A Personal Story about Aunt Lethia Dunn

Here's a fun memory that Grandma Izzy had about her great aunt Lethia Dunn Primm:

"Delia’s sister, our Great aunt Lethia, had a “rawhead and bloody bones” in her attic so no one ever had courage enough to go further than halfway up those steps! She’d always have a huge bowl of biscuits and a bottle of syrup on her kitchen table which we dutifully stole, sticking our finger down in a biscuit, wiggling it back and forth, and pouring in syrup. Years later we learned she had a peep hole through which she gleefully watched us “steal” the stuff she’d made especially for us. Grandma Dunn was long dead by then."

Lethia is in the middle. Circa 1917.

Laura Marcus's death certificate

Unfortunately, there was no image related to the document I found, but I found an indexed version of Laura's death certificate! There really isn't much information in the indexed version, but at least it's there.

The information in the record are Laura's date of death, her husband's and her parents' names -- Broadus Connell, Henry Marcus and Mattie Young.

Pictures of Wallace children

There are so many great pictures of Grandma Kathleen's family! Also, who knew that Grandma had blonde hair when she was little? Just like so many of us :)

Uncle Cecil with Kathleen. Isn't this the most amazing picture?

The following picture was labeled "Janet, Kathleen". I know that Kathleen is the littlest girl in the picture (from the picture above with Cecil), and I'm guessed that Janet is the one on the far right. However, on further inspection of other pictures taken on the same day, I found one that was labeled with Cecil and Janet. Janet is the other blonde little girl in the picture!

Georgiana, Janet, Kathleen (two in middle), Grace

This picture wan't labeled when Rachel scanned it, so we don't know who she is. Grandma says that this is probably Grandma Lucy when she was young, and that this young lady (below) was not from her generation--she would have recognized her otherwise.

Probably Grandma Lucy

Iconic photos

Here are some more of those pictures Rachel scanned and sent to me. Of the pictures that we know who's in them, they all seem to be Grandma Kathleen's family. I'd assume that someone from her family took these, and most people in the pictures are either related to her through family or through friendship with her family.

What an awesome picture! Rachel thinks that Becky has a kindred spirit among our kin. :) I do, too!

Now here's the big question: Is it a lunar or a solar eclipse?

I have no idea who this is, but I thought it was an amazing picture. 

I don't know who this is, either, but someone looks like a Don Juan--what a pose!

More records for Robert J. Connell

I found Robert Jackson Connell's death certificate!

The certificate lists some useful information: First, it is the only source I've found so far with his full name (Robert Jackson Connell). Also Robert's father is listed as Col. S.J. Connell; his mother as Mary Stevens--this is valuable because it contains his mother's maiden name. It's also valuable because we learn that S.J. Connell was a colonel and therefore served in the military at some point (probably during the Civil War). It shows that he was buried in the "Malvin Hill" Cemetery (I'm guessing it was actually Malvern Hill and someone just didn't understand the accent when they were writing up the certificate). Because of where he was buried, I'm guessing that he was a Baptist. Malvern Hill Baptist church is close enough to Robert's farm that he could have easily attended every Sunday.

The death certificate also shows that the undertaker was C.G. Kornegay. That is just really neat to me because I know the son of one of the Kornegays that runs the funeral home, and he's a nice guy. It also gives me that nice feeling of small-town-ness that I love about Camden.

New information on Broadus Connell!

I was playing around with search parameters in FamilySearch, and I found a new record for Broadus Connell! The new record I found for Broadus is his WWI draft card:

Click to enlarge

You can see his signatureat the bottom of side one. His handwriting wasn't that great, but I think it's awesome that I have seen something written by his own hand! Other important information here is that he was living in Camden, but was born in Lancaster, SC. This is the first record I've seen with his date of birth on it, too (March 31, 1891). There's also a (short) physical description of him! He was "stout" with blue eyes and dark brown hair. From the picture we have of him, you didn't have to have much extra padding to be considered "stout!"

Connell Migration

In the past five years or so, some of our family members involved in family history work learned that there were Connells in Texas that pronounced the last name the same way we do! With a little bit of searching, they found out that we're related.

Turns out that when Granddaddy JC's ancestors moved to South Carolina, they were planning on going much further west. The Connell clan (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) was moving from North Carolina and planned on settling somewhere in the West. By the time they reached Lancaster, SC, some of the family got sick and had to stop. The rest of the family kept going while the recuperating ones planned on catching up later. However, the family in Lancaster found a great deal on land right there in South Carolina and decided to stay. I imagine they had also made friends during their extended stay in Lancaster.

When I first heard this story, I imagined it taking place around oh, say 1850. However, the earliest Connell ancestor in South Carolina was born there in 1828, and he had siblings born there as early as 1810. I'm guessing that's about the time the migration took place. It makes sense, because the Louisiana purchase took place in 1803. The Connells were probably thinking to take advantage of all the empty land there.

Before the move, the Connells lived in North Carolina for at least one generation. Before that, they lived in Virginia, all the way back to somewhere between 1625 and 1700. According to the information on Family Search, the next ancestor back came from Renfrewshire, Scotland. Since the surname Connell is usually traced back to Ireland, I wonder if we pronounce our name differently because our ancestors were from Scotland, instead of Ireland? Put your opinion in the comments!

I haven't reviewed any of the sources for the information on this page, so please forgive me if any is incorrect.

Recipes from Our Grandparents

So my sister Rachel has a food blog, and on it she has a lot of recipes from our grandparents. Here I'll make it nice and easy for you to access their recipes!

Tuna Cheese Swirls from Grandma Izzy. I remember my mom making these sometimes when I was little. I loved them! I tried a recipe I found in a cookbook, and it was disgusting. This recipe looks like it will be much more delicious.

Cheesecake from Granny Jo

Six recipes from Grandma Kathleen, some of which probably came from Grandma Lucy (her mother):

1. Pistachio Salad - one of my favorite fruit salads growing up
2. Pecan Surprise Bars - this looks delicious. I think I've been deprived all my life.
3. Amish Broccoli - I heard this one came from Grandma Lucy. 
4. Chicken Enchiladas - This one also looks really delicious.
5. Lemon Jello Cake - This cake is DIVINE. It's also dairy free!
6. Pasta Salad - also dairy free

We Have an Astronaut in Our Family

Karl Gordon Henize is the closest relative I have that is (at least a little bit) famous. He was a NASA astronaut, and logged 188 hours in space. Most of his life work was studying outer space. He is my Grandma Kathleen's first cousin, so he is also my first cousin, but twice removed. He was the son of Grandma Kathleen's uncle Fred Henize, brother to Grandma Lucy.

When he was 66, Karl tackled Mt. Everest. Unfortunately, his lungs were not able to withstand the high altitude (although I'm guessing he had an oxygen tank) and he passed away while climbing the mountain. He had reached an altitude of 21,000 ft. That is FOUR MILES above sea level! I am incredibly impressed that he tackled such a daunting mountain at that age, and even more impressed that he climbed so far (he ascended about 7,200 feet from the base of the mountain).

This website has more information on why he was on Mt. Everest at the time. It says, "He died in 1993, during a Mount Everest expedition. The purpose of this expedition was to test for NASA a meter called a Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC): testing at different altitudes (17,000 ft, 19,000 ft and 21,000 ft) would reveal how people’s bodies would be affected, including the way bodily tissues behaved, when struck by radiation, and this was important for the planning of long duration space missions.[2] Having reached Advanced Base Camp at 21,300 feet (6,500 m), the expedition was cut short when Henize died from high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) on October 5, 1993."

He's so famous, there's even a Wikipedia article about him!

NASA also has a short bio on him on their website.

J.O. Thompson's first family

I asked my mom's cousin Rita (my 1st cousin once removed) about J.O.'s first wife, Lula J. Hanson. Lula was only 13 when they married (J.O. was a few days away from his 22nd birthday), and she died when she was only 17. While looking at her information, I noticed that she and their two children all died around 1915, and I wondered if there was some sort of tragedy associated with their deaths. This is what Rita told me:

"Their children were Emma and then Leonard. Then in 1919 the great flu epidemic came along and got all three of his little family. Granddaddy about lost his mind. He was studying to be a preacher like his grandfather David Nolan. He took to hoboing on trains back and forth across the country and reading the bible as he went. He read it over and over. I believe that's why our granddaddy had the power to heal. He could stop blood and fire. He told God he couldn't go on and start another family if he might loose them like he lost his first. He asked for the power to heal and God gave it to him. And that is the story of J.O.'s first family."

Amazing story, right? Also definitely a tragedy. I had wondered what had taken J.O. away from his home in Georgia that made him end up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and now I know.

EDIT: Lula, Emma, and Leonard died of measles (source: Grandma Izzy); the flu epidemic came a few years after they had already passed away. When Grandma told me about it, she said, "Isn't it ridiculous that someone died from something as easy to cure [now] as measles?" She seemed to still feel the pain of their deaths, even though she had never met them.

The Old Magnolia Tree

In the woods not far from the home I grew up in stands a tall and majestic magnolia tree. The old tree is so big that it takes two or three children holding hands to go all the way around it. If you look around the tree, you will see an old rotting log to one side, and then realize that it was an enormous branch that broke off the tree years ago. There are grape vines as big around as your arm hanging off of the tree. A few feet away from the base of the tree is a small clearing about 20 feet square. As you look at the clearing, you can see a some bricks and mortar--evidence that a house stood in the clearing years ago.

The house that used to stand in the clearing belonged to my great-grandparents, Broadus Robert Connell and Laura Elizabeth Marcus. Granddad J.C. grew up there. I don't know what happened to the house, but the magnolia tree was a popular destination for my older sisters and me. My sisters would climb up the grape vines to get to the first branch, which was about 10 feet above the ground. I was brave enough to do it once or twice, but I never got past the first branch or two. My sisters were able to climb high enough to see Hermitage Mill Pond quite some distance away. I wonder if Granddad climbed on that tree, too?

From what Mom tells me, the beautiful old fashioned roses that bloomed in front of our house every spring were grown from cuttings that Grandma Laura had in her garden at that house. None grow in the clearing anymore, but I have seen the same variety of rose growing along the roadside in several places in about a 1-mile radius from that house. Granddad J.C.'s family owned a lot of that land, and I wonder if Grandma Laura planted them to beautify the farmland.

Granddad J.C. told me once that there were cornfields that belonged to his family for miles around. Since then, the land has been parceled off to various family members and others through wills and sales. I remember visiting my granddad's cousin James--or "Juicy" as he was nicknamed--at least a mile further down McRae Rd. from Granddad J.C.'s house.





EDIT: Granddad J.C. says the roses at the corner where Canada Drive and Rowe Street meet were actually planted by his grandfather Robert Jackson Connell, so I'm guessing that a lot of the other roses were planted by him as well. I think it's sweet that even in a life filled with so much work and practicality, he found beauty important enough to find time to plant these roses. As soon as I have a place to plant them, I'm going to take a cutting and have some of these roses at my house.

James Oren Thompson "J.O."

J.O.  was a headstrong man. He worked at the mill for a dollar a day, and kept a large garden/farm off to the side. He motivated his children to do important things (like finishing highschool) by daring them. "You'll never be able to do that." Then they would - just to prove him wrong.

He was a religious man, and a renowned healer. People would come for miles around to have him pray over them.

Also, since lovers lane was near his house, he would "happen" to shoot birds near them, scaring too-frisky couples back to appropriate affection.

More later...

Quilting with Grandma Izzy

I have really wonderful grandparents, on both sides of my family. My mother's parents left a legacy in the (small) town I grew up in--many people I met knew of my grandparents and admired them.

I lived just a short walk down the road from my maternal grandparents, so my siblings and I would go over to their house often to visit, to be babysat, or to help in their garden. I even took piano lessons at their house!

One of my favorite things to do at Grandma Izzy's house was work on the quilt she was currently working on. I was the youngest of all my sisters coordinated enough to do the stitch work on the quilts (no, they were not tied quilts!), and while we quilted, Grandma would tell stories. Boy, could Grandma tell stories! Unfortunately, I don't remember them, but I do remember how much I enjoyed spending time with her and my sisters. Eventually, we made one quilt for each sister except for me--I think people were running out of steam by the time they got to me, and I don't remember telling anyone how much I wanted a quilt.

Quilting with Grandma was something I looked forward to and enjoyed doing with my sisters. I could feel her love for all of us, and I loved the family bond that came from it.