My ancestors, they hail from . . . the redlands of Texas . . . and the marshes of Maine . . .
the plantations of Georgia . . . and the courts of Spain . . .
and from a hodgepodge of places . . . betwixt and between . . .
On this date in our extended family history . . . the 27th day of September . . . in the year 1860 . . . Oliver Lazarus Battle is a passenger in the Gulf of Mexico on board the steamboat Bayou City . . . she is bound from Galveston to Houston, and when about to make a landing at Lynchburg, her boilers burst with terrific explosion and fearful result . . . among those who die as a result of that explosion is Oliver's brother-in-law, I.T. Irvin, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives . . . Irvin was last seen rushing aft, and it is believed he jumped overboard and was drowned . . . this Oliver Battle is a 1st cousin five times removed to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . many news clippings about this tragic event are available online, including a lengthy article in the State Gazette. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 9, Ed. 1, Saturday, October 6, 1860 . . . P.S. . . . Oliver's mother, Margaret Fannin Battle King nee Porter, was the stepmother of James Walker Fannin . . .
On this date in our extended family history . . . the 19th day of September . . . in the year 1891 . . . Easter Jane Sublett nee Roberts dies at her residence, three miles east of San Augustine, Texas [click HERE to read what some of the 1891 papers had to say about Easter and her family] . . .
Easter Jane is an older sister of Mahala Lee Roberts . . . who is a 3rd great-grandma to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . this Easter Jane and Mahala are two of nine children known to have been born to Elisha Roberts and his wife, Martha "Patsy" Gill . . .
By the time Mahala was 16 years of age, in 1833, Easter Jane had already been married for five years, to Philip Sublett . . . and that was the year when Elisha, as well as this son-in-law, were two of the twenty-one men who signed the original founding document of San Augustine . . . those twenty-one men, and their place in the family tree of the Keeper of this family history blog (if any), are listed below . . .
I D Thomas [brother-in-law of 3rd great-grand-uncle, Noel Gil Roberts; grandpa of the renowned artist, Seymour Thomas, who was also a grandson of Stephen W. Blount, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence]
A special invitation has been issued to descendants of the above men to gather in San Augustine during the annual Sassafras Festival for an event hosted by San Augustine Main Street . . . during this annual festival, at 2 p.m. on the 26th day of October . . . there will be a gathering at the Historic Museum Theatre on Columbia Street in downtown San Augustine . . . regarding this special event it has been stated that . . .
Historic San Augustine is celebrating its 180th birthday with a presentation of the newly discovered deed dated July 11th, 1833 purchasing the land where the town of San Augustine was laid out by Thomas McFarland. The document is signed by these 21 Texas patriots who established the town.
If you are a descendant of one of the twenty-one signers listed above, please contact Connie at . . . deed dot descendants at gmail dot com . . . for more info about the Sassafras Festival, please call 936-275-3172 . . .
On this date in our family history . . . the 17th day of September . . . in the year 1692 . . . Rebekah Eams nee Blake and Mary Parker nee Ayer are tried and condemned after being accused of practicing witchcraft . . . both Rebekah and Mary are 9th great-grandmas of the Keeper of this family history blog . . .
This was originally published in August of 2009 . . . for another one of those nights of genealogy fun with Randy . . . I thought it appropriate to recycle it for use on a Sentimental Sunday . . . in memory of my grandparents . . .
This week (August 2009), for Randy's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, he is asking, "How many ancestors did you 'meet'?" His short and sweet instructions are to . . .
Write down which of your ancestors that you have met in person (yes, even if you were too young to remember them).
Tell us their names, where they lived, and their relationship to you in a blog post, or in comments to this post, or in comments on Facebook.
I was born and raised in Texas . . . and plan to live here 'til I die . . . and I am blessed to have been touched by hands . . . that touched the hands . . . of those who came before . . .
My Mom was born in Massachusetts, but was living in Texas with her paternal grandparents before 1940 . . . and she now lives just one block away from the land owned by those grandparents . . . Mom was only 3 days old when her mother, Elizabeth, died . . . Elizabeth's father had died in 1920 . . . and her mother, Eva, would survive her daughter by only 4 years.
Mom's father, Robert E. Henry, was born in Milam County, Texas in 1905 . . . and died in San Patricio County, Texas in 1976 . . . he joined the Navy in 1927 . . . and then took up residence in Massachusetts until after WWII . . . when he finally returned to Texas, bringing his 2nd wife and their three daughters with him . . . his father died shortly thereafter, and before I was born.
Robert's mother, Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp, was born in Houston County, Texas in 1873 . . . and I was born on her birthday just four years before she died in 1955 in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas.
My Dad, Forrest Lee Pounders, was born in San Benito, Cameron County, Texas in 1927 . . . and died in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas in 1996 . . . he spent time in Japan and Korea while in the Army, but lived his entire life in Texas.
His father, Jacob Edmund Forrest Pounders, was born 1902 in Caldwell County, Texas . . . and died in Rockdale, Texas in 1957 . . . both of Pa Jake's parents were dead before I was born.
His mother, Ima Lois Pounders nee Muston, was born in Lee County, Texas in 1906 . . . she lived next door to my parents my entire childhood, and until her death in 1999 . . . her father died when she was a child.
Her mother, Emma Patience Muston nee Nettles, was born in Lee County, Texas in 1882 . . . and died in Rockdale, Texas in 1964.
So, that makes seven (7) for me -- 2 parents plus 2 grandpas plus 1 grandma plus 2 great-grandmas.
