Stray Branches of Our Family Tree

...Continued....Gramma Claribel and Grandpa Ira's wedding day, written by Grandpa. 50th Anniversary Portrait of Claribel McMillen and Ira Fleece for March 8, 1973. Bought 20 lbs of candy and a box of cigars and went out to Wes and Pearl's for our supper. Pearl said she could not afford us a present but could get us a good supper which was good.  Wes and Pearl lived just a couple miles east of the farm I grew up on and Pearl was instrumental in getting us to attend her church (Silver Creek United Methodist Church). Mom was always very big on "local" before local was a thing, and really wanted to go to the church down the road and around the corner from our farm. Both churches looked the same but that one was a little smaller and has War of 1812 soldiers buried out behind it (just north of Jumbo). Uncle Wes and Aunt Pearl owned and American Four-Square house similar to this which still stands. As with all farmhouses in the area when I was growing up, it wa...

Previously published on my https://mito-trail.blogspot.com blog but moved here to consolidate my writings. This is a three part series. Today, I'm going to share a letter we found while going through her things. My brothers graciously allowed me to take all of the pictures accumulated over the generations, and any memorabilia I might find interesting in compiling our family's story. Today's letter was written by Mom's father as he celebrated his 50th anniversary with Gramma. My goodness, we should all be so lucky! Please, please, if you are married - write your own story. I have no idea why Grandpa wrote it, or to whom, or how Mom ended up with it. Maybe she asked him to do it, I don't know - he was a great story-teller. Grandpa and Gramma's wedding picture. While he wrote about the wedding, I do not know where the dress came from. She only said it was red, she made it, and it no longer exists because she wore it to church until it was worn out. The ...

Written in the first months after Mom's very unexpected death for the now defuct Mito-Trail family blog. This expanded version was written on the second anniversary of her death. This was the photo Dad carried in his wallet for more than 60 years. I've had a difficult time since Mom died. I sat down several times to write this blog and have not been able to do it. I have somewhat of a reputation of writing gut-wrenching stories of departed friends. I can't exactly call them obits, more like multiple-page stories bordering on a dissertation that jerks one's emotions all over the place. I guess people like them judging on the requests for reprints, from as far away as Australia. Like some mother-daughter relationships, ours was a bit complicated. But in later years, particularly after Dad's death, we talked multiple hours a week on the phone (we lived three states apart.) It was kind of odd in a way because since my stroke a couple years back, it had become in...

I have been thinking a lot about my mom's oldest sister lately, so I thought I would transfer the story I wrote in her memory for today's Mito-Monday. We shared our love of genealogy for many years. I miss her. Maxine Jewell Fleece Dodds 1925-2017 There are many avenues to take in genealogy and sometimes some of the facebook groups can get quite heated. Not everybody has the same goals and for me that's OK. Here are some of those goals: * Civil War Soldiers, direct lines and sometimes including as many sons, brothers, uncles and cousins as one can find. * Revolutionary War - same * Patriarchal Line * Cousin Collectors * Stretching Sideways as far as possible - cousin collecting on steroids - out to third and/or fourth cousins, and sometimes including the genealogy of Cousin Spouses. It is not unusual for these trees to top 10,000 people. Seriously!) * Immigrant Ancestors * Descendant Collectors: this is where somebody picks a particular ancestor and tries...

"Join, or Die" by Benjamin Franklin to encourage the former colonies to unite against British rule. From the Library of Congress. WILLIAM BEDEN, the longest-served Revolutionary War soldier in my line to date, is listed in very few genealogy trees. Sometimes I troll through my tree because today, I have much different goals than I did back when I was a teenager. Then, I wanted to push each line back to the The Boat. Now, my goal is to tell the stories of my ancestors. Perhaps it's because my maternal grandfather was an awesome story-teller. I don't know, but I enjoy this new goal. The Revolutionary War is not my specialty. As a matter of fact, I was trying to do some research on one of my War of 1812 ancestors (also not my specialty) who had lived close to where I was raised and got totally sidelined when I had to look at my entire tree and William kind of jumped out and said "Me! Me!" BACK STORY. William Beden (also spelled Beeden,...

First published September 30, 2017. Mom and I talk on the phone about once a week, never less than an hour - sometimes two. I know women who don't talk to their moms at all, others three or four times a day. We live three states apart, and a long jabber session one afternoon a week feels right for us. I have found that lately I keep a notebook handy, and when Mom starts talking about something of genealogical interest, I jot it down. It does not always concern our ancestors, a lot of times it's something from her life that I find interesting. When my husband and I lived on the adjoining farm and Dad would wander over for coffee, I did that with him, only on random pieces of whatever was handy, including, much to my dismay now - paper towels (not recommended, by the way). We have moved and those little scraps are still turning up, but I've progressed, thankfully, into a notebook for Mom. Dad's last remaining sister passed away last week. She lived on the other side...