The Southern Connection

Sometimes it's right in your own backyard.  And many times it's not!  I've driven, ridden even flown to places to research or just dig around for tidbits of family history.  I met my great grand aunt for the first time in 2002 in her home in Evergreen, Alabama.  It's a long story for another time but I didn't even know she existed until I found her through the Canebrake Genealogical & Historical Society in Evergreen.  OK, I'll tell you how I met her.

I called Canbrake back in 2001 to ask if they could help me with my family history.  I knew that my father was born in Evergreen and I thought there might be some news articles about the family or any other thing that I might be interested in.  They suggested I write to Mrs. Sarah R Coker and explain what I was looking for.  Apparently, Mrs. Coker had been working on the genealogies of many Evergreen families for many years...without the aid of a computer!  How did they do it???

So I wrote a letter and asked in my most hospitable way if she could find the time to help me.  I explained that my father, his mother and her parents had lived in Evergreen for many years but I had virtually no records.  My parent each help to the philosophy that "What you don't know won't hurt you!"

About a week later, I received a hand written letter, itself a relic of days gone by, from Mrs. Coker.  But it wasn't just "Mrs. Coker" as she introduced herself as my great grand aunt!  She was my paternal grandfather's youngest sister!  You could' have knocked me over with a feather.  We exchanged many letters for a while until I was able to go to Alabama and meet her.  She had pictures of my sister and i that had been taken each year at grade school!  "Where did you find these?" I asked.  "Well, your Daddy sent 'em to me." The reply was delivered to me a thick southern Alabama drawl that I had to tune my ear to so that i wasn't saying "What was that" every 5 minutes...

What I didn't know didn't hurt me until know.  My deceased father had actually "hidden" nearly all of his family from my sister and me until this very point.  The upshot is that not only did Aunt Sarah share hundreds of pages of documents, photos and stories with me, I met with her a few more times, brought my sister down with me once and attended a family reunion in 2003 to meet about 300 more members of my extended family!

[caption id="attachment_2597" align="alignnone" width="300"] William G Robinson Descendants[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2591" align="alignnone" width="300"] Hezekiah Calvin Tarp Robinson (Early)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2592" align="alignnone" width="300"] Hezekiah Calvin Tarp Robinson (Later)[/caption]

The color top photo at the top was only one of the family groups that attended the reunion.  The bottom two are of the same family, but in the same style as the newer group shot. And all of them are my relatives!

Aunt Sarah died in 2009 at age 90.  I credit her with helping me with nearly every person I met while in Alabama.  And I've kept in touch with many of them through this blog, a ROBINSON Facebook page ("ROBINSON" is the prefered spelling in Alabama) and my web site at Old Bones Genealogy of New England.