WORDLESS WEEK

Today has been a long day for me. I really feel exhausted in my efforts over the past week. I would like to believe that i should have at least come up with something in regards to my ancestors. What a blah day, it is raining and i have a slight headache. However, i have been writing different genealogical societies in areas of my research. Posting and searching message boards and nothing yet that makes me wanna jump up and down. I don't know just feeling really out of touch.
I think i am going to start on another ancestor or perhaps my paternal line.

Or perhaps provide some information on WD Mc Curdy. A few of my relatives worked under the Mc Curdy family and i do know their is a Mc Curdy horse Plantation in Lowndes that my grandma mentioned.  Alot of area farmers or slave owners took there horses there to be breed because of the care and status of the Mc Curdy brothers own establishment.

In short WD Mc Curdy also had a part in the Pratt Mines of Alabama where slaves where leased amongst owners in coal mines to produce money in deplorable conditions. Chained, malnurished, tortured, and whipped. A practice known as convict leasing. A sytem in which a slave or free person was used in forced labor to pay off their debt. Taken from jail or prison and delivered to a farm, coal mine, or lumber yard.. Most  of the time there was no real criminal act committed. Can't begin to imagine worrying about walking down street and being thrown into custody for something made up. Our ancestors where very strong and deserve there stories to be told, GOOD, BAD,and UGLY!

They call me Chaarlie, Charlie Reese

We began to talk and her eyes glistened as she spoke of her grandparents Mamie Dudley and Charlie Reese. The words of my granny Ruby Reese.

 

 Oh my goodness she looked like an Indian with her long hair and red skin. She would braid her her up or pin it in curls. Always dressed so nice and had gold in her mouth. Never understood how she got her hair to stay so in place, and my momma Lucile looked indian too.

My grandaddy Charlie used to have best watermelons, we would eat half and then tip melon over till he found out. He was clean too, light skinned fella.

 

On Saturdays we rode into town with him. On Sundays we attended church at Hopewell Baptist, Revrend Witt did services. During the week Grandma Mamie and momma kept house for Sam Pharr, he worked at courthouse in Lowndesboro. Wonder if he still here, had dream he could tell me where momma is.

Back In The Day

Today i was sitting down chatting about my grandma to another elder from Alabama/ Florida area, and we began discussing how people in North are so very different from those raised in South. I can recall as a child when my grandma cooked she would feed the neighborhood. Not to say we had it like that but if you where hungry Mrs. Ruth, my granny would feed you, a good home cooked meal.

 

When i went to Georgia as a teenager and stayed with my grandpa we were up with the birds. Hence, early bird catches the worm. Nowadays kids wanna stay in bed sleeping all day.

The people where very mannerable, using  maa'm or sir. People in neighborhood where very close and knew each other by first names. And when you walked down street people spoke to each other without turning head or saying nothing at all.

 

So we chatted and somehow i got to asking if he saw 42, the Jackie Robinson movie. He chuckled and said you know how old i am? Oh my goodness he was very smart, tough guy. Didn't take no junk...bout 6 ft, dark good looking black man. His wife....oh was she a pretty girl..kids where little at time he played ball. She is around 85-90 years old with prettiest silver hair. Think they had two boys n maybe a girl later...Can't quite remember. Anyways he began to say, he had diabetes and it got to his eyesight, and started affecting other parts of his body. You know back then we didn't know how handle those things. Hmmm, so sad was a good man.

 

Back to matter at hand he says, make sure you record and right down everything. Whatever your grandma tells you keep track of. Sometimes when you get older you forget. And alot times back then people didn't really know who they Daddy was. I laughed and said, well she does and its confirmed. Just cant find anything on her mothers death yet.....thats still a mystery.....

Things that make you go hmm

It can be very easy to get overwhelmed with research and figuring out which way to go. I have been mostly researching my maternal line and like any one i have a few bumps in road that need paved.

My first that's dear and closest to my heart....an obituary, death record, or picture for my great grandma Lucile Reese Robinson. She was born in 1907 to Charlie Reese and Mamie Dudley in Lowndes county Alabama.  The last known relevance i have on her is in household with husband Harry Robinson in 1940, Birmingham.

 

My Second Bump in Road

Charlie Reese

Over the past few weeks i have been trying to prove that Abe Reese/Reece is in fact the father of Charlie. According to the Alabama Death & Burial index on Ancestry his parents are Abe Reese and Annie Miller aka Amy Miller. He was born about 1886 and died 1937 in Clanton, Alabama.

If it is so that Abe Reece is his father they migrated from North Carolina. Abe Reese would be son of Wiley Reese and Dinah. He was born about 1870 and died 1935.

 

My Third Bump in Road

 

Over past couple weeks i began correspondence with another researcher on Reese surname. In fact we had same ancestors or so i thought. Same given names, Wiley Reese and Dinah who where spouses. Abe Reese and Annie/ Amy Miller. Also Abe's first wife Aliff Waters\Warters.

I asked if had any pictures, history to prove or disprove if  had owners. Or if  knew parents of Wiley or Dinah. This person replied that must be different family because they are Caucasian, with maybe some Cherokee blood. They where never owned.

How to go about finding solutions....why did they migrate to Alabama and when exactly?