Stevens

Bertha Agnes Gearheart Stevens

Do I Have Enough Proof? Reading to the end of the line.

I have been stuck on one of my Collier lines for years.  I guess my parents were, too.

This is a photo of Anna Walker and John Beauregard Collier, my father's grandparents.  He knew them well.  John was named for his father, John B. Collier.  After that, we've always been a bit unsure.

I use this particular slide in the classes I teach, for it shows that not all handwriting was atrocious.  This is actually pretty good!  Once you get into the mode of reading it, the lettering begins to flow.

The record on the left shows that John B. Collier and Rebecca Roberts asking for permission to be joined together in the holy state of matrimony.  It is dated the 20th day of February 1852 in Lee County, Virginia.

The record on the right is the minister's return, stating that he joined them together in the holy state of matrimony on 22nd day of Feb 1852.  It is dated 3 Mar 1852.

I have not ever been able to find the parents of John.  I have scoured the records and the cemeteries and the courthouses of southwest Virginia trying to find something to prove who is parents were.  I did keep running across a man by the name of Aaron J. Collier, a physician.  He is quite prominent.

I ordered microfilm records of Lee County, Virginia and searched them carefully, only to send them back to Salt Lake City.  On a whim, I reordered a birth register for the area to once again see if there was anything I had overlooked.

As a young genealogist, I didn't always look all the way across the page.  In the above slide, you be able to see LeGrand Collier's record of birth.  His father, John, is in the right column.  It is about one-third of the way down.

Now you can see the second page of the ledger where Rebecca Collier is listed as his mother.  This is where I always stopped.

If you continue on to the last two columns, you can see where the informant is listed as A.J. Colier.  His relationship?  "G.F."

I'm pretty sure this is the Aaron J. Collier, physician, that I have seen in so many records.  But, the relationship has me hopefully optimistic.

Could "G.F." be "grandfather"?  Could it?  Please, could it?

Could it be little LeGrand's grandfather and John's father?

I know it will take more work to prove this relationship, but it's more than I've had in the past.  And, I might have had it earlier if I had just read to the end of the line!