SURNAME SATURDAY: PEEBLES

On a recent trip home to Chicago this past November, I stopped by my Aunt's home for a visit. On that visit we discussed my Blog and a little Genealogy. I was talking about my discoveries and she gave me the correct spelling of my Paternal Grandfather's name and she also gave me the name of my Paternal Great Grandmother: Maggie Wallace.

I tucked the name away and promised to look into things when I got back home to Maryland. Of course life got in the way and I did not revisit the name until this past Tuesday.

Since the 1940s Census has been fully indexed, I decided to do some snooping around on Ancestry.com I remembered the name that my Aunt gave me(Maggie Wallace) and decided to look her up in the Census and there she was in 1940s living with her second husband John Wallace and my Paternal Grandfather was living in the home as well.

My Paternal Grandfather's name is Allen Peebles. He was born abt 1908 in Mooresville, Limestone, Alabama to Allen Peebles and Maggie(no surname yet). Allen had 2 siblings John H Peebles born abt 1909 and Lizzie Peebles born abt 1906. I have no further information on John and Lizzie as of yet. I do know from the 1930 census the Peebles family was living in Illinios. John had married someone named Maggie and had a daughter named Juanita. Allen and his mom Maggie was living the household as well. I found an Ohio death record for John looks like he passed away June, 28, 1986 in Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio. I'm wondering did Maggie and Juanita move to Ohio with him?!!!

I was able to Locate a Death Record for Allen Peebles. He passed away April 12, 1954 in Illinois. Maggie Wallace passed away March 1974 in Illinois as well. My biggest discovery was a Death Record that I found for my Paternal Great Grandfather(Allen's father) who passed away Febuary 13, 1930 in Alabama. It has his father's name listed as Jim(could be short for James) Peebles and his mom was listed as Louisa(no surname yet). This further grows my Peebles line.

Now with all these discoveries, I have more questions than answers.

When I mentioned that my paternal Grandfather Allen was living in the household with his mom in the 1940s Census, there was a Georgia Peebles in the home listed as stepdaughter to the head of household and a 2 year old named Alma Peebles listed as granddaughter to the head of household. Could this be Allen's wife and daughter?!! Probably so.

I'm hoping that this post leads to some Peebles/Wallace descendants that might be still out there. This would be huge for my family. If there are, Speak Up, us Mathises would love to meet you.

SENTIMENTAL SUNDAY: REMEMBERING 9/11

Wow!! So hard to believe 10 years has passed and I remember this day as if it was yesterday! September 11, 2001. My day had just began like any other day processing claims and answering calls from members and providers. Suddenly one of my co-workers shouted "A plane just crashed into the twin towers in NY. At first like everyone else I thought this was just a bad accident, but when the second plane hit, I knew it was much more.
My next thought was of my cousin Tasha, she worked and lived in NY at that time, but I didn't know where.I tried to contact my mom, but by her being a school teacher that was impossible and plus all the phone lines were jammed. By this time the third plane had hit the Pentagon. WOW! Now its close to home.

By now I am really scared. See I live not to far from Washington, DC and although the Pentagon is in VA it seemed at that time like it was right around the corner. Most of my friends worked in downtown DC and I felt such emptiness in my stomach with such worry. I could not get anyone on the phone and no calls were coming through, so the President of my company decided to let everyone go home, I hugged my co-workers that have family and friends that lived in NY.

On my ride home I thought how could this happen? How many would survive such a tragedy and how many would parish? Traffic was terrible that day. I remember it took me almost 2 hours to get home. In the mist of all that was going on around me I started to pray. Pray for those lives lost, Pray for those that survived, and I prayed for those rescue workers that tried to save others.

I never knew that America was so HATED that someone would take innocent lives. See thats when I start really paying attention to what was going on around me. I never been that person to judge, but you really have to ask yourself, "What did we do"? As I sit here and write this blog, I still can't believe something like that happened in my lifetime and after 10 years and 2 Wars, I can say we finally caught the one that was responsible for such a senseless tragedy.

My heart goes out to those families and freinds that lost mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins. All 2,970 Americans that lost their lives for something so senseless and doing what we take for granted everyday, "LIVING OUR LIVES"!!

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: MY HERO ROBERT L SMITH

                                   July 27, 1906 - February 25, 1976

Picture was taken at: Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee, WI by Ellen M Rohr
                                    

SURNAME SATURDAY: THE "BROWNS"

I recently had the pleasure of meeting a new "Cousin" through Ancestry.com. Our connection comes from our "Brown" Ancestors.

Here is what I know about the Browns:

My GG Grandmother name was Norah Brown. Born to Maurice and Anna Brown.

She married Orange Granberry and had my Great Grandmother Miranda.

Norah passed away sometime after 1900 and before 1910 because I could not find her in the census after 1900, plus in 1917 Orange married Jennie Hegwood.

My MoM told me that her Father always spoke of being raised by his Grandmother, but I'm pretty sure it was not Norah because in 1910 he was in the household with his MoM and in 1920 he was in the household with Jennie and his Sister Paula because Orange had passed away by then.

Relayed this information to my new "Cousin" and here is her response:

Hello "Cousin" Felicia!

I just stumbled upon Maurice and Anna (referred to as "Anika" in the 1870 census, but could be just a spelling/handwriting error) Brown just recently. My great-great-grandmother Anna is your great-great-grandmother Norah's (spelled "Nora" in the 1880 census) older sister. I also confirm that they have a younger sister named Mary.

I haven't done much research on Maurice/Anna's children and their decendants yet, so you have provided me with more info -- thank you!

So as you can see we both have as much information as the other. I'm also assuming that Anna named a child after her thats how our GG Grandmothers were Sisters.

The question that I have is:

Did my Grandfather know of this side and never talk about them or did Orange keep them away?

I plan to keep in contact with this Cousin and work with her to find out as much information as we can. One answer leads to more questions and even when we find that new found Descedant it always leads to more questions.

This is where the Ancestors have guided me so I will continue my Research along this Family line. I will keep everyone posted. Thanks for listening.

FEARLESS FEMALES: HOW MY PARENTS MET....

Thanks to Lisa Alzo of the Accidental Genealogist, for National Women's History Month today March 5th I get to tell how my parents met, so here goes:


The story that I was given was that my mom was friends with my Aunt Mildred first. They met in school and once they became really good friends she decided to introduce my mom to her brother, my dad Allen Mickey Mathis. Here they are on their wedding day July 26, 1964, four months after my brother was born. Hmmmm I'm going to ask my mom about that one, but anyway as they say the rest is history. Thanks for listening.

SENTIMENTAL SUNDAY: FROM PAST TO PRESENT...

These pictures were taken back in the early 90s when the boys and I packed everything up and decided to move to Maryland.

Jayson my oldest was about 6 and Demoyne my youngest was about 2.

Mom wanted to have photos of the family.

Look how my boys have grown into some positive young men doing some very positive things!!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: ROBERT L SMITH, RESTORED!

Thank You Major Chance for restoring my grandfather's picture. My family and I are so Grateful for you're kindness!