Fearless Females: Day 5–How did they meet?

March is National Women’s History Month and +Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has presented the genealogical community with 31-derful writing prompts to encourage us to share our female ancestors.

No one knows for sure how Albert and Myrtie met – he was from Philadelphia, she from rural South Carolina – but it’s likely they they met after both making a big move to Charlotte, North Carolina.

In the early 1920s Myrtie Pound worked for telegraph service Western Union, in Columbia, South Carolina. Sometime between 1922 and 1925 Myrtie moved to Charlotte – since she was still with Western Union it’s possible that she moved as a part of a job transfer. In 1925 she lived at 301 E. Morehead along with her brother and sister.
 
It’s not clear when Grandpop first came to Charlotte; he was listed in the Philadelphia City Directory as an electrician in 1925 – however, there were no further listings for him after that, so it’s possible that he came to Charlotte around 1926. Grandmother isn’t found in the directory for 1929 although the rest of her family is – it’s likely she and Grandpop lived in Philadelphia that year.

Grandpop eventually became a television and radio repairman – considering Grandmother worked as a telegraph operator, I’ve often wondered if that was somehow what brought them together.

Fearless Females: Day 4–Marriage Records

March is National Women’s History Month and +Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has presented the genealogical community with 31-derful writing prompts to encourage us to share our female ancestors.

Albert and Myrtie were married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 24, 1929. The service was likely performed at Bethany Reformed Church and was conducted by the Rev. Gustaf A. Hauck.


Al had been a member of the church since his baptism there in 1918; Myrtie was raised in South Carolina and attended a Methodist church there. Bethany’s congregation was primarily German, and since services were performed in German it’s likely that their wedding was as well. Grandpop’s family spoke German and English in the home but it’s likely that Grandmother didn’t know any German at all – her family was composed of primarily German-Swiss immigrants, but they had been in America for nearly 200 years – old timers compared to the immigration of Grandpop’s family in the 1850s.

My family doesn’t have any photographs of Grandpop and Grandmother’s wedding but we do have pictures from their 50th wedding anniversary in 1979.

Fearless Females Day 3 - Names

March is National Women’s History Month and +Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has presented the genealogical community with 31-derful writing prompts to encourage us to share our female ancestors.

(I’m being fearless myself for posting this – love you, mom!)

I was named after my mother, and it’s something I always hated – well, that and the fact that I actually go by my middle name. Those two things have always been an inconvenience. If they phone rang and it was for “Linda” I always had to ask “Which one?” I never felt like I was “me” – I even had her department store credit card show up on my credit report (a card she opened the year I was born). Then there was the picture she had taken of me as an infant with this cute little hat on to see how much I looked like her.

But years have passed and I am decidedly my own person now. And I don’t mind the name so much anymore – in fact I named my own daughter “Melinda” in honor of my mother (and kind of in a humorous way because she is “Me, Linda”). Melinda also shares my maternal grandmother’s first name (she went by her middle name also) – Anne (well, grandmama’s first name was Annie, but close enough!).

Fearless Females: Day 2–Photo of a female

 

March is National Women’s History Month and +Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has presented the genealogical community with 31-derful writing prompts to encourage us to share our female ancestors.

 

I am blessed to have so many wonderful old photos that it was hard to choose just the right one. I finally decided on this one.

This is a picture of my great aunt Minnie Mae (right) and ER aunt (my great great aunt, left), Orpie. I picked this picture because I feel like it really reflects the dichotomy and dynamics of a large family. When you have ten plus children it’s not at all unlikely to have a child and a grandchild close in age.

Orpie was born in 1904; Minnie Mae in 1913. While they were nine years apart, they were still close enough in age to have been sisters as opposed to aunt and niece. This picture makes me wonder about their relationship. But here’s the even better part – I have a picture of them taken together over 50 years later:

There they are, decades later, sitting side by side, Orpie still serious and Minnie Mae looking mischievous.

I didn’t get to know these women – I don’t know if ever met my great great aunt Orpie even though she lived to be 96 years old; I only remember seeing great aunt Minnie Mae a couple of times.  For all I know theirs wasn’t a lifelong relationship – perhaps they, too, only met a couple of times. But I like to think that they were lifelong friends, and sometimes I wonder what their lives were like in rural Southeast North Carolina where they lived, and the good and bad times they likely shared.

In honor of:

Minnie Mae Russ Averitt – March 17, 1913 to June 28, 2001

and

Orpie Flowers Kinlaw Steele – October 6, 1904 to October 19, 2000

Fearless Females: Day 1 Favorite Female Ancestor

March is National Women’s History Month and +Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has presented the genealogical community with 31-derful writing prompts to encourage us to share our female ancestors.

Anna Catharina

Born around 1836, Catherine’s story is the most intriguing of all my female ancestors. I’ve found nothing on her before her marriage to Franz Bernhardt of Philadelphia. Records claim she was from Hanover, Germany but it’s not clear when she immigrated to America, although I suspect it was before she married. The only indication of her maiden name is on a 1910 death certificate for her son. The name is recorded as “Smidt” but I suspect it might actually have been the more common Schmidt.

What speaks to me about Catherine? She had ten children – five of them died before they were five – and most of those died in infancy. In 1857, she had another daughter die at the age of 21. Just over a year after the death of this daughter, Catherine herself died – of uterine cancer (the “irony” is not lost on me).

I can’t even begin to fathom the toll all this death had on Catherine and her family.

I hope to one day trace her back to her family in Germany. For now I will continue my work in Philadelphia hoping to tie her to family there.