FamilyTies

  One week ago. I was hanging out with my partner, knowing that seeing my mom’s name pop up on my phone at midnight could only mean one thing: the day my family had been anticipating for a week had finally come and my Nana had passed. She crossed the veil in peace, My Nana. She was surrounded by her kids and their partners. She was loved, tended to, sung over, prayed over and made to be perfectly comfortable and at peace in her last days and hours. I had less than a day to pack up myself and my 3 children to get down to my parents’ home in Tennessee. It’s an 8 hour drive at least, but I somehow made it in 11. It was a very long day, the next day would be even longer and even more emotional.  The day of the funeral went like this: we dropped the kids off at my aunt’s house in the morning, drove to the church I grew up going to to pick up food for the family, then out to the middle of nowhere to the little Tennessee town my Nana had lived her last year in. Once my Nana broke her...

  I can’t tell you how much I love, how beautiful of an escape it is for me, to walk the trails my ancestors have left for me. To research them is to research myself and truly learn more about who I am. Their stories have informed my own and I love to see these connections. I wish I had more to write about in this interim, but I’m excited to slowly explore people and subject. I know the first few weeks I dropped a lot of info, but I’d collected that information years ago. Now I’m collecting new information and forming new ideas, so it’s going to take a little longer. I hope you’ll forgive the long pauses between posts, but I promise to try to make it worth the wait. I have someone new to introduce to you today. I hadn’t known he’d existed till a few years ago, and I decided to delve into who he was and his story. Aaron Bradshaw Goodwill is my 3x great grandfather and he’d enlisted in the Civil War and died while in service. I hadn’t thought to look into his regiment or his activiti...

  My brother is probably one of my best friends. He understands me in a way that few people do, can irritate me quicker than anyone but also is a comfort in his way. We always know how to make each other laugh and have more inside jokes than we know what to do with. We have some fantastic examples in our lives of siblings who are always there for each other in my parents’ siblings. I think it’s probably a rare thing to grow up close to all your aunts and uncles and cousins the way we got to. My dad has one sister and we were always up at her house spending time with her and my cousin. My mom has 4 sisters and a brother and they’re ALWAYS talking to each other - it’s a wild group chat.  There's a long history in our family of close siblings, on both sides of the family. Even if they lived far apart, there are stories of support and generosity between them. Our grandfather had a ton of siblings, our grandmothers each had one brother, and our other grandfather has one sister. All...

  Now. No one panic. I’m not a necromancer. At least, not in the magical way. Lemme ‘splain. I live near Richmond, Virginia and it’s a very historically significant place in the South, and in the US in general. It’s been the home to many famous people, some of them presidents. I have sad news though. They’re almost all dead. And if they were a president and/or famous they were probably buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Oregon Hill, a Richmond neighborhood. Hollywood Cemetery was first opened up for use in 1847 from land donated to Richmond by William Byrd, for whom Byrd park is named. It has a vast, rolling, gothic landscape and the western side overlooks the river. At the top of the hill, overlooking the river, is my favorite spot to sit. I like to sit and enjoy the view, but I also love being amongst the graves. Let me tell you why. Some people, when they come to a cemetery or graveyard (burial ground attached to a church), they go as a matter of remembrance. If it’s just to look a...

  My Dad’s side of the family is full of gear heads and at least one truck driver. I grew up going to car shows, hearing about radiators and drum brakes and engines. I couldn’t really tell you one thing from the other, but I know enough to keep up with a conversation. I didn’t realize how many pictures I have of relatives posing with their cars till I started this research and really dug into all the archives of pictures. If you know what some of these cars are, please do tell! I don’t have my Grampaw on-hand to tell me, and I bet he knows every last one of them. Nana & Uncle Quinn Buying a car was a massive investment and a sign of social status, rather than the over-priced necessity it is today. We still use them as symbols of class and status, but in the brands rather than just the fact that we have one.  Grampaw Hoyt (HD) Every time my hubs has a day off, he does exactly what Grampaw is doing here, washing his car. I have very distinct memories of my dad washing his...