Beginnings

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks : Week 1 - Beginnings

Just start at the very beginning
That's a very good place to start...

This year, 2021, I'm participating in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks genealogy challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Hopefully, this will not only jump-start my research, but will also help me write up some of the research I've already done. Here goes...

"Beginnings" is a broad topic when it comes to genealogy. Every birth, wedding, or event signals the start of something. So rather than focus on one of my ancestors' beginnings, I thought I'd write a bit about my beginnings as a genealogist. Because, really, that is the crux of this proverbial biscuit that I call "Rooted in Elizabeth."

For this story, we need to go back to the 1970's, I think, and a reconnection of sorts between my grandfather, Wally Dixon, and some of his 1st cousins, once removed, on his mother's side of the family. Wally's mother, Mary Elizabeth (Klein) Dixon, had a sister named Ida (1868-1935) who married a man named Herbert Decker. Their grandchildren by their son, Daniel, are the cousins I'm writing about.

Younger than my grandfather by about 25-30 years, the siblings would have been children at a time when my grandparents had started their family and had children of their own. By their own account, the Decker children did not have an easy early life, but that is not my story to tell. My story starts, as I said, in the late 1970's when the Decker siblings reconnected with my grandparents, an event that, I know, pleased my grandparents greatly, and I hope was a happy reunion for the Deckers. I didn't see the Deckers often, but I recall them as good-humored and kind. They were certainly very kind to my grandparents and my mother.

Joanie, who I believe was the only sister among the six siblings, had an interest in genealogy and family history. My grandfather was pleased to share what he knew about the family with her, and Joan, in turn was pleased to share some of her research with me when I expressed an interest. Her family group sheets were the foundation of the very beginnings of my family history research when I finally decided to dive in to genealogy.

So Joanie planted the seed which, admittedly, took a very long time to germinate. I finished high school, headed out to Missouri for college, moved to Virginia, married, divorced, married again, and settled into everyday life, as one does. My grandfather died in 1984, but the Deckers stuck by my grandmother, and my mother too, when she moved in to help look after Gran. And when my grandmother died in 1996, the Deckers were still there. My gratitude, though no doubt poorly expressed at the time, is eternal.

In around the year 2000, my mother, her dog and 9 cats, moved to Virginia to live near us. As we were packing up for the move, we naturally came across boxes of old photos and some of the information Joanie had given to my grandfather. They got packed in a box, like everything else in the house. Sadly, my mother and her menagerie didn't get enjoy life here in the mountains for very long. She passed away in 2002.

I inherited the boxes. Also the cats and the dog - but that's a story for another time.

When I finally had the gumption to start sorting things out, I came across the boxes of photos, the scrapbooks, and all of the ephemera that had accumulated through the past two generations. Of course, the normal reaction, which I'm sure some of you reading this have had when finding yourself in a similar situation, was "what do I do with all this stuff?!?"

For me the question was more "Who are all these people?" There were so many unfamiliar faces among those photos, and for me, first and always, it's about the photos.

So, here is how it all started, in roughly this order:

• I need to do something with these photos.
• If I sort them by date, maybe I can figure out who these people are.
• But I can't figure that out unless I know who the possible candidates might be.
• I need to make a family tree, and look! Joanie already started one!

And that, my friends, was the beginning. The beginning of my very happy journey down the genealogy rabbit hole. The beginning of my new career as a personal photo manager. The start of what I know will be a life-long passion to tell the story of my family and continue to learn about those people in those photographs.

 

A handwritten note from cousin Joanie, found in the papers of Wallace B. Dixon.
John George Klein was his grandfather.
Now, if I could just find the source for that 1862 citizenship...