Shakin' the Family Tree

Sepia Saturday: My Dad

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:39:20 GMT

For most of my younger life, my dad owned his own business. He was a masonry contractor here in Arkansas - mostly commercial construction.

I got this photo yesterday in my email.

I had never seen it before.

Photo taken September 1958

I had no idea he had the same type of business when he and my mom lived in Florida, where I and my middle sister were born.

That's my 22 year old dad in the driver's seat. The photo was taken in 1958, the same year I was born.

Here's that street address today.

Dad will be 76 years old tomorrow.

Happy birthday, Dad.

I love you.

This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for more interesting old photos and postcards.

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Sepia Saturday: Hats

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 12:57:39 GMT

I have a fair number of photos of my family decked out in their hats.

I even have an ancestress who made them.

The millinery shop of my g-g-grandmother, Mary Emily Conner, in Grenada Co., MS, about 1870-1875.

My grand-aunts, Ocie (left) and Arkie Burris, photo about 1909.

My grandfather, his brother and their double cousins, Elbert and Earl. Photo about 1905.

Left to right - Elbert Burris, Homer and George Burris,Jr. (brothers) and Earl Burris (brother of Elbert)

This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for more cool old photos and postcards.

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Treasure Chest Thursday: Photos

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 18:30:12 GMT

Yes, I know it's not Thursday, but I am planning ahead...so go with it, please...

I went to my dad's house last week, and took my aunt (his "big" sister) along for the ride.

Along the way, I asked her how she met her husband, and got a new little tidbit of information for the family archives.

Went graving at St. Joe Cemetery, which I refer to as the Burris burying ground. Found Aunt Margaret Jane Burris Moore's stone and photographed it.

After lunch at Dad's, we wandered downstairs and I spied a couple of photos I didn't have in our electronic archives.

A photo of my step-mom's dad in 1956 with his dog, Lonesome.

Paul Pettit, with Lonesome

There was one of Aunt Emma, and her husband, Tom Crites, taken about 1935. They don't look 50 years old to me.

Dora Emma Burris and Walter Thomas "Tommy" Crites

I asked my step-mom to scan and email the pics.

Got them today.

And a bonus.

When I called to thank her, dad answered the phone. I asked him about this last one, which is a photo of my dear step-mom on her 60th birthday.

He said he had been out and about and just ran by a store that made birthday cakes.

When he got it home, my step-mom told him it was the first birthday cake she ever had.

Ever.

So this one is precious to all of us...

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Another Burris family photo...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 02:02:58 GMT

This one on the occasion of the 50th wedding anniversary of George W Burris, Sr., and Mary Mathilda Wharton - so that makes it on or around 7 Oct 1927.

This is another one where they left the spouses of their offspring out of the photo. (Did you have to pay by the person back then?)

Standing, left to right:
Richard Benjamin Burris, Ernest Arthur Burris, Dora Emma Burris Crites, William Homer Burris, George W Burris, Jr., and Ottis Gileston Burris.
Seated were the honored couple.

Missing was Walter Monroe Burris.

They were standing in birth order. Ott took his hat off, like a gentleman should.

Someone must have been very Type A - like me.

Now I know where I get it.

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My mystery Burrises...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:48:48 GMT

I have the greatest amount of information about my Tennessee Burrises who came to Arkansas.

One of my strongest brick walls is my 3rd great grandfather, William Burris.

I have no idea who his parents were, or his siblings.

A couple of his sons have stumped me also.

Richard Charles Burris was child number 6 of William Burris and Elizabeth Bailey. (I will probably get some indignant hate mail from other Burris researchers on that statement, as there are at last count, some Burris researchers who say William and Elizabeth had 15 children before her death about 1835. However, I can only account for 11, so I'm standing by what I said, and if someone wants to give me some evidence to review, I'm happy to look at it.)

Richard Charles Burris married Sarah "Sally" A Rogers on 29 Jul 1832, in Tennessee.

He was 20 years old, and she, 15. They appear briefly in Pope County, AR, in the 1840 census. But by 1860, they were back in Hardin Co., TN, where most of their children were born.

I've only been able to trace one of their 9 children, James Andrew Burris, all the way to the end of his life.

Family lore says Richard was killed in the Civil War. In the 1880 census, Sally Burris was living with her youngest son, Henry in Pope Co., IL.

And son James appeared to lived most of his life in Massac Co., IL. He married Lydia Ann Denton on 13 Jan 1869 in Gallatin Co., IL.

James Andrew Burris, Lydia Denton Burris, Emily E "Emma" Burris, photo circa 1871

James Andrew Burris died on 4 Jul 1925 in Hillerman, Massac Co., IL. Lydia followed him in death almost 16 years to that day, on 3 Jul 1941, at the home of her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, "Betty" Burris Culver, in Hillerman, Massac Co., IL.

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Ernest Arthur Burris family

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:57:40 GMT

Ernest Arthur Burris was the second of twelve children born to George Washington Burris, Sr., and Mary Mathilda Wharton.

He was also their second son. He was born 2 Nov 1880, as our family says "on Isabell Creek," and died in 1952.

On 5 Feb 1905, he married Ida May McCauley. She was the daughter of Patrick McCauley (who was born in Ireland), and Mary E Thoss. Ida was born 22 Apr 1887, and died 10 May 1971. She and Ernest are buried in St. Joe Cemetery in Pope County, not far from where Ernest was born.

This photo is of Ernest and Ida in 1950 at St. Joe.

Ernest, in an undated photo.

Ernest and Ida had three sons, Lewis Earl Burris, Fay O Burris, and Ernest McCauley Burris.

Lewis Earl Burris, undated photo.

Lewis Earl Burris was born 28 Oct 1905, and died 24 May 1971. He is buried in St. Joe Cemetery also, and is the grandfather of the cousin who shared these photos with me.

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More new (to me) Burris family photos

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:25:25 GMT

These are courtesy of a newly discovered cousin who found the blog.

George Washington Burris Sr., and wife Mary Mathilda Wharton, undated photo

George Washington Burris, Sr., undated photo

Left to right: Dora Emma (Burris) Crites, Ottis Gileston Burris and wife, Gertha Leah Hill, on the occasion of what we believe was Ott and Gertha's 55th wedding anniversary in 1971.

Thanks to my cousin for sharing.

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Connecting more dots...

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:23:46 GMT

I met my second cousin yesterday.

He and his wife traveled from Texas for a reunion of his leg of the Burris family that will be held in Fort Smith this weekend.

He wanted to see St. Joe Cemetery, where his grandfather, Walter Monroe Burris, is buried with a whole bunch of our Burris clan. He also wanted to see the old homeplace where our ancestor, James Littleton Burris, built the cabin that housed so many Burris descendants.

We decided to rendezvous at a gas station at the Atkins exit off Interstate 40.

I called Dad as we left the gas station so he could meet us at the cemetery.

I had to call when we left, because within 10 minutes, we all lost all cell phone signals as we headed up into the modest mountains of rural Pope County.

As we gathered outside the cemetery gates, we had a discussion about how we were related.

My second cousin (sorry, guys but the family tree software says Carl is my second cousin, and Dad's first cousin, once removed) descends from James Littleton Burris and Elizabeth Adeline Ashmore like this:

James and Adeline Burris
George Washington (Sr) and Mary M (Wharton) Burris
Walter Monroe and Grace (Bowden) Burris
Cecil Blain and Arlie Ann (Fridell) Burris
Carl

For my dad, it goes like this:
James and Adeline Burris
George Washington (Sr) and Mary M (Wharton) Burris
George Washington (Jr) and Addie Louise (Herrington) Burris
Dad

G W (Jr) and Walter were brothers.

The old cabin that was the original homeplace was demolished in the mid 1960s and there is not even a footprint left. The old well, dug by hand, is still there, but covered.

We went on to Dad's house - just across the road - and this time, I was all ears as Dad and Carl started swapping the details of the stories they heard.

We used to grow our own wheat. Dad's dad told him about how they used to get the wheat ready to take into Atkins to the mill, and would load the wagon the night before and put it in the barn. Then, they'd get up before sunup the next morning and make the trip into Atkins to the mill. They got back home after dark.

Apparently, that trip got *really* old and my ancestors decided to have their own mill - in the barn. Carl's dad told him about how that mill was built - with leather bearings, no less (James Burris was a tanner) - and used a mule or a horse to go round and round to grind the wheat.

And wouldn't I love to have a photo or a piece of a millstone?

Carl hadn't realized that after the 1838 migration of our Burris and Ashmore ancestors from Lawrence Co., TN, where young James Burris and Adeline Ashmore walked most of the trip and fell in love, they had not immediately married.

They were married on 12 Nov 1840. I always figured it was because Adeline was only 15 during the trip, but something Carl told us made me wonder if it wasn't for a more practical consideration.

Carl said not long after the large ox-drawn wagon party - of not only our Burrises and Ashmores, but a whole bunch of their neighbors - got to Center Valley, 20 year old James Burris took off with a gun and an ax, to go find him some land and build a home.

By the time he had been gone for about three months with no word to the folks back in Center Valley, they began to fear he was dead.

Then, the sigh of relief - James came back. And the homeplace was built, and another move undertaken, this time to the fertile land next to Isabell Creek, where most of James and Adeline's 10 children were born. (The first died - most likely stillborn - and was buried in the first grave in Old Baptist Cemetery in Center Valley.)

We swapped photos during our visit, and Carl had a real gem.

Walter Monroe Burris and first wife, Grace Bowden, undated family photo

We have scant few photos of Walter, and none as a young man. To see Grace's image was very precious.

This journey through my family's history is a real delight.

To meet a cousin who shares much of my history - he at age 82, my dad at 75, and me at age 53...

Well, that's just beyond words.

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Sentimental Sunday: Fishing in Florida (or was that Louisiana?)

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:45:31 GMT

The back of the photo said 1950 in Florida.

Dad said it was Louisiana.

My dad, and his dad...George Washington Burris, Jr.

And they caught some huge fish...

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Happy Birthday, Dad...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:48:27 GMT

He's 75 today. I called him this morning to wish him well. We talked about how 3/4 of a century is kind of a landmark.

Even then, I was thinking...when he grins, you can still see this little guy...

Happy birthday, Dad.

Hope it's a real good one for you.

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Those Places Thursday: Russellville AR Post Office, c 1910

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:42:30 GMT

Left to right: George Washington Burris, Jr.; his brother, Homer Burris; his cousin, Lee Jones; and his father, George Washington Burris, Sr., seated. [Oops, looks like Great Granddaddy got lopped off due to size...here it is, smaller.]

Yeah, the Post Office figured largely in my family's lives...

Get a load of the dust in there...

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Remembering Aunt Emma

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:36:30 GMT

Aunt Emma was the oldest sister of my paternal grandfather, Goerge Washington Burris, Jr. She was the only one of his four sisters to live to adulthood, and I always had the sense that they were a very close sibling pair - after all, Granddaddy named his second daughter after her.

Aunt Emma outlived my granddad by eight years.

She was born Dora Emma Burris, fourth child of George Washington Burris, Sr., and Mary Mathilda Wharton, and their first daughter.

Dora Emma Burris, c. 1890

She was, as were all her brothers and sisters, born "on Isabel Creek," in those days before birth certificates required exact locations of birth. Isabel Creek was, and still is, an important landmark in rural Pope Co., AR.

Emma married Walter Thomas Crites, who was known as Tom or Tommy, on 15 May 1906, just before her 21st birthday. Tom Crites was the son of Adam "Green" Crites and Mary Elizabeth Worsham.

Emma's firstborn son, Eldrege, was not quite six months old when she and Tom Crites married. My understanding is that from the day they married, Eldrege became - and was always treated as - Tom's son. End of story.

Emma's family grew. She and Tom had a son, Elston Reece, on 9 Sep 1907, and a daughter, Hazel Matilda, on 10 Oct 1908.

Emma must have been pregnant with Hazel when this family photo was taken.

Left to right: Emma, Eldrege, Tom holding Reese

Emma and Tom had a son, named for Emma's father and younger brother, on 15 Nov 1909. George Washington Crites died shortly after his first birthday on 30 Nov 1910.

Tom Crites died on 10 Jul 1950, so I never knew him.

I knew Aunt Emma when she was much older - in her late 70s and early 80s.

When I was a kid, we camped not far from her little house on Crites Road - the house that still had a wood cookstove. I'd go to her house to dig beside her chicken coop for the big, fat worms we used for fish bait. She always sent us home after the weekend was over with something she had canned.

And if the conversation took a turn she didn't like, she turned her hearing aids off, and shouted, Can't hear ya...

We have photos of Aunt Emma on grandaddy's birthday and hers.

Emma helping brother George survey his birthday loot

Emma on her 88th birthday in June 1973

Dora Emma Burris Crites died on 15 Apr 1982, and was buried beside her husband in St. Joe Cemetery, Pope Co., AR.

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Sepia Saturday: Great Granddaddy feeding his turkeys

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:38:31 GMT

George Washington Burris, Sr., feeding the turkeys...I'm just going to guess that this may have been taken in the early to mid 1920s. If that's the case, then they had turkeys in town (Russellville), which would not be out of the question.

George Washington Burris, Sr. died in 1929.

This is a Sepia Saurday post.

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Catching up on my reading and made a find...

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 17:54:22 GMT

I get emails regularly from all my subscription genealogy research services.

Ancestry sent me one last month that I just set aside, so I went to read it today.

Come take a look, they said, at the new records we have in the passport applications.

So I did.

Lookie what I found.

My granddaddy's passport application. He was assisted by the US Consulate in Panama to get an emergency passport, since he had already been living Panama for over a year. (Don't know if that was an oopsie or not.)

I guess passport photos have always looked really serious...

Dad says he thinks the 500 Long Street address is now Phoenix Avenue in Russellville.

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Okay Nancy...

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:39:48 GMT

You wanted to know what I looked like in high school...

Here's my senior class picture...

And I am gonna upload a bunch of these for the Parkview High School Class of 1977 to Ancestry...

Probably get egged at the 40th reunion...

BTW, I still wear my hair like that - just has a lot of gray now.

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