52 Ancestors – WEEK 21 –
Nicknames
By Cynthia Keefer Patton
My great-grandfather
Charles Wesley Thomas was born in 1882 in small coal mining town in western
Pennsylvania called Nemacolon part of Greene county. His family were Welch and
immigrated to America in the 1760's.
My father always called
him "Bumpy". I used to ask why and he would jokingly laugh and say
that when he died[1],
he had a sudden heart attack and fell down the cellar stairs. The vision in my
head of him bumping his way to the bottom made sense. His obituary in the Connellsville
Daily Courier upheld the story with his nickname listed.[2]
Later, when I was older, I interviewed my Dad and he told me that at age 9, his first job was in a coal mine as a "trapper boy" who hooked the coal cars together. He also told me he played baseball in the minor leagues. Charles obituary says only that he was a “well-known sandlot baseball player.” Well for me that is close enough.
[1] Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1970, digital images
(ancestry.com: accessed 21 May 2024) record for Charles W. Thomas, 9 April 1952,
certificate 33690. Cause of death listed as coronary occlusion.
[2] Obituary,
GRIM REAPER, Charles Thomas, The Daily Courier, Connellsville, PA, April 10,
1952, p. 2.
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