In my search of newspaper archives, I found some curious things regarding my forbearers. Yet nothing has surprised me more than learning that two great-grandfathers were involved in train wrecks that occurred in the 1920s. I discovered these accidents accidentally while searching for something else. Wreck at Gilmore Junction (1921) Patrick A O’Malley (1851-1925) was the father of my paternal grandmother. The O’Malley family lived … Continue reading A Pair of Train Wrecks
Back in December I discovered that my maternal grandparents eloped and were married in Chattanooga Tennessee in July 1925. . It was an extraordinary find that raised the question of how a 19-year-old girl from Louisville, Kentucky came to marry a 23-year-old man from Atlanta, Georgia. Coupled with this is the question of how my mother came to be born in Columbia, South Carolina. Since … Continue reading A Huge Discovery
It seems that after my mother passed away in July, I caught the genea-bug once again following a hiatus of nearly a decade. In the past eight or so months, I have written over two dozen posts on this blog detailing my recent discoveries. These findings have revealed not only new information but also there are certain details in my book that require correction. As … Continue reading Diving into Historical Context
Back in January, I published a post entitled Intriguing Items and in it I discussed some of the mysterious and intriguing items that I had found during my search of the newspaper archives for my Dobbs family in Georgia. One item concerned a mine in Cobb County that was dubbed the Dobbs’ Goldmine and another item was about a plantation located down in Sumner County … Continue reading Carpetbagger or Scalawag?
Searching through newspaper archives, I discovered something about my paternal grandmother, Geraldine O’Malley DeBacker, that I did not know. Apparently, she was a singer of enough renown to have that mentioned a few times in her hometown newspaper. I found the following item in the August 29, 1918 edition of The Atchison (KS) Daily Globe. My father’s mother, Geraldine O’Malley DeBacker, died the year that … Continue reading Atchison People Will Be Interested in an Omaha Item
Of late, I have been reading books by Margaret Mitchell and William Faulkner; while at the same time I have been studying the probate records of an ancestor of mine who died intestate 185 years ago. As I am recounting my analysis from said study, I find the need to restrain myself from injecting too much drama into the proceedings laid before me. The ancestor … Continue reading Now That’s What I Call Southern Gothic!
A third cousin on my mother’s side recently contacted me after visiting the Gathering Leaves blog. She and I share the same great-great-grandparents, Richard and Henrietta Bannon. When I was growing up, my grandmother had hanging in her living room two portrait paintings that were created around 1914 by an older cousin. One portrait was of my great, great-grandmother Henrietta and the other portrait was … Continue reading Photograph of Richard Bannon
Joel Chandler Harris, author of Uncle Remus and B’rer Rabbit fame, wrote in his Stories of Georgia [1898], “The Revolutionary War in Georgia developed some very romantic figures, which are known to us rather by tradition than by recorded history.” This recalls one of my ancestors who is associated with a “tradition” surrounding his occupation during the American Revolutionary war. I was introduced to this … Continue reading The Legend of John McMullan
In August 1788, my fifth great grandfather John Dobbs a veteran of the Revolutionary war from North Carolina was awarded a land-grant in the state of Georgia consisting of 67 acres situated in what was then Wilkes County. In 1790, Elbert County was formed from a part of Wilkes County. From that time on, John Dobbs and his adult sons resided in Christian Township Elbert … Continue reading …and Milly, Uxor.
Yet again, I have solved another family history mystery and as usually happens upon solving one mystery, another mystery makes its ghostly presence known. Allow me to present The Case of Dobbs v. Prothro. The Dobbs in this case is David Judson Dobbs (1835-1877), my great, great-grandfather. The Prothro(s) being his brothers-in-law, Wilson and Gustavus Prothro – the brothers of my great, great-grandmother, Martha J. … Continue reading Dobbs v. Prothro
Gathering Leaves 