My 2nd-great-grandfather Jacob Dennis Mayberry, widowed in 1917, desired a fresh start. In 1919, he purchased a 440-acre farm in Chilton County, Alabama, 24 miles northeast of his former residence in Bibb County. He built a large and rambling house around the old cabin that stood there. His daughter, Clara, her husband, Otha Payne, and their baby, Clara Thomas Payne (my grandmother), and his unmarried daughter Mary Thomas Mayberry moved with him to the new place. And on this property, they all lived out the rest of their lives, though you would not know that by a basic family tree.
Context
Judging Ancestors: The Distortions of Hindsight (A Cannibal Story)
Hindsight will never be 20/20. The further back we look, the fuzzier the view gets. In looking back past our own personal experience—that journey we call “studying history”—we become strangers in a foreign land. Observing what we see there can be immensely valuable. Evaluating the effectiveness of our ancestors’ choices can enhance wisdom. Morally judging ancestors through the eyes of the 21st century, however, is a destructive misuse of hindsight.
Semantics: What Did They Mean by That?
Friday was my birthday. Yes, 9/11. In the years after the World Trade Center disaster, people tended to express sympathy to me on my birthday, saying things like, “ I hope you can enjoy it, in spite of everything.” This past Friday, though, I heard nothing at all about 9/11 in my birthday messages.
Degrees of Connection: What the Neighbors Meant to Your Ancestors
My mid-nineteenth-century small-town ancestors would be utterly baffled at how little I know about my neighbors. Neighbors were their family, in-laws, society, colleagues, entertainment, education, support system, and source of marriage partners, gossip, trade, and annoyance. They were the cast and crew of our ancestors’ life dramas.