Saturday, November 28, 2020

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Which Ancestor Am I Most Thankful For?

  Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  We celebrated Thanksgiving in the USA this week, and my thoughts turned to my ancestors.  I pondered "Which ancestor am I most thankful for?"  So be it!

2)  Tell us all about it in a blog post of your own, in comments on this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.  Be sure to link to them in a comment on this blog post.

Here's mine:

Is it my mother, who brought me into the world, and raised me from a wild boy to a responsible man?  Or my father, who gave me a rich New England ancestry filled with Revolutionary War soldiers and Mayflower passengers?  Or someone else?  Is it my grandmother who survived an abusive father and doted on me?  Or my grandfather, who was a wonderful role model and encourager as I matured?

My pick for this challenge is Abbie Ardelle "Della" (Smith) Carringer, my great-grandmother, and the mother of Lyle.  You can read about her life in 52 Ancestors Friday: Abbey Ardelle "Della" (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944).  Her FamilySearch Family Tree profile is at https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LH5P-RZS.

Why did I choose Della?  Well, she saved all of the Smith and Carringer papers and photographs for several generations, including her own scrapbook with wonderful playbills, articles, calling cards, etc.  My grandfather, Lyle L. Carringer, and my mother, Betty (Carringer) Seaver, kept them also, but Della is the one who created many of them and kept them through travels across the country to San Diego.

Della seemed to always be on top of things - her family traveled from Wisconsin to Iowa ro Kansas to Nebraska, and then she came to San Diego on her 1887 honeymoon and never left.  She persevered through all of the moving, the death of her first-born son, and the death of her father.  She was the astute person in the family that bought and sold property, managed the home, paid the bills, and found time to be an artist, friend and neighbor.  She was the first female in my ancestry to vote.  She had only one son that lived to adulthood, and he (Lyle) had only one daughter (my mother, Betty Carringer) and I was the first great-grandchild, and the only one that she held in her arms, sang a lullaby to, and wished for good things to happen.

I am very thankful for Abbie Ardelle "Della" (Smith) Carringer!!

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Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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5 comments:

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

I just wrote a blog post that fits this theme very well. My "Mam-ma" was always interested in what I was finding about the southern family.

https://mam-massouthernfamily.blogspot.com/2020/11/52-ancestors-week-48-gratitude-thankful.html

Diane Gould Hall said...

What a sweet remembrance Randy.

Liz said...

Here's mine, Cuz!! ;)

https://gatapleytree.blogspot.com/2020/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-which.html

(I hope it wasn't too much of a downer at the end. I didn't mean it that way!)

Teresa said...

Here's mine, though I was a bit of a rebel:
https://writingmypast.wordpress.com/2020/11/29/28-nov-2020-saturday-night-genealogy-fun-which-ancestor-am-i-most-thankful-for/

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here's mine and I had a hard time deciding: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2020/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-119/