Mom was the oldest of three children. Dad was the middle child of three children. Together they produced six children.
The following is based on the records I've found while picking up Mom's torch and carrying on what she started with genealogy.
One side of Mom's family tended to wander. Another side of her family appeared to find the promised land fairly early and settled there becoming part of their respective communities. On the side of the wandering family that Mom came from in more recent generations many of them did stay in the communities where they were born, married within the same community, raised their families there and died there. So, I'm not sure why there was so much wandering in the earlier generations. Perhaps they were searching for that place where they could make a better life for themselves and their families. Maybe they liked the idea of seeing so much of this big new country.
I doubt if I'll ever know the answer to those questions. Mom was born in Jewell County, Kansas. She died in Mitchell County, Kansas, an adjoining county to where she was born. But she didn't live her life in just those two counties. As a child I know they lived in various parts of Kansas, but always coming back to Jewell County. At one point, they moved to Idaho for a year at most. But they came back to Jewell County. She went to high school at a little country school until that high school was closed. Then the family must have moved to Beloit or close to Beloit, because she graduated from Beloit High School.
Less than a year after she graduated high school, she married Dad.
Let's back up a minute though.
Who was Dad? I know who he was as my dad. But what made him who he was?
Let's go back even one more generation. His dad was the oldest living child of his parents. My grandfather was born in October of 1899. Before he was born, his parents had had another child who was born 2 Dec 1898 and died 28 Dec 1898. The grave only states Infant Birdsell. I don't know if anyone knows if that baby was a little boy or little girl.
In October of 1899, Oscar and Mary welcomed my grandfather into their lives. Two and half years later, they welcomed a sister, and two years after that another brother and then in 1911 they welcomed the baby of the family. Their life was good. Until 16 April 1912 when Oscar lost his wife and the four children lost their mother. In October 1912, Oscar lost his own mother. He had four children to raise on his own. Oscar didn't remarry. I don't know who helped him raise his four kids. Other than I know Leona, the little girl born in 1902 quit school to help take care of her brothers. I hope my grandfather also helped raise his two little brothers.
I do know my grandfather hit his teen years without a mother.
Then on 31 October 1922 he married my grandmother. In August of 1923 they had their first child. A girl. In June of 1925 my dad was born. On the first day of October in 1927 they welcomed my uncle into their family. By all accounts, it was a happy family. Then, my grandmother was pregnant again, in 1929. This is not based on fact, but family stories. She wanted to go to the doctor. The story I heard was that my grandfather didn't think she needed a doctor. Whatever the case, whether it was because my grandmother wasn't allowed to go to see the doctor or if it was complications from child birth, my grandmother died 15 November 1929. Since there is no record of an infant, I suspect it was prior to attempting to deliver her unborn child.
My dad was four years old when he lost his mother.
Just like Oscar, Roscoe never remarried. He had three children to raise on his own. This is where things did change for my dad and his siblings. My grandmother's parents saw a need. In 1930, they moved in with their son-in-law and three grandchildren and helped raise them.
I know that my dad and his siblings felt like they'd lost more than grandparents when George and Addie passed away.
I wish I'd been wiser so I could have learned more about George and Addie. I do know that whenever anyone asked questions about their mother, my grandmother, the questions were usually met with silence. So, we stopped asking.
Anyway, Dad was the second generation to be raised motherless.
So, what dreams did he have when he married Mom? On that last day of the year in 1945 when he married Mom was he terrified that he'd end up with a third generation of motherless children? If he had those fears, did he ever share them with Mom?
All I know, because Mom told me this one time when I was mad at Dad, that there was nothing he wouldn't do for his children. Then she gave me examples of sacrifices he made for his children.
For the rest of his life, I watched him. A lot of times while I was in different parts of the country, but I watched and admitted time after time, Mom was right. Dad's, and her life, were for their children and later their grandchildren.
Many people talk about the importance of family. But the picture above is a wonderful example of two people who didn't talk about the importance of family, but lived their lives for their family. Young and old.
Mom and Dad left us so many legacies. The land that has been passed down from generation to generation to generation. The genealogy that goes back multiple generations so we'll know where we came from and the struggles our ancestors had to get us where we are today. But the most important legacy they left us was their living example of how to love your family.
No comments:
Post a Comment