For years I had looked for the death record for my great-great-grandmother Martha Ella Barbee. Ella was born about 1854 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and married Robert Barbee on May 24, 1877, at Huntsville, Alabama. Ella came into the marriage with two children: George ( 1874) and Joe (1875). She Continue Reading
2022 – 52 ANCESTORS CHALLENGE – WEEK 01 – FOUNDATIONS
For me, the bedrock of our family was my maternal grandmother, Cozelle Sloss Taylor. She raised me as an infant. Her burial was on the day of my eighteenth birthday. She only had one job away from the house, and that was during the ’40s to support the war effort. Continue Reading
2021 – 52 Ancestors Challenge – Week 42 – Sports
I am bad at all “Sports,” and always the last one picked for a team. I remember visiting my sister and her family at Fort Bragg, and we decided to play baseball with our spouses and children. I was the last one chosen. It hurts. I guess they wanted to Continue Reading
2021 – 52 Ancestors Challenge – Week 39 – Steps
Martha Ella Quinn was my 2nd great-grandmother who married Robert Barbee. I have little information on her life. His first wife was Amanda Lawler. Amanda’s father, Samuel Lawler, a resident of Averyville, near Stevenson, Alabama, appeared on 26 February 1870, before Judge Lewis Douglas in Madison County, Alabama, to testify Continue Reading
2021 – 52 Ancestors Challenge – Week 35 – School
Judge William Rayen (1776-1854) left the means in his Will to establish and maintain a secondary school for all races in Youngstown, Ohio. The school opened its doors in 1866 and was the only high school in Youngstown until 1911. In 1922, Rayen moved from W Wood Street to Benita Continue Reading
2021 – 52 Ancestors Challenge – Week 28 – Transportation
In 1943, at the age of 19, my father, James W. Chappelle, enlisted in the US Army. He initially became a clerk/typist and dispatch driver, but he wanted out of that role. So he tried to get in the fight. One year later, he became a trucker on the legendary Continue Reading