Family stories

A long lost second cousin of mine, from San Antonio TX, contacted me when I wrote of our great grandfather we have in common, Charles Herman Miller.

Leslie said she had belonged to Ancestry in the past, and not at this time.  Her grandmother was Rowena Eugenia Miller Rogers.  My grandmother was Mozelle Booth Miller Webb Munhall, sisters.

I loved hearing from Leslie about our g-grandfather, Charles Herman Miller.  She's pretty sure he stowed away on a ship from Germany as a teen to come into the US.  That sure explains a lot of the mistakes in his various census reports as to when he arrived, how old he was, etc.

So I hope she has some more stories to tell.  I won't need to see photos of the graves, since Ancestry usually gives the connecting links to Find-A-Grave sites for people.

But the stories about our actual ancestors, the things that happened that aren't on papers, I can't wait!

Ancestor Birthdays for March

Happy March birthdays to these ancestors of my descendents!

* Mataley Mozelle Webb Munhall Rogers, March 26, 1917
* Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers Wilson, March 10, 1879 

* Lucinda Benson Gibbs Rogers,  March 28, 1818

* Lt. Spencer Clack, March 28, 1746

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Mataley Mozelle Webb Munhall Rogers, b. March 26, 1917, San Anotonio, TX, (m. 11.21.36  George Elmore Rogers, Jr). d. 2003, Houston, TX. 
My mother.  I will give her a special page, which will be coming soon, probably on March 26!

No wonder I've always considered Friday the 13th a lucky day, my parents passed it on to me!

George and Mataley Rogers, San Antonio, TX 1936?

This picture of my mother sitting on a tree is the basis of my submitting this post to Sepia Saturday for March 23. 

We have trees in a park, and photographers busy catching the "best shots."

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I've already given you about as much as I know about Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers Wilson (Here).

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  Lucinda Benson Gibbs Rogers b.3.28.1818 Union District, SC (married 9.14, 1848 Bienville, LA to George Washington Rogers  b. 2.7.1820 Sevierville, TN, fought in Mexican War, d.1.26.1864?)  She was my paternal grandfather's grandmother.

Just so you think about the travels of Lucinda.  This woman went from South Carolina, and she as well as her brother married into the Rogers family from Sevier County, TN, then moved to Bienville, LA, where she was married (at a rather late age actually) and then to Huntsville, TX where she died on 9.22.1884. She gave birth to 4 children, 2 of whom lived to adulthood.

I always wonder how the Rogers clan got together with the Gibbs, then took off for LA, where many of them settled.  There is a town named after one of Lucinda's brothers, Dr. Jaspar Gibbs. Gibsland is now the celebrated site of the deaths of Bonnie and Clyde.  The Rogers continued into the territory of Texas and settled in Huntsville.

I also believe Lucinda originally received the Rogers family Bible upon her marriage, which has all the records of the family from 1794 to the 1950s, and at that time was in the possession of one of the Gibbs descendents. 

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Lt. Spencer Clack b. 3.28.1746 in Loudon County.VA, d. 7.9.1832 Sevier County, TN. Also from Franklin, Henry & Brunswick Counties, VA.  Trained in surveying and military tactics under Gen. George Washington who sponsored him when he joined the Masons.  

Representative and Senator from Sevier County, TN from 1796-1832.  Member of committee who drafted State constitution of Tennessee.

He married in 1766 to Mary Beavers Clack (name may have been Beauvior changed during French & Indian war) b. 1.12.1745 in New Jersey, d. after 1832 

Their daughter Catharine Clack Rogers (b. 6.23.1778 in Virginia d. 10.30 1850 Sevier County, TN) married in 1794 to Rev. Elijah Rogers (b. May 1774,) the patriarch of the Rogers family from Sevier County TN. and these were grandparents of George Washington Rogers (b. 2.7.1820) husband of Lucinda Gibbs Rogers above)

Pottsdam what?

Sepia Saturday asks us to look through our old photos to see if we have anything that meets the parameters (any of them) of a picture of the Pottsdam Conference in 1945.  (Click on the name to see all kinds of other postings)

I went to Wikipedia and buzzed through it's long listing...then found this which made me go WHOA!  (remember Truman abruptly had become President in April of that year when three-term Roosevelt died)  I was just a little girl while this conference was going on, being broadcast only on radio news or printed in the daily newspapers at the time.  It certainly was better news than all that had covered during the war years before. 

On 16 July 1945, the Americans successfully tested an atomic bomb at the Trinity test at Alamogordo in the New Mexico desert, USA. On 21 July, Churchill and Truman agreed that the weapon should be used against Japan. Truman had previously been encouraged by the Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, to inform the Soviets of this new development, in order to avoid sowing distrust over keeping the USSR out of the Manhattan Project. 

 What I didn't know until today follows:

Truman did not tell Stalin of the weapon until 25 July when he advised Stalin that America had "a new weapon of unusually destructive force." According to various eyewitnesses, Stalin appeared uninterested. It later became known that Stalin was actually aware of the atomic bomb before Truman was, as he had multiple spies that had infiltrated the Manhattan Project from very early on (notably Klaus Fuchs, Ted Hall, and David Greenglass), while Truman had only learned about the weapon after Roosevelt's death.(underline by blogger) By the 26th of July, the Potsdam Declaration had been broadcast to Japan, threatening total destruction unless the Imperial Japanese government submitted to unconditional surrender. 

Churchill had been voted out of office during the same conference and Clement Attlee took his place.

Attlee, Truman and Stalin at Pottsdam Conference.

I give you my personal story of someone taking the place of another person.  Not by election, but the way that Truman came into office, by the death of his predecessor.

Albert "Bud" Webb, my mother's father

Albert J. (Bud) Webb (b. July 30, 1891, Huisache, TX, d. 1919)  My mother was 2 years old when he died.

Into my mother's photo album comes the new Daddy in her life.  He had married her mother on March 22, 1924, just before my mother's 7th birthday on the 26th.

 

My mother, Mataley was a creative scrapbooker, and added the mouse here.  But since she probably didn't write in cursive in 1925 when she was 7 or 8, it's possible the scrapbook/album wasn't created until sometime later.  I'm intrigued by the little mouse, and so glad she wrote the dates with the pictures!