- Four Generations at Sydney’s Christening – Sydney Little, Grandmother Mary Woods Little, Great Grandfather Rev. William Woods, Father William Little
“Can you give the maiden names of both your grandmothers?” That’s the question that came up at a dinner party we attended the other night. Of the six people at the table, three of us could; the others could not.
The conversation had taken that turn because Nyel and I had recently heard Chinook Tribal Chairman Ray Gardener’s impressive recounting of his lineage. He began with his own mother, telling her full maiden name; then his mother’s mother; then his mother’s mother’s mother. I think he went back four or five generations. Granted, we don’t usually think of our ancestry in matrilineal terms, and we usually know our grandmothers simply as “grandma” or “granny,” but still…
I sometimes wonder if there is more interest in genealogy now than there was a few generations ago. I feel lucky that my uncle Willard Espy spent a lifetime researching the forebears of both his mother and his father. When he had children, he researched the ancestors of their mother, as well. He put together books of his findings for each member of the family – copies not only for each person in his own generation, but for his parents’ and childrens’ generations as well.
Over the years, as he gleaned more information, Willard updated his books and sent all of us pages of inserts. The final version was called “800 and some forebears, in 200 and some family lines, of Mona Margaret, Freddy Medora, Joanna Page, Cassin Richardson, and Jefferson Taylor ESPY, children of Willard Richardson and Hilda (Cole) Espy.”
Meanwhile, at every family gathering, he updated the ‘current’ information – births, deaths, marriages, divorces. In 1989, he produced a third volume of genealogy which went ‘the other way’ – from his grandparents forward. It was called, “Robert Hamilton and Julia Ann (Jefferson) ESPY and their 91 descendants as of May 14, 1989.”
The fun part of Willard’s genealogy books, at least for me, is that he included as much anecdotal information as he could find. For instance, about Thomas Espy (my three times great grandfather) who was born in 1739 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: “In 1767 Thomas married Ann, or Anna Hamilton, daughter of Alexander Hamilton, who was killed by Indians during the Revolution, and sister of Robert, a boy soldier. Ann died at the home of her son, James, in 1808.” And, in the event that one of us wants to check it out, Willard provided all of his sources, as well.
I don’t have a fraction of the information about my father’s people, of course, since no one on that side was especially interested. But I do know that my father’s mother was Mary Woods Little. That’s a start.
Dilly and Erickson.
I was blessed with my own Uncle Willard in the form of Uncle Dick who did extensive research on my father’s family so I not only know that my paternal grandmother’s maiden was Stanley, but that our first ancestors in the New World arrived on the supply ship to Jamestown in 1608, but my mother’s family has a mystery. My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Austin, but there’s a question as to her linage. Allegedly she was born in Ocosta in Grays Harbor County, but a search of the records in Montesano show no females born on or near her birthday that year. My father and my uncle used to tease my mother and aunt that my grandmother was “Indian.” They thought, with some justification, that it would make them mad. Only relatively recently did I learn that there may have been more to it than I was given to believe. In the last few years my cousin revealed something her mother told her which was that she had confronted our grandfather about this rumor as to our grandmother’s parentage and he had confirmed that it was true, but swore my aunt to secrecy because “your mother doesn’t know.” He was 13 years older than his wife and knew the Austins for a long time before he married my grandmother and therefore could have been in a way to know. He did not tell my aunt, nor did she ask, what tribe my grandmother might have been decended from. Aside from the lack of a birth record for my grandmother, the only other clue was a letter in my great-grandfather’s papers bequeathing a sum of money to go to a home for unwed mothers located in the Centralia area should his wife and daughter precede him in death. That didn’t happen and the home for unwed mothers is long gone. That’s part of our family mythology for which I mentally write my own story sometimes. It runs along the lines of Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde with a Pacific NW flair.
What a great story, Stephanie. It’s the making of a novel, for sure. Get busy!
My mother is a life long genealogist. She created a short history for her granddaughters called “The Grandmother Project” where she highlighted five of our grandmothers and created a paper doll and dress for each. Ann Hamilton was included as one of the grandmothers. Ann’s history included the story you related.