Advent Calendar - December 11 - Other traditions

Another holiday tradition in our family involves giant stockings. We all love those really really big stockings and at one time, there were 12 of us with them. Santa has to come up with all kinds of things to fill those stockings, but usually included a coconut in the toe, and giant sized apples or oranges with the stems on them at the top, with candy canes of all colors hanging on the outside. Favorites in the stocking were unshelled nuts of all kinds, golden chocolate coins of all countries and books of Lifesaver rolls. A recent tradition has been added by our family of a bag of favorite chips at the top and a box of Queen Anne cherry chocolates. And yes, it has to be that brand, because they're liquid inside with a real cherry not gooey and not marachino. As you can tell by my posts, alot about our Christmas traditions revolves around food!

Advent Calendar - December 9 - Christmas gifts

What were your favorite gifts, both to receive and to give? Are there specific gift-giving traditions among your family or ancestors?

My favorite gifts have always been those that were either handmade with care or those thoughtfully purchased and made individual for me.

My family has a tradition of allowing each child to open one gift on Christmas eve, and once they had grandchildren, my mom started purchasing special Christmas pajamas for all the grandkids to open and wear. Traditionally, we open our gifts on Christmas morning, everyone all at the same time, with Grandpa or Dad doing the passing out.

Advent Calendar - December 7 - Christmas cookies

Baking was such an integral part of Christmas at our house that I really believe that we created some type of delight every single day of Advent! The cookies abounded. There were so many and such variety that I really believe we must have tried every recipe that my mother came across. My all time favorite though, had to be peanut butter, not just to eat but to make!

When rolling the soft dough, if my fingers could make it a perfect ball, then taking a fork and pressing oh so gently one way, then the next would create an absolutely round cookie with a perfect grid on top. What fun that was! We would make a batch of those that way, then another day, we would make the same recipe, but use our thumb to make a little groove on top. These cookies were baked and then, when soft out of the oven, we'd carefully press a chocolate kiss into the thumb groove. The warmth of the cookie made the kiss melt just a little into the cookie itself and that was a tiny taste of Heaven on earth!!

I do believe that I will create that memory in my kitchen this very evening! YUM!

Advent Calendar - December 6 - Holiday parties

Did your family throw a holiday party each year? Do you remember attending any holiday parties?

For our family, the entire season was a party! Cooking and decorating, singing and laughing. The most wonderful time of the year!

Our family did have a tradition of a New Years Eve party, where we played board games and ate snack foods until midnight, then at midnight, we all grabbed pots, pans and spoons and rang in the New Year (and woke up the neighbors!) It was great fun!! And then, everyone had to eat black-eyed peas for good luck, at least as many as you were old (for the little ones who hated peas!)

Advent Calendar - December 5 - Christmas Santa

Todays prompts involved Santa traditions.

I believe in Santa and write a letter every year. I don't remember visiting Santa to tell him my list ever when I was little. I think I would have been too scared. (Debbie, Melba? Did I?)

Our church sponsors a Breakfast with Santa every year and we've done that for 13 years running now to see Santa, take a photo, and give him their wishlist.

My children write their letters to mail to the North Pole usually the weekend after Thanksgiving. A few times I have had to send an update via chimney mail for them closer to Christmas, as things change (and with a December birthday!).

In recent years, we've also sent him an email to make sure he gets it.

We also LOVE to watch the NORAD Santa tracker and have done that for years!!!

Advent Calendar - December 4 - Christmas Decorations

Did people in your neighborhood decorate with lights? Did some people really go “all out” when decorating? Any stories involving your ancestors and decorations?

For many years, we were the only ones in our neighborhood that decorated with lights and there were not that many in our small town at all, actually. We had a chain link fence and my Dad would spend an entire day out there stringing those giant multicolored outdoor lights on the top of the fence and outlining the eves of the house. I love outdoor lights!

About 20 miles away, there was a house of an older couple who died and left a trust to maintain a Christmas display every year. It was an entire yard with moving elves on a carousel and merry-go-round and 'decorating' a tree, complete with music. There were candles in windows and lights all over the house. It was our family tradition to drive over there on Christmas eve to just sit in the street in front of it in awe.

Advent Calendar - December 4 - Christmas cards

I am late with my posts again. Sorry!

Did your family send cards? Did your family display the ones they received? Do you still send Christmas cards? Do you have any cards from your ancestors?

Yes, my family has sent out cards for decades. My parents would send out about 75 cards. We have a huge extended family and many family friends that they stay in touch with. My mom would always take about 4 strands of silver tinsel and create an entire wall draped with a zigzag pattern to hang the cards we received. And we have saved every card from everyone, all neatly arranged by year in boxes. I still send out about 30 cards each year. I have moved to an electronic version of the now-popular yearly recap letter complete with photos, to brag about my children.

Advent Calendar - December 3 - Christmas Ornaments

I talked a little about our special ornaments on my December 1st post, but the most cherished ones I have are the 2 glass ornaments that my parents got their first Christmas in 1948, and of course, the First Christmas Together ornament my husband and I got in 1995.

As a child, I remember stringing popcorn and cranberries with my Girl Scout troop, but I'm not really sure they ever actually made it onto our tree! One special time I can recall, Mom and I used cookie cutters to trace on Christmas sheet music, laminated the cut outs and put ribbon through a hole punched at the top. I still have 2 of those, as well.

Another very special ornament I have is a toy soldier bread dough ornament handpainted by my sister, Melba. The first in my special collection of soldiers (mostly nutcrackers) that have a place of honor on our mantle every year.

Through the years, my sisters and I have collected many many Hallmark ornaments to commemorate Family events. Some of my favorites are: Our First Home, Baby's first Christmas (yes, both of them), and Disney vacation.
We also collect special interest ornaments for different family members, like
Dad: Mickey Mouse, Denver Broncos, Boston Red Sox and Starbucks.
Mom: Unicorns, Star Trek, Precious Moments, Coca Cola and nativity scenes
Son: Sesame Street, Legos, Scooby Doo, Star Wars, Guitar Hero
Daughter: Princesses, Fairies, Wizard of Oz and many crystals

A very fun annual event used to be the 50% ornament sale the day after Christmas.
My sisters and I would get up really really early to be at the Hallmark store before they opened to rush through the door, sometimes even driving as much as an hour to get to the best places, or staking out different stores and calling each other to see what we still needed. It was a sweet time and great fun, usually ending up at Olive Garden for lunch afterwards. Its something I miss now that we live so far away from each other.

This year, we plan to make some ornaments and memories of our own. Taking clear ornament balls, we're going to drip and drizzle paint inside and swirl it to make patterns. I have a very artistic young lady in the house to help me with this!!

What a great "Advent"ure of celebrating Christ's birth this season is!

Advent Calendar - December 2 - Christmas Food

Did your family or ancestors serve traditional dishes for the holidays? Was there one dish that was unusual?

I know, I missed this prompt yesterday, but I'm doing it today anyway, because its fun!

My family always had these as our "traditional" foods for Christmas: turkey, cornbread dressing, gibblet gravy, devilled eggs, cranberry sauce, carrot raisin salad, a celery, pickle and olive tray and lots of pies. Sweet potato, buttermilk, cherry, apple, pecan and mincemeat, all with handmade crusts. Yum! Something unusual in a way, was that we always had some sort of fruit jello item, many times being green jello with whipped cream and nuts in it.

And what would the Christmas season be without all the candy and goodies? My mother would make tons of things: popcorn balls, fudge, divinity, rum balls, coconut macaroons, peanut butter candy, peanut brittle, peanut patties and cookies of every known shape and flavor!

Advent Calendar - December 1 - The Christmas Tree

This post is number 1 in a series of 24 for the 2010 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. On the 24th Day of Christmas, I'm supposed to talk about the Christmas Tree. Did you have a real tree, or was it artificial? How big was the tree? Who decorated the tree?

When I was growing up, we always had a real tree in the living room, decorated exactly like this photo. And every single year, there is a photo of me in front of it. We all decorated it together, and it had many ornaments on it that I made through the years, as well as our collectible Hallmark ornaments. It also had 2 special ornaments that my parents got their first Christmas together in 1948.

We always had a star, gold garland, silver icicles and multicolored blinking lights. On Christmas eve, we would leave the lights on all night long and many years I remember sneaking in in the middle of the night to check for Santa, and how the room seemed to be magically glowing.

Sometime in the mid-80s, my mom (like the rest of America, I think), got smitten with the silver aluminum Christmas tree, so from then on, we also had one of them setup in our dining room. One year, it would be decorated with all red and the next green. My dad still has that original tree. I hope to inherit it someday. A few years ago when my mom became homebound, my sister got her a new aluminum tree, this one with metallic green branches. She left it up year round in her bedroom.

Present day, our family has a tradition of going to a Christmas tree farm the Saturday after Thanksgiving, riding the hayride out in the fields, walking for miles to pick the right one and cut it down ourselves. Its usually about 8 feet tall and we spend about a week getting it decorated. Sounds cozy, right? We do live in Houston, though, so there are years when it could be 75 degrees picking out our tree! Its still jolly fun!

Love this picture !! Myrna Granath Stark, Juanda Kay Granath Edmondson, Ruth Granath Jahr, JoAnn Granath Heflin and Patrick Granath. The finest group of relatives you can imagine! God bless you and thank you all for the wonderful memories of family !! (Gene Granath, we missed you!) I can believe that the rest are smiling down this day from Heaven, especially my mom, Peggy. I'm sure she laughed right along with you all !

I am so blessed to be part of this family and proud to be a Granath !

Marriage certificate for my Granath grandparents

Thought that some of you Granaths might like to see these. This is the marriage certificate for my Great-grandparents, Alfred Granath and Martha Covington. Enjoy!

GRANATH FAMILY MINI-REUNION

This past weekend, 35+ Granath descendants and their spouses met in Hobbs, New Mexico for a mini-family reunion. I'm a little sad because I didn't get to go, but Debbie provided photographs and updates on the good time had by all. :) I'll try to get some of her photos uploaded alittle later today, as well as sharing some older photographs that I know she promised I would add to the blog. I'm hoping some of the cousins from the reunion will check in here to see what its about! If you do, make a comment!!

Sentimental Sunday - My mom and Hymns.

My sentimental Sunday story this week revolves around my mom, Dolores Peggy Jane Granath Ogle. Whenever I hear the classic old hymn, "Amazing Grace", I almost always start crying, because I can remember so vividly her singing that song as I was growing up and her saying that it was her favorite hymn. Anytime I hear it, if I close my eyes, I can hear her voice, clear as a bell, and I know she's probably singing it in Heaven to Jesus and smiling with her head tilted. And I bet that her voice catches at the end, just like it always did, because she couldn't get through it without crying either, just like me.

Another one, "The Old Rugged Cross" I find myself humming to myself without thinking about it, as I stand at the sink doing dishes sometimes, just exactly as I remember her doing many times in my growing up years.

We weren't really regulars at church, and I cant recall that we 'belonged' to any particular church growing up, but I knew our Lord and what He did for us through her, by the way she lived her life.

And she was a walking breathing songbook - any song from any musical, or pop, rock, jazz, swing, country western, folk songs, silly songs or anything in between, she could sing it, word for word and every verse ever written, too. It was nothing short of phenomenal. And it sure made life a lot of fun!!!

Not so Wordless Wednesday

Here's the photo chart page I displayed at the reunion last year, and so many of you have asked to see. If you click on the image above, you can see the images up closer.

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY - AGAIN!

Well, I missed most of last week, but I'm going to keep on keeping on!

Here's my tombstone post for this week. This is the headstone of my great-grandparents, William Franklin Hawkins and Maud Keller Hawkins, the parents of my grandmother, Ollie Lena Hawkins Ogle. It is found in the Crosbyton Texas cemetery, just to the west of the flag poles, immediately to their left as you look at the cemetery sign. I hope that if you're an Ogle who's attending the reunion August 1st, you'll make a trip out there and pay your respects.

I happen to have lots of photos of them, I'll be posting in the next few days.
Like this one:

FOLLOW FRIDAY

This is my first Follow Friday, where I'm supposed to blog about another blog I follow or a tradition that I follow. There were several recommendations, when I clicked on the first one, it said, FOLLOW REUNIONS !! Ok, since I've been thinking about and preparing for the 42nd Annual Ogle/Hawkins family reunion, I thought I would "follow" that theme !!!

I am SO blessed that our family continues this tradition! I know sometimes its a bit of a pain, coming right before school starts and also due to the distance that we have to travel to make it there, but MAN, every year, I'm SO glad that I went !

I've got some interesting changes in store for this year (Thanks, Melba!!), so come if you can!

And on that note, here's the photo from last year's reunion. What a good turnout!
I love group photos, so expect more of these!

Have a great day - and great a 'following' tradition in your family today!

Wisdom Wednesday

Today's theme involves some piece of wisdom that has been passed down in your family. I cant remember any of my four grandparents, which is probably why I got started in genealogy in the first place. Asking my mother what her parents and grandparents were like was something that I never tired of doing, because she would always come up with a story or something that I had not heard before. I've always been fascinated with family stories, whether they were true or not! I dont recall any particular phrase of advice or wisdom that my mother passed down, but there were some common themes. Treat everyone you meet like family, because they might be! Smile and adjust your attitude. Dont hold a grudge longer than it takes to say, "Im sorry." and "I forgive you."

I do remember her telling me that her dad, Pappy (my grandfather Walter Edward Granath) always said that "Two moves is as good as a fire", meaning to get rid of junk. We come from a long line of packrats, I think.

She also told me that her sweet mother, Blanche Goodwin Granath, would always give a baby blanket as a gift to the new babies or a cast-iron skillet as a gift to the new brides in the Oil Field camp where they lived near Hobbs, New Mexico.

Until next week, that's all the wisdom I can handle for one day.

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY

Yes, I really am going to blog two days in a row! Unbelievable, right, especially since I'm in my yearly countdown to the Ogle Reunion weekend, in which I frantically try to complete all the genealogy projects that I vowed to do this past year.

Oh, yeah, here's the advertisement for the reunion:

41st Annual Ogle/Hawkins Potluck Luncheon and Family Reunion
Crosbyton Texas, Community Center
August 1, 2010 10:00am - ???
Yall come !!!

In honor of the reunion, enjoy the joint headstone of Charlie Clinton Ogle and Ollie Lena Hawkins Ogle, my grandparents. Most everyone who attends the reunion descend from them. The photo was taken after last years reunion by me, at the Crosbyton Cemetery, just east of town on the north side of Highway 82.

MADNESS MONDAY

Ok, I'm jumping into the Genealogy Bloggers world, in hopes that making connections with all the rest of the crazy "Genies" out there will motivate me to do some more researchin'.

So, this is my very first post about Madness Monday, as done by Genealogy bloggers everywhere - here's the 'assignment'. To blog about an ancestors mental illness or a situation in your research that drives you crazy mad.

My one most elusive ancestor is not that far up the tree - my great grandfather Alfred Granath. Most of my life, I've been searching for a final resting spot for this scoundrel, thinking that he must of died prior to 1900 because I found "her" and the kids listed in that census in Dolores, Colorado, right where they should be. But, like most of these types of puzzles, as the years went by, the plot thickened. An accidental courthouse search find revealed that they were divorced in 1900 due to his 'unwillingness' to support his family and he disappeared into the Colorado hills. (Or so I thought...)

Last week, I happened upon an "every name" index of the Colorado 1910 census, and low and behold, there's a 67 year old boarder named Alfred Granath living right in Dolores again! I never found him, because I was searching indexes for head of household and some indexer entered his last name as Grunalt - whew! Not even close!!!

. "He's" been patiently waiting on me to find him, right there where he should be, all this time !! With his birthplace, father and mother's birthplace and year of immigration to the US and that he was a naturalized citizen, no less! Yes, I'm CRAZY with glee !!!!

Sources Are My Friend...

I've spent the entire day rearranging my computer files and trying to organize my sources to start entering them into RootsMagic. If any of you have any tips on how to do this, I would appreciate it. I've been following the posts on the RootsMagic users group, but my main obstacle is conquering my own disorganization!

COUSIN SEARCHIN'

Spent the better part of the day contacting cousins on the Internet via email and facebook to update my Rootsmagic database. It is SO awesome to be able to be in such close contact so often! I've also been digesting a LARGE stack of information from Rick Perry, a family researcher kinfolk who has generously shared his data with me and I am so grateful. A few years back, he came with his mom and cousin Mary Mayo to our Ogle family reunion in Crosbyton and we were so blessed to be able to get to know them! With his help and that of a few other RM gurus, I'm developing a system to document my sources so that I can share it all soon with everyone. There is just so much data, I'm overwhelmed, but with God's grace and some time, I get closer to having it ready every day. I plan to share lots of what I have found out this year at the Ogle reunion in Crosbyton, Texas, its August 7-8, mark your calendars NOW. (that would be the shameless reunion plug)

Back row: Charlie Clinton Ogle. Ollie Lena Hawkins Ogle. Vera Maude Hawkins Ogle. Essie Maude Ogle Brown (baby). Horace Cleveland (John) Ogle.
Front row: Daniel Ogle. Charlie Clinton Ogle, Jr.(baby), Harriet Selena Bryant Ogle.

Baby at back, Maude was born October 1910, so I'm guessing this photo was taken sometime in 1911. Her name is pronounced Maudie.

Charlie Clinton and Horace Cleveland Ogle were brothers who married Ollie Lena and Vera Maude Hawkins, respectively. Ollie and Vera were sisters. So, all their kids say that they are "double cousins". Does that make the next generation double second cousins and my generation double third cousins? Is there such a thing? :)

I sure would like to know where the location is.

2010 Genealogy Resolutions

One of my favorite blogs, Genealogy Insider, suggested setting genealogy resolutions for 2010 and that they be as specific as possible, so I guess "Organizing my research" doesn't count. This year, I resolve to scan and label 1 family photograph every Monday and post it here and on my FB page. Then to keep myself organized, I will place it into the proper album in RootsMagic with source information. The jpeg file will go in the proper directory and the original in the proper family photo file.

Original photo courtesy of Rick Perry. Contact me if you want his address for research purposes. These captions come from him:

Portrait of the DANIEL OGLE family, who moved circa 1896 from Cobb Co., GA to the Aubrey/Denton, TX area; photo circa 1898 by M.M. Marable of Pilot Point, TX. All the following, shown left-right, were born in GA: (exc. Hattie):

[D] EVA (Ogle) HODNETT, 1886-19__; [W] HARRIET FRANCES SELENA (Bryant), 1852 – 1925; [GD] HATTIE LEE (Covington) JONES, 1897 TX – 1931 TX; [S] ROBERT DANIEL, 1882 – 1958; [S] JOHN HORRACE, 1891 – 19__; [H] DANIEL, 1856 – 19__; [S] DAVID WALTER, 1880 – 19__: [S] CHARLES C. 1888 – 19__; [SIL] JAMES LEMUEL COVINGTON,1872 – 1933. Not shown are daughters ELISER E. (Ogle) WRIGHT, 1874 - ?; MARY EMMA GERTRUDE (Ogle) COVINGTON, 1878 – 1897; SUSAN ISABELLE (Ogle) WRIGHT, 1876 – 1911.

Some notes:
John Horrace above is Horace Cleveland Ogle whose nickname was John.
Charles C. above is Charlie Clinton Ogle, my grandfather. As far as we have been able to determine, none of his records say his name was Charles. (but who knows?)

This photo is date estimated by Hattie Lee’s age.

There is another photo taken at obviously the same time of James Lemuel Covington and Hattie Lee Covington, his baby daughter. Her mother had passed away before the photo was taken. If you would like to see that photo, let me know.

An old family letter transcribed.

Transcription of letter from Homer and May Belle Ogle to Kyla Ogle, circa 1980.

Kyla’s note: lots of this family lore is miswritten or incomplete, but there are threads of truth in there to be picked out and verified from other sources. Most of the children’s names are incomplete, and have been correctly identified from descendants of those families. I left out the info she wrote about C.C.’s family, my grandfather, because it was a mess. I did not correct grammar or spelling.


Ogle History

Our great Grandfather name was Moses Ogle; his wife’s maiden name is not known by Horace or us. They had 19 boys, Grandpa Robert Dan Ogle was the youngest. Don’t know where he was borned – family moved to Alabama and his brothers were killed in the Civil War. Grandpa Ogle told Horace in 1925 that he was 10 years old when the war ended. He had 1 foster sister, she was a cousin and her mother died when the girl was borned to her mother. Would be our great great aunt as she was a sister to our great Grandmother. Grandpa Ogle told Homer the Indians finished raising him. Grandpa Ogle was 26 years old when he bought Grandma Ogle (Maud Celine Bryan) she was half Cheerkee and half Chow Tow a full blood Indian pretty maiden. Grandpa Ogle was a full blooded Irishman – (white hair – blue eyes – fair skin – 5’9” tall – 180 lbs.) Grandma Ogle was Dark skin – dark eyes – black hair. Her hair never changed color, Homer still remembers it be down past her waist and she would plat it in brades. Large woman after children were borned.

They had an Indian wedding.

Most if not all the children were borned in Atlanta Georgia. Horace remember something about Grandma Ogle’s family. Uncle Dave Bryan coming over to Mangum Oklahoma where they lived to hear William Jennings Bryan speak. He lived at granite Oklahoma. He ask Aunt Ludie if she wanted to go and hear him speak. She said, why should I give 50cents to hear him talk. When I can hear him talk for nothing. So that lead him to think they were kinfolks.

Homer says there were 8 children borned to Grandma and Grandpa Ogle. Don’t know the dates and in what order.

Four boys and four girls About 2 years apart in age. Homer’s Dad being the youngest borned 1892 in Atlanta, Georgia. Grandpa Ogle got in some kind of trouble over the death of a Negro – and Johnnie (Horace Cleveland Ogle) was 4 years old before he saw his Dad (Grandpa Ogle). Grandpa Ogle stayed in No Mans Land in Oklahoma for close to 5 years. Indians keept watch over Grandpa and Grandma Ogle.
Children of Grandpa Ogle
1. Aunt Essie Ogle married at Denton to Dave Wright moved to Tulsa Oklahoma on the Sapunda Road and put up a railroad strip. Known as Dave Wright railroad. Children (11 he thought)
Tacoy –
O.Z. –
Margie –
Pauline –

2. Aunt Eva Ogle married Frank Hodnett a Baptist preacher lived in El Reno, Oklahoma and Chickashaw, Oklahoma. Had 4 children.
Stella
Estella
Horace twins
Harlow |

3. Aunt Emma Ogle married Bud Covington

4. Aunt Belle Ogle married Mel Wright
1 J.D.
2 Ernest
3 Pauline
4 Twins – Mel and MaryBelle

5. Uncle Bob Ogle married Sarah (Sally) Goodman 4 children
1 Horace
2 B.C.
3 Tootie
4 Pauline

6. Uncle Dave Ogle married Annie Fare, died in 1918 when flu was so bad. Child died at birth. He later married Aunt Lucille and had 2 children:
1 girl
1 boy – David Jr. somewhere in California

After Uncle Dave lost his first wife he and Aunt Lucille went to New Mexico, homestead section there also had salon and groc store. Aunt Lucille left and Indians brought her back safe to the Plains at Denton. Then Uncle Dave traded this section for a horse and pair of boots and also came to Denton. Aunt Lucille was a daughter of a Granville Texas judge.

7. Uncle C.C. Chot Ogle married Homer’s mother’s sister Ollie Lena in Denton Texas.
[Kyla note: a mess of names in all wrong order.]

8. Horace Cleveland Ogle (John) – was youngest of Grandma and Grandpa Ogle married Vera Maude Hawkins in Denton. 7 children:
1 Maudie
2 Homer
3 Mabel (died at 12)
4 Eva Belle
5 Tommie
6 Pearl
7 Dorene

Grandma Ogle is buried here in Denton, Texas.
Grandpa Ogle is buried at Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

You may have information that I don’t have.
Thanks for writing.

Love,
Homer and May Belle

Some family lore...

Whoohoo! Some uninterrupted time to work on genealogy and a new computer for Christmas. This thing really screams, its so fast! And then, in my emailbox, photos from my newest favorite cousin, Rick, who has shared an awesome photo he has of our common ancestors! Thanks Rick!

I'm also posting a transcription of an old family letter that originally started me on the quest for my Ogle ancestors way back in 1980. Most of it is what I now know to be family lore, but there was enough truth there to get me digging and the rest is Ogle history... There will be more in the next few weeks as I clean out my files and share my research, so check back often!