coming out of my shell

coming out of my shell

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Remember the ladies

Yesterday I considered staying in bed all day with the covers pulled over my head. Considering the mood I was in, it probably would have been for the best. However, life is meant to be lived, adversity overcome, and these damn moods really MUST be tamed! This is the stuff of life. Who am I to surrender?

Instead, I will follow the the directive of Abigail Adams. In her March 31, 1776 letter to her husband, John Adams she asked him to "remember the ladies" when helping to build a code of laws for what what they hoped would become a new, independent nation dedicated to liberty and justice for all.

Today I remember the ladies on just one branch of my family. This is not my distaff line, although I could do that. Instead, I am thinking of my paternal grandpa's mother. Let us consider the lives of women in her line as a long, multi-generational Women's March for equality and respect. In honoring them, I also honor all the brave women marching on Washington, D.C. and other cities.


H
ere is
my great grandmother, Emma Frost. She was born in Wayne Co., Kentucky in 1881, and died there in 1963. She and her husband (her second cousin) were tobacco farmers who also operated a small grocery store in their house. Emma and her husband had 12 children.

Emma

























Emma's mother was Ellen Ramsey (1857-1938), also from Wayne Co., Kentucky. Ellen was a farm woman who outlived two husbands, had 5 children with the first and 6 children with the second. Ellen Ramsey looked like this:
Ellen

















  
Ellen's mother was Sarah "Sally" Rector (1814-1905). Another farm woman! Sally is my 3rd great grandmother through Emma's side, but she is also my 3rd great aunt through Emma's husband's side. Ha! I need a chart to figure these things out. Sally and her husband had 10 children.
Sally













 


Sally's mother was Rutha Simpson. Rutha was born in Pendleton Co., South Carolina in 1790. Her family moved to Rowan Co., North Carolina when she was young, but by 1806 they were living in Wayne Co., Kentucky. Rutha's father was an officer in the Royalist army during the War for Independence, so they had to keep moving after the British lost. They were not welcome in most communities. Rutha, however, married a son of a Revolutionary War soldier who fought at the battle of Yorktown, when General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington. That must have made for interesting dinner conversations around the farmhouse table after all the chores were done. Rutha and her husband had nine children.
Rutha (from a painting on a commemorative plate)


























Rutha's mother was Sarah Sherrill (b. 1746, Virginia; d. 1826 Kentucky). The Sherrill's are historical figures and old settlers. Her grandfather, William Sherrill, was born about 1670 in Devon, England. He arrived in Maryland about 1686 as a bonded passenger. In time, he became a fur trader and a well known Indian guide in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is also sometimes referred to as "The Conestoga Fur Trader." Sarah was a year old when she and her family left Augusta, Virginia to become the first Europeans to settle on the west side of the Catawba River in North Carolina. Sarah and her husband had as many as 13 children.

Sarah's mother was Agnes White. Agnes was born in Virginia in 1726 and was part of the pioneer North Carolina family referenced above. She died at Sherrill's Ford, North Carolina in 1795. Agnes White and William Sherrill had as many as 14 children, many dying young.


Agnes' mother was likely Mary "Polly" Campbell, born in Ulster, Ireland in 1686.  She married Duncan White, and she died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1728. 

Polly's mother was possibly Mary McCoy, born in Scotland about 1650, married Moses White, and died in Ulster, Ireland about 1689. 

I honor these women today, with all my heart. They are only one branch of women who came before me. In the wheel of life that represents ancestry, there are so many others. 


22 comments:

  1. Fascinating. You know so much about them all. I have been doing a family tree but to know who they truly were is not as easy. I only know about the more recent members of my family and even then not as much as I would like.

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    1. In that you are from Kansas, I bet you have a fascinating family tree filled with pioneers and interesting people. Keep digging. I was lucky enough to have my grandmother alive until 2000. She gave me a lot of info about my father's side of the family.

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  2. It is a remarkable thing that you can trace your personal family history so far back into the history of our country. My in-laws arrived early too, going all the way back to the beginning in 1620. I, on the other hand, am the granddaughter of immigrants who only arrived here in 1921. It hasn't even been a hundred years. Just to read how far back you can trace the women in your family is amazing. It is grand to honor them all today.

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    1. You can still track your ancestors if you are interested. Try ancestry.com and get a world membership rather than only the U.S.A. one. You will be amazed at how much you can find out and back up with proof. However, there's a lot of crap on ancestry.com, too - so you really want to document what you see to make sure it is true.

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  3. Amazing, wonderful pictures and life stories. And what lives, 13 children! Thanks for this impressive memory.

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    1. Well, I was inspired by your blog posting old family photos. I have some people and pictures on my mother's side who look more like yours do. Spoke the same language, too.

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    1. I remember a post you did not too long ago (i.e., in the last year?) about your southern family who were sharecroppers. I found that so interesting.

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  5. You're lucky to know so much about your family history. I know very little. I met one grandmother only twice in my lifetime before she died. My dad's parents were dead by the time I was born and my mother's father never liked to admit that he had children. His ex-wife is the grandmother I only met twice. Not a close family obviously:)

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  6. Long line of strong women. Wonderful.

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  7. To be able to trace back since a lineage of strong Women with a Pioneer Spirit is Wonderful! With Adoptions and Foundlings in our Family Trees and some Cultures that only had word of mouth to trace back I can't go back very far at all so I've always been Curious. Plan to do one of those Ancestry DNA Tests in 2017 to satiate some of the curiosity of where we came from more accurately. Thank you for Sharing your Branch of a very Interesting Family Tree... what big Families they all had! Blessings from the Arizona Desert... Dawn... The Bohemian

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    1. The Ancestry DNA test is an autosomal test. That means it is not gender related (not your male line or just your female line). If I understand it correctly, it will give you an idea of who you are from all sides. I had it done a few years ago. Lots of fun.

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  8. It's amazing and wonderful that you have such a rich pictorial history! My grandparents all came here through Ellis Island and I have often thought I should do some research through them. Maybe now that I'm retired . . .

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    1. Yes, congrats on that retirement. I KNOW you're going to love it. Lots of us retirees do genealogy work because it is fun and we don't have to think of it as wasting time.

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  9. Amazing how far back you've been able to go! Imagine if those women had had blogs? How much more we'd know! Great picture...You and Sabine are giving me the itch to dig through old family photos! So yes, you must honor them by getting out of bed. You wouldn't want them spying on you and catching you napping --- well, not too much anyway. A little napping is often good for what ails us!

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    1. Well, darn it - I just saw this (Feb 13). I'm sorry I didn't comment when you wrote it. Yes, PLEASE go through your old family photos and write about them. I would love it. I try very hard to keep my ancestors from catching me napping!

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  10. In case you didn't know, and you probably don't, I love genealogy. It's like a part-time job for me. And I'm not kidding. It spend a lot of time doing research. I especially love the story of the women. There is a book called, Will the Real Nation Builders Please Stand Up. We hear so much about the men and almost nothing about the women. It is great that you have tracked so far back.

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    1. I just saw this post and Molly's just before it.That book sounds great. Yes, I am committed to finding out about these women.

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    2. I did know you were into genealogy, you mentioned it in a blog in recent months, I think?

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So, whadayathink?