Family Tree - we got branches!

Make no mistake, I love history. Couple that with my love of family and I have the perfect new project to work on during the summer. My Family Tree. Let me give you some background. I come from a large extended family. My mother is the youngest of 7 kids that produced 26 first cousins. (I don’t know the correct algebraic equations it would take to determine the correct number of 2nd cousins.) We didn’t spend summer vacations at Disney World, etc. We spent our summers camping in Oklahoma with aunts and uncles and then taking the trailer to Grandma’s house in Arkansas and camping in her back yard for a week. These were the BEST times of my life. I could write for hours about our adventures and misadventures; sitting on the back porch singing gospel hymns so my Grandfather could hear them through his bedroom window, shucking corn under the giant tree, cutting a watermelon on the tailgate and eating it right off the rind, shelling purple-hulled peas until your fingers were stained, learning to drive in the old farm truck in the pasture, walking to the store and filling your poke sack full of candy, finally getting the courage to jump from the back porch to the yard which seemed like it was 3 stories high, swinging on the porch swing so high you thought you would fall off and hit the ground 3 stories below, or something close to that, playing hide and seek, jumping off the wood shed, using the outhouse, drawing up water from the well and everyone drinking out of the same dipper, oh the list could be exhausting. These are memories that are precious to me.

My mom and I have been doing a little digging using her Family History books, from the counties her and my dad were born in, combined with the Internet. It has been a blast. We intend to get serious over the summer because she is going to retire by then, we think. The date is a little fuzzy on when that occurrence is set to happen, but I feel good saying that by summer she’ll be a lady of leisure and most deservedly so.

Here is a preview of what I know…
* I am a first generation Texan. And that makes me proud. Real proud. And sometimes obnoxious.
* Mom and Dad are both Arkansas born and bred so I have some hillbilly blood mixed in with my Texas upbringing. But not to the point that I think it is appropriate to go barefoot or forgo dental hygiene or marry a cousin. Flirt with a 2nd cousin at my 40th birthday? Yeah, that’s ok. He’s young. And cute. He kept buying me drinks. I got sloshed. It happens. Moving on.
*Maintaining my Southern Belle-ness is important to me. Who doesn’t love a southern girl? I do not want to be discovering any Yankee blood up here in these veins.
*My great grandmother, Dad’s side, is from Alabama and Mississippi. Keeping it below the Mason-Dixon baby!
*My great-great grandfather was a successful rancher. He land rushed TWICE in Oklahoma. Uh oh! When I read this part, I knew I was in trouble with the Hubby. Land rushers are thieves according to him. That would make me a descendant of a Boomer Sooner and that is not good. I hope my marriage survives.
* Back to me. GGG was also reported to be an expert marksman. (Remember my blog about my success with a .22. It’s in my blood. Of course I am a natural.)
*Now here is where it could get dangerous. GGG’s family is traced back to colonial Maryland. Now before we go sounding the Yankee alarms, take a deep breath. I am a history teacher and I know things: out of the original 13 colonies 4 were northern, 4 were middle and 5 were southern. Maryland was a SOUTHERN colony. Our nation’s capital is located between Maryland and Virginia as a way to appease the SOUTH during the Compromise of 1790. It had to do with a northerner, Hamilton, ripping off the south and buying back bonds from speculators in the north. And Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon. It’s all good.

I am so excited about this journey and if I find out any other cool stuff, I will definitely keep you posted. And if I find any Yankee blood, you will find me curled up in a fetal position gnashing and wailing, “This is it, I've found it, I'm in hell.” (What good southern girl can’t quote a little Ousier Boudreuax from Steel Magnolias?)