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 !!!!