A Special Time

There may be a glut of posts over the next few days after a 6 month hiatus. This one is one that my grandfather 'Pa' wrote about a stroll he took with my cousin Jennifer when he was visiting her and her parents in Packwood, Washington back in the early '80s.

"'A Special Time'
They stroll down the tree shaded mountain lane hand in hand. Love and affection is predominant as they smile and gather wild flowers for grandma. They make a rather unique picture. The long & short or the Mutt & Jeff appearance adds to the scene. The tiny hand of the diminutive granddaughter, swallowed up in the gnarled grip of her bearded grandpa, who towers over her like the large pines that line the road.

They pick up pebbles to throw at imaginary targets. The flowers, ferns and grasses all get their share of special attention but the smiles widen as wild berries are found. To pick wild berries for grandma is the main reason for the walk. The taste of these berries widen the smiles even more and the goo intentions go by the wayside. Grandma must be content to smell the flowers.
After a time they wend their way home, having partaken fully of the love & affection that exists between grandpa & granddaughter. May it ever be so.

B.C.
7/17/1982"

I love the scene.

AFN
DCC
Vidalia, GA, 24 December 2009

Digitizing (read preserving) the Past

Man, did May ever fly by! I didn't realize that I'd gone a month again without posting. Here's a preview of things to come, albeit that they will come VERY slowly, merely because of the nature of the work. Of course, my pace probably doesn't help. Here's the list though.

Digitization of Letters:
I've digitized one letter on here from 1920, this is the plan for those to follow.

As I embark on the long, but necessary journey of digitizing and transcribing my grandparents’ letters and letters of older generations (what few I have), I want to note a few observances regarding the letters.

First, I intend to digitize into *.jpeg format each of the letters into files in which each of file will be named for the date the envelope was postmarked denoted as follows 1957.06.01 pm. A date/file name without the ‘pm’ indicates that there was a letter, but no envelope.

I will try to get them organized in related segments/events, and then of course by date. My goal, ultimately, will be to have all of them digitized and typed. As best I can, I will digitize and type the older ones first.

The letters generally will fall into the following groups.

Pre-1940
Most of these fall into the WWI era time frame with one coming just after the war in 1920 (which has already been digitized and transcribed) and a group of letters having been written from a family in France who had befriended Edward Gordon Ponder and kept up correspondence with his youngest sister Dollye Elizabeth Ponder Thompson, Mme. Guiggard and her daughter according to the letters. The spelling is the best interpretation/transcription I can decipher.

Military letters:
Most of these that I will publish will be from WWII, so as to maintain the standard that the primary writers are no longer living, to protect identity, etc. as much as possible. The bulk of these letters were written from Allen Vernon Tuten to his parents Joseph Alexander and Ruth Rogers Tuten. I will also scan and transcribe a journal that one of A. V. Tuten’s crew-mates kept regarding their missions in Europe. There are a few letters that Marguerite Elizabeth Thompson, while in boot camp, wrote to Ralph and Naomi ‘Jane’ Bowden. There are a few military documents as well that I will scan and include.

1957
These letters were written while Robert Harold Clinton & Marguerite Elizabeth Thompson Clinton, referring to each other as Baja and Tommy or Tombone respectively through out the letters, were living apart from each other between May 1957 and Sept. 1957. Baja was in Norwalk, California writing to Tommy and their children in Watkinsville, Georgia and vice versa. Unfortunately, the letters for the month of July that Tommy wrote to Baja are currently missing, and likely lost to posterity. All of the letters written from Baja to Tommy, to my knowledge are accounted for.

While writing to each other during this time, they rarely missed a day of writing, and the letters that I have read thus far have been descriptive of their days and especially full of love for each other and almost disconsolate longing and loneliness while apart.

For each set of letters, mistakes within the letters will be kept as is with the typical notation of [sic] after each.

I will try without too much commentary to let the letters speak for themselves. When narration is necessary or beneficial, I will provide it.

AFN
DCC
Athens, GA 4 June 2009
Rainy

Robert Harold Clinton, Sr. Ancestry, Matthew, Ch. 1, Pt. I

A continuation/start to the post that I started back in January. I'll post links and such later when not at work and I have more time to do anything other than cut & paste what I typed last night. You should get the idea.

A lineal ascent to my grandfather, Robert Harold Clinton, Sr.

I think ascent works there. I’ll first follow the male then the female lines of each as I have knowledge of them, with a couple lines about each with full ‘details’ to follow later. I’ll provide dates so you know where this runs.

Robert H. Clinton (May 12, 1920 Los Angeles, CA-March 25, 1990 Athens, GA; Bob, Baja, Clint, Pa, Doc), later adding Sr. to his name, was the son of Charles Everett Clinton, Sr. (nee. David West/Roland Wolfe) and Rebecca Belle Crenshaw (preferred Belle). Robert was an architect and cabinet maker by trade. As mentioned in Wayfarers and something I’ll repost eventually Charles/David changed his name sometime around 1904, as evidenced by the naming of their first three children with the last name of Wolfe and that the son who was born that year they named Charles E. Clinton, Jr.

Charles/David (1860 Lewes, DE-1942 Los Angeles, CA) was the son of Reece Becket Wolfe, II/Jr. (there’s some debate in the family as to whether he ever used the II or Jr. at all, but it’s easier to delineate using that) and Mary Hazzard West. Reece and Charles/David were both butchers by trade. At this point, this line, very much like the rest of my ancestors with the state of Georgia, stays very fixed geographically around and in Lewes, DE almost to the founding of the colony, including as an ancestor Rev. William Becket, from whom Reece gets his middle name. As you will see, there are also many Reece/Rice/Riss names (but not Reese) in this line as well.

Reece B. (Nov. 30,1828 Lewes, DE-June 18,1901 Philadelphia, PA) was the son of Reece Becket Wolfe I/Sr. and Nancy Waples. We have no further information regarding the Waples family.

Reece B., I/Sr. (1791 Lewes, DE-1854 Lewes, DE) was the son of William Wolfe and Mary Becket Futcher. Through Mary B. Futcher, we are descended from Rev. William Becket, who was one of the earliest Anglican missionaries in the Delaware area as a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, arriving in Lewes Sept. 1, 1721. The Beckett family is originally from Over Peover, Cheshire , England .

William Wolfe (July 15, 1766 Lewes, DE-July 7, 1818 Lewes, DE) was the son of Reece Wolfe/Woolf, Jr. (both spellings are in the records) and Mary White. We have no further information on the ancestry of Mary White. William was a lawyer by profession.

Reece/Rice Wolfe/Woolf (July 15 1733 Lewes , DE -bef May 10, 1797 Lewes DE , date indicated is the date of will probate) was the son of Francis Wolfe and Sarah Brooksby. We have no further information on the ancestry of Sarah Brooksby. Reece/Rice was a yeoman farmer.

Francis Wolfe/Woolf (bef. 1715 Lewes, DE-c1755 Lewes , DE ) was the son of Rice/Riss Woolf and Mary Cornwell. Francis was a carpenter by trade. Francis acquired 1500 acres on what would become known as Wolfe’s Creek, a branch of Lewes Creek.

Rice/Riss Woolf (bet 1670-75 Lewes, DE-1715/16 Lewes, DE, will was made Feb. 18, 1715/16) was the son of William Woolf, who is the first known ancestor to live in the American colonies though we do not know the country of origin. Rice/Riss was a yeoman farmer by trade.Tradition states that the Wolfe/Woolf line comes from Germany , but it is possible that the line originated in England or Sweden or the Netherlands , given that those were the original colonial powers in the Delaware area.

William Woolf/Wolfe is the first known ancestor in this line to live in the American colonies. There are land deed records referencing transactions between William Woolf and other parties beginning as early as Sept. 1693 and going as late as March 1694.

AFN
DCC
Athens, GA, 7 May 2009

Busy, but not like Farming Busy

It's pretty bad when 'a lot of work' entails reading. My grandfathers would laugh in my face. Been a bit busy lately w/ work and will be for a while. If nothing else I'll try to post pictures as I can. Here are a couple.


These guys. These guys would laugh at me . . .: Top to bottom is one of my Grandpa Clinton (RH/Bob/Baja/Clint/Doc) (lower left), one of his brothers, and his nephews, who weren't that much younger than he was. One of my Grandpapa Tuten (Vernon, Tute, Buck, Doc) back row, second from right and his bomber crew from WWII. And one of my Grandpa Clinton (L) and my great-grandpa Thompson (Robert Ingram, Bob).



Yep, they'd all laugh at me for calling this 'work'.

AFN
DCC 21 January 2009
Athens, GA UGA

Matthew, Chapter 1, Intro

As I was posting recently, I realized that having some connecting links to each of these stories might help, besides just the labels below. I'll try to link each of these as I post, but as I can.

I'll post each one as I get it typed up, which may take a while. For a few of these, I'll leave off after a couple generations as some of them have connections further back than what I will list or I will end with an ellipses and an explanation of where the line 'goes.'

There will be four parts:

Part I. Robert Harold Clinton, Sr.
Part II. Marguerite Elizabeth Thompson
Part III. Allen Vernon Tuten
Part IV. Willie Amelia Mayers

We’ll leave each of these at 2 generations back, ending w/ my grandparents, but I’ll go with what I have and dates and locations so that folks have an idea of how this works and the interconnections, but to preface each of the parts, I’ll start ‘out’ of the state, i.e. Georgia, and work inwards, as most of my families are very closely tied to Georgia. Of my grandparents, 4 died in Georgia, and 3 of 4 were born in Georgia, with at least 2 generations of their ancestors living in the state.

More to come as I get them typed up.

AFN

DCC

14 January 2009, Athens, GA, the house

A Lost Arcadia

As I often get on a genealogical stint and go head long into research or writing/discovering, on about a once every 3-6 month basis (with some intervals coming in shorter or longer periods), I wanted to use this as a basis for preserving/keeping up with my notes and stories/pictures without having to trust that I would be at my computer in particular in order to have access to some of the dates or pictures or stories.

To the best of my ability these stories and tales will be based on first hand accounts or facts from records. However, genealogy as with any form of history is, often at best, guess work, and many stories will be pieced together based on stories that I have heard from my grandparents when they were alive or from older aunts & uncles or parents.

A prime example, who will be the victim (um, subject) of many stories & suppositions, is my great- grandfather, Charles Everette Clinton (nee David West/Rowland Wolfe). You know there are questions when we can't even agree on his middle name or the spelling of his second self-chosen middle name. I will end this with a picture of his father & youngest son (my grandfather) with promises to return with stories on each.
Great-great grandpa Reece Beckett Wolfe (Charles/David's father) with whom he shared the profession of being a butcher.

Grandpa/'Pa' Robert Harold Clinton, Sr. (Charles' youngest son & child) at about the age of 16 in 1936.

All for now.
DCC
16 December 2008