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Tracing your roots results
in frequent surprises
By PATRICIA J. GEISTER
of TheColumnists.com
Your individual family facts will be a legacy to your
children and grandchildren. I urge you to gain every bit you
can and store it in written form. Don't follow my example of
waiting too long and not have a parent or grandparent to quiz.
If for no other reason, you do need medical history. A good mystery
story could materialize that will keep you probing for years.
At the prodding of Kay, my cousin's wife, I became deeply involved in both sides of my family's genealogy. Since then I've found and been found by a couple of dozen other cousins and their families who are still here today.
Delving and digging into books, files, and listening to various versions of our people continues to be fascinating as well as enlightening. I followed all of Alex Haley's TV series "Roots" about tracing his ancestors all the way back to an African village.
His shouts of joy, "I've
found you, you old African!" have meaning to me, and I'm
sure, anyone who still seeks the answer to a brick wall that
pops up over and over in their search.
Please accept my apologies for any misinformation that might
appear in my description which follows. Unfortunately,
things get lost in translation, written and verbal history tellings,
etc. I will try not to repeat those same errors.
On my Dad's side (Griffin) I've got the current Queen of
England (my 12th cousin), the Cheney family on the East Coast,
Georgia, Mississippi, and I don't know where all. My first
known grandfather, Henry Matthew Griffin, came from Talbot County,
GA. He married into the Cheney family in Monroe County,
Georgia. Our Henry is a brick wall. We
know he was born around 1807,but can find no record of his parents'
names or his place and date of birth. He and Sarah Cheney married
in 1828 in Monroe County and eventually gained a land grant in
Noxubee County, MS. They moved there, raised more than 10 children. He
and two sons went off to serve in the civil war. His place
of burial is unknown, but I do know he died in service in March
1962 at Tuscumbia, Alabama.
If Vice President Cheney's
family includes an Aquila Cheney of Monroe or Talbot County,
GA of that time, then we would have a distant kinship. He can
let me know if he wishes to exchange data for his Christmas card
list.
Then, also on Dad's side, a superior court judge in Kaufman County,
Texas, named Thomas Calhoun Griffin (Henry's oldest son)
wheeled and dealed himself and family into owning a lot
of land, timber, a hotel and mercantile store. He donated
the land where the first public school was built in Brooklyn,
TX. I don't think it's called that now. A couple
of grandfathers and great grandfathers in that same branch turned
out to be brawlers, mother-in-law killers, slaveholders,
and darned good horse traders. And, I'm happy to say,
most of them also were fine, hard working, honest citizens.
A few went into the movie and TV industries, but I'm reasonably
confident they were good people.
Mom's side of my family are cowboys and Indians. Her
grandfather was a cowboy, and her grandmother was a Cherokee
Indian. In fact, our handsome cowboy (Newton
Elcana Hannon), moustache and all, looked like Tom Selleck in
one of his Louis L'Amour western movies. Grandmother Margaret
Lee was a lovely Cherokee woman who charmed the Oklahoma
dust into producing food and grain for the family. She and Newt
made a good looking couple.
The Hubbard side comes from Mom's mother, June May Hubbard.
One Hubbard cousin has an influential job in the Democrat Headquarters
in D.C. Another one married into Phillips Oil. Some
of my Hannon and Hubbard great uncles in Oklahoma were prison
hangmen, lawmen, moonshine makers and sellers. When
liquor sales became legal they went on to make their
way in land, oil and used car lots. You've already
read my previous column here about Lucy Hubbard, the snake
stalker. Lucy's also the one who confided to Mom and me
she wanted to vote for Eisenhower, but feared this one and only
Republican vote might kill her. She really did fear that
God might strike her dead. Well, I can't say for sure if
that's what happened, but the dear soul didn't live much longer
after that election.
Our Hannon name originally was Hanna, but Clem Rogers (father
of Will Rogers, also a cousin) copied it into the Indian land
records book as Hannon. He told Newt, "It takes an
Act of Congress to change anything I write in this book, and
that ain't gonna happen. From now on your name is Hannon."
Come to find out, many of the family had spelled it that way
for years.
I have iris in my flower beds that have been propagated and handed
down from a German immigrant to Margaret Hannon, who
gave a start to each of her married children, who gave them to
their children, who gave them to my mother and me, and now I
give them to my children
and all my Hannon cousins.
Oh, yeah, one of Dad's Griffin relatives
go back to Wales' Prince Philip of Rese. Nobody
laughs when I say that makes us Reese's Pieces, but I think
it's funny. Also, we're related to Conan the Crooked.
I wanted my brothers or sisters to name a son Conan, or
at least make it their middle name. They refused.
Oh, well, why risk having some floozy file a lawsuit against
a guy who calls himself Conan the Crooked?
During one of my research sessions I asked Rupert, "How
do you feel being married to English royalty, m'dear? Not
only that, but I'm part of American royalty. The Kennedy's,
you know."
"Big deal," he
mumbled.
"Sweetheart, your dad told us you're related to John Chisum
of the Chisum Trail fame."
"I'm not thrilled about daffy, inbred Englishmen, Irish
drunks, or some guy who gets his kicks staring at a cow's rump
all day long."
And so ended that conversation and brought that day's research
to a close.
©2004 by Patricia J. Geister.
The drawings are from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco
Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. The photo of Queen
Elizabeth II is courtesy of the official website of the British
monarchy.
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