52 Ancestors-Week 48: Gratitude – Thankful for My Grandmother’s Interest in My Family Research

This is my third year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

I cannot remember the year I started doing family research. It was after the birth of my children, so perhaps in the early 1990s. My daughters’ babysitter was a genealogist who visited the Family History Library in Salt Lake City every year and was actually there when my second child was born. I must have expressed an interest because she took me to Sutro Library in San Francisco where she set me down at a microfilm machine to look at the 1920 Soundex roll for Ravalli County, Montana. When I found my paternal grandfather, William Cyril Hork in that census and then in the 1910 census, I was hooked and wanted to go to the Family History Library with the group the following year!

After my mother died in 1992, us six children made it a point to visit our maternal grandmother, Mam-ma, once a month. We took turns driving down to Pleasanton to take her to doctor’s appointments, shopping, or out to lunch. Other times, my sisters and I would go down together and she would have piles of stuff she was ready to get rid of. We would take turns going around the table selecting an item until all were gone. These were always great visits.

Mam-ma was very interested in the things I was learning about her family. She helped with the basic information about her parents and grandparents, and about my grandfather’s parents, the Johnstons. She got me in touch with her niece, Sandra, who lived in Texas, who was a big help with the Johnston side of the family.

The more I learned through my research, the more Mam-ma was interested in what stories I had to tell. We never found that Indian blood, and her Loveless family’s name was spelled lots of different ways, not just LOVELESS. We aren’t related to the Coors beer family (our Coor line is from early colonial times in the south). I never found that connection to Will Rogers either.

It was a shame she didn’t live long enough to see the people we’re supposedly related to through Relative Finder, like Harper Lee (my 6th cousin, 2x removed), Merle Haggard (7th cousin, 1x removed), and Richard Nixon (7th cousin, 2x removed). Well, maybe not the last one, as she was a long-time Democrat. She might have liked being related to President Lyndon Johnson as 8th cousins, 1x removed.

She also took a DNA test for me, starting first with the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) because that was all there was and then we upgraded to the autosomal DNA (atDNA) test. The mtDNA test hasn’t revealed any revelations yet, but I’m so glad to have secured it.

I have much gratitude for the interest Mam-ma took in our family research. My only regret is not writing about her family. Someday, when I do get a book written, it will definitely be dedicated to her, for her support and encouragement in my work.

Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

Comments

  1. Linda StufflebeanNovember 29, 2020 at 9:10 AM

    Mam-ma was a huge influence in both your family life and your genealogical pursuits. What a nice tribute to her.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa S. GorrellNovember 29, 2020 at 9:14 AM

      Thanks, she was. My father-in-law also encouraged me and was very interested in what I learned about his family. I wish I could tell them now what more I know about their families.

      Delete

Post a Comment

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to other-than-just family members particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Blogiversary & Happy 100th Blog Post!

Image
Today is a big milestone. This is the 100th blog post I have written and the 6th anniversary of the beginning of this blog. I began the blog on January 15, 2011, through a blog writing class I took at California Genealogical Society, taught by Craig Siulinski. It was something I wanted to do but wasn’t really sure what I would focus on. I finally settled on writing about my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster’s family and this was my first post . In the beginning it was hard to get started. I learned from the Geneabloggers website, that there were blogging memes I could use and I have done that off and on, especially at the beginning. But I finally learned that what worked best was to write about my discoveries as I researched my grandmother’s family. So what have I written in six years? I discovered I have only written four posts specifically about my grandmother: “Mam-ma was a Tomboy” “Fearless Females – Day 12” “Mam-ma 1913-2013” “My Grandpar
Read more

John Coor of Copiah County Made an Agreement with Joel Hoggatt

Image
This week at RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch announced a new feature that an every-word search was available for U.S. deeds and probates. It is still in the trial mode and can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ . This is the search screen. It clearly states it is for US land and probate records and Mexico notary records. You can do a keyword search or if you click on the “more options” you can add a name. My Find I immediately gave it a try and searched first for records of the COOR family using the keyword search. Up first came deeds from Wayne County, North Carolina.  At the top, you can filter using record year, record type, record place, and collection. For the past few days, I have mainly filtered by record place. I filtered down to Mississippi. You can even filter to the county. The first entry was a document I had not seen before. It was an 1826 agreement between John Coor and Joel Hoggatt to build a set of grist and sawmills. John Coor is my 4x-great-grandfath
Read more

Using the Attendees at Lela Ann (Loveless) Lancaster’s Funeral to Discover Residences

Image
Lela Ann Lancaster, my maternal great-grandmother, died on 17 May 1951. [1] She had died in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the state hospital. The doctor’s handwriting is nearly illegible so the cause of death is difficult to determine. She was conflicted with Parkinson’s Disease which probably contributed to her death. Her funeral was three days later. [2] Lela Ann (left) with Warren, daughter Pansy, granddaughter Lela Nell, and son Wayne, c. 1935 Obituary Tells Story of Life Two obituaries were published on the same day in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune on two different pages. One gave information about her life and the funeral, and the other was about who attended her funeral. The transcription of the first is here: "Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster"    Funeral services for Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster, 55, who died at 4:30 a.m. Thursday at a Wichita Falls Hospital, were at 3 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Church with the Rev. Felix Gresham and the Rev. Ernest Rippetoe officiating
Read more