Wordless Wednesdays

Cryer Creek Baptism

circa 1900

Navarro County, Texas

Little Lizzie Beth

Lizzie Beth aka L.B. Parten

LB's story is quite a sad one. She and some other children were outside playing enjoying a nice summer day. Her mother was having a wash day. During that period of time, wash days meant filling up a large cast iron washpot with water and heating it outside over an open fire until it was boiling hot, then the clothes would be put into the pot stirred around for a while using a heavy duty stick of some sort, then placing them on the rub board to scrub down, then dunked back into the boiling water for a good rinse.

A neighbor boy was chasing LB and others with a dead mouse when suddenly LB tripped and fell back into the washpot.  She was immediately rescued from the pot of boiling water and taken in the house and the doctor was summoned. She only lived a short time and then passed away leaving a family stricken greatly with grief. The poor boy who chased her with the mouse was said to have never recovered from the incident and was never in his right mind even in his adult years. A terrible tragedy took two lives that day.

Fifteen days after the death of her daughter, my great-grandmother, Winnie gave birth to my grandmother, Margaret Evelyn. My grandmother would never know her big sister but perhaps her birth helped this family through a very tough time in their lives and helped to soften this great loss.

Madness Monday

Ursl, Earaley, Erly,Ursula, Unice, Jane........and it goes on and on. My maternal ggg-grandmother has been a source of great aggravation and pure madness for me over the past ten years.  I'm really not exactly sure what her full name really is. I believe it is Unice Jane Aarons. I only just figured out her maiden name of Aarons recently. Every census record, birth records of her children, her death record, marriage record and every other record or document I have found has her name listed as something different. There are no two alike. Her birthdate is always the same, May 1844, and her birthplace is always Louisiana. According to some census records I found, her parents are possibly Andrew and Angeline Aarons. I am still working on this line to find further proof. It has definitely been an maddening experience.