Road Trip: Taking Mam-ma to Stephenville, Texas

My mother died in 1992 and as I began working on the genealogy of her family, I got to thinking about where she came from. My mom was born in Stephenville in Erath County, Texas in 1934. Her mother, my Mam-ma, was still alive at age 82 years old, and in 1995, I asked her if she’d like to take a trip to Texas to show me where she and Mom lived. She thought it a great idea.

I purchased our plane tickets and she made arrangements with her niece, Sandra Hall, to pick us up from the airport and stay the night with her, and then drive us down to stay with her brother, RD Lancaster, in Stephenville. 

Me with Hal and Sandra

We only stayed four days. In hindsight, I wished I had had time to do some real research in the library in Stephenville and check out the historical society and the library at Tarleton University in town. Since doing newspaper research, I would also go to the genealogy library in Dublin. But I was still a rookie genealogist and didn’t think of these things. However, RD’s wife, Barbara, knew someone at the courthouse, and they let me look at the record books in the vault. I dutifully copied down the info into my notebook. Later, I was able to locate the actual images on microfilm at the Family History Library.

RD and Barbara with Mam-ma in center

RD drove us around, taking a tour around Stephenville and the surrounding area, and we saw all the places that were still standing where Mam-ma and RD lived. I took notes and lots of photos. We also visited the cemeteries where ancestors were buried and I got photos of those tombstones, too. I thought I was doing well, taking photos of the markers and recording in my notebook what was written on them. I didn’t take photos of the entrance or the surrounding stones, so I would have no idea how to find them again. Also, the photos I took of the tombstones were with black and white film and the photos of people were with color slide film.

The oldest tombstone I found. In Lower Greens Creek Cemetery

Mam-ma did take me to meet some of her cousins, and that was nice. One woman was a genealogist and a member of DAR, so we corresponded for some time afterward on her line.

I have fond memories of that first road trip I took dealing with genealogy. I audio-recorded some of Mam-ma’s and RD’s conversations and I need to find a service to transfer that to mp3.

#52Ancestors-Week 39: Road Trip

This is my fifth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week on one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.


Copyright © 2022 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

Comments

  1. Diana Bryan QuinnSeptember 27, 2022 at 8:47 AM

    Loved this post. My first genealogy trip was also to Stephenville. In 2001, I visited a new to me cousin, the West End Cemetery where my great-grandparents are buried, the museum, and the library at Tarleton State University. I spent over a week traveling around Texas with another new to me cousin and this became our first of many, many trips.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa S. GorrellSeptember 27, 2022 at 1:26 PM

      Oh, how wonderful. I sure want to re-do this trip with visits to repositories.

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