Category: Uncategorized
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Sister C. A. Williams Is Gone
Photo: D. G. Beers Co. of Philadelphia 1877 map of Haywood County, Tennessee showing the location of Catherine A. Williams homeSource / “Sister C. A. Williams is Gone.” That was the first sentence of my third great-grandmother’s obituary, written by John Charles Warren Cobb (1830-1914) and W.T. Morris (1842-1924) as it appeared in the Zion…
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Red Wallet Photo Gallery
During the holidays, I was looking through boxes of old photos at my parents’ house when I came across an old red wallet crammed full of small Polaroids taken from the mid- to late 1960s. They feature me, the little boy in the photos, and my family as we lived and played more than 50…
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An Outlaw Family Bible
I was recently given the opportunity to examine a family Bible that once belonged to my fourth great-grandparents, George Washington Outlaw (1803-1861) and Luday Perry Outlaw (1800-1840). If you are researching Outlaw family genealogy and landed on this page from a Google search, I hope these names and dates help you fill in some blanks…
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Agness Booth Clardy and Early Methodism.
Photo: Agness Booth Clardy / While working on my Haywood County Booth family line, I ran across an interesting obituary that deserved a closer look. The subject was Agness Booth Clardy (1755-1847), my fifth great-aunt. Clardy is interesting because she was born when Virginia was still a British colony. She joined the Methodist church the…
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James Shield
As I am researching my family line, sometimes I spiral back and find myself looking for information about a family with a very distant connection. The branch of James Shield (about 1670-July 1727) sits way up and far to the side on my family tree, but it runs through a Revolutionary War story, a president…
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More Old Photos
Front row: Jess Williams (my father’s brother), Bobby Williams (my father), Whit Smith, Billy CastellawSecond row: Frank Reid, Bobby Castellaw, Joe Christmas, J. C. CastellawBack row: Lyle Reid / I received some great photos this week from one of my Haywood County cousins, Roland Reid. I love it when I get photos like this. It…
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Womanless Wedding
My cousin Sandra sent me this photo from The Brownsville States-Graphic. It shows my grandfather, Jesse Lloyd “Bo” Williams (1910-2008), dressed as a minister and looking a bit like Charlie Chaplin. Her grandfather, Bear Mann (1902-1966), was the bride in the wedding. The caption under the photo is: Nuptial Headliners – Playing top roles in…
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Abner and Irene Mann’s Stew Recipe
Photo: Abner “Bear” and Irene Mann / The blog post on Haywood County stew a few weeks ago generated a lot of messages and emails. One of my favorites came from my cousin Sandra, whose grandmother, Velma Irene Castellaw Mann (1904-1991), was a sister of my grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams (1915-1998). You assume the grandchildren…
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42 Annual Lovelace Family Reunion
Every third Sunday in September, the descendants of James Luther “Jim” Lovelace (1885-1968) and Ruby Fowler Lovelace (1887-1952) gather for the Lovelace Family Reunion that has been going on for more than 40 years. The reunion now takes place at the home of my great-aunt Carolyn Lovelace. She and my great-aunt Marie Lovelace, who is…
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Centerville School Photo
Photo: Children at Centerville School in Haywood County, Tennessee, around 1918 In a recent post, I mentioned that I hoped to find a better copy of a photo showing students at Centerville School. A distant cousin I had never met saw the post and called with good news. Joan Cobb—pronounced Jo Ann—who lives in Bells,…