Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Home No More

My parents' three-bedroom, one-bath home for our family of seven was sold earlier last year to investors. We moved there in 1972 from a long trail of renting shotgun apartments. My father died unexpectedly in 1980, leaving my mother and three children in the home. The remaining children left, leaving Mama who eventually begins her battle with Alzheimer's disease. Mama died in 2014

As young adults, we were eager to leave our childhood home, to build our own place called home. As long as the home of our childhood remains in the family, we always have a home to return to. We go back home for the holidays or send our children back home for the summer. There are days when we need respite from the responsibilities of adulting, so we just go home to sip a cold beverage, to see a parent's warm smile, to sit in the old chair with the worn cushions.

When that home is sold, there is no place for you or your children to return. The grandchildren have no place to envision you as a child. You have a childhood home no more.

Friday, July 16, 2021

Friday Furnace Findings
Isabella Furnace Bowen
1872 - 1940

Wife of Luke Copeland, Jr., and Moses Bowen
Daughter of Nathan Furnace and Susan Washington
Granddaughter of Alexander Furnace and Charlotte

Alexander and Charlotte Furnace were my 2nd great grandparents.

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Monroe's Children
Joseph Markham - Child 3
1876 - ?

My great grandparents Monroe and Mary Byrd Markham had a total of 17 children, who were born between 1872 thru 1903. I started this series in 2017 and only completed the 1st of 17 children. Let's see if I can complete this in 2021.

Well, it is another boy for Monroe and his wife Mary. The boy was the 3rd child and the third son born on the same land where his father was enslaved near Caseyville, Mississippi. Keeping with the family tradition of naming their sons after biblical men beginning with the letter "J", the couple named this son Joseph who was born about 1876. Joseph was listed as 4 years on the 1880 Federal census. On the 1880 census, Monroe is listed as 28 yrs old, and his wife Mary is 25 yrs old. This is the only document where Joseph appears and he was unknown to elderly cousins.

The 1885 Educable Children List is a document where Joseph should have been named. This list consisted of all school age children. Joseph would be about nine years old in 1885. His siblings were named but Joseph was not.

Joseph likely died between 1880 and 1885.

Friday, July 2, 2021

Friday Furnace Findings
Fransharon Furnace
1966-2012

Fransharon was the daughter of Frances Louise Furnace, granddaughter of Woodrow Furnace, Sr., and Bessie Lee Gordon. I am not sure of the relationship between Fransharon, her mother and grandfather, and myself. My Furnace family has deep roots in Copiah County, Mississippi.