Wordless Wednesday - Cousin Theodosa

Cousin Theodosa Markham Culver born 1912 was my mother's first cousin. Theodosa was the daughter of James Markham and Anna Culver. Theodosa married her first cousin once removed Tolson Culver resulting in a family scandal.

Anding Family Bible Record Slave Births

(Faded) was Born February 4th 1835
(Faded) was Born Nov 4th 1837
Samuel was Born October 20th 1841
Moses was Born August 10th 1843
Benjamin was Born 1846
Louden Trotter was Born May the 7, 1847
The Martin Alexander Anding family of Caseyville, then Copiah County, Mississippi, was a neighbor to the Buie family, slave owning family of members of my family. Descendants of Anding slaves married descendants of my family.

Martin's wife Mary Lambright was the owner of the family bible. Mary and others listed the births of the Anding family and at the bottom of a page, the slaves births were listed.

One of the babes listed, Samuel Anding aka Samuel Anderson, served with the 6th Regiment, Company I, during the Civil War. Samuel met Caroline Williams while in Natchez. The couple married after the War and raised a family in Jefferson County, near where Caroline was raised. Samuel died in 1916

Genealogy research has not revealed a connection between Samuel Anding and my ancestors.

Sources:
Family Bible of Mary Lambright Anding
Information shared from Carolina Gale Lambright, collateral relative of Mary Lambright Anding.

Samuel Anding's Civil War Pension Records

Wash Day

Before the invention of washing machines, they tell me that wash day began early in the morning and was an all day chore for the women in the family. The family wash was done in a black cast iron pot. My mother remembered carrying buckets of water from the pond on wash day.

Soaking clothes in the bath tub overnight and scrubbing the clothes on a wash board was my mother's method of washing clothes when I was a young child. Later when I was about ten years old, going to the laundry mat on a Friday evening or early Saturday morning became a ritual for my younger brother and me. Mama would sort the clothes, bundle the clothes in a sheet. We had a little red wagon we used to carry the clothes. Off to the laundry mat we went with our quarters, detergent, bleach, and pine soil.

We didn't use the dryers because mama would put the laundry on the lines to dry. Taking the laundry was easier than bringing the wet laundry home. We couldn't neatly bundle the laundry the way our mother had done but we did the best we could. One of us would pull the wagon and the other would try to hold on to the clothes to keep them from falling off the wagon. Neighbors sitting on porches would give us advice how to handle the wet laundry. By the time we got home, several pieces would be dirty from falling in the street.

The red wagon was put to rest and we began taking the clothes in laundry baskets and a younger sister made us a trio. Sometimes we made two trips. We didn't own a washer until I was fourteen and the clothes line was our dryer. My mother never owned a dryer.

I hated going to the laundry mat. Maybe because it took up so much of my time. I didn't mind putting the clothes on the line, or bringing the clothes in after drying or folding and putting away the laundry. I was one happy daughter when the family purchased our used automatic washer.

Photograph purchased from Ebay.

Wordless Wednesday - Twin Sisters

Missouri and Beatrice Markham were the second set of twins born 1899, to Monroe and Mary Byrd Markham. Missouri was a teacher in Lincoln County, MS. She never married nor had children. She died in 1925 of brights disease (kidney disease). Beatrice was a domestic. By the standards of her generation, Beatrice married late in life to Silas Johnson in 1938. The couple did not have children. Beatrice died in 1989 of Alzheimer's Disease.

Wordless Wednesday - Sisters

They are unknown to me. I am guessing they are sisters, photographed in their identical homemade dresses. I love their creativity with the sashes around their waists.

Photograph from the collection of my great grandmother Mary Byrd Markham

Madness Monday Alzheimer Disease - Generational

Debilitating memory loss is a part of my maternal family tree. We don’t talk about it much, it is what it is. Genealogy research revealed at least four generations have suffered with dementia. The earliest known ancestor of this line documented to have a form of dementia was my great granduncle Grant Markham.

Generation One - Uncle Grant was born in 1868 in rural Lincoln County, Mississippi. He was a younger brother to my great grandfather Monroe Markham. Uncle Grant died of heart failure due to senility in 1947.

Generation Two - Great grandparents Monroe and his wife Mary had three daughters to die from complications of senility. My grandmother Alice died of a stroke due to senility, Aunt Beatrice of malnutrition due to senility and Aunt Polly complications due to senility. Aunt Beatrice, the youngest of the sisters took care of both sisters during the 1960s.

Generation Three - My mother, Monroe’s granddaughter, has Alzheimer’s Disease. First cousins to my mother died of the disease or recently diagnosed.

Generation Four – My mother’s first cousin once removed, Monroe’s great granddaughter, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Learning as much as I can about dementia has been helpful in caring for my mother, and making plans for my own life.

President's Day

Two of my three children sitting on the steps of President Lincoln's Springfield home.
Growing up during the sixties in a working class African American community, almost every household had on the wall a combination, if not all, of a calendar, an art print of Jesus, photographs of Martin Luther King and President John Kennedy. Neatly arranged in a group or randomly placed on the wall, framed or taped to cardboard, they were our heroes.

In school, we memorized the presidents names in the order they served. A poster of all the presidents was on a wall with silhouettes of Washington and Lincoln. I remember one year we wrote essays. We all wanted Lincoln or Washington. I choose James Garfield because I knew he was assassinated, always interested in the morbid.

Thank you to all the men who served.