A Nice Surprise......

So my dad came in tonight and said oh wait I found some photos for you. Low and behold they are my Grandma Tingle and her parents and 2 of her siblings. I haven't seen my Grandma face since I was 16 to say it was bitter sweet is an understatement. I forgot how much my dad looks like her and I am sad to say how much I miss her. Since my heart attack my memories are just not what they use to be so I can't remember much but I do remember the love she had for us. She was a tough women but she was always there to help out. She lived near Churchill Downs and she was in her element come Derby time. She would talk to everyone and she never meet a stranger. My poor dad has lost both parents now and when he talks about them you can tell how deep this hurts him. My Grandpa just left us a year ago and that pain is still very raw. He at least still has my Grandma Wright (his step-mom) but we don't treat her any different she IS his mother in every sense of the word and she IS my grandma as well. This does help to still have her but the loss is still there. I am not sure what I will do when I lose my Grandma Wright it will be a devastating loss. 

Below are some photos of my Dad and my brother, my Grandma Tingle and her sisters, my grandpa, grandma and dad and one picture from grandpa's grave.  

Time to start again...

So due to the holidays and festivity I have been neglecting my ancestry search but no worries it is now to time to pick up where I left off and head into a new year with new adventurers and discovery's. Or at least I hope so. I recently purchased and participated in Ancestry DNA. It has brought more questions then answers but still it is neat to see. So the following chart is what I received when I got it back:

Regions:

80% Great Britain

9% Europe West

4% Scandinavia

4 Other regions

 

They also now have "Circles" which shows you an estimate of who maybe related to you from there DNA sample. Sorta weird but neat as well. My problem is most people don't include in there public names any information on who they are so I am not really sure what to make of those. I am the strange one I guess I have my name public so in the small chance a distant relative would like to reach out to me they can. 

 

So here's to a new year and well wishes to lots of discovery's!!!!

 

Happy New Year everyone!!! :-)  

Millard Newton S

So it was recently decided that my grandma could no longer live on her own and will need to move in with my Aunt on a permanent bases. As such her home has to be boxed up and stuff sorted through and my mom, aunt's and uncle will need to decide where her stuff will go. I was able to visit her home earlier this month and although I didn't take these photos I was able to use my phone to capture these photo's. I also spoke to my Grandma on the phone and asked her that once things are settled and her photo books are brought to her if she would allow me to come and visit with her and learn more about my family as well as look at all the photos she has. She of course said yes! So I am eagerly awaiting for that to happen but in the mean time here are the photo's I took:

                                                  This is my grandma & her first husband JC

                                                    This is my grandma & Aunt Wanda

                                  This is my grandma and my Aunt Wanda about 5 or 6 years ago

                                                    This is  my Great Grandma Bradley
                              My Great Grandfather is at the top left and Grandma on the bottom right sides

                                                    This is my great Grandpa Bradley

                                                                     Newton Farm

                                                  Another photo of the Newton Farm

                              I have to be honest I am not sure who these two are hopefully Grandma can tell                                    me soon or maybe my mom.


I have to say I feel very blessed to be able to view these photos. My dad's side of the family there are very few photos if any at all. And documenting his side of the family is becoming quite the task. I am unable to locate certain people and no one I ask seem to know much if anything at all about the past. So finding this information for my mom's side is like a treasure trove for me and one I am quite enjoying to find

Thornhill Side

To say I am hitting a brick wall on this side is an understatement. I can get as far back as my Grandma Tingle parents but that is it for her mothers side. I know that her maiden name would have been Sublet or something sorta like it but that is it and I thought since I couldn't find her birth certificate on line I thought going to Frankfort would help me but I recently discovered prior to 1911 Kentucky did not keep birth certificates on file leave it to Kentucky ugh. I wish I could find there graves but I can't and I have no ideal how to find it either. I feel so frustrated by this I know that my Great Grandma father was dead by the time she was 5 but that is it I can't find more. So with out a birth certificate or grave site I am left at a stand still I can continue onto the other side of the family and I will do that but I so want to find all the information. Wish me luck as I continue this journey!

Meadeville Cemetery FOUND!!!

David and I were out for a drive today and decided to try to follow the directions I received from someone this past week regarding this cemetery and we found it!! We pulled into this field went back quite a ways then decided the van wasn't going to make it much further in that field stopped and David got out and looked around and we didn't see it at first and then somehow David seen a headstone through some weeds and I was like yep that is it!! So we backed out a ways then got out and visited the site. James would be my 2nd great grandfather and to visit his grave was sort of surreal for me especially knowing my family has been searching for years to find it and have not been able to locate it. I can't tell you how excited I am to get to go back down with my mom soon to visit this site again. Unfortunately this grave yard isn't maintained anymore & I am assuming it is due to the ones who were doing it not being able to keep it up anymore but I am not sure. But it is fenced off so that at least keeps it from being a cow pasture again. Here are some photo's from today but I can't wait to post some of my mom down there soon!!

James Irvin Newton

So we have some unusual family history on the Millard/Bradley side that I have found very interesting and I thought there would be others who would love to know this as well.
Born in 1819 James Irvin Newton, my 2nd Great Grandfather, fought with Kentucky's 12th Regiment during the Civil war he fought on the Union while two of his sons fought in the confederate side. Upon his return home to Meadeville KY, his trade was working as a blacksmith, he was called outside of his home by some night-riders and was shot and killed leaving behind 9 children and his wife. It is said on that night that a man walked up to the porch and shook hands with James with one hand while with his other hand he shot him in the face.Speculation over why he was killed vary's to this day but what is true is that the family, who were Catholic, felt that if they buried him inside of the Catholic Church Graveyard that the night-riders may ransack the grave if discovered so they hurriedly buried him instead in the Baptist Cemetery that was locate across from there home. The cemetery fell into despair until 1994 following a Newton/Rhodes family renuion they started to restore the old cemetery. It had  brush up to 6 feet tall and headstones trampled by cattle daily and it was almost unrecognizable but that didn't deter Jane Meador Newton, Louise Newton Kendall and Ben Newton. Ben continued work on the cemetery until he was unable too and others took up the cause to see the cemetery brought back to the way it was. One man who helped greatly was Dan Redenius & stone sculptor Don Lawer who made the road that now leads to the cemetery and a stone to mark James grave. My mom has for years wanted to visit this site but was unable to find it and as of this week I was finally able to locate someone who could give me direct directions to this cemetery and we hope to visit it soon. James is also recognized in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville where there is a marker for him in there military section and we hope to find it soon. My only wish is that I had a photo to go with these headstones. These stories, and I am hoping more like it, is what keeps me going on the quest. It is so neat to find these tidbits into my family past and to  not only remember them but to share them and hope they get passed down.

Thornhill Side

My Grandma Tingle (my dad's mom) maiden name is Thornhill. And I have hit a brick wall when it comes to her mom's parents. If I am reading it correctly there last name should have been Sublett but beyond that I find nothing. I am thinking a trip to Frankfort to access the birth records maybe in order. I just don't know where else to turn I am hoping by doing that I am able to see her parents name spelled correctly because the death record for her mom isn't very readable. Grandma passed away in 1988 but I do at least have the right names for her parents. I do know by 1880 her grandma was a widow who lived in Breckenridge KY so that is something I suppose but I don't have her year of death or even the actual date of birth. I do know it should have been around 1850 that she was born but I am not sure of her maiden name so that is a also problem. I know her grandpa name was William but beyond that nothing. That is one part that I don't enjoy is hitting these brick walls but with that being said I do love a puzzle and it is a big puzzle to figure out so I won't give up I will just keep trying and I will enjoy the hunt as I go. :-)  If anyone reading this has any information to give me regarding Milton or Maggie Thornhill parents names date of birth or date of death I would greatly appreciate any information you can give to me. 

Wright Thornhill Photos

I don't have as many photos for this side of the family so please if you have any you would like to share leave a comment and I will send you my email address for you to share your copy with me. But as I know there are not many on Grandma & Grandpa Tingle I only want a copy of the photos not the originals. 

Albert & Frances Tingle

Frances Thornhill (Tingle)

I miss her everyday

Grandpa Wright 

We lost him last December the loss is still

       so raw and hard to deal with. He will forever

be missed. 

Grandma & Grandpa Wright

Grandma is doing okay these days

but still misses Grandpa deeply. 

They were blessed with close to or 50 years

of marriage. To have him not beside her has 

been very hard on her. 

Some Pictures of the Millards and Bradley's UPDATED

Kate Bradley

                                                                   Frank Bradley

                                                                       Catherine Lampkin

                                                                     Frank Downs Bradley

                                          Ira & Mary Millard (my grandma and grandpa I miss him so much)

Mary Parker (Bradley, Noble & Millard) 

We are blessed to still have her with us

Kate Bradley

Martha Luellen Newton

Martha Newton

Mary Jane & Jerome Newton

Mary Jane Age 12

Mary Jane

Tying the past to the future and having fun along the way......

So this is the beginning of this blog but I have been doing these tress for a while now. I have hit several dead ends traveled with my mom to the "old homesteads" and grave yards. Even one of the graveyards we traveled to was overgrown with weeds and grass taller then me but she and I weren't intimated by that we plunged on through! As my grandfather passed last year it has brought a new sense of needing to know how I came to be the family members lives in the past and what I can learn from them. This journey has been fantastic so far and I am loving learning, driving around and trampling along graves to find all this information, I will try to post on a regular bases to make sure I keep you all update but please feel free to reach out to me with any photos, stories or even grave sites you may know that I haven't been to as of yet. There is one graveyard in particular my mom and I would love to find it is called Meadville Cemetery in Meade County KY. We know that it is on private property & set off the road which is making it hard for us to find. So if you know the whereabouts of that please let me know.

This photo is from Sandy Hill Cemetery. Mom and I asked for permission before going into the site but we were still unable to find our relatives.