Surname Saturday~McCoy

I had something dropped in my lap this week that I wouldn’t give nothing for.  My cousin came by and said here’s a notebook you might want to go thru.  I said ok…..and I am thinking….what on earth could it be….pictures???…..letters????….OMG it’s 61 pages of family group sheets on the McCoy family in our line.  I knew my maternal great grandmother was Louisa Evaline McCoy and that her people came from Tennessee and South Carolina.  Also her immediate family came to Iuka, Mississippi.  I skimmed thru the pages and found that I have a great grandfather way back yonder somewhere named Fleming McCoy!!….I cannot wait to be able to sit down and start digging into this family!!…..I believe I have a new Bible to study!!!  The McCoys….

Talented Tuesday~Music-Expressions of the Heart in Melody

As far back as I can remember, music has always been a part of my family.  This may be bragging just a little bit, but hey, a mom has a right to brag whenever she can.  My son plays the trumpet and has been playing for years.  Is he out of college yet?  No, I think he has decided to become a professional student just so he can continue playing with his college band (lol) but yet I cannot help but swell up with pride when I overhear a doctor in music speak the words, “He’s the best this area has seen in a very long time.”  Then we have my uncle, my mother, some of my aunts, cousins, and even I play the piano.  Most of us are musically inclined while others are artistically talented and then there are some of us who are not satisfied with just one world but steps into both worlds of music and art.  My mother once told me when she started learning how to oil paint, that the evening sky was God’s canvas where he painted the beautiful sunsets.  Whether she had heard this or read it, or came up with it out of her mind, I have no clue, but I do tend to agree with her wholeheartedly.  Then there’s the times I have heard my Dad play the harmonica and wish he would record it for me to listen to whenever I want to….Maybe I should sneak over there and secretly record him doing just that!!!  Also, is the times I used to see an Aunt sit on the bench and start out with just 2 fingers on the piano, play about 4 or 5 notes and then the next thing you knew she was playing all over that keyboard, the white keys, the black keys, and even in the cracks.  When she was really having fun, she would even throw her foot up on the end of the keys and sound like Jerry Lee Lewis playing the piano, making us all laugh.  When it came time for Sunday morning, everybody went to church, and if you were lucky, my aunt, uncle, mother, and dad would sing a few songs as a quartet with an awesome harmony.  Below is a picture I could probably even use on a mystery Monday topic but I am hoping some of my extended family members will see this and recognize who is in this picture.  I was told the one on the left is a great-grandfather of mine but which one I am not sure.  A cousin of mine could not identify the fiddle player either.  Anyone recognize these two musicians? Just looking at these two, with their instruments in hand, I can close my eyes and almost hear the melodies they play wafting thru the piney woods  as they express the songs they have in their heart on the guitar and fiddle.

Mystery Monday~Helen McGlothlin-Texas

This week I have spent hours pouring over the Texas births from 1930-1935 putting all names that even remotely resembled my maiden name.  Then I turned around and started a search with my grandmother’s maiden name (surname only) as the mother on ancestry for those years in hopes of trying to find records on my father’s birth.  Dad said he was told that he was born in Bailey Hospital and that it was a private hospital in San Antonio, Texas.  The only place I can find my grandfather is on the 1920 census as a lodger.  I was able to locate a newspaper clipping of where my father was listed as one of the returning football players for Rolling Fork, Mississippi high school.  No records that I know of is on my grandmother and I would really like to find her and my grandfather both. The only name I have on her is Helen maybe Hellen McGlothlin born 22 Mar 1896 supposedly in or close to Comanche, Tx.  My grandfather is Frank Estrado(Estrada?) Alderete born in Floresville, Tx in 1897, possibly 1898.  Some time between 1920 and 1934 my grandparents married, gave birth to my father in 1934 and when he was 3 they moved to Issaquena County, Mississippi, where my grandfather became the manager of Homochitta Plantation.  His social security number will not come up in a search on the ssdi database even tho we have his ss card and it’s listed on his death certificate. How I would so love to solve this mystery.

Sunday Obituary~Rafel H Alderete

RAFEL H. ALDERETE

Funeral services for Rafel H. Alderete, 64, of Palacios, were held Dec. 24, 2005 at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church with Rev. Charles Dwomoh officiating. Interment was at Palacios Cemetery. Mr. Alderete was born Oct. 25, 1941 in Lansing, Michigan to the late Aurelio R. and Francesca Herrera Alderete. He died Dec. 23, 2005 at Citizen Memorial Hospital in Victoria, Tx. He was a resident of Palacios since 1951, a member of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church and was the maintenance man for the Luther Hotel in Palacios. He is survived by his wife, Anita Adame Alderete of Palacios; son and daughter-in-law Jessie and Josie Adame of Angleton, Tx.; sisters and brothers-in-law Lina and Paul Gamino of Lake Jackson, Tx., Lola and Edward Vallejo of Rosenberg, Tx., Eva Alderete and Rosemary Alderete, both of Palacios; and grandchildren Jessica and Gabriel Adame of Angleton, Tx. He was proceeded in death by his sister, Anita Alderete, and brothers Aurelio Alderete, Jr. and George Alderete. Pallbearers were Richard and Phillip Vallejo, Paul and Frank Alderete, and Paul and Andrew Gamino. Honorary pallbearers were Frankie and Stephen Alderete. Arrangements were with Palacios Funeral Home.

Rafel was the son of my father’s half uncle.   Dad remembers meeting his uncle and several of his cousins when he was a child and sadly has not kept in touch like many families of today’s time.  I was so hoping that I would be able to find his obituary but have not been able to as of yet.  This family surname has been my brick wall for many years and would love to find relatives.

Those Places Thursday~Mayersville, Issaquena County, Mississippi

My grandfather was a plantation manager in the late 1930’s and ’40’s in Mayersville, Issaquena County, Mississippi, after moving his family from San Antonio, Texas.  I am not sure how to spell it but was told it could be Humchetta….possibly even Homechetta Plantation.  In 1945, my father said their home burned to the ground and the owner let them live in the barn until they were able to rebuild a home for them on the plantation.  Helen McGlothlin Alderete, my grandmother hung sheets up to partition the area of the barn they were in for the different rooms….such as the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc.  How long they had to live in the barn I don’t know but I also know that people used to come from miles around just to buy the butter that my grandmother would churn and sell to make extra money.  Times were hard back then and every little bit of help went a long way.  I would love to know how to actually spell the plantation, where it is actually in Mayersville, whether or not the name has changed and who would possibly have the record books that could possibly contain information on my grandparents and where my father lived from the time he was three years old until he became a grown man and joined the Marines.  Maybe one day……….

My Family Ramblings~ cheat sheet on wordless wednesday

ok ok ok….I did my wordless Wednesday posting a pic doohickey and I am about to bust a gut to be able to tell you about this gentle soul who was my great grand uncle so I am posting  my family rambling here. 

 Whether it be rumored or fact, this man was the family doctor and dentist and according to some family members, it has been told that he was taught how to care for his family from a Native American Medicine Man.  He pulled teeth and took care of sickness within the family.  He used nature – herbs to help heal his family from various ailments.  Many times Nancy Emmaline would go into the woods or down to the river banks looking and gathering roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wild herbs to bring back home for John Henry to mix up for his various medicines.  He knew that willow bark tea with wild parsley in it would ease joint pain for people who suffered from arthritis and that it would also help a sour stomach.  He became so well-known that he would send his medicinal herbs to other parts of the country either by people passing thru or by mail.  Eventually modern medicine took over and the knowledge he had of these herbs died with him for none of his children carried on what their father had learned and practiced the majority of his life.  What I wouldn’t give to be able to just sit down and pick his brain on herbs!! 

There is a story that John Henry Kennedy was on his way to see a patient when he ran across a family that was traveling thru during the depression looking for work.  John Henry Kennedy, Sr. stopped by the wagons and spotted 2 small children in one of the wagons.  I am sure he was taken by surprise when he started teasing about the little girl trying to ease their stop and worries over repairs by saying with a smile “Give me that little girl and I will take her home with me.” and the mother said no but you can have the boy.  The family gave no name so John Henry Kennedy gave the boy his name and he became a Jr.  He ended up going to school, fighting in WW2, married and had seven children.

Wordless Wednesday~John Henry Kennedy, Sr

John Henry Kennedy, Sr. (my great grand uncle) 22 Sep1866 – 5 Feb1945, Wife-Nancy Emmaline Robinson 21 Apr 1872 – 4 Oct 1947  with Loise Evelyn Kennedy(their granddaughter)

Those Places Thursday~Coal City, St. Clair County, Alabama

 

I have searched high and low on the internet looking for information about Coal City, St. Clair, Alabama and have not been able to find much about it.  This community does have a historical marker at Harkey’s Chapel United Methodist Church and tells how the church was originally in a log house.  The church was originally founded about 1829-1830  and then between 1903 and 1904 the present day church was built.  This church was named after its first pastor, Reverend David Harkey of Catawba Circuit.  It was placed on the Alabama Registry of Historical Places in 1978.  The reason I am writing about this place is to make note of it for future references for study because my husband’s grandmother, Mary Emily Thomason b, Dec 1883  was born in Coal City along with several of her siblings.  In fact, her sister, Lelia A. Thomason was born today in the year of 1891 in Coal City.  I have not done much in tracing my husband’s family but eventually will just so my children will know who and where they came from on their father’s side along with knowing the different towns and communities they emigrated to until they finally settled down in and around Decatur, Morgan County, Alabama.  Happy 120th Birthday Lelia Thomason!

Wordless Wednesday – Mammaw and siblings

Lola Pearl Johnson Kennedy with her sisters and brother