The Mystery that Started It All (part 5)

 

Note:  This is a continuation from previous posts.  To start back at part 1, click here.

On the evening of May 19, 2022, I was browsing the newly-released, newly-indexed 1950 census records on Ancestry.  I had already found all four of my grandparents, several of my great-aunts and uncles, two sets of great-grandparents, and one set of great-great-grandparents.  Because finding out more about my Grandma Eva and her first husband is always sitting somewhere in the back of my mind when I am doing family history research, I had a thought — I wonder if I can find G.W. Bryant in the 1950 census.  Maybe I could finally find out where he went after he left my grandmother and they divorced.

The Mystery that Started It All (part 4)

James, Annie, and Eva Parham

Note:  This is a continuation from previous posts.  To start back at part 1, click here.

It has been almost four years since I wrote my last blog post about my Grandma Eva's mystery life before she married my grandfather.  So for those of us (myself included) who need a brief recap, here goes...

The family story, and the starting point for my research, was that at a young age Grandma Eva was sent away from her home in Hartwell, Georgia to live with her grandmother Parham and work at the boarding house that Grandma Parham owned and ran in Elberton, Georgia.  While she was in Elberton, Eva met and married a young man and they had a baby together.  My parents thought the baby's name was Bonnie.  No one knew the name of Bonnie's father.  Eva's husband left her at some point, and afterward Bonnie got very sick.  Eva had no one to help her with getting medical care for Bonnie, and Bonnie eventually died and was buried in Elberton.

Well, that's part of the family story.  I will now share... (in my best Paul Harvey voice) the rest of the story.

The Mystery that Started It All (part 3)

Note:  This is a continuation from previous posts.  To start back at part 1, click here.

The Old Seaboard Air Line Railway on the corner of Deadwyler Street and North Oliver Street in Elberton, GA.  Directly across North Oliver Street (to the left of the building in this photo) was where the Parham boarding house was once located.

As a preteen or very young teenager, my grandmother was sent by her mother and stepfather to live with her paternal grandmother in Elberton, Georgia.  Grandma Eva’s father, James David Parham, had passed away from a gastric hemorrhage caused by a peptic ulcer in 1937, when my Grandma was only nine years old.  Her mother, my great-grandmother, who I always knew as “Grandma Bobo” (Annie Mae Jones Parham Bobo) had remarried Snow Robert Bobo just shy of a year later on September 19, 1938.

The story that has always been told through the family is that Grandma Eva's older brother (James David Parham, Jr.) joined the military, and that shortly thereafter Grandma Eva was sent to live with her grandmother.  However, I have had some difficulty making that timeline work, as my records show that James joined the Navy in June 1944, which would have been well after Grandma Eva moved to Elberton.  At any rate, at some point between 1940 and 1943, Grandma Eva ended up living with her Grandma Parham in Elberton, Georgia.

The Mystery that Started It All (part 2)

Bonnie Rose Bryant, 9/30/46 - 7/28/47

Note:  This is a continuation from a previous post.  For part 1, click here.

For most of my life, I lived right next door to my paternal grandparents. My parents bought the house I grew up in when my mom was pregnant with my sister and I was barely five years old. When I was in elementary school, I would walk the block and a half home from school straight to my grandparents' house to stay. Even when I started middle school and became older and more trustworthy, I would first check in with Grandma (and get a snack, because, well ... she was my sweet southern Grandma and that's what sweet southern grandmas do!) before going next door to my house to do homework and chores until my parents got home from work.  But I almost always stopped in at Grandma's house first.

The Mystery that Started It All (part 1)

Eva Alma Parham

On August 17, 1996, when I was eighteen years old, I experienced my first significant loss of a family member.  I say "significant," not because any losses before this were inconsequential, but because up to this point in my life, I had never really lost someone close to me.  My great-grandmother, "Grandma Bobo" (Annie Mae Jones Parham Bobo), had passed away in 1990 when I was in middle school, but she had lived in Georgia and my family had never been particularly close with her.  We had visited her a few times, and she had visited us a few times, but she wasn't a significant presence in my life.  There were also a few great-aunts and great-uncles, and one great-grandfather, that had passed away throughout my childhood, but again - no one who had been present in my life on a regular basis.

But this.  This was SIGNIFICANT.

Introductions

For my very first blog post, I thought it would only be appropriate to introduce you to some of the people who helped to make me who I am - literally.  Meet my ancestors (and a few cousins and aunts and uncles).  Well, some of them, at least.  The background image of this blog consists of a photo collage of many of the people who made me...me.  All four of my grandparents, who I was so incredibly blessed to have with me until my adulthood, are captured in these photos.  Many of my great-grandparents are here, and their parents and grandparents.  Oh, sure - I never even met many of them.  The majority of the people in these photos were long gone before I was even a twinkle in my parents' eyes.  But without them, I would not be who I am today.  I wouldn't be anybody at all!  They were and are resilient, strong, hard-working southern folks.  So it is my desire to remember and to honor them - to tell their stories so that they become much more than names, dates and records in my family tree.  That will all unfold eventually, but for now, please allow me to make some brief introductions:

Meet my ancestors.  Well, some of them, at least.

Top row, left to right:

1. My 2nd great-grandparents Columbus Cromwell Foster and Tecora Savilla Bryant Foster holding their sons Columbus Ransom Foster (my great-grandfather) & William Kenneth Foster.
2. My great-grandparents Ruth Beatrice Davis and Luther Earl Garrett with their three oldest children - Luther Earl Garrett, Jr., Betty Louise Garrett (my maternal grandmother), and Carroll Charlie Garrett.
3. Four generations of Parham men - standing in the back from left to right: James Jackson Parham, Jr., Early Artis Parham, and James David Parham (my great-grandfather).  The young boy standing in front is James David Parham, Jr., my paternal grandmother's older brother.
4. My 3rd great-grandmother, Elvina Mauldin Black.
5. My maternal grandfather, Vealon Elbert Foster, and his older sister Margaret Florine Foster (later Limbaugh).  "Aunt Margaret" was also a family historian, and her work was a springboard for a lot of my research.

Middle row, left to right:

1. My paternal grandfather, Everett Frank "Pee Wee" Powell, with one of his older brothers, James Edward "J.E." Powell, Jr. and their father (my great-grandfather) James Edward Powell.
2. My 3rd great-grandparents, Allen Aaron Jones and Corel Cymbaline Martin Jones. They were ages 19 and 17 when they got married.  Judging by how young they look in this picture (and the absence of children), I believe this may have been their wedding photo.
3. My 2nd great-grandfather, George Washington Davis.  "Grandpa Davis" owned a large dairy farm in Piedmont, South Carolina.
4. This beautiful lady is my precious maternal grandmother, Betty Louise Garrett Foster.
5. Sitting on top of the car are my great-grandmother, Annie Mae Jones Parham, an unidentified family friend, and my precious paternal grandmother, Eva Alma Parham, in a bonnet.  The license plate on the front of the car says 1929.

Bottom row, left to right:

1. William Jefferson King, my 3rd great-grandfather.
2. My father's older half-sister, Bonnie Rose Bryant, who died in infancy in Elberton, Georgia.  I never knew about Bonnie's existence until after my grandmother's death in 1996.
3. My great-grandmother, Lois W. Bell Powell, who died at age 32 during childbirth after already having given birth to seven children.
4. My precious paternal grandmother (again), Eva Alma Parham Powell.
5. My 2nd great-grandparents, Andrew Paul Black and Elvie Lenora King Black.

More on these folks will come later, I promise!

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