Myrtle Olive "Ollie" (Parker) Lamb

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 34

#52ancestors
Chosen Family

 Years ago as I was beginning to research my Father's family, I found a census record from 1930 for my Grandmother as a child. It had a large number of children that were unfamiliar to me. My Grandmother was close to her siblings so I knew Uncle Yip, Uncle Hinney, Uncle Jeff, and others.   I had never heard of the children on this record. 

 I sat down with my Dad and he started laughing as he looked at the record. "This Earl is Uncle Yip,  this is Uncle Hinney, and Wilfred is Uncle Jeff.  He explained that the family often had nicknames that had nothing to do with their real name. There were other children with different last names to explain, too.  There was Taylor and Mowbray. Dad explained that his Grandparents took in some neighbor children whose parents had died. They adopted one of the children and raised the others as if they were their children.

 I looked for adoption records and guardianship records but there were none. It must have been a case of just taking the children to raise without benefit of any legal paperwork.

 Years went by and I became curious about them again, these extra children. I started researching to find their parents. I did eventually find that the Taylor children were my Great Grandmother's sister's children.  Her and her husband had died very close together. Despite having a large family already, they took her sister's children to raise. Since there was no legal paperwork and no original last name, it was many years later before I found any information about the fourth "adopted" child.

 After my Dad passed, my Mother and I searched for insurance papers, his will, and other paperwork that we needed. In a plain envelope mixed in with his important papers, I found the life story of my Great Grandmother. It held the information that I need for the search all those years.

 Titled "My Life Voyage",  Myrtle Olive Parker Lamb, told a heartbreaking story of devotion and dedication to her family and God.  This seems timely since we are once again in a pandemic.

  "Then in October [1918] when the flu was raging the Master came to me and said there is a Baby at Jefferson go get it and rear it for Me, or you will go to Hell. How I plead and made excuses but we must obey God rather than man, so lost a dear cousin and took her son, as she was called home to Heaven."

 When they took in Arthur, Leeland Henry Lamb and Myrtle Olive "Ollie" Parker Lamb already had 8 children living and one who was stillborn.  Then three  more children were added to their family.

  "Then lost our Dear Sister Nellie in July 1923 which left 3 Motherless children which God said to me as each time before, take the little babe. But, Oh, what a burden it seemed but I have always tried to obey the masters voice. Each of these little ones had as kind, patient, loving, self-sacrificing, and God fearing Mother as I ever saw. This sinful world was no place for them."

 Not only did I discover the background for the 4 "neighbor" children, I discovered the children were not chosen. Ollie Parker was chosen by God to raise these children.

My Life Voyage