Mam-ma's Southern Family

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. I searched for photos of Mother’s Day with my mother or with my own children and couldn’t find any. Instead, I’m sharing instead some multi-generational photos I found. This is a four-generation photo taken at Christmas 1988. My grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster Johnston (age 75); my mother, Lela Nell Johnston Hork (age 54); myself, Lisa Suzanne Hork Gorrell (age 34);and my daughter, Elizabeth Ann Gorrell (age 1 month).   A three-generation photo taken in Los Angeles, 1923. My great-grandmother, Julia Ann Sievert Hork (age 69); my grandmother, Anna Marie Sullivan Hork (age 31); and my aunt, Lorene Ethel Hork (age 5 or 6 months).   Another three-generation photo taken in Stephenville, Te...

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. When we first find our ancestors in a census record, we tend to just focus on that one family on the page. We carefully record the head of household, his wife, and children into our genealogy program or into a word processing document. There might be others in the household such as one of the parents or in-laws, or perhaps a sibling or servant. It is a good practice to at least look at the census entries before and after the targeted family. I try to look a page or two before and after the family and record the head of household’s first and last names. At first glance, we may not know whether any of these people are kin, especially if they are not of the same surname. I have a family on a page in Comanch...