52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 11 Susie Mae Young 1897-1937

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 11 Susie Mae Young 1897-1937

How I would have liked knowing you in person, Susie Mae Young. I could have called you grandma, grandmother, Nana or maybe granny.  It was not meant to be in this lifetime but maybe in the next.

On my journey, I’ve hunted for you and found: Your birth was 19 December 1897 in Jefferson County, Alabama. You married John Henry Woodard, on July 24, 1913 in Jefferson County, Alabama according to your Alabama Marriage License.   I interviewed our cousin, Henry Ross and our adopted aunt, Bertha Hodge who attended your wedding as six-year old children.  They both remembered your special day.   I forgot to ask why the memory was still in their minds in their senior years of life and they have passed on now.

Your older children remembered you loving flowers and planting them in your garden.  I wonder whether I acquired my love of flowers from you. They recalled you hating West Virginia, the soot and dirt of the Fairmont mining community.  I wonder whether your dislike came after the death of your husband due to black lung in 1932.  You bore him eleven children, seven girls and four boys.  Your youngest child, my mother was born six months after his death and missed the relationship she could have had with both of you.

You moved to Pennsylvania to begin again within a few years of your youngest child’s birth.  The death of your husband left you without a home since you could no longer live in the Coal Mining Company’s house at 26 Franklin Street, Fairmont, WV.  Eli, and his wife, Carrie Woodard, a miner and in some way related to your husband took you in along with your seven minor children.  Somehow and in someway you amazingly made the courageous move to New Kensington with your underage children around 1935.

Your youngest son remembers that you spoke with your eyes and the look clearly communicated approval or disapproval.  He remembers you being a tall woman with a kind firm manner and a religious mother.  Proof is in all of your children’s names coming from the bible and your participation in a Christian camp outside of Pittsburgh.  While I’ve hunted and hunted no picture of you has been found. 

It has been on this journey where I learned you and your husband, John along with your children visited New Kensington, Pennsylvania in 1920 and stayed with John Williams and his family.  Were they related or were you all exploring opportunity to move to New Kensington, PA?  Labor issues were going on in the West Virginia mines and that certainly could be a consideration.  Later I learned there was a John Young born in Alabama same as you that might have been related.  Moving to Pennsylvania with underage children meant being away from the only parents you knew, Matildia (Harris) and George Freeman that lived in Idamay, WV.  You moved, lived on Eighth Street and worked as a domestic in a private home.

Who knew that you would leave your underage children much too soon?  You came down with pneumonia shortly after your move.  According to your son, Bill, who went to get Dr. Harris to attend you, Dr. Harris didn’t come in time to treat you.  During your illness, you designated a middle daughter, Naomi to care for and raise the younger children.  You saw something special in her and were right for she fought to keep her orphaned younger siblings together.  You died on the 6th of January 1937 and are buried at the Union Cemetery in New Kensington, PA.

So while I haven’t uncovered your biological parents or a picture, I know more about you through my journey.  I’ve become the family storyteller and feel compelled to share what I know of you.  The journey continues and think I will call you, Grandma.  You’re more than dates and places and have a place in my heart.

52 Ancestors - 52 Weeks Bertha L. Jones Hodge Week 7

This week's chosen ancestor, Bertha Jones Hodge is a different twist.  Our families as in some other families have theses aunts or uncles that may or may not be blood kin.  Aunt Bert is one of those special people that were in my life from the time of my birth.

Aunt Bert was around when my parents were married and when each of their four children were born from 1948-1952.  She was a part of our life in Pennsylvania and later moved with my mother's sister, Betty and family to Washington, DC.  Aunt Bert was warm, gentle and stood less than five feet.  She always wore a bun and to see her hair down was to see that she had long curly hair.  In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania she would take her personal folding cart shopping in East Liberty selecting fresh produce.  Upon return from her shopping you could be sure that she had okra and that purple bottle with a yellow top that was "prune juice".  Prune juice to Aunt Bert was the key to healthy living and the requirement was a daily juice glass for a healthy life.  I don't remember her ever being harsh but at the same time she didn't play and when she told you to do something you did it without question.

In reality, she was my mother's sister Betty's husband's aunt or great aunt.  We lost the actual relationship, she was Aunt Bert, and very important to those of us that lived in the Pittsburgh area.  The verbal history on Aunt Bert was that she was married twice and her last husband was John R. Hodge. They lived in Chicago until he had a heart attack then she moved Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.  The story was that she was born in Alabama and knew my maternal mother's side of the family, the Woodard's and that was our connection. For sure she was related to the Collier family that my mother's sister, Betty had married into.   Aunt Bert was there for all of us.  She worked at a movie theater at a booth where she sold tickets for the latest movie.  Her little dog, Skippy sat in the booth with her as she worked.  Aunt Bert was widowed twice and had no children so all of us first cousins belonged to her.  I learned she was about sixty-five years old when I was born.  Aunt Bert actually lived with my Aunt Betty and her family.  However, she stayed with our family at various times and especially when my mother had surgery or needed assistance.  We knew of other family members on  "Aunt Bert's side" like Uncle Curly, Aunt Fannie, "Little Bit" and two of our generations referred to them this way.  The ties were very strong and I believe there is an unknown family story. Now somewhere deep in my memory Uncle Curly and Aunt Fannie lived somewhere in in South Carolina.  "Little Bit" was my aunt Betty's husband's mother and lived in Greensburg, PA.

I wished my interest in family history had come during Aunt Bert's lifetime.  My curiosity led me to ask some questions and it paid off for Aunt Bert shared memories about attending my maternal grandparent's wedding in Jefferson County in July 1913.  She would say often and very emphatically that the Woodard's are a good family and she was a part of the family.  I asked my mother how Aunt Bert was related and she said that Aunt Bert had been married to one of her cousins (no details given).  During my research I decided to explore that possibility.

Bertha Lee Jones in the 1900 US Census, Jefferson County Alabama lived in a household with her Stepfather, James, mother Sophia Grace, one brother James and two sisters Fannie and Allace (Alice) all Jones.  Sopha and James Grace married about 1895.

There was an Alabama marriage record where Bertha L. Jones married Peter Davis 16 June 1904 and another one where she as Bertha Davis married John R. Hodge 5 July 1918.  Both marriages were in Birmingham.  By 1920 Bertha John Hodge were living in Chicago, Ward 2.  In 1930, Aunt Bert was a widow living at the same place she had in 1920.  Living with her was Addie and James Collier.  James married my mother’s sister and Addie may have been a family member that we called “Little Bit”.    All of this information and I still haven’t found a definite kinship.  I will continue looking but it some ways it doesn’t matter since she was the oldest relative that I knew growing up, she was with us through thick and thin.  All we shared equal family in my mind.  Aunt Bert is one of my ancestors and had more influence on me and other family members than most.

Bertha Jones Hodge “The Queen” April 15, 1884-October 1985.

         

I don’t remember seeing “Aunt Fannie” often but knew she was Aunt Bert’s sister.  Fannie Jones married Curley Parris on 25 October 1901.  Aunt Fannie was born August 1880.