Sympathy Saturday: I was on a roll...

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 14:10:10 GMT

I found another leg of my Parrish family last night.

My Parrish family made its way from Virginia to Kentucky, where some of them hunkered down for several generations.

But many more continued to move - on to Indiana and then to Missouri, where my g-g-grandfather, Fred Chapin, met and married Eada Belle Parrish in Vernon County on Christmas Eve in 1885.

Eada's second cousin, William Henry Parrish, was six years older than she was.

His family had lived in Knox County since at least the early 1850s. William was born in Knox County on 2 Mar 1853.

As far as I can tell, William and his wife, Cordelia Anna Davis, lived and worked in Knox County all their lives, raising five children together.

William and Cordelia's life together ended on 24 Jun 1924, when a tornado ripped through Knox County. Their death certificates say they died of the injuries they suffered in a cyclone. Their gravestone also notes the manner of their deaths.

I don't know if Eada got word of the tornado, or of her cousin's death. I can't find news coverage of the event, but for a while last night, I sat very thoughtfully at my computer, trying to imagine what it must have been like for my 71 year old cousin and his 67 year old wife as a funnel cloud exploded their world, and took them into the next one.

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Shakin' the Family Tree

Sympathy Saturday: I was on a roll...