Aunt Sarah

Dave Robison / 2 days ago

Since I changed the theme of this blog, I’ve been using the same background picture.  I’m reluctant to change it as I believe that the visual consistency is important.  But then I say to myself, “If people are paying attention to the content rather then the design, it shouldn’t make a difference.”  I never have good answers for myself when I start these inner conversations late at night….when Karen is asleep!

The point of all this is the background picture.  I thought I’d share a little about its origin and why i think it’s a great photo.   If you’ve read my blogs, and I mean ALL of my blogs (just kidding….who’d do that!?)…you may remember me talking about aunt Sarah.  She was the genealogist in the family of whom I knew nothing.  A quick recap: I wrote to the historical society in my father’s hometown of Evergreen Alabama.  I was referred to a woman who turned out to be my Great Grand Aunt, Sarah Robison Coker.  She’d been researching our family for years and without the benefit of a computer!

When I met her in 2001, she had bookshelves full of family!  I had flown to Alabama on business and tacked on a couple of days to make this meeting happen.  And I’m glad I did.

Alright, back to the photo.  Here’s the full shot.  It includes my Grandfather and his siblings.  I have the original thanks to Aunt Sarah.  My Grandfather, Cecil Lee Robison, is the one in the upper right hand corner.  He was the eldest of the 8 and died of throat cancer in 1963.  Seated second from the right is Sarah Elizabeth Robison Coker, the one and only Aunt Sarah.  This studio photo was taken in 1942 on the rare occasion of all the siblings being together in the same place at the same time!  Unfortunately, they were there to be with their father who was literally on his death bed.  Erskin Coleman Robison died a few days after.

1942 – Robison Siblings

Twenty years later, they were together again for a family reunion of sorts and they all sat or stood in the same positions as they did in ’42.  A unique pair of pictures capturing two rare meetings of 8 adult siblings.  Simple, but that’s the real reason I want to keep the background just the way it is!  Well, for now anyway!

1962 – Robison Siblings

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.

First Cousins? Second Cousins? Once Removed? Always Removed!!

In my class on genealogy research, I try to spend some time on relationships.  Truthfully, I have family tree software that calculates how I'm related to the 39,700 people in my data base.  Really?  39,700???  Yes, really.  Many of my maternal lines go as far as Plymouth Colony (Yes, there's a Mayflower or two in the mix) And you know those folks from way back before TV and the internet....they had kids, lots of kids!  So those fecund families spread their names far and wide across this country.  That also holds true for my paternal lines.  My direct great grandfathers were mostly in Alabama and Tennessee but their progenitor, I believe, was an early 1700's Scotch-Irish immigrant who may have settled first in New England and then gradually migrated south.  (Oh...."fecund"...it's not a bad word but I challenge you to look it up...I just never get a chance to use it!!)

But I digress.  Archives.com has published an excellent article that describes in simple terms what those simple terms mean: First cousin, once removed, third cousin 4 times removed and so forth.  I won't get into "Mother-In-Law of the 7th cousin twice removed of the grandson of the 3rd cousin three times removed" but they're out there.

Anyway, click the "Archives" link above and see if that's a  description you can live with.   I also have a chart  by Alice J Ramsey that you might like to look at.  I can e-mail that to you by you requesting it at dave@oldbones.info.

Have fun!

Eight Siblings -- Children of Erskin Coleman and Linnie Otto (Peace) Robison

So I asked my sister to critique the "new look." I can always count on her for her honesty and opinions. She said what a few others have said; that this is far superior to the old, drab, hard to read, non-capitalized style. But she also was disappointed that she couldn't see everyone in the picture. She has a copy of it, but I see her point. I know the names of everyone in the picture, but several of my relatives who may have been able to tell me with any certainty aren't sure who is who! Except for the man standing in the back row on the right. That's Erskin and Linnie's first born, Cecil Lee Robison, my grandfather. I never met him or even spoke to him for that matter. He died in 1964. Although I was around in '64 (about age 12) and my father called him (grudgingly) every Christmas, I know I never spoke with him or have a memory of such a conversation. Same for Diane, I think. Maybe she'll post a comment about that. Why there was so little contact is another story for another day. It had nothing to do with our family living in Massachusetts and all of my father's family living in Alabama...even in "those days" we had phones AND long-distance calling!

At any rate, the purpose of this post is to satisfy my sister and anyone else who is curious to see the other folks in the background picture, here it is!

[caption id="attachment_1207" align="aligncenter" width="300"] This photo was taken in 1942 just prior to the death of their father, Erskin. It was the first time they had all been together in many years. Another photo of the same people in the same poses was taken 20 years later at a family picnic.[/caption]

Here is the shot of them 20 years later at a family picnic---Same people, same poses, same town---Evergreen, Alabama!