Treasure Chest Thursday - Granny M's Memory Book pt 5

This week's installment of my great grandmother & grandmother's memory book is interesting. Here it is:

"Aunt Lou Wilson died February 13, 1936 She is my mother's oldest sister Sallie May Buckners mother. Aunt Lerie Foster Woolridge died 1952 Sept 30"

Interesting because I am getting better at telling which woman wrote which entry by recognizing their handwriting. This entry was written by my grandmother, Gussie O. (DeSpain) Munday, about the oldest sister of her mother, Alice Josephine (Foster) DeSpain. Aunt Lou Wilson was born Lou Alvery Foster and married Joseph Reed Wilson. Lou as she was known by was born Oct 5 1866, to Josiah Foster and Sarah Frances Fulks. Oh, yeah by the way they were 1st cousins!

Aunt Lerie Foster Woolridge was a sister to Lou and Alice Foster. She was born Jun 1 1872, married 1st George Green Walker and 2nd to Frank Woolridge. A transcribed copy of her obituary can be found here.

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

Traveling Stove Agents

I ran across this in my maternal great-grandparent's pictures.

This is from the time that traveling salesmen would travel the countryside to show their products to people so that they may order them from a company.

The man and woman that are on the right are my great-grandparents, Benjamin Lewis DeSpain and his wife, Alice Josephene Foster. 

I can hear the conversation:
B.L. - "Sir, I can't afford such an expensive thang, why the one that I have is working jus fine!"
Alice - "Oh honey, this one would heat the food so much faster and wouldn't make as big of a mess when we go to clean it."
Stove Agent - "Now, sir if the price is an issue my company will set you up on a payment plan of just 3 dollars a month."
B.L. - "Just 3 dollars ya say! Well, I don't know, let me think on it a bit."

This is the back of the picture.

Someone wrote information on the back that states:
August 21, 1906
Stove Agent                                                  Raymond was baby
Papa 34                                                            6 mo 3 wks old
Mama 29
Ivo 2 yrs 9 mo.

Ivo and Raymond are the children of Benjamin Lewis Despain and Alice Josephene Foster (or as called on the back Papa and Mama).

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

Treasure Chest Thursday - My Granny!

My Treasure was my Granny! When I first started doing genealogy, my aunt gave me these pages that her mother, my granny, had written about her family. She had actually written two of the pages a couple of different times and on a couple of them she had information that she had not included on the other copies. If I had known then what I know now, I would have only taken then as a guideline. But being young and naive, I took them for the holy grail of genealogy. Luckily for me when I learned that I needed the actual document or wanted to make sure she was correct, she was! She had 99 % of the stuff correct. If only I had a wonderful fountain of information for my other family lines I probably would have been done with researching 15 years ago. May you all have a granny treasure chest in your research.

Madness Monday: The search for my Mundays

What family has driven me "mad"....My Mundays. Little did I know when I started my research on this family back in 1989 that this one family would cause me so many hours of research just to prove four generations. Then when I finally made the break through to where they had previously lived in Virginia......I broke right through to a county that had not one but two Civil War battles which went plowing through the precious records that I would need to go any further back.  What a great day that was when I realized how few records are available for the time frame that I need in Prince William County, Virginia.

So, without boring you with how many twist and turns I have had to go through with this family, here is the information that I have to date on this family.

William Munday - b. bef 1765 d. bef 18 Sept 1815 Breckinridge County, Kentucky
unknown wife - d. bef 16 Apr 1814 when husband's will was written

Children
1. James - b. bef 1791 d. bef 19 Jun 1820 Breckinridge County, Kentucky
   m. Bef 20 Jul 1800 probably in Prince William County, Virginia to
   Mildred Foster (daughter of James Foster and Elizabeth) b. 1775 d. Bef 19 Jun 1820
   James and Mildred had at least 9 children
2. Thomas - b. bef 1791 d. bef 21 Mar 1814 Breckinridge County, Kentucky
3. Robert - b. 1776 d. after 1850 living in Meade County, Kentucky
   Robert is living with Catherine who was born in 1796. She is an African American woman who I have put down as his wife. This is because the census taker did not enumerate her as a servant or qualify her being in the household with an occupation. I tend to believe that they would have if she was a housekeeper for him and not his wife.
4. William - b. 5 Jan 1781 d. 5 Nov 1827 buried in Red River Cemetery, Logan County, Kentucky
5. George - b. between 1780-1784 d. bef 1847 Barren County, Kentucky
   George married unknown 1st wife. Then married Malinda C. Holtsclaw Bowles 29 Dec 1839 Barren County, Kentucky
6. Ann - b. between 1784-1794 d. bef 23 Nov 1835 Hancock County, Kentucky
   Ann never married but raised her brother James' children after his death
7. Nathaniel - b. 21 Apr 1788 d. 14 Sept 1833 buried in Red River Cemetery, Logan County, Kentucky
   m. bef 1820 probably in Breckinridge County, Kentucky to
   Mary Ann Brown - b. 26 Oct 1798 Prince William County, Kentucky
8. Rachel - b. 1790 d. 16 Nov 1836 buried in Blincoe/Mason Cemetery, Hancock County, Kentucky
   m. bef 12 Mar 1824 probably in Breckinridge County, Kentucky to
   Thomas Blincoe - b. 18 Feb 1791 d. 17 Jan 1847 buried in Blincoe/Mason Cemetery, Hancock County, Kentucky
9. Betsey - b. abt 1799
   m. bef 27 Feb 1820 probably in Breckinridge County, Kentucky to
   Benjamin Gambill/Gambel/Gambell

Over the years I have wondered if I would find any more records for them, hypothesized and speculated where those records could be found and wished that I could find more information about them. I can thank this family for helping me develop the skills of looking for alternative records when the traditional ones are not available.

Along the ride I have been able to find a couple cool pictures and letters that help make a more complete picture for this family.

This picture is of James William Munday, my great-grandfather, who was born 5 Jul 1852 in Barren County, Kentucky and died 12 May 1921 in Metcalfe County, Kentucky.

I am told that this is the same man but just older. I do see the resemblance to the younger man.