Today
I thought I would do something a little different but completely appropriate
given the Hallmark cards that are being handed out. One of the interesting
things I frequently find myself pondering when researching the various
ancestors in my family tree is about how these two, sometimes completely different,
people met? Most of the time this information can only be found in the stories
passed down from generation to generation.
When
looking through many of the documents that my great Aunt has shared with me
over the years, I came across a single page on which she has typed up what is
basically a summary of her father’s life. Many of the facts are easy to find in
the census, birth certificate, marriage, and death records but there were also
details not contained in those documents including a little about his work
history as well as, and what is most appropriate given the subject of this
post, what brought my great grandparents together. Here is exactly what my
great aunt, whom I have written about before, wrote about her parents:
Harry was the son
of LeRoy and Sally Clapsaddle Teaford. He was one of nine children. He was born
in 1895 and died in 1963. His first employment was as a quarry worker in a
local mill that his father managed. He became interested in farming and had a
love for horses. In 1916 he met Nettie Love of Sugar Tree Hollow. Nettie and
her sister were accomplished equestrians. Nettie won several awards at local
fairs where she rode English (side saddle) style. Their mutual interest in
horses brought Harry and Nettie together and they were married in 1917 at the Eagle
Rock Baptist Church. Shortly after they moved to Lorraine, Ohio. They stayed in
Ohio only a short time and moved back to the Eagle Rock area. Harry began
working as a farmer and over the following years worked for several large farm
owners. His favorite position was with the Graham Burhnman Farm in Gala. During
their time in Virginia the family had twelve children. All twelve children were
born in Virginia.
However,
more often than not, we don’t have these stories written down for us. Many
times we have to try and find and fill in the details with the documents that
we do have. Such is the case with my great grandparents on my mom’s side of the
family. Basically, the census is what really reveals how they met and given the
fact of with whom they were each living at the time, it really is a matter of
what some would call fate. My great grandparents, William J. McKannan and Helen W. Fulton, can be found listed in the 1910 census living next door to one
another. Both 19 at the time, Helen’s family was living in her grandmother’s
house while William was living with his mother and sister at his uncle’s house…
his father, my great great grandfather, was working for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Trenton, New Jersey at the time. Two years
after the census was taken William and Helen were married. Unfortunately, as I have written about before, it was a marriage that wouldn’t last.
Sometimes
other forces intervene in order for fate to take hold ensuring that what was
meant to be becomes reality. It is true in my family tree and it is true in how
my wife and I met. There are countless factors that brought us to that Barnes
& Noble in Bryn Mawr that particular night when I, having just published my
book "Kaddish Diary”, was giving a reading and my wife was working the
floor. It was that instant when we, coming from completely different
backgrounds with vastly different experiences, met for the first time each of
us taking the chance and getting to know one another. The same chance that my
great grandparents took when they first saw one another.
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