Lost Bible of Charles M. McCurley

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 42  (Oct 18-24)
Prompt: Lost
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 The time to do genealogy is now. As time goes by clues, stories, and even artifacts are lost.  Thirty some odd years ago, I was researching Charles M McCurley trying to find definitive proof that he was the son of Ezekiel McCarley. I still haven’t found that definitive proof although I have enough circumstantial evidence to feel comfortable in declaring Ezekiel his father.

 However, those thirty years ago, I was trying to track down a family Bible that showed that direct link.  I researched each of Charles M’s twelve children trying to find a descendent who might have a family Bible with the information I needed. Instead I found a family story of loss.

 Sometime after Charles M. and his wife Ann Matilda Hines McCurley died, the children living near them in Smith County, Texas decided to bulldoze their house. It was not in very good shape and not worth saving at that point in time.  According to the story, everything that no one wanted was left in the house to be destroyed with the house including pictures on the walls.  Supposedly there was one of the old antique dome type pictures of family members and possibly the family Bible.

 I don’t know if the story is true or if the Bible that I would have treasured was in the house or even who were in the picture.  I do know that it still makes me sad to think a Bible with the definitive proof I needed was destroyed.

If anyone has any additional information about this, please let me know. 

Belonging to Sarah Violet

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 41  (Oct 11-17)

Prompt: Passed Down

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 I’ve written about Sarah Violet Herndon before because she was difficult to find. She died young at age 34 and my Grandmother loved and missed her mother, Sarah Violet, even after my grandmother became a great-grandmother. It was through her treasures and researching her life that I came to love her. 

 Sarah died when my Grandmother was only 15 years old, but she still left an imprint on the family. She also left several items that my Grandmother passed down. I don’t know what else other members of the family have but I have a quilt and a bowl.

 Grandmother, Gladys, passed the bowl down to my mother, Gwonda, because she looked like her Grandmother, Sarah Violet.  It eventually came to live with me.  Gladys handwrote a note when she passed down the bowl. It states, "Gwonda, This bowl was my Mother's - your Grandmother whom you look a lot like.  Mother"

It is uranium glass and glows under a black light.  Uranium glass can have up to 25% uranium, although most were much less than that. According to Wikipedia uranium glass “fell out of widespread use when the availability of uranium … was sharply curtailed during the Cold War in the 1940s to 1990s. Most are now considered antiques or retro-era collectibles”.

 In doing research on it, several websites indicated that most uranium glass only has trace amounts of uranium and are not more hazardous to use than lead glass. Of course, one website states that leaded glass is not dangerous unless you eat or drink from it.  Others indicated that cutting the glass and sending fine particles in the air would be a very bad idea for both uranium glass and leaded glass. 

 I plan on keeping this beautiful passed down bowl as a display piece and not eat or drink anything from it.

Flower Girl

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 40 (Oct 4-10)

Prompt: Preservation

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 In 1959, I was 5 years old and a flower girl.  My Dad’s brother, Earl, married my wonderful aunt, Elaine, on December 27^th, 1959. I don’t remember a lot about it other than the dress was kind of itchy and I was not comfortable walking down the aisle by myself. Although I did like throwing out the flower pedals.

 About 3 weeks after their wedding, I was a flower girl for my Aunt Vadie on my Mom’s side of the family.  It was much easier walking down the aisle in that wedding because my cousin, DeWayne, held my hand and walked with me. DeWayne was only 6 years old, but he seemed to know what to do.

 Aunt Elaine’s Mother made her wedding dress, and she made me a dress that matched the bride’s dress.  It was white with lots of lace. About 15 years ago, my mother gave me the dress. She had taken care of it all those years and for several years it hung in my closet. 

 In 2013, I earned a graduate certificate in Archival Administration at the University of Texas. I put what I learned to use by “archiving” several family heirlooms as well as using it at my job. The dress is now protected with archival tissue in an archival box. The box that I bought was really bigger than it needed to be, but it worked out okay. I added the Kimono that my father-in-law brought back from Japan for one of his little sisters later.

 My next preservation project is to make archival boxes or envelopes to preserve the handkerchiefs that belonged to both my Grandmothers and my Mother.