Sunday, December 8, 2013

Cousin Tim Winston


Timothy Ora Winston 1908 - 1993
Son of Edward Robert Winston and Ora Ardenia Terry
The lady is Tim's niece.

Cousin Tim owned a funeral home in Hazlehurst, MS, the ancestral home of my Durr branch of the tree. I went to many funerals with my aunts and uncle when I was a child up to the mid-teen years. We would often see Tim, busy with the bereaved family and the activities that went with running the funeral business. One of the aunts or uncle would say, there's Tim. It was a while before I realized to whom they were speaking. Tim didn't look like us. Who was this white looking cousin and how was he related? They could only tell me Tim was related to us through my paternal grandmother, Tim was Grandma Gertrude's people.

Several months back I was contacted about my Demyers branch, which lead to me joining a Demyers family group on Facebook. I learned a lot through this group and it turns out that is how I am connected to Timothy Ora Winston. Tim and my common direct ancestor is Peggy who was born about 1815 in Virginia. Peggy had her first child with the slave master, Tim's line. Peggy had other children with Thomas Napoleon Demyers, my line. Peggy is my third great grandmother, she is Tim's great grandmother.

Photograph courtesy of Beverly Smith.

4 comments:

Kristin said...

Nothing like finding cousins to help with new information.

LindaRe said...

Every branch of the tree has a story.

Unknown said...

My mom remembers visiting Cousin Tim when she was a little girl. Significant because she was curious as to why while traveling by train from Chicago, they needed to get off and back on a colored car. Also because he looked quite different from her mom Mandy Belle's complexion. When I started the journey she said find the house on the hill in Hazlehurst and the town mortuary. In the mid nineties I simply showed up with pictures and a brief introduction. Gertrude greeted us as family. Grateful for this memory...and for LindaRe.
eyeamabw

LindaRe said...

Alesa, Thank you for sharing your mother's memories and your own. Every branch of the family tree holds clues to the past.