Oh Susanna!

Susanna Claiborne, what a melodic name.  I just discovered an alternate spelling Clairborne, had kept me from finding her parents on Ancestry.  Ha.
She was a grandmother of mine, a few generations removed.

I invite you to walk into her life.  None of the "intellectual way" of looking at her dates and places.
Let's just imagine when she lived, raised her family, and made her mark on lives to come (including mine).

She lived in the18th Century in rural Virginia.  She was probably a farmer's wife, since Surry and Sussex County, VA have historically been farm country.  She was born Nov. 29, 1751.  She married in Sussex County, but I don't think she had to move far.  The new county was just created out of Surry County about the time Susanna was 3 years old. 

Interesting reading HERE about Sussex history.  I'll let you go see it if you're interested. 

(1) Susanna Claiborne married  Frederick Jones (1756-1791) when she was 22 years old.

Since she died in 1810 in Dinwiddie County, (the county to the west of Sussex), I have that link HERE.

She had 8 children, and the one that became my ancestor was...(generation #2) Sarah Jones, born also in Sussex County, VA on 2 Feb 1780, who died 4 Aprl 1847 in Union Parish, Louisiana.  That's not only a long way from Virginia, there were Alabama connections as well...and Georgia, then finally Texas!

Sarah Jones (2) married Champion Travis Traylor, Sr. (2) who had been born in Dinwiddie County, VA.  They married in Alabama, and he died 4 Apr 1832 in Perry Alabama.

 Their daughter, (3) Nancy Jones Traylor Powell was born 16 May 1804 in Oglethorpe County, GA.  She died 27 June, 1881 in Old Waverly, Walker County, Texas.

So when following my maternal genealogy, it's really interesting to see how these women traveled all across the south.  In the latter 18th Century and then into the 19th Century, you can imagine what life must have been like.  I always like to do that...think of a household full of children, servants perhaps, slaves if there was farming in the south, and husbands, brothers, uncles and sons working to keep everything running smoothly.  Of course the household was run by the oldest wife...which changed as households aged.  By the time each of these women had stopped bearing children, they were often in their 40's.  Only a few of them lived to go through menopause...it was a hard life not only with frequent childbirth, but the rigors of moving from one frontier to another.  These were true pioneers.

Nancy Jones Traylor Powell (3) married James Moore Powell,(3) and his dates are interesting because apparently he died on his birthday, 27 Feb. born in 1791, in Bertie County, NC, died same date in 1886 in Waverly, Walker County, TX.

Still a long way from my roots, which on this tree are Rogers.  My father's father is where we're going.  George Elmore Rogers, Sr. born in Texas in 1877 in Willis, TX.

Where oh where is the connection  though?
 Their daughter, Mary Ann Elizabeth Powell (5) married none other than Col. Richard Bass (5).  OK, where and when were her dates?  (I've struggled, and we're still following the data rather than the actual lives, aren't we?)  Born 21 Feb, 1825 in Perry AL, and died 12 Oct 1871 in Old Waverly, TX.

And finally, their daughter, Elizabeth "Bettie" Bass, (6) was born either in Feb or March 1860 in Old Waverly, San Jacinto County, TX, and died 17 July 1924 in Galveston, TX.

She was married to...
William Sandford Rogers, (6) born 9 Feb 1850 in Huntsville, Walker County, TX, who died in the same town 29 May 1879.

And they were my grandfather's parents. George Rogers Sr. would be generation (7), my father would be (8) and I'm (9) generations removed from Oh Susanna!

And a post script is in order here.  The Claibornes had an old name from Europe, and the name referred to living near clay deposits on a stream.  As you may already know, I am a potter.  So clay is important to me in both ways, my ancestors and my avocation.