Treasure Chest Thursday - My great-grandmother through the years

I am lucky to have pictures of my great-grandmother, Emily Calhoun Slemmons Munday, from the time she was 6 years old to just about the time she died in 1936.

Here she is in 1865 at the age of 6. Her and her family were living on their farm in Wisdom, Metcalfe County, Kentucky. This is a copy made from the original that my aunt owns. This picture always strikes me with the feeling that she really didn't want to have her picture taken.

  
 
The next picture that I have is her at the age of 22 in the year 1881. Her and James William Munday were married on 5 Oct 1881 in Randolph, Metcalfe County, Kentucky. I don't remember being told, and it's not written on the back, if this was a wedding picture or at the time of their wedding. I have always loved looking at this picture because I can only imagine how long it took her to get her hair to look like this.

This picture is of Emily and James and their family, my grandfather, Richard Slemmons Munday is the 3rd from the left in the back row with the cane. My copy of the picture is not dated, but I know that all of their children are shown here and their son Willie died in 1913, so I would guess that it was before then.

This last picture is of Emily at the age of 59 in the year 1918. One of the questions that always pops into my mind whenever I see pictures of any of my ancestors is, "What caused them to take this picture?" I mean was it an anniversary, special visit from family, a birthday? Or did they just think, "I haven't had a picture done for a while, let's go get one done." 

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Wordless Wednesday - Martha Palina Jaggers Tharp

This is the funeral card of Martha Palina Jaggers Tharp who was the first wife of my great-grandfather, Simon Peter Tharp.

I have also posted her tombstone on a previous Tombstone Tuesday that can be found here.

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Woodlawn does genealogies of previous occupants

I received my May/June edition of Preservation magazine today and found an interesting article about Woodlawn, a National Trust Historic Site. This article discusses Woodlawn’s research into the families that bought and settled on the property after it was sold out of the Lewis’ family in 1846. The reason I find this article so interesting is that the director of Woodlawn employed a genealogist to research both the black and white families that had resided on the property. Please check out the article in its entirety on the website of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
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Children of the Tobacco?

I've heard of  "Children of the Corn" but what about these two "Children of the tobacco?"

Oppssss! accidental posting!

Sorry for the accidental posting of my next Treasure Chest Thursday post. So, I have taken down that posting and it will reappear on its properly scheduled day. ;) Just chalk it up to me not paying attention and got the happy posting fingers.

The Earth (AKA Happy Earth Day)

I guess I could try and draw a correlation between Earth Day and genealogy. In reality I know this doesn't have anything to do with Genealogy, blogging or research, but I couldn't resist.;)

I have been an environmentalist as long as I can remember and I couldn't pass up today without saying something about Earth Day. 1 tip that I learned recently that has made a huge difference on my electric bill: turning off all the household items that you don't use on a daily basis (e.g. cell phone charger, tv, shredder, VCR, electric stove) then turn them on only when you are using them. Always remember reuse, reduce and recycle!

Peace out!

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Treasure Chest Thursday - Dad's horse

Keeping with the theme that I started last Thursday with my grandfather's lion, I am doing a posting of my dad's horse. This horse sat beside my grandfather's lion on the bookshelf in my grandparent's home as long as I can remember.

I have been told that my father played with it when he was a boy. Well, he must have not played with it too much or he was extremely careful with it when he did. Because when looking at it up close it doesn't have a mark on it as far as scratches. It wouldn't get me an appearance on "Antique's Roadshow" that's for sure but for me it is priceless!

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Tombstone Tuesday - Margrett Bell Wright Shofner

This posting is part two of last week's Tombstone Tuesday. This is the tombstone of my 2nd great-grandmother, Margrett Bell Wright Shofner, who is buried in Red Hill Cemetery, Hodgenville, Larue County, Kentucky. As is indicated on the tombstone, she is the wife of William Easton Shofner. She was Margrett Bell Wright, daughter of William W Wright and

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Slemmons' Bible entry regarding the Huffman family

While looking through some previously copied family records, I ran across a bible record that recorded births of some of the slaves that the brother to my 2nd great-grandfather, Asher Slemmons, owned. I had remembered reading the entry back when I first made the copies in 1993 (wow how time has flown), but I didn't follow up with it after that. This morning when I saw the bible entry, something told me to do a little digging on this family (and having learned a long time ago not to ignore my gut feelings) I decided to do a little more research on this family.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Holocaust Remembrance Wk - Opportunities lost

Even though I normally only post once a day, I felt the need to make another posting today. I hope you will understand why by the end of this post.

This morning on the drive in to work I heard that this week is Holocaust Remembrance Week. This caused me to reflect on an opportunity that is lost to me.

My uncle-in-law, Roy Gilbert Faulkner, was in World War II in the European Theater. When I was a child it never really crossed my mind what this fact meant. When I was old enough to know what it truly meant, I didn't ask him questions about it because he was older and had had a heart attack. I wasn't sure if he was in good enough health to talk about it. Also I wasn't sure how he felt about remembering his experiences. It was just one of those family facts that you (or anybody else in the family) never really talked about.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Grandpa's Lion

When I look back on my childhood one of the things that I always remember seeing on my grandparents bookshelf is this cast iron lion. It belonged to Hurley T. Tharp, my paternal grandfather. I was never really allowed to take it down and play with it or really touch it all that much. I do remember it always being on the bookshelf. You know one of those things you don't really notice unless it was moved or missing.

The one or two times that I really showed some interest in it my grandfather told me that he had been given it as a child. Sadly, I don't

Tombstone Tuesday - William Easton Shofner

Last week was spring break here in Louisville, and one of the day trips that I decided we needed to take was to two cemeteries in which my 2nd great-grandparents were buried. I had visited these cemeteries many years ago and found my ancestor's tombstones, but had not thought to take pictures of the tombstones. You know how it is when you first start doing research....total knucklehead! ;p

So we made our way via the old road from Louisville to Campbellsville on a

Madness Monday - Lost Ancestors

I've titled today's posting "Lost Ancestors" because, as many of you know, I recently found a "lost" ancestor of mine, William Lewis DeSpain. While finding him has solved one question, "Where/When did he die?", it also opens up a host of new questions/avenues that will guide me to researching in a new county/area that I have not researched before....I'm like a kid in a candy store! But it also started me thinking about all of those years I had looked for him in the 1880 census (being the next census available after he left the family in 1872) and was never able to find him. This makes me

Sentimental Sunday - My kids!

I could have used this picture for Tombstone Tuesday but I thought I would go this way with it. This is a picture of my son looking at the tombstone of his 3rd great grandfather, William Easton Shofner.

I really don't even know that he knew I took this picture but I'm glad that I did. This past Tuesday me, my husband and my 2 kids (aged 15 and 13) piled in the car and took a road trip to the country in search of a couple of cemeteries. I'll talk more about the trip in Tuesday's posting.

I thought this fit in well with today's topic of being Sentimental. It really meant a lot to me that the two of them, and my husband, who are NOT genealogy freaks, as I am, humored me enough to spend just about all day in the car while mom hunts for tombstones of which to take pictures. I know that my daughter will be very jealous that her brother got a picture on the blog and she didn't, but maybe next road trip.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Treasure Chest Thursday - Picture of Littleberry Self, Jr

I thought I would follow last thursday's posting of the LittleBerry Self Jr bible with another posting on LB.

Have you ever had this happen to you? You go to an elderly cousin's house, ask them if they have any pictures of their ancestors, they say "Sure I'll be right back." They're gone into another room for a little bit and then come back with a TREASURE ! That's what happened to me with the above picture.

Sentimental Sunday - My Ancestors Approved Award !

Have you ever had one of those moments when you are reading something and in one part of your brain it is being understood and you are continuing to read like normal, but the other part of your brain is having a hard time registering what you just read because surely you misread a word that would have changed the whole meaning of the sentence? I find that it usually happens to me when I am reading something that catches me so off guard with its information that I have to read it about 3 or 4 more times to really digest what is being stated.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Self Family Bible from Kentucky

The item that I picked for today's treasure chest is a copy of a page from a family bible. What genealogist doesn't just love those old family bibles!

In a previous posting I spoke about my father's enthusiasm to help with researching the family (see posting titled: Treasure Chest Thursday - The Tharp Memorial). In the spring of 1992 my parents decided to visit dad's cousin Deloris Bloxam, who I have written about previously as having given me a dress from my great-grandmother. When they came back from their visit, dad was very proud that he was the one that had been able to get a copy of a family bible page that would help in researching the family. 

The bible has the family information of LittleBerry Self, Jr and both of his wives recorded in it. LittleBerry was my great-great grandfather and his daughter (listed as Lone Wagner Self on the page below) was the great-grandmother that I wrote about in the Not just a dress posting.