Mam-ma's Southern Family

One photo of my 2x-grandfather, A. Ebenezer Loveless, shows not a full beard, but a very full mustache and goatee. He is pictured with his wife, Eliza A. (Rodgers), and youngest child, Lela Ann, my great-grandmother (and Mam-ma's mother). I love this photo. They are nicely dressed, he in a suit and Eliza and Lela in their finest dresses. Lela looks about seven to nine years of age. She was born in 1896 and her mother died in 1907. So, this photo was taken sometime between those years.  They lived in Faulkner County, Arkansas. He farmed and preached with the Baptist church. I have a photo of him standing in Cadron Creek after baptizing several members of the congregation. It was given to the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, Arkansas by Mrs. J.E. Loveless, wife of the grandson of Ebenezer. It was published in their column "Way Back When" on July 12, 1981. I have the actual clipping, given to me by a distant cousin, but I have not found a digital copy. These papers are not onl...

Happy Mother's Day! Mam-ma, her daughter, Lela Nell, her granddaughter Lisa, and great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Copyright © 2023 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

There was no big catastrophic event that happened in my family, but I can think of several smaller events that would be nice to be portrayed in a movie, primarily so I could see their adventures visually. We don’t have many photos and certainly not photos of their travels. I would love to see a movie about the travels of my southern family as they traveled across the southern states, from North Carolina to Texas. Depending on the timeframe, the travel might have been accomplished using horses, oxen, or mules pulling a wagon of their goods while the family members walked alongside. Later, after the Civil War, once railroads were rebuilt, they may have journeyed by using trains. I do know that John Core, his mother, four sisters and two small children, along with some enslaved people, traveled from Richmond County in North Carolina through Indian Nation to the Western Country (which was what would be Mississippi Territory). Also traveling with his family were Mr. John Keayhey (which ...

Hey genea-folks,  it's  Saturday Night  again,  time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  This SNGF is based on the 100 Word Challenge ( https://100wc.net/ ) that school children are participating in around the world.  They are given a word or phrase to write a story about in one hundred words. 2)  Write a short 100 word story using the phrase ",,,an ancestor I would like to meet..." in 100 words. Why would you like to meet him/her? [Hint:  If you write it in a word processor, you can use Tools > Word Count (or similar) to count words] Here's mine: An ancestor I would like to meet is George W. Lancaster (1839-1919), my 3x-great-grandfather. Born in Missouri, he lived mostly in Texas, except for a stint in Maricopa County, Arizona, where he purchased federal land and then abandoned his wife, Martha Jane (Polly) and family. He and the oldest son, William Carleton, returne...

My maternal grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster, loved to sew. She made most of her own clothes when she was young and that skill came in handy when she was a young adult. She worked at clothing stores, both men and women, and had side jobs doing alterations. It was a great way to make some extra money. I remember her old sewing machine. It was black and had gold lettering on it. I have a few photos of outfits she made. This shot shows the mother-daughter dresses she made. And with this one, I would be surprised if she made these night clothes for their Christmas photo. Later in retirement, she liked to crochet and made us all blankets. When her hands couldn’t crochet anymore, she took up embroidering. Here is a shot of her in the embroidered sweatshirt. #Women’sHistoryMonth. March is Women’s History Month. This is post one of the women in my ancestry. Some will be direct ancestors, and others sisters, aunts, and cousins.  Copyright © 2023 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's South...

I have fond memories of eating catfish my grandfather caught, likely at Clear Lake where they had a cabin in the town of Nice. Mam-ma always prepared the fish by rolling them in cornmeal and egg and frying them. Oh, so delicious! Now, I have never been fishing, so I don’t know much about how to catch catfish, what bait to use, or where the best place to find them at Clear Lake. I never asked my grandfather about how he fished. He may have fished from a boat. However, I found a website that gives tips on fishing at Clear Lake. [1] Besides catfish, largemouth and smallmouth bass, white and black crappie, bluegill and sunfish, and perch can be found in the lake. I learned that catfish prefer warmer coves but are also found near marinas. Live bait, cut bait, or dough bait can be used and some of the best baits are chicken livers, hotdogs, anchovies, mackerel or sardines, and even night crawlers. In this photo, we can see he had a successful day of fishing. This is taken at their hom...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings asks us to “Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.”  1)  Pick an ancestor, any ancestor.  What do you know about them?  What source type(s) do you have for each item? Answer the 20 questions below about your chosen ancestor. Here's mine: 1)  Ancestor's birth name:  Abner Ebenezer Loveless [1] 2)  Ancestor's parents:  Jesse Loveless and Elizabeth Nixon [2] 3)  Ancestor's birth date and place:  8 Feb 1851 in Georgia, likely in Cass County, as that is where the family was living in 1850. [3] 4)  Ancestor's baptism/christening date and place:   likely Baptist, so no infant baptism . 5)  Ancestor's spouse birth name:   Eliza A. Ro(d)gers ; [4] Melissa M. Settle [5] 6 )  Ancestor's spouse paren...