The diary doesn't pick up again until August 27th. For the balance of this week I'm going to quote from mother's autobiography which she wrote as a school project in 1929.
My Ancestry
My ancestors are old American stock. My father's ancestors first came over to America from England in 1653 and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. My mother's great great grandfather was a Minute Man in the Battle of Lexington and Concord. My mother's grandparents on her mother's side came over from Scotland in about 1846.
My mother's grandmother on her father's side came west in a covered wagon in 1854. She was indeed a character. She was a little woman and when she was old enough to be a grandmother her teeth were black and she smoked a long stem clay pipe. She would sit at her grandchildren's bedside and tell them bedtime stories of pioneer days.
My grandmother, my mother's mother, and my grandfather were married just after the Civil War. We have two tin-types. One of my grandmother at eighteen. My grandfather carried the tin-type of his beautiful sweetheart through the war and my grandmother carried the one of her handsome lover.
My mother was born and bred in Iowa. My father was born in Michigan, but when he was three his family moved to Kansas where he grew p. In 1901 he came to the Philippines Islands as a teacher. After teaching two years he entered the Internal Revenue Service. On a visit home he met my mother. three months after the introduction they were married and returned to the Philippines. When my grandmother asked how long they planned to stay, my father replied, "Two years at the most." They have been here more than twenty years.
Jane's Notes: The family tale has always been that that our grandparents met, courted and were wed in the space of two weeks. This narrative says it took 3 months. Still a very short period of time.
I also am curious about the term "lover" that Mom uses to describe her grandfather. Probably had a different connotation then.
No comments:
Post a Comment