The Easter Egg Tree

The following story is an excerpt from The Heritage of Etta Bend, a story my mother told me about her childhood in northeast Oklahoma. The “I” is my mother, Susie Latty Day. Mom told me this story and I wrote it to be included in The Heritage of Etta Bend in 1989. It was spring, […]

Kin and Shirttail Kin

Kin and Shirttail Kin

Ancestors are fascinating people. You have them. I have them. Each ancestor has a story and, from their stories, we arrive and write our own stories to pass on. These people are our kinfolk, but then, there are shirttail kin. These are the people who are related to our relatives and who narrowly miss being […]

The Artist

The Artist

She was born Lydia Head  in South Carolina in 1824 and married James Barker in 1847. Lydia and James worked on their farm in Georgia. Life must have been hard but good for Lydia until something happened to change it all. The Barker family was about to go to church. James was sitting in the […]

Inheritance

Inheritance

I’m delving into my ancestry and, let me tell you, it’s fun and it’s also eye-opening. Trying to find these people from whom I resulted is like trying to solve a mystery. Sometimes it takes a whole lot of sleuthing and it’s the sort of on-going mystery that doesn’t seem to have an end.  An […]

Whispers From the Past

Delving into one’s ancestry is a fun and absorbing business. I’m finding out about ancestors from way, way back. Some of those finds are surprising. They are all fascinating. These people had stories and I, rooted in the present day, am listening, trying to hear what they had to say. They were from different parts […]

Ben and the Thunderstorm

Ben and the Thunderstorm

Ben Franklin would have had a good chance to test his theory of electricity this morning. It was on June 10, 1752, when he experimented with electricity and lightning by flying a kite during a thunderstorm. His aim was to collect an ambient charge of electricity in a leyden jar. Mr. Franklin was curious about […]