52 Ancestors - Week 34- Member of the Club

52 Ancestors – WEEK 34 – Member of the Club

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

My father Clyde Andrew Keefer was a member of the Atlanta Optimist Club and the year I was born, 1958, was their President. He was given a nice gold watch to commemorate his tenure.

Anytime we talked about when I was born the story was told. Also, he used to say that I was optimistic in my outlook on life because of that. Maybe so.

I interviewed him once for a DAR Patriot of the Month project and he told me he held the office from 1957-1959.

I did find an article in the Atlanta Constitution-Journal about some of his time in the club.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-dad-in-the-opti/44407121/

I found another article in the Athens Banner-Herald, July 25, 1961, front page:

So, as is with most family lore stories, part of them are true, some hard to prove and almost always partially true. One thing is certain, he was a member of the club.

  

52 Ancestors - Week 33- Favorite Discovery

 52 Ancestors – WEEK 33 – Favorite Discovery

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

When you are a dedicated genealogist it is hard to define your favorite discovery on the journey to uncover and document your ancestors. I do remember the joy I felt when I found that our Walker Mahanna (born c 1823 and died sometime after 1881) was the brother of Cornelius, Richard, Bradley, John and several sisters. 

My distant cousin Gloria Henry (descended from Bradley) knew that the name was unusual enough that almost everyone in this country in the 1800's was somehow related. Not everyone, but many of them.

Traditional research led to the discovery of census with some of the brother's living near each other when they migrated to Ohio. Finally, it was a Y-DNA test that my cousin agreed to take that tied all the brothers and sisters' families together. 

Part of that "DNA doesn't lie" discovery was that there was their father John had a brother named James who changed his surname to "Behanna" and produced a long line of descendants that were hiding in plan site during our research.

He lived in Washington County, Pennsylvania, not far from where the Mahanna crew ended up in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

I would love to plan a Mahanna/Behanna Reunion and need to put that on my Genealogy Bucket List. Happy researching.

52 Ancestors - Week 26- Family Gathering

52 Ancestors – WEEK 26 – Family Gathering

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

I am working on planning, organizing, and enjoying a family gathering. My older brother David turns 70 on July 26th and my siblings and I have decided to celebrate it in Minneapolis, Minnesota this year.

We booked a large AirBnB in St. Paul and I am excited for the beautiful kitchen where we will be able to gather around and make old family favorites and try some new recipes.

Food--is always the centerpiece when my family gets together. Whether it is Thanksgiving or a casual weekend, almost the first topic of conversation when we walk into the house is "where are we eating dinner tonight?" or "are we going to the grocery store and cooking here?"

My youngest brother Scott was a professional chef for many years, but the rest of us are pretty good cooks, specializing in either regional cuisine, organic food, baking bread, or vegetarian specialties. It makes for an interesting cornucopia of delights!

When we were young, our parents would road trip us from our Southern home in Atlanta to the ancestral places in western Pennsylvania (Washington, Pittsburgh, Mount Pleasant, and Connellsville) in July. My father's birthday was July 1st, so we would combine the visit with the 4th of July and it was a great time when many people were off from work. We would gather with cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. There was always an abundance of food.

As we age, it is harder and harder to gather, with competing work schedules and health issues that are beginning to limit our options. But I am looking forward to the genealogy value of our time together and plan to share my latest research discovers and try and talk some people into doing DNA tests I need for future projects.

52 Ancestors - Week 23 - Health

 52 Ancestors – WEEK 23 – Health

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

We attended my husband Denny Fitterling's 50th high school reunion this weekend in Warrensburg, Missouri. 50 or so of the original 132 graduates attended. I was so amazed at the good overall health of the group. They had only lost 15 classmates in fifty years.

The older I get the more I focus on ways to improve my health--physical, spiritual, intellectual, and mental. Probably the mental health aspect is just as important as anything.

I know my own father who lived until 96 despite smoking for 40 years of his life and eating way too much bologna always had an "optimistic" attitude and embraced each day with the attitude of finding the good in something. He wasn't much of a grouser and rarely talked about his aches and pains or ailments.

I watched in awe this week as American Airlines flew 70 surviving World War II veterans back to Normandy for the 80th Anniversary. 80th Normandy Anniversary

They were all in the 90's and many over 100. What has allowed them this longevity. Part of it could be the knowledge that at one time they survived unbearable odds and have lived with gratitude. They know and appreciate the great gift of health care and healthy living options here in the U.S. 

As a Veteran who has travelled the world and seen abject poverty and repression I never take for granted the chance to live my healthy lifestyle here in America.

52 Ancestors - Week 21 - Nicknames

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.

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[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.

52 Ancestors - Week 19 - Preserve

 52 Ancestors – WEEK 19 – Preserves

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

The summer's are hot and long in southern Mississippi and the growing seasons are also. So there is a LOT of produce when you put in a garden, but that means there is also a lot to preserve. My mother-in-law and her extended family taught me to can and freeze the harvests.

I remember sitting on barstools in her kitchen and snapping bushels of green beans and putting them in the boiling water. The counters were lined with dozens of mason jars we had cleaned and staged to be filled. We would laugh and visit and work long hours.

Sometimes we would drive up to "the country" which was a little community called Necaise Crossing about 20 miles farther down the highway from our farm. Aunt Ethel and cousin Collie and their families had acres of gardens. The corn, the crowder peas, and the cucumbers were so plentiful. Again, the family gathering going there to pick and eat a lunch of seafood gumbo and sweet iced tea are some of my fondest memories of my Mississippi days.

When the shrimp were plentiful my husband would go to the docks in Biloxi or Gulfport and buy 100 pounds and bring them home in a cooler. It would actually cut my fingers to clean the tails off so many shrimp. We would freeze them in Ziplock bags with water.

I especially enjoyed learning to make jellies and jams. We made scuppernong jelly with the native grapes that grew on the farm and fig jam from the fig bush outside my mother-in-law Florence's well house.

I loved seeing the shelves full of lines and lines of colorful jars filled with the fruits of our labors at the season's end. There is nothing more satisfying than opening a jar of homemade tomato sauce and preparing a pasta dish in the winter and every bite tastes like summer.

52 Ancestors - Week 18 - Love & Marriage

52 Ancestors – WEEK 18 – Love & Marriage

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

As I was working my way through obtaining documentation about my grandparents on Mom's side, I was not able to find a marriage record for Donald O. Mahanna and Margaret Robson in Washington County, Pennsylvania where they lived.

I decided to check the adjoining state of West Virginia, and there it was. They, and many other members of our family it turns out, went over the border to get hitched.

They did on January 20, 1927, in Wheeling, West Virginia.[1] Like is often the case, their first child was born in April of 1927. The marriage record said the groom was 23 and the bride 21. She was actually only 18 and he was 22. So………

By the 1930 census[2], this little family was reporting the true ages to the enumerator, but still not being truthful about the length of their marriage (adding that extra year to make their child born in wedlock).    

MAHANNA, Donald, head, Age 24, married at age 20

MAHANNA, Margret E., wife-H, Age 21, married at age 17

MAHANNA, Donald, Jr, son, age 2 11/12, single

I do believe that when Donald, Jr. joined the Navy, his true birthdate was recorded and shows up on many records after that.

As the little song goes – “first comes love, then comes marriage….”.

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[1] Vol 85, p 412, 1927

"West Virginia, County Marriage Records, 1776-1971", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BJ-8F6Y?cc=4375852 : 18 July 2022), > image 263.)

[2] 1930 U. S. Census, Washington County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Washington City, p. 261 (stamped), ED 123, sheet 12-B, dwelling 248, family 278, Donald O. Mahanna; NARA microfilm publication T626.