FAMILY

My nephew, Capp Council, and his beautiful daughter, Chloe Council

Chloe is graduating this year from high school. We don't have many girls in her generation of Council kids. Most of that generation are boys and the first child of the following generation is a boy.

This is a son and a grandchild of my brother Max, who passed away in February of this year. 

Capp lived next door to Barry and me on the farm. His first wife and first child, Kim and Carrie, often came to my house to visit. I always enjoyed their company. Carrie was a precocious child, smart and talented. She was the only girl in that family until Chloe came along. 

If I still lived in Albany, GA I would like to get to know Chloe as I did Carrie, but I am far away from there now. If not for Facebook, I would not know much about my family in south Georgia. Max often called me and talked about the family there. I miss his calls. 

I was surprised yesterday when a dear cousin down in Albany called me. She is a widow now. Her husband died on Thanksgiving day last year. The anniversary of a death is always a somber time with memories pouring back to us so I imagine she and her two children will always think of their loss when they sit down to eat the Thanksgiving Turkey.

I often think about how fortunate my family was to have few deaths when Gay and I were growing up. All my grandparents had died before I was born. Only my two oldest siblings remembered them. My oldest brother, Ray, served in the United States Navy during WWII, and I am so thankful that he didn't see battle. He came home safely. However, two of my cousins died during that war. 

Clyde Council, on my father's side, died in a plane crash. On my mother's side, Henry Robison died in a plane crash believed to be hit by friendly fire in an accident. Although I never met either of these young men, I remember them on Memorial Day which we celebrate on Monday. I also remember the families that loved them. 

Memorial Day also holds another memory that is important to me. Barry and I moved to the mountains of NC on Memorial Day, 1995.  That began an adventure and wonderful life as we drew closer and spent more time together.  As I begin making plans to move away from here, I get sad thinking of the happy times we shared and will never share again. 

I hope all of you have a safe and happy holiday weekend. I hate to hear the news of accidents that seem to happen on Memorial Day when people take to the roads, rivers, and lakes. I live near a big lake and it will be busy with tourists who come here this time of year. 

Be safe and thanks for reading my words. Please leave a comment if you can or email me. I love hearing from you, my friends.

Who says 100 is old? Not in my family.

Today, January 2, 2015, is the 100th birthday of my cousin, Monteen Hayman, in Palmetto, Florida.
When I was compiling information on all my Council aunts and uncles for my book, Profiles and Pedigrees, The Descendants of Thomas Charles Council (1858-1911) Monteen wrote the history of her family. The details she supplied about her father's life, his early years in the south-central area of Florida that was emerging in 1906, created an  interesting insight to the history of the area as well as how her father and mother were respected leaders in their community. He was a carpenter and often built coffins for families when they lost a loved one. He worked in a shipyard during WWII, but returned to Palmetto and bought an acre of land near the Palm View region where he built a house. Later he bought more land to farm and the family moved there. My own father, as a young man, worked for Uncle Charlie on the farm.

Monteen described how the "truck-farming" was done. I found that an interesting part of the story, as well. When I was down in Palmetto last year, I saw where Monteen taught elementary school for many years and where her brothers attended school. She took me to the church where she met her future husband, Hollis, when they were kids, and to the cemetery where many of the family is buried.

I could visualize from the stories I've heard, my father, aunts and uncles back in the early 20th century, the parties on the beach, the dancing to the record player. Monteen wrote that only Uncle Charlie's home had a telephone. When neighbors needed to make a phone call, they were welcome to come to Charlie and Verter's house. Verter was nurse and midwife for the community. Several of my aunts lived with Uncle Charlie until they could get a place of their own.

Monteen is devout in her faith, and I believe her faith has kept her going through the rough times, the losses of her husband and other family members, as well as broken hip bones and such. Her eyes twinkle when she smiles and her sense of humor is very much intact. She is a pretty lady.

Monteen at age 99 and her brother who was 89 at the time of the photo.

Happy Birthday, Monteen. I wish I could be there to celebrate with all your family. I heard that this has been a wonderful day with calls, cards and flowers, and newspapers will be interviewing you and your daughter, Beverly. I hope the coming year will be healthy and happy for you and that next year at this time, we will be wishing you another happy birthday. .

A Trip to Palmetto, Florida and family history

You know it is Florida when begonias are blooming in February

Monteen, 99 years old, in a lobster bib, and Beverly, her lovely daughter

Cousins, two resilient Council family women, took me on a tour of their home town, Palmetto, FL.  Monteen celebrated her 99th birthday in January, 2014. I enjoy talking family history with her. I asked that I be invited to the 100th birthday party next year. She asked me for a copy of Profiles and Pedigrees, Tom Council and His Descendants, to give to her son. I was glad I had one with me.

Beverly lives at Shady Acres, her mother's peaceful and beautiful home, where the moss drips off the old oak trees and a swing awaits her to sit and watch the sunset. She recently lost her beloved husband Tom. My heart aches for her pain on this grief journey. I'm happy she still has her mother. I remember how much I wanted my own mother when Barry died, but she was no longer with us. I wonder if we ever get too old to want our mothers when we hurt.

Charlie, Tiger's first person, treated me and others to a delicious meal at the Crab Trap in Palmetto. I kind of like his new beard. He is now a great grandfather of twins, Cash and Cabot! Charlie always picks up the tab. He won't let anyone else pay a cent. He has a kind and generous spirit. Quiet and soft spoken, he makes me smile with his dry humor. He is with his family where he wanted to be for a long time and they are seeing that he has the best of care. 

Second cousin, Diane, recently lost her mother who was 92. Diane was a devoted caregiver for her parents. She lives on the land that her grandfather, my uncle Charlie Council, bought many years ago in Manatee County. Charlie and other Council family members settled in the area in the early 1920s.

Diane is Monteen's niece. They are a close and loving family much like my own in south Georgia. 

Pelicans rest along the Manatee River

The mossy trees, the quiet river and the stillness of a winter day

Any angle of the Skyway Bridge is an artist's delight. This was a foggy day, no sun.

Ancestors

I want to share this poem by my 8th cousin, Mary Michelle Keller. She is deeply into genealogy and found we have the same lines in our background. Before we knew we were cousins, we were friends. Barry called her "Cuz."

Ancestors
Census copies strew across my desk
keys that fit rusty locks of remembrance
yield up the flesh of those long dead

I am the keeper of their stories
gathered from dusty history book
records of birth, death and probate

They sailed on ships of cholera
some for adventure, others respite
all for new beginnings, for freedom

The adversity they left followed
some died only to have just begun
others survived to plant their seed

I am here because of them
I will not let them lie in obscurity
I will raise them and remember.

                Mary Michelle Brodine Keller

Cousins, truth, and family history

Recently three cousins came to visit and I enjoyed seeing them and catching up. Sandra Mock was the cousin I first began working with on genealogy. She and her sister-in-law, Winnie, had traveled all over in search of our illusive great great grandfather. She helped collect all the family histories from the John Cecil Council family and sent them to me to put into my computer so we could write a family history.

At the time we were doing our research, there was no quick computer searching as there is today. We all scoured old courthouses, church records, and wrote to government agencies in hopes of getting a copy of death certificates or birth records. I spent some hours in Tallahassee looking for vital records to prove much of the information I'd received.

Chris Gowdy was one of the cousins who came that day and she has kept up with Council family history as well. Betty Jo Council is from the Ruskin Councils and I always enjoy talking with her. I used to see her at the family reunions when I lived in south Georgia and could make the trip down to Crawfordville.

My friend,Nancy Simpson says the word "cousin" has an emotional context when used in a poem. It is a word drenched in emotion just like the word mother. I've been so lucky since I began my study of family history to meet by email cousins I've never met. Most recently I met Linda Wimmer, a cousin my age, who is researching our Robison family. Pat, a cousin in Florida who has become a dear, dear friend as well, is also my age and we have so much in common. She loves delving into our family background and she has turned up some of the most interesting facts that she hasn't told others and she might never tell them. But these facts would make a great story for a novel if she ever decided to write one.

Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction in many cases.

Can't wait to see what truths my students write in the coming weeks. But what is truth anyway? My truth is not my brother's truth, but I can only tell what I believe is true.