A compilation of family history, stories & legends

Hi,
This is a neat little community. I love remembering tidbits of the past, especially the good parts. :)

I found this old pic of me, my older cousin Michelle and my brother Bobby. It's taken at the beach a few blocks from my grandparents house. I used to spend weeks at a time at my grandparents in the summers. When I was old enough, I used to walk by myself to the beach with a blow-up boat over my head and spend hours rowing around, avoiding water skiers.

The picture is bigger then I expected, so I

( Cut it hereCollapse )


hope my cuts worked *crosses fingers*

That's right - I bought an amazing scanner last night and have scanned about half of the photos my dad gave me before he and my step-mom left on their two week cruise *jealous*.

I thought the perfect place to start would be to share the following photo with you.

On the far left is my mom, who is holding our family tree, which was hand-written by my grandfather (standing next to her). To the right of my grandfather is my grandma and then my grandfather's sister.

IMAGE: This is circa 1980, give or take a year

My grandfather passed away in 1990 of cancer. I think it was liver cancer, as he had severe jaundice (yellow skin and eyes). My great aunt passed away some years prior (I can't remember an exact year). My dad thinks it was from the massive amount of different medications she was one, but my dad is very anti-drug. I'm not sure of the actual reason. I do remember her loud belly laughs and great loud conversations with her brother. They were both an absolute kick. My grandmother will be 99 this year and is still going strong. She is reliving different periods of her past and generally has no idea when or where she actually is, but physically she's completely healthy and happy (she was a party animal in her 20s, so it's not so bad reliving them!). My mom is... nuts, but only I seem to know it, lol. She just re-married her third husband and is taking care of her mother at home while working full time.

My dad has spent the past year, plus, trying to get back "on the air." He's a Ham-Radio operator (WA0HHX). He's been off the air for nearly a decade, after a large tornadic thunderstorm (or the winds from it) bent the antenna on his old tower about 10 degrees. FINALLY, he has his new tower up and all the wiring to the house done.




(click for full-size)

But, more importantly (to me), when he was looking for the cords to set up the internal instrumentation, he found a huge box of old family pictures, plus some from when I was in elementary school (ickle littleroo27!). I'm doing everything I can to get him to UPS me the box or bring it up with him when he flys out in a few weeks so that I can scan everything into my computer. He says he's going to do it this winter, but he's the king of "gonna do" and it won't happen if he keeps them.

Anyway, I'm really excited because, for one, I LOVE family pictures, and two, I can finally get some posts up here!!!

I'd still love to hear from any of you, though. I know you have stories to tell!

( pictures and a little historyCollapse )

Hey guys! Thanks so much for joining this silly little community (glomps).

I have a tiny favor to ask of you. If you have not already accepted your invite, could you please do so? I know that some of you joined without accepting it, and it's keeping me from inviting other people - stupid LJ *pouts*


Also, where are your posts??? I know you all have SOMETHING to share :-D

Right now, I'm trying to get my dad to scan some old family photos and e-mail them to me so that I can upload those.

Ever wish you'd written down all those stories your parents and grandparents told you about your family history? Well, if you remember any of them, or have any of your own, this is the place to put them. Show us your old family photographs and tell us the stories of the people in them. What was important about them? Who did they love, what was their biggest accomplishment? Did something amazing / tragic / unexpected / wonderful happen to them that got passed down through the generations? We want to know!


My favorite family story is about a spinning wheel that is kept in our dining room. Rather odd place for a spinning wheel, but the history behind it is quite wonderful. My great great (great?) aunt on my father's side lived on the border between Kansas and Missouri during the civil war, much like my family does now. If you are unfamiliar with the time period, I'll give you a (very) brief history.

Missouri proclaimed themselves to be a slave state while Kansas sided with the Union as free state. This caused what is known as the border wars, where people from both sides would terrorize, steal, rape and destroy neighboring cities. Both sides were brutal, with Jayhawkers and Bushwhackers both harming and killing innocent people.

The word Jayhawker came from a mythical bird that cannot be caught. At first, the term was applied to both the pro-slavery and abolitionist rebel bands. But, before long it stuck to the anti-slavery side only. Those that favored the Confederacy soon earned the name of Bushwhackers, because they primarily lived in the "bush," or country, and their legs "whacked" the bushes as they rode. Both sides would eventually include semi-legitimate soldiers, and even grudgingly acknowledged by the Union and Confederate forces. However, other members of these two groups were simply bandits who had a quasi-military excuse for ambush, robbery, murder, arson and plunder. ~ Legends of America

This was the era of William Quantrill, whose band of outlaws and marauders grew to over one hundred by 1862. That is the same year that he and his followers attacked several different cities in Kansas, burning and destroying homes and businesses, and attacking men who got in their way.

When Quantrill rode into my great aunt's town many homes were destroyed, along with anything in them. Family legend has it that, for whatever reason, my great aunt did not leave her home even as many of the local men hid from the attackers. When Quantrill came to her home, he told her that she could take two things out before it was burned to the ground. She took her spinning wheel and bed linens, and considered him to be a true gentleman for his actions.

Whether this story is true or not, we will never know. Nearly 150 years have passed since that time, and many generations have come and gone. Yet because of one story from one woman's history, the spinning wheel remains in our family to this day.