Family Quilts

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.


March 6 — Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor (wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.) If you don’t have any, then write about a specific object you remember from your mother or grandmother, or aunt (a scarf, a hat, cooking utensil, furniture, etc.)

Dutch Doll Quilt made by Gladys

When my grandma Gladys died in 1984, she left a legacy of quilts. My mama received  a few of them which she put back for her grandchildren. As the children became adults, married, had children of their own, she gave them one of her mother's handmade quilts. The picture shows Grandma's Dutch Doll quilt which my older daughter--her great-granddaughter--now has; hopefully to be passed down to her children.

When I was a child, Grandma often had a quilt in a frame in the winter when cold weather kept her out of the garden. In warmer weather she preferred to be outside, wearing a bonnet not unlike the dolls in the quilt, and tending to her beloved dahlias and gladiolas. 

Library of Congress digital collection. No known restrictions.

The quilt frame was made up of four long, flat boards held together at the corners. The unfinished quilt was put into the frame so she and anyone who wanted to help, could add the quilting stitches from the outside edge in. As she worked, the finished parts of the quilt would be rolled up, putting the unfinished sections in reach. This process was repeated until the quilting was finished. Grandma would then take the quilt out of the frame and add binding to the edge. Like the frame in the picture, Grandma's hung from the ceiling on strips of cloth, either old sheets or perhaps pieces leftover from muslin she used for backing. When she wasn't working on the current project, she would wind the strips around the ends of the boards to raise the quilt up to the ceiling and out of the way.  

My grandmother has been gone for more than 30 years, but her quilts keep her memory alive. My children never met her but they know who she is by the handwork she left behind.  

Lost Recipes

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

March 7 — Share a favorite recipe from your mother or grandmother’s kitchen. Why is this dish your favorite? If you don’t have one that’s been passed down, describe a favorite holiday or other meal you shared with your family.

You may have noticed that I'm not following Lisa Alzo's Fearless Females Blogging Prompts exactly. I feel more inspired by looking at the options and picking one that appeals to me. For this blog, I'm going back to an earlier suggestion. 

 The women in my family are good cooks, at least all of the ones I've known personally and at whose table I've been fortunate to sit. When I began to think about the recipes I could include here, it occurred to me that none of the food I remember so well from my childhood have what most think of as a traditional recipe...words written down on a piece of paper or a note card. They were passed on as the younger generation stood at the elbow of the ones that came before them and watched. 

My mama's food was the first Southern cooking I can remember. She made white meal corn bread for supper almost every day with coarse ground corn meal and buttermilk. During the summer, she canned (later froze) vegetable soup using what was ripe and picked from our garden that day. Mixing and matching as the different crops ripened on their own schedules, no two batches were likely to be exactly the same in a season. The recipe started with a tomato base with corn, okra, black-eyed and purple hull peas, butter beans, green beans, cabbage, potatoes and any other odd vegetables thrown in as they were ready. During the canning years, everything was stirred together in large pans to heat and blanch, then poured into hot jars before going into the pressure canner. I remember distinctly the whistle of the pressure valve as it jiggled atop the canner, releasing steam so that we didn't all die in an explosion; a common childhood fear at the time.

Cornbread with beans

My maternal grandma Gladys will always be associated in my mind with crackling cornbread. In the years when I was a young child, the family would "butcher a hog" in the fall that had been fattened up over the spring and summer for this purpose. I vaguely remember my mama going over to help but don't recall being there myself. Cracklings are made from pork fat back or skin with the hair scraped off that has been thoroughly cooked to render the lard. Usually the pork was put in a black pot resembling a Halloween cauldron and cooked over an open fire outside. When the lard is strained the bits that remain are the cracklings. I didn't care much for the skin, but the smaller pieces that my grandma stirred into her cornbread and served along with a pork tenderloin roast were pretty tasty. 

My aunt, Myrtle Uptain Kilgore, sister of my paternal grandmother Delia Uptain Brewer, made "cat head" biscuits. At least, that's what I remember my daddy calling them. My siblings and I would sometimes spend a week or so with Aunt Myrt in the summers when we were out of school. Being something of a "lie-abed," I never actually saw her make them. They would simply be waiting for me when I finally got up, sitting on a plate next to a jar of Golden Eagle Syrup. If there wasn't syrup, there would be a mound of sugar with a pat of butter she had churned on the plate next to the biscuit, or maybe canned peaches. I've thought about Aunt Myrt's biscuits over the years. I think she must have made the dough but instead of rolling it out and using a round cutter, she pinched off pieces of dough and rolled it between her hands to form the biscuits. Maybe she put them in a round cake pan or a cast iron skillet, all touching, because they were more trapezoid shaped than round like we see today when they came out of the oven. 

I don't cook today like my ancestors did, though I still love cornbread (I haven't had cracklings in decades) and homemade vegetable soup. What I wouldn't give for a cat head biscuit!

Margaret Eady Gay (1791-after 1860)

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

March 9 — Take a family document (baptismal certificate, passenger list, naturalization petition, etc.) and write a brief narrative using the information.

John Eady to Henry Eady for Margaret Eady Gay 1832

In 1832 my 5 times great-grandfather John Eady deeded land to his son  -- and my 4 times great-grandfather -- Henry. What does this have to do with a female ancestor? The transcript from the Georgia Supreme Court Deed Mortgage Book (Vol C-D, 1833-1837) gives us a clue:

"Georgia, Wilkinson County} This indenture made this 27th of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two between John Eady of the one part and Henry Eady of the other part witnesseth that the said John Eady for an[d] in consideration of the love good will and affection which I have and bear unto my daughter Margaret Gay do give and grant unto the said Henry Eady as trustee for my daughter Margaret Gay all that lot or parcel of land lying and being in the 24th district of formerly [sic] Muscogee, now Talbot County known by lot (No 7) seven with all that appertains thereunto in any wiss [sic] whatsoever to the only proper use benefit and behoof of him the said Henry trustee as above mentioned for the use of my said daughter Margaret Gay and after her death to be equally divided or sold for a Division among all her children. And I the said John Eady my heirs and assigns unto the said Henry Eady trustee as above the said land and promises to and will warrant and forever defend in writing whereof I have hereunto let my hand and seal the day and year above written" -- Recorded 26th March 1833 ---

John received this parcel of land and 3 others (one in Muscogee and two in Lee Counties) in 1827 as a fortunate drawer due to his service to Georgia in the Revolutionary War (Hitz, Alex M., comp.Authentic List of All Land Lottery Grants Made to Veterans of the Revolutionary War by the State of Georgia. Atlanta, GA, USA: n.p., 1955). Many of those who received land in the lottery sold the grants without ever taking procession of the land. However, John held on to the parcels in Muscogee, later Talbot County.

John Eady's children Henry and Margaret married siblings, John and Elizabeth Gay, the children of Allen Gay and Abigail Castleberry. Henry and Elizabeth married in October 1807 according to Henry's War of 1812 pension record. John and Margaret married a couple of months later on Christmas Eve of the same year. Both couples wed in Wilkinson County, Georgia.

At the time that John named Henry the trustee for Margaret and her interest in Lot 7, Georgia followed the common law doctrine of coverture in which a married woman had no legal rights of her own but rather her rights were subsumed by those of her husband. In 1832, John and Margaret Gay had been married for almost 25 years. From the language in the deed, it seems clear that Margaret's father, out of love and concern for his daughter, was trying to keep the land out of his son-in-law's hands. It was a strategy that worked until 1848. 

John Eady died in Wilkinson County in 1845, followed in 1847 by the death of Henry in the same county. It's possible that Margaret's land in Talbot County was addressed by one or both of their wills, though no record of such as been found to date. Many of Wilkinson County's probate records were destroyed during the Civil War. At any rate, in Talbot County in 1848, John Gay deeded Margaret's land to their son James S Gay (Talbot County Superior Court Deeds and Mortgages Volume G-H, 1841-1850). In the 1860 U.S. Census, Margaret was living with James and his family in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. She was 69 years old.

Six years later, the Georgia legislature passed the Georgia Married Women's Property Act of 1866, which challenged the principles of coverture.

My Mother Joyce

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?

My parents Joyce and Charles met and married in 1957. She was 20 and he was 24. I'm not exactly sure how they met, but I know they were both living in Birmingham at the time. Joyce graduated from Cullman High School in 1956. In her senior year book, her plans were to work as a telephone operator. She moved to Birmingham after graduation and went to work for Ma Bell.

Charles grew up in Jasper, Walker County, Alabama. He got into a wee bit o' trouble with the law when he was 17. As sometimes happened at that time, he was given the choice of the military or jail. He served in the Korean War. When he was discharged, he returned to Alabama. He was working as a mechanic for Hayes Aircraft when I was born and for several years afterwards.

They eloped to Tupelo, Lee County, Mississippi (I'm seeing a pattern here). My aunt Francis went along as the matron of honor and witness. The picture at the top of this blog is the two of them  in front of the church where they were married. Not being familiar with Tupelo, they drove around looking for a church where they might be able to persuade the minister to conduct the ceremony. They got lucky. The church custodian acted as the second witness.  

Gladys Girstle Guthery (1908-1984)

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

March 4 — Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.

I'm a little behind on posting as I was out-of-town over the weekend but I plan to catch up. 

Marriage License for Juston and Gladys

My maternal grandparents, Gladys Guthery and Juston Eady eloped. The story I was told was that Gladys ran away from home and Juston's mother hid her in the smokehouse until Juston could make the arrangements for them to travel to Tennessee. They were married 23 Mar 1925 in Lawrence County, Tennessee. 

Juston was 20 years old and Gladys was a few months shy of her 17th birthday. Juston's cousin C.W. Methvin signed the bond with him and likely drove them from Cullman County, Alabama where they all lived, north the 100 miles or so to Lawrenceburg. 

They had 11 children -- 4 boys and 7 girls. All but two survived to adulthood.

Do You Sing?

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.

As far as I know I don't share my first name with any of my female ancestors. I was born in the 1950s and was probably named after the singer Teresa Brewer. I really should confirm this with my mother. The name "Teresa" without an "h" was the 26th most popular girl's name in the year that I was born. The name hit its peak in 1962 with 9,137 per million babies. To give you some idea of how far the name has fallen in popularity: in 2014, there were 199 babies per million named "Teresa." As I made my way through elementary school, there was usually at least one other "T(h)eresa" in my class and sometimes more. 

I've never gone by a nickname; not Resa, Tessa, or Terri. I've had the spelling butchered in any number of creative ways: Terasa,  Terese, Teressa, Terressia,Tereza,Terezsa, Therese, Theressa. Baristas at Starbuck's have a field day writing my name on a cup. On days when I find all this particularly annoying, I've contemplated what I would change my name to if I wanted to go that far. But after mulling it over for a few minutes, I can't come up with anything better. Guess I'll keep it.

Lucinda Walker Beadle (1846-1887)

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

Women's History Month: March 2 — Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

This photo of Lucinda Walker Beadle was likely taken just before she died in 1887. I love the hat! There is a matching photo of her husband, Elwood Beadle, Sr., that was probably taken at the same time.

Lucinda was born to Samuel Walker and Margaret Nighman in Summit County, Ohio, the youngest of ten children. In the 1870 census, she is living with her widowed mother in Springfield, Allen County, Indiana. At 24, she was likely considered an old maid, a spinster. In the same year, Elwood Beadle was living in Lauderdale County, Alabama with his wife Mary Ann and their four children, the youngest born in May in Ohio. Two years later, Lucy and Elwood would marry on 29 Dec 1872. Their marriage license was issued in Wayne, Allen County, Indiana. So how did it happen that in such a short period of time Lucy and Elwood would meet and marry?

Elwood’s first wife, Mary Ann McCalla Beadle, died in early 1871 leaving him alone to raise their four children. Perhaps there were no eligible women living in his immediate area or he felt more comfortable seeking a wife in his old home. At any rate, sometime in 1872, he returned to visit family in Allen County, Indiana. His sister Amy, four years his senior, was the wife of Samuel Walker, Lucinda’s brother. He must have encountered Lucinda while visiting with Amy and Samuel. Perhaps Amy arranged the meeting.

There is no evidence to indicate whether theirs was a love match or one of convenience, but Elwood and Lucinda were married and returned to Alabama where they had six children in addition to the older children. Lucinda died just short of her 41^st birthday and is buried in Lauderdale County, Alabama.