52 Ancestors 2021: Week 41: Changes

When I think about living through a lot changes - I think about my Great-Grandmother, Anna Elizabeth (Thompson) Sandefur. Nana was born out in the Smith Mills area of Henderson County on August 18th, 1916, and she passed away in Henderson on October 2nd, 2001. She lived a lot of life in those 85 years, let me tell you. 

When Nana was young, she went to school on a wagon led by horses. In the 1920's, my Great-Great-Grandfather, John R. Thompson bought a Model T and I have no doubt that my Nana was amazed at the vehicle. These were the days of no indoor plumbing -- Nana grew up with an outhouse. 

In the late 1940's, Nana had one of the first types of microwaves invented -- Radarange. Imagine going from cooking a TV dinner for an hour and a half in the oven to just a few minutes in a microwave. Well, even in the first microwaves, it probably still took several minutes but less time than the conventional oven. 

Nana lived through the first black and white televisions in the 1930's. She lived through the first color televisions in the 1950's. Nana saw the popularity of the telephone - to the point every house had a corded phone. She lived through party lines, where you'd share the line with six, eight, or ten people. She even eventually saw cordless phones in the 1990's. She also would have seen the invention of the 'car phone' or a 'bag phone' or a 'to go phone.' A predecessor to today's cell phone. 

Nana went from the days of automobiles being scarce to owning an Oldsmobile and driving a school bus for a living. She went from the days where women wore dresses and nothing else to finally owning a pantsuit in the 1980's. 

Nana went from the days that no woman had piercings to seeing women pierce their ears - even getting hers pierced. She went from the days where a woman's place was in the kitchen, that the wife had no job above the satisfaction of her husband and the care of her children.... to women becoming the primary breadwinners in the household. 

My Nana undoubtedly saw the changes in Henderson. She was born during the time of our original L&N train bridge which was in use between 1885-1931. She saw the building of the brand new L&N bridge which was finished May 1931. The old one demolished in 1933. 

My Great-Grandmother would have seen the expansion of roads. She saw the building of the original bridge going to Evansville in 1932. She saw the new bridge, now dubbed the southbound bridge, built in 1965. My Nana saw the days of everyone taking a train or ferry to Evansville slowly come to an end and the motor car became ever more popular. She saw the expansion of some roads going from dirt paths to paved asphalt, from two lanes, to four lanes or more. Nana would have seen the difference between cars being strictly manual transmission to the invention of an automatic. 

Nana would have seen the coming of fast food restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King, Hardee's and more. She would have witnessed some amazing price increases. Milk being roughly 36 cents a gallon in 1916, 48 cents in 1936, 97 cents in 1956, $1.68 in 1976, $2.62 in 1996.. I could go on and on. A gallon of gas in 1916 was 21 cents, down to 19 cents in 1936, up to 29 cents in 1956, 59 cents in 1976, and $1.23 in 1996. 

Nana would have lived through times of "going to town" was a treat and you'd only travel "into town" maybe once a week, sometimes every other week, usually on the weekend.. to literally living in town. She got to see the days of every neighborhood being their own town pretty much. Each neighborhood had their own school, their own corner market, their own hair salon, etc. 

My Nana saw the end of segregation in the mid 1950's. When she began driving a school bus, she was driving kids of all colors and nationalities. It was primarily a rural route, farming community kids. Nana saw Roe vs. Wade in 1973. She would remember Hoffa being the major news case in 1975 when he disappeared. She would remember the JonBenét Ramsey case of the 1990's.

Nana lived through America's involvement in WW1 (1917-1918) and our involvement in WW2 (1941-1945). Her husband, Henry Lloyd Sandefur, served in the Navy in WW2. Nana's brother, Jake, served in the Air Force in WW2. The Cold War -- 1947-1989. Nana lived through the Korean War -- 1950-1953. Vietnam -- 1955-1975. Desert Storm or the Gulf War in 1991. 

And even though she had Alzheimer's and probably couldn't have told you anything about what was going on... she was alive on September 11th, 2001, when the Trade Centers went down. 

She definitely saw a lot of change between the year she was born, 1916, and the year she died, 2001. I can only imagine how baffled she would be at some of the inventions between 2001 and 2021. Imagine having a computer the size of your hand and internet everywhere you go. I'm sure Nana would be floored at the prospect of FaceTime. Tiny vehicles would be another big adjustment for her... back in her day, cars were huge. 

I'm sure I could go on and on for several hours more about the things that changed in her life time, and now since her passing... but I'll go ahead and wrap this blog up. If you're able to -- leave a comment and let me know some of the things you've lived to see invented or the changes you've seen in your lifetime. 

52 Ancestors 2021: Week 40: Preservation

It's no secret to anyone that I've been working on my own family tree since the age of seven years old. In the going on twenty-two years since the year 2000 (when I was 7), I've worked tirelessly on my own family history and not just trying to fill out branches but also preserve the branches and priceless information. 

A few years back, I put together a Mefford/Bastin family binder. I had the thought of doing a binder for each of my Grandparents - so Mefford/Bastin, Jones/White, Blanford/Nally, Sandefur/Thompson... but... I have too much information. Even now, about three years after putting the Mefford/Bastin binder together - I've now disproved some of my information (through DNA testing and whatnot) so the job is never finished. My binders will never be 'perfect.' 

I house my tree currently on Ancestry and I pay for a monthly subscription (World Explorer.) I also use Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com. It's very rare that I utilize FamilySearch or any other archival website. I do utilize our local library's obituary collection and Browning in Evansville.

Of course, I have my DNA on every website (or just about every website). Ancestry, 23andme, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA, GEDMatch, LivingDNA, etc. I've got both of my parents on Ancestry and my Dad's tested at 23andme (still trying to get Mom to spit in her kit I bought, ugh.) 

My paid work has really slowed down the work I do on my own tree. In a way, that breaks my heart... sometimes genealogy starts to feel so much like a job, and not a job that I love and enjoy, that I have to step away and work on my own stuff or else I burn completely out and can't do a lick of genealogy at all. 

I'd say my best way of 'preservation' has been extensively researching each and every small cemetery in Henderson County - of course my most in-depth work has been on the Gibson cemeteries in Corydon, KY. Find-a-Grave has really helped me to preserve that information for generations that will come after me. 

My genealogy blog is another great way to help preserve my family history and my families legacy. I get behind in these writing prompts/challenges but, going at my own pace... it really gives me time to think out exactly what I want to write about for that particular prompt. Sometimes I write about the same thing for a second, or even a third time... but I always go more and more in-depth with new details I've found each time. 

I've been trying to get all of my old photographs digitized onto the laptop or my iPhone. I love playing with my old black and white photographs on Remini or MyHeritage. I've had a lot of success with them, to be honest, and couldn't be happier with the results. I've even started sharing some of my photographs to Instagram and TikTok to build a bit of a 'fanbase' for my genealogy, if you will. 

It is my hope that someday I will have a family history book in our local library talking about all the Henderson families of today and their roots to the original settlers. So many of my friends have roots going back in this county to within ten years of its inception but they have no idea. It always hurts me to know that someone doesn't know where or who they came from. 

52 Ancestors 2021: Week 39: Steps

I think this might be the perfect blog to talk to you all about the steps I go through in helping someone with their DNA and finding their biological family. The example I'm going to use today is for Dixie - my 'Granny.' I know she's very open about the process we've used to find her biological Grandpa and she doesn't mind being the guinea pig for my blog as she's a faithful and loyal reader! :)

When I first started talking with Dixie in 2017, she had a very very good grasp of her family tree but, what she most wanted help with was, what she thought was her biological maternal Grandfather and his line. She'd went down a rabbit hole of them being from Australia (due to information on a marriage license) but come to find out, they really hailed from New York. 

We met in person in either late 2017 or early 2018 I think it was (I feel bad for not remembering the exact date. I think it was early 2018 though) and we actually figured out our families are connected. East end Henderson is a small place and come to find out - her younger half-brother was one of my Dad's best friends growing up. My Dad was very well acquainted with Dixie's Dad, and even more acquainted with her Uncle, who taught my Dad how to play guitar. Talk about a coincidence! 

Anyway - we started spending a lot of time together. I told her all about my DNA results in 2018 and how it had been so fun breaking down brick walls with my DNA, and soon after my Mom had tested and that had helped a lot, too. 

Soon, Dixie filled me in on the wonderings of... 'could my Grandma's seven kids each have different fathers?' Her mother, specifically, was supposed to be the daughter of the circus sword-swallower named John "Lucky" Ball. The marriage date of Lucky and Dixie's Mom, Sarah Pauline, match up to Sarah's birthday almost perfectly. 

In November of 2018, we decided to do both Dixie's DNA and her half-Aunt Charlotte's DNA. We knew they were absolutely half-Aunt/half-Niece because we believed Dixie's Grandpa was Lucky Ball whereas Charlotte's Dad was said to be a man named Jack Spearman. 

When they got their results -- I worked on Charlotte's first. In 2018, she was 81 years old and I knew time was precious. On Ancestry, I could tell she was matching with a bunch of Barnett's and Leonard's. This Barnett/Leonard couple had 3 sons... any of the three could have been the biological father, so I was at a stalemate for a moment. Until I uploaded Charlotte's DNA to My Heritage. 

On My Heritage, we hit a 'half-sibling,' match and that removed all doubt over which Barnett boy was Charlotte's father. William Barnett had three sons... One had already passed away, one wasn't in good health I heard, and the other was excited at the prospect of meeting his half-sister! 

Charlotte was absolutely elated to be welcomed with open arms into the Barnett family and she soaked up all the love they had to give, and she gave plenty in return. Sadly, that half-brother that was so excited to finally have a sister, passed away some months back. My heart was broken for Charlotte, but she told Granny to tell me, "I don't regret her finding him. I'll take this year and a half of knowing him over having never known him at all." It meant a lot to me to hear that. 

Anyway - Granny's DNA results were a bit harder to decipher than Charlotte's. First and foremost, I could absolutely tell Granny wasn't matching with any Ball's from New York. She wasn't matching New York whatsoever. After messing with her DNA, I confirmed her paternal lines, and her maternal Grandmother's lines... so all these "unknown" matches were absolutely on her maternal Grandfather's side, whoever he may be. 

The first clue to solving this mystery was the fact that she was matching Stone's. Stone is a very, very popular last name here in Henderson County and as luck would have it, I managed two other Stone DNA kits -- my best friend Jessica, and my best friend Dadie. Dixie matched both of them. Albeit they're kind of distant matches but still - without a doubt matching through that elusive Stone line. 

So I started marking these 'unknown matches,' and I started writing down how these matches were related to one another, taking Dixie completely out of the equation. Usually if you find the common ancestors between a good 3 to 4 of your matches, it's a pretty good clue that you, too, share that ancestral couple. 

I found several that descended through Samuel Woodard and Lucinda Liggett. Several through John Jenkins and Margaret Sigler. Then I found my ace in the pocket... several were matching through John & Margaret's son, Willis "Bud" Jenkins who married... Malinda Stone. Jackpot. 

One of their sons, George, married an Eliza Woodard -- Jackpot... Or is it? Double cousins! George's brother, Andrew, married Nancy Woodard. Ugh. So which one of these couples does Dixie descend through? Well. No choice but to look at each child of both Jenkins/Woodard marriages under a microscope. 

I started with Andrew and Nancy's children... and their children.. no one was adding up. I wrote down my best "possible" "potential" candidates and moved on to the children of George and Eliza. Going through each one... none were seeming a possibility. Until I came across the last one. 

George Lloyd Jenkins was born May 31st, 1902, in Henderson County, Kentucky. He was the youngest child of George and Eliza. He was about 5 years older than Granny's Grandmother, Aggie Barron. George grew up in none other than Henderson's "East End," which is where Aggie Barron grew up as well. 

Unfortunately, I was afraid George was out of the running when I found that he married Nellie May Kitchens on May 18th, 1925, in Evansville. They had two children: a son, Donald Waller Jenkins, and a daughter who was stillborn in 1934. 

I decided to look into Donald Jenkins, even though I knew he couldn't be the father, being born in 1925. Just wanted to research him to see if maybe he had any children that might be willing to DNA test or something. I researched Donald and quickly realized he had no wife and no children - he died in Florida in 1977. 

The piece of evidence I found next took away any and all doubt in my mind that I'd found the right biological family. I found Donald's WW2 draft card and the portion that says, "the person who will always know your address," there it is: John D. Byrnes (friend) 54 Holloway St, Henderson. That's Dixie's DAD. 

Now this N.P.E situation was NOT on Dixie's Dad's side of the tree - it was on her Mom's side.... but in the east end, everyone knows everyone, so the Byrne's knew the Barron's long before the marriage of John D. Byrne and Sarah Pauline Ball.. and it just so happened that Donald Jenkins was John Byrne's best friend.

Donald Jenkins was Sarah's half-brother. Now if they ever knew that... that remains a mystery. Sarah never mentioned a word of a suspicion to Dixie nor to Charlotte... and Dixie, who was especially close to her Dad, says he never mentioned anything to her either that he 'suspected' Donald's Dad to be Sarah Pauline's Dad. So this was a total shock when I revealed my hypothesis. 

There is an old photograph of George Jenkins on Ancestry, and when I showed it to Granny, she and Charlotte both said he resembled Sarah Pauline. Granny showed me an old photograph she had of Donald Jenkins, and she said, "You know, now that I think on it.. I do see the family resemblance." 

This is a perfect story of 'your next door neighbor just might be your relative,' honestly. This is also a prime example of solving a case like this using not 'extremely' close DNA matches. Donald Jenkins never had kids - and George Jenkins, as far as we know, never fathered anyone else. So Dixie will never have a 'half Uncle' or 'half Aunt' DNA match through George, and she'll never have a 'half first cousin' match through Donald having kids. I had to solve this mystery using mostly 2nd cousin 1x removed matches at the time. 

George Jenkins passed away in 1966 in California. I firmly believe he had no idea he was Sarah Pauline Ball's father. If he had been - I doubt he'd have liked his son, Donald, knowing the family, thinking the 'secret' could have gotten out. No, I fully believe George believed Aggie's child was her husband, Lucky Ball's. The dates did line up, after all. 

George, the father, pictured above. The photo comes from a relative on Ancestry. 

A photograph from Granny's collection - her mother, Sarah, on her wedding day in 1943. She was only 14 years old when she got married. She looks 24, doesn't she! She obviously was a mature, attractive young lady. 

Again, from Granny's collection. Her Grandmother, Agnes "Aggie" Barron. Aggie ended up dying from cervical cancer, that I suspect could have came from HPV, when she was just 46 years old in 1953. The woman lived a lot of life in 46 years, having seven children with at least nine different men. (Two men she was married to, and they believed they had children with her, but surprise -- they didn't!) 

After finishing with Charlotte's and Granny's DNA - we've done the DNA of three more of Granny's half-first cousins since 2019 to 2021. We figured out that the child immediately after Sarah Pauline, Rosemary, who also had the Ball last name - she was not a Ball, either (shocker, lol) but instead an Ervin. I made this connection through the half-first cousin matching a half-Uncle. Took away all the hard work. The biological father ended up being, again, an East End Henderson native. The families had known each other for years.

Next we decided to work on Aggie's firstborn child. There had been really no whispers on who the father of Thomas Elbridge Barron (he got his Mom's maiden name) could be. Granny's theory was that possibly someone from the Catholic Church that Aggie attended might have been the father, that's the best lead we had to go on. 

I could tell this half first-cousin (the daughter of Thomas Elbridge Barron) was matching a lot of Hunter's, Hester's, Gibson's, Church's... these are well known Henderson/Union/Webster county families -- and after piecing it together, I realized the father was Wickie Hunter. Wickie was a name known in the east end of Henderson, too, and he never had anymore children (that we know of) so again, this is a case of having to use 2nd cousins and further to decipher. 

The last one we've worked on was Granny's half-Aunt, Helen Ruth; her son was kind enough to test for us to solve the mystery. Helen was interchangeably used the last names Ball and Spearman, but, we knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was neither. I started finding a lot of Bumpus, Cherry, and Shepherd DNA matches and these families are NOT native to Henderson County. After piecing everything together -- I figured out the biological father was a man named George Franklin Bumpus. 

George was born in Stewart Co, TN and died in Hopkinsville, KY. How he and Aggie met one another, we're unclear on. My guess was probably at a club dancing and they decided to have a one night dalliance. George Bumpus married at least once by 1953 when living in Tennessee again, but they never had children. So again, this DNA mystery was solved using 2nd cousins and further; there will never be 'closer' DNA matches. 

Now we've got two more children of Aggie to go.. and we're certain they aren't Ball's or Spearman's either. We're hoping one of the children of the youngest son will test... and on Aggie's youngest daughter -- we're going to have to test a great-grandson of hers. So I'll be looking for a biological Great-Great-Grandfather... that's a genealogical needle in a haystack so to speak. That one will be a challenge, but a fun challenge. 

Thank you for reading about the steps I followed to solve these DNA mysteries and hopefully I can update y'all on what I find on Aggie's two remaining children and their biological fathers. The suspense is killing me on who the biological fathers are!! 

52 Ancestors 2021: Week 38: Fun & Games

I wish I had interesting stories of my ancestors to really go in-depth with for this prompt but, truly, I don't. I do know that my Great-Great-Grandfather, Charles Clarence LaRue loved fun and games - he enjoyed riddles, pranks, jokes.. and that's been passed down through the generations. 

My Great-Grandfather, Richard "Dick" Blanford loved fun and games as well. Matter of fact, his favorite comedian was Jeff Foxworthy - a favorite of mine as well. Joking got passed down to my Grandpa Jady and of course, to my Mom and myself. 

My Great-Grandmother Lorene (LaRue) Blanford was a big fan of Crossword puzzles, I've heard. It makes a lot of sense because my Grandpa, my Mom, and even myself... we each enjoy them immensely. 

My Grandpa Jady is the one who taught me to play so many games -- Checkers, Scrabble, and Clue to name a few of them. Our favorite was absolutely Clue. My Grandpa was so good at that game.. I swear he snuck a peak at the cards, somehow! He was exceptional at Scrabble as well. You'd think he was just 'coming up with a word,' and you'd go to the dictionary to look at up and sure enough, it's a real world. 

We didn't really have any traditions of playing games on holidays or anything like that. I always lived just three or so minutes down the road from my Grandparents so.. we'd play games almost every time I went over for a visit. I actually introduced my Grandma to the Sudoku puzzles in the newspaper and she became an addict playing those. 

Grandma was really good at Excel on the computer, so she figured out a way to make herself a Sudoku puzzle checker spreadsheet to make sure she was working her puzzles correctly. I couldn't explain to you at all how she managed to do it.. I am a complete novice at Excel. It amazed me she was able to figure out how to do it, though. 

Grandma eventually spent the money to get CD-ROM games that we'd play together. Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Wheel of Fortune. Boggle. Scrabble. There's probably more I'm forgetting. We were all really big fans of Trivia style games. Grandma wasn't the best speller so.. she usually lost Scrabble or Boggle to me and Grandpa. If it involved math though, Grandma was a champ. 

She eventually got Bejeweled 2 from a friend of hers and that became my favorite game to play solo. It was strategy and I enjoyed it a lot. Even today, all the years I spent playing that game, has made me an ace at games on my iPhone that are like that. "Match 3" games if you will. 

I'll occasionally play Clue or Scrabble with a friend and I can't help but feel a longing to play again with my Grandparents. Every time I see a Sudoku puzzle, I weep for my Grandma. I can't even bring myself to do Sudoku's anymore. I do still actively play Crossword puzzles and Word Search puzzles. Those are my favorites. 

Sorry that I don't have any photos of us playing games or a whole lot to talk about for this topic. Hopefully the next topic will make up for that. :)