Mam-ma's Southern Family

When I began researching my Mam-ma’s family, I wanted to go to Texas to see where my mother and grandmother grew up. I broached the subject to my grandmother and she agreed to go on a trip to Stephenville with me. The year was 1995. My mother had been gone three years already and I had been working on genealogy research for probably two years. As I worked on Texas research, I really wanted to visit the places my mother lived. Mam-ma was willing, especially as I paid our way, and she made the arrangements for the places we would stay: the homes of her niece, Sandra, and her brother, R.D. My great-uncle, R.D. was great. He took us all around Stephenville, stopping at each of the houses where they lived. It seemed they moved a lot, looking for better or cheaper places to live. Some were in town and some out in the country. When my grandmother was born, her father was still trying to farm. But it didn’t work out and he learned to fix cars instead, which had a steady income. I kept no...

I began this blog in 2011 to honor the southern roots of my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster, and have a place to tell the stories of her family. Another motivation for writing blog posts is hoping that cousins will find my posts and contact me. This has happened several times, but not as much as I had hoped. I heard from a Hutson cousin and he has done tremendous research, taking the family back many generations. He formed a Hutson Family Facebook page where other members of his immediate family have also joined and shared photos. He is related to me through my 4x-great-grandfather, Robert Hutson (1821-????). I also heard from Loveless cousins, some of whom live in Texas and others in Arkansas. These are descendants of Ebenezer Loveless (1851-1929). I have been contacted by some Lancaster cousins, who are descendants of George W Lancaster (1839-1919). One descendant helped me discover what had happened to his wife, Martha Jane Polly (1855-1932), who I had thought died. This...