FRIDAY FAMILY FINDS

YESTERDAY MOM AND I WERE GOING THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS, THIS DRIVES MY DAD CRAZY……PARTLY BECAUSE, HE CAN’T REMEMBER THE PEOPLE AND PARTLY BECAUSE WE SCATTER THEM EVERYWHERE!!!

OLD HOME WEEK FRANKLIN PA, 1929

I believe the people were dressed in earlier clothing, perhaps for the event of Old Home week. Look closely, the cars and clothing do not match. Some of the women have on Victorian clothing. I think in 1929, we would have seen shorter styles in dresses. Perhaps like below, which is probably 1927.

NANA AND PAPA

Tin Lizzie!!! You don’t see these every day. Produced by Ford Motor company from September 1908 until October 1927, these automobiles changed the way Americans lived, worked and travelled.

This is my grandmother, Mamie Christine McCall on the left. Although I do not think these are the same automobiles in both pics, they could be. The fenders look a little different. However, my grandfather , on the right, Harvey Hershel Pickens did marry the girl on the left. She looked about 17 according to other photos I have of her, he looks to be about twenty something. And doesn’t he look dapper in his slim pants and boots?

The photo of Nana was taken almost certainly in Plant City, where her father, C R McCall, Blacksmith,  was once asked to work for Henry Ford himself.

“I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces. ” Henry Ford

FRIDAY FINDS….WHERE’S THE DIRT?

I have been searching…….

for that elusive bit of genealogy that would make my family interesting. Did I have Patriots in my family? Yes, several, and have seen the grave of one ( Alexander Ewing ) of them in Pennsylvania. Did I have plantation owners? Yes, and would love to visit the lands of these former plantations. Were there notable men and women? Indeed, in several states, from South Carolina to Alabama. Perhaps, more I have yet to discover.

But, where is the dirt? I have found little. One usually strives to keep those things covered. I have only found one record of any scandal. A great-uncle that was connected to The Ku Klux Klan, proud of that I am not. Yet, in the mid 19th century and into the mid 20th century, this was common. He lived in Texas, and when his obit was posted, it stated that he had ” the ceremonies of the Ku Klux Klan”. What kind of ceremonies could they dispense at a funeral? That particular side of the family were not slave owners, nor did they ever have enough land that they would have owned a plantation. I guess he just believed the way he did for his own reasons.

I have an interesting story my great-aunt Edith told me of Henry Ford visiting her father’s blacksmith shop in Plant City. Offering him a job metal working for the trucks he was building.. This would have been somewhere in 1920′s. Clifford McCall and family moved there between 1915-1920. So, the time works out right. My great-grandfather owned a blacksmith shop and made tools, knives for friends and yard implements.

So where are the moonshiners, stories of indiscretion, felons and ne’er do wells? I will keep searching for that skeleton someone has harbored away to be found when all is forgotten.

Going Backwards

In order to trace your family tree, you have to go backwards. Start at yourself, then to your parents, and if you are fortunate enough to have grandparents, start with them. The grandparents will be aware more times that not, about their grandparents. These would be your great great  grandparents. This is easy enough by asking questions such as names. What was your mother’s maiden name. Where did your parents or grandparents meet? Which state were they born? Simple questions, yes, but, very important in establishing a starting point.

My first question was a simple one, I asked my grandmother what her mothers name was. She told me ” Maude Jeffers” . I never forgot it. At the time I was about 13 or 14 years of age. When I wanted to know about my family, I remembered back to that question. I had my starting point!!

My grandmother had given me my beginning. I had a name, a state where they lived in early childhood, a story about the death of her mother, and lots of questions about what happened to her mother at such a young age. I knew some information about my great grandfather Clifford R McCall. I knew he was a blacksmith while living in Plant City Florida. I knew he remarried, because Nana had a half sister. This would be Edith McCall Fountain. I knew little more than that. I started researching census records in Georgia. I had a book I bought in Plant City, that was written in part by Quintilla Geer Bruton, sister in law to Theo J McCall. It told a story of Clifford McCall and his workshop, the Sanders farm where they boarded and from Aunt Edith a story of Henry Ford paying my great grandfather a visit.

Clifford McCall met Maude Virginia Jeffers in Georgia, in a small town Ocilla. The  McCalls had come from Webster county somewhere in between 1900 and 1910. The Jeffers family had moved from Wilcox county which was neighboring Irwin. Maude’s father was Joseph U . Jeffers and mother was Lilla Boone. The only real story I have is from my grandmother, telling me her mother died very young of a brain tumor. The funeral card says it was pneumonia. I also know that Maude remarried Lee Woodall, that part is a mystery. They lived in South Carolina where she died in 1928. I have yet to find her headstone in the cemetery there.

Maude Virginia Jeffers

Clifford Riley McCall