Tonight is the first night of Passover. Other than the significance of this special holiday, the fact that Passover falls on this date takes me back nineteen years when my paternal grandmother ascended into glory on April 12, 2006 – the first night of Passover.
Remembering Alease Virginia Andrews today and giving thanks for Passover, a day that foreshadowed God’s salvation from everything that holds us in bondage.
https://emyloomwordswovenwithinmyheart.com/2023/06/02/just-one-more-time/
My ancestors in this country go back approximately 400 years depending on which way I go. I will start with the two major ones; my mother’s maternal line Wright, and my father’s paternal line A.
My mother had done a lot of initial research in the family history. My grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Wright and the Wrights can trace their history to very prominent families in Bedford County Virginia going back to the 1600’s. There have been several books written about the Wright’s of Bedford County.
The farthest back I have verified on record is Thomas Wright who was born in Virginia in 1695 and died in 1763. He is my 7th great-grandfather. His son, Joseph, born in 1742, furnished supplies to revolutionists in the American Revolutionary War.
Through this line, I and my children are all eligible to join the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution.
The A side also hails from Virginia, near Petersburg, just south of Richmond in Chesterfield County. My Aunt helped me fill in some missing links and through Ancestry I have traced them back also to the 1600s.
Benjamin A, 5th great-grandfather, was born in 1699 in Henrico Virginia. He died in Chesterfield County in 1778.
Benjamin’s father Thomas was born in Wiltshire England, and he died in Henrico, Virginia in 1731. He had three other sons, and in his will which can been seen online, he left two of his sons one hundred acres of land each. The other son, John, received the plantation and all it’s livestock and goods, but poor Benjamin only got one cow and one calf. However, he fared better than his three sisters that only received one shilling each.
Benjamin’s son, Bullard (4th GGF), would have been of the right age in the American Revolutionary War, but I cannot find any record that he served. Although there is a record that he served in the war of 1812.
After poor Benjamin left with his cow and calf, he must have moved south to Chesterfield County, VA. There the line continues to my grandfather, Aubrey, ancestry records reveal they were all poor country farmers.
The Wright’s were well off middle-class families. During the Civil War, some of the Virginia Wrights, who were abolitionist moved to Ohio. Today, there are tens of thousands of descendants of Thomas Wright (6th GGF) living in the US.
The other two direct lines include my father’s maternal line and my mother’s paternal line.
My Grandmother Alease was a Cole. I trace them as far back as 1775 in Chesterfield County, Virginia. They also were a family of country farmers.
My mother’s paternal line is VH, the farthest I can verify records is the 1850’s in New Jersey. There was a large Dutch settlement there and I can only verify the direct information that my mother had assembled. James Marcus VH (2nd GGF) was born in 1828. He married Lydia Wolf(e), also born in 1828.
I cannot verify any details of Lydia’s family before her marriage to James Marcus. However, there is a short family history written in the late 50’s early 60’s by my grandfather’s sister that states her family tore their clothing and declared her dead when she married him. Many census records show her born in New Jersey or New York but in 1880 it states she was born in Portugal.
After the Civil War the VH’s and their sons moved south to Georgia where my grandfather Wallace VH was born. James and Lydia’s son, William, (b.1855) was once the Mayor of Sycamore, GA. In searching the GA Archives, I found a picture of a cotton gin he designed that won a first prize at the state fair in 1901.
I have found so many stories in researching family history. I have tried to piece together little bits of information I’ve found to see what can tell me about their lives.
Like the history of any place or family there are courageous stories, sad stories, stories that make you proud and stories that leave you feeling remorseful. All in all, it reveals an amazing journey that combines your life with the lives of thousands of others who share these histories as well.
John Peter and Mineta Wright parents of Mary Elizabeth Wright (maternal great-grandparents)
Wallace VH and Mary Elizabeth Wright – my maternal grandparents
Molly Stratton Brown Wright 1858-1930. Mother of John Peter Wright (maternal 2nd GGM)
Robert Ruffin A (1862-1926), father of Aubrey A here with his youngest son, Linwood. (Paternal Great Grandfather)
Aubrey and Alease A (paternal grandparents) with their children Eugene, Marie, and Thelma.
Albert Thomas Cole, and Etta Virginia Butler on their wedding day (abt 1907) – Alease’s parents. (Great Grandparents)
Eliza Jane Crews (1849-1923) – mother of Albert Thomas Cole, wife of William C Cole (Paternal 2nd GGM)
William C Cole (1849-1920) father of Albert Thomas Cole and husband of Eliza Jane Crews (Paternal 2nd GGF)
Ida Florence Fountain VH(1878-1968) taken in Sycamore, GA around 1960, great-grandmother, mother of Wallace VH
William VH (1855-1917) great-grandfather husband to Ida Florence Fountain VH and father of Wallace VH. Former Mayor Sycamore, GA
Lydia Wolf(e) VH (1828 – around 1900) 2nd Great-grandmother born in New York died in Georgia, mother of William VH.
Photo credit: Georgia Virtual Vault
When I was young many Christmases and Thanksgivings were spent at my maternal Grandfather’s house. His name was Wallace Van H, and I affectionately called him Grandpa Van. Grandpa Van’s house was at 3102 Glen Haven in Houston, was a special place because in the back bedroom they had a dresser full of little toys. My favorite were the ones that you wound up and they would toddle across the floor.
I also loved the bathroom at his house. Really, I would spend an hour in there. It was so clean and covered in sparkling white tiles. His wife, Omeda who was called Mama Meda, had a built-in vanity, with a three large mirrors that went from the vanity top to the ceiling, and a golden ornate seat with a pink velvet cushion. The mirrors were held in place with crystal mirror rosettes and on the vanity was a mirrored vanity tray with gold trim. It was filled with perfumes and a silver trimmed brush, comb and mirror set. It felt like I was in a palace.
From as long as I can remember and until the last time I saw him when I was in my 40’s, his pet name for me was Patty-Watty. I have a photo album that was his and in all the pictures of me, he labeled them Patty-Watty. Seeing those in his handwriting makes me smile.
He had many southwestern bolo ties made of silver and inlaid with turquoise, coral, onyx and mother of pearl. One of my favorites was about 5” long and it was a elaborate grizzly bear. One very fond memory is of sitting in my grandfathers lap in the living room while the men watched football. I was cuddled in his lap admiring the bear and outlining every stone and line on it. During the commercial, he got up and went in his room. He came back with a pin shaped like a Thunderbird and gave it to me. That day, I felt very special and loved.
Above, my Thunderbird gift from 1960’s and below is one of the last Christmases that I sat in my Grandpa Van’s lap ( Christmas 1982).
Trish B – January 15, 2023
In my lifetime, I have had several nicknames. Thankfully one from my childhood I have out grown and others still make me smile.
By my immediately family, I was called Sissy as a child. I think it was an old southern thing, my maternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Wright, was know as “Sister” by her family until she died and our name for her was “Grandma Sissy.” Although occasionally through the years my mother would still call me Sis or Sissy, this is the name that I am thankful I outgrew.
The other name was given me by my grandfather, Wallace Van Houten. He called me “Patty-Watty.” He called me that until the day he died and I cherished it. He was the only person that called me “Patty-Watty” and it was a special name that denoted the affection he had for me.
I still have little scrapes of paper and envelopes where he wrote notes later in life for the things he wanted to give me, they read “for Patty-Watty.” One such envelope is in a drawer with miscellaneous jewelry. I see it most every day and it always makes me smile.
I also inherited many photo albums that belonged to my grandfather and in each one with my picture, young or old it’s labeled “Patty-Watty.”
My grandfather took many videos of us as children. In his retirement years he spent hours playing them from old big reels onto VHS tapes. He narrates throughout and identifies people in the videos. It makes me smile when I hear him say, “Look who that is there, it’s Patty-Watty. She’s the sweetest little girl.”
Grandparents: the father or mother of a person’s father or mother. Like everyone else I had four, but saw only one more than once in my childhood, that one was my maternal grandfather who lived In Houston near where I grew up. My maternal grandmother and my paternal grandparents lived in Virginia.
My paternal grandfather, Aubrey Allen, died when I was 10. The last time I was with him I was six months old just before my mother moved back to Texas. My auntie tells me he was a kind and loving man who struggled later in life with debilitating illnesses. My paternal grandmother, Alease, told me many times that the day we left Virginia he held me and cried saying, “They are taking my baby away and I am never going to see her again.”
I left Virginia as an infant, I did not return until I was 27. My Grandmother Alease, as well as my Aunt Thelma, stayed in touch with my mother throughout my childhood but my first memory of her was in 1968 when my brother graduated from high school and she came for a visit. She was 60 years old, eight years younger than I am now… funny how she seemed older.
After that visit, I saw her once five years later when I lived in Florida and she came for a visit. We corresponded frequently but it was another 9 years in 1982, when she was 74, before we saw each other again. That year I visited Virginia for the first time since 1956 when my mother took me to Texas.
That visit became the beginning of building a relationship and making up for lost time. I visited often after that, every couple of years. She loved me unconditionally and loved to tell me about the past. Even after all the years since leaving Virginia, she would tell me every visit with teary eyes, about Aubrey’s emotional goodbye.
In all the years I visited her, we would spend hours looking at photographs, talking about the past, sitting next to each other and just holding hands. She had some of the most amusing colloquialisms many of which I wrote down, so as never to forget. Saying like, “She ain’t got enough sense to pour piss out of a boot.” or “You can’t run the roads and keep house.”
She was resourceful and made good use of her time. Well into her 90’s she crocheted lap blankets for the “old folks” in the nursing home. She also crocheted dish cloths from cotton string yard. I still have several unused ones in my kitchen drawer. Saving them because —- I don’t want to forget.
My Grandma Alease passed away in 2006, at the age of 98. God gave us many years to catch up. Often, when I spoke to her phone in the 25 years before she passed, she would end the conversation by saying, “I just pray to God I can see you one more time before I die.” It became almost comical because I would go for a visit, and I wouldn’t be home more than a week, and when I spoke to her, she would say it again!
I went to Virginia the week before she died, and I spent time with her while she was in the hospital. The day I left, they moved her back to the nursing home under hospice care. Sometimes she was in and out of reality but when I lean down to kiss her goodbye she looked at me and said, “Hope I see you one more time.”
She passed into glory on April 12, 2006 on the first night of Passover the Wednesday before Easter. I flew back to Virginia to say my last goodbye. I know it is not the end because I will see her one more time, one time that will last for eternity.
Emyloom ~ Words Woven Within My Heart 