Explanation: When I was growing up, my GrandDaddy Fordham never talked much about his family. However, I knew that his dad was named Jim Z. Fordham, his mom was daughter of a Creek Indian named Mittie Mikell, Jim Z. was an itinerant music teacher who travelled to several counties stopping in at schools to teach music, and the family lived outside Statesboro Georgia. My granddaddy was the fourth of eight kids (six of whom lived to adulthood).
When I started doing my genealogy, I was in the Statesboro public library one day when I came across an old county map from 1892 that had the landowners' names on it. After about an hour with a magnifying glass, I found it: Jim Z. Fordham! It was in an area surrounded by farms owned by Mikells! I checked a modern map, and to my amazement, this particular road is still right where it was in 1892. So I made some notes about landmarks (creeks, bridges, turns in the road, an old mill dam, etc. marked on the old map and corresponding perfectly to features on the new map) and drove out into Bulloch County.
Right exactly where it should be, there stood the old homestead. Delapidated, run down, abandoned, sold in 1912 to others. I have since found the deeds verifying that this is the correct place.
The house still stands on the three acres the family farmed to provide food for eight kids. I climbed into an unlocked window and took some pictures inside of the three-room shanty. It was a two-roomer back then, with an attic loft for the kids. The kitchen was obviously added on the back later (you can see it in the picture at the far right).
The front porch was probably on the original house, but has been screened in. A bathroom has been added behind the kitchen, probably in the 1940's or 50's. (My Granddaddy used to tell us about the misery of having to go way out in the back yard barefoot in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature, and how cold the seat could get in the wintertime!)
Unlike Dubby's folks who are wealthy city-dwellers, my ancestors are poor white hardscrabble farmers who scratched out a living eating what they could grow in the sandy clay of southern Georgia. My granddaddy loved to garden till he was in his 80's.
The interesting thing is, out of those six kids, my generation consists of only me, my two sisters, and two very distant female second cousins. All six kids in my Granddaddy's generation got married, but two boys and one girl never had any children, one girl had a son who was killed in WWII, and one girl had two daughters neither of whom want to admit their poor southern past because they married rich folk (one married a famous tennis pro and the other married a millionaire). That leaves only me and my two sisters to take any interest in the dirt-poor family who lived in that house shown above.
They were poor, had no health care, had two children die before age 2, and then Mittie died when my Granddad was nine (and his youngest sister was only four). The next year, Jim Z. married Mittie's sister Addie, but Addie then died a few years later, too. In spite of being a music teacher, Jim Z. never taught any of his kids anything about music.
There you have it. Sorry the picture wasn't more picturesque, but I wasn't the one who selected the number six.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Sixth Folder, Sixth Picture...
Diane (not Dianna, but Diane) tossed down a gauntlet, to go to the photos folder, find the sixth subfolder, then publish the sixth photo in the folder, so here it is.
Explanation: When I was growing up, my GrandDaddy Fordham never talked much about his family. However, I knew that his dad was named Jim Z. Fordham, his mom was daughter of a Creek Indian named Mittie Mikell, Jim Z. was an itinerant music teacher who travelled to several counties stopping in at schools to teach music, and the family lived outside Statesboro Georgia. My granddaddy was the fourth of eight kids (six of whom lived to adulthood).
When I started doing my genealogy, I was in the Statesboro public library one day when I came across an old county map from 1892 that had the landowners' names on it. After about an hour with a magnifying glass, I found it: Jim Z. Fordham! It was in an area surrounded by farms owned by Mikells! I checked a modern map, and to my amazement, this particular road is still right where it was in 1892. So I made some notes about landmarks (creeks, bridges, turns in the road, an old mill dam, etc. marked on the old map and corresponding perfectly to features on the new map) and drove out into Bulloch County.
Right exactly where it should be, there stood the old homestead. Delapidated, run down, abandoned, sold in 1912 to others. I have since found the deeds verifying that this is the correct place.
The house still stands on the three acres the family farmed to provide food for eight kids. I climbed into an unlocked window and took some pictures inside of the three-room shanty. It was a two-roomer back then, with an attic loft for the kids. The kitchen was obviously added on the back later (you can see it in the picture at the far right).
The front porch was probably on the original house, but has been screened in. A bathroom has been added behind the kitchen, probably in the 1940's or 50's. (My Granddaddy used to tell us about the misery of having to go way out in the back yard barefoot in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature, and how cold the seat could get in the wintertime!)
Unlike Dubby's folks who are wealthy city-dwellers, my ancestors are poor white hardscrabble farmers who scratched out a living eating what they could grow in the sandy clay of southern Georgia. My granddaddy loved to garden till he was in his 80's.
The interesting thing is, out of those six kids, my generation consists of only me, my two sisters, and two very distant female second cousins. All six kids in my Granddaddy's generation got married, but two boys and one girl never had any children, one girl had a son who was killed in WWII, and one girl had two daughters neither of whom want to admit their poor southern past because they married rich folk (one married a famous tennis pro and the other married a millionaire). That leaves only me and my two sisters to take any interest in the dirt-poor family who lived in that house shown above.
They were poor, had no health care, had two children die before age 2, and then Mittie died when my Granddad was nine (and his youngest sister was only four). The next year, Jim Z. married Mittie's sister Addie, but Addie then died a few years later, too. In spite of being a music teacher, Jim Z. never taught any of his kids anything about music.
There you have it. Sorry the picture wasn't more picturesque, but I wasn't the one who selected the number six.
Explanation: When I was growing up, my GrandDaddy Fordham never talked much about his family. However, I knew that his dad was named Jim Z. Fordham, his mom was daughter of a Creek Indian named Mittie Mikell, Jim Z. was an itinerant music teacher who travelled to several counties stopping in at schools to teach music, and the family lived outside Statesboro Georgia. My granddaddy was the fourth of eight kids (six of whom lived to adulthood).
When I started doing my genealogy, I was in the Statesboro public library one day when I came across an old county map from 1892 that had the landowners' names on it. After about an hour with a magnifying glass, I found it: Jim Z. Fordham! It was in an area surrounded by farms owned by Mikells! I checked a modern map, and to my amazement, this particular road is still right where it was in 1892. So I made some notes about landmarks (creeks, bridges, turns in the road, an old mill dam, etc. marked on the old map and corresponding perfectly to features on the new map) and drove out into Bulloch County.
Right exactly where it should be, there stood the old homestead. Delapidated, run down, abandoned, sold in 1912 to others. I have since found the deeds verifying that this is the correct place.
The house still stands on the three acres the family farmed to provide food for eight kids. I climbed into an unlocked window and took some pictures inside of the three-room shanty. It was a two-roomer back then, with an attic loft for the kids. The kitchen was obviously added on the back later (you can see it in the picture at the far right).
The front porch was probably on the original house, but has been screened in. A bathroom has been added behind the kitchen, probably in the 1940's or 50's. (My Granddaddy used to tell us about the misery of having to go way out in the back yard barefoot in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature, and how cold the seat could get in the wintertime!)
Unlike Dubby's folks who are wealthy city-dwellers, my ancestors are poor white hardscrabble farmers who scratched out a living eating what they could grow in the sandy clay of southern Georgia. My granddaddy loved to garden till he was in his 80's.
The interesting thing is, out of those six kids, my generation consists of only me, my two sisters, and two very distant female second cousins. All six kids in my Granddaddy's generation got married, but two boys and one girl never had any children, one girl had a son who was killed in WWII, and one girl had two daughters neither of whom want to admit their poor southern past because they married rich folk (one married a famous tennis pro and the other married a millionaire). That leaves only me and my two sisters to take any interest in the dirt-poor family who lived in that house shown above.
They were poor, had no health care, had two children die before age 2, and then Mittie died when my Granddad was nine (and his youngest sister was only four). The next year, Jim Z. married Mittie's sister Addie, but Addie then died a few years later, too. In spite of being a music teacher, Jim Z. never taught any of his kids anything about music.
There you have it. Sorry the picture wasn't more picturesque, but I wasn't the one who selected the number six.
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