Somehow, Someway, and Someday

Roscoe, Centaurs, and Genea-Bliss
I know I promised in my last "Roscoe" post an outline of my strategy for this post, but when the mythological genea-gods smile down on you, well, you must take the opportunity to perform the thankful "Genea-Happy Dance..."  [Yes, I have "Greek" mythology on the mind.  Thanks to the person ~you know who you are~ for putting it there.]

The mythological genealogy gods work behind the scenes like invisible hands sometimes "toying" with us for their amusement alone, leaving us frustrated when we cannot scale that proverbial "brick wall".  However, sometimes when we least expect it they look down upon us mere mortals and favor us with a token of genea-bliss.  I don't know what I did [set-up a bunch of online familial beacons, maybe?], if anything, to deserve a mythical genea-nod but I know better than to look a gift centaur in the mouth.  I'm taking it, and running away quickly before they can change their minds.  So, what's my token of genea-bliss, you ask?  Well, are you sitting down?

My Internet Bread Crumbs

Remember in my last "Roscoe" post I shared how I had found online memorials of Roscoe and his children on Find A Grave?  They had been entered by a wife of a distant cousin with a brief note on the fire that had killed them.  In addition, I added my photos to their memorials.  At the time, I had made a mental note to contact her, but I wasn't researching Roscoe at the time, but some other "Martin's".  Plus, this was before I found out that the fire had been ruled as arson.  I recently updated the photos in Find A Grave with some [hopefully] better looking photos.  Now, this is where the hands of the mythological genea-gods come into play.  From what I can tell, the wife of my distant cousin who set the memorials up and/or my distant cousin happened to check the memorials.  They saw the photos that I had added as well as my notes.  Then they somehow found my Genealogy Wise page, became members at Genealogy Wise [is there a referral incentive program? ;) ], read my latest Family Stories blog post that shows up on my  GW page that featured Roscoe, and posted answers to some of my questions I had posted.  Here's some of what my distant cousin posted on my Genealogy Wise wall:

We were glad to see the pictures you entered.  We are the only ones who have ever put flowers on their grave.  We have never missed a Memorial Day.  I guess you know all five are buried in one grave.  The fire was so hot that they were buried together.  Roscoe has a veterans memorial but the children have no monument.  Roscoe's widow hasn't been dead that long and is buried at Taylor with a nice rock close to Roscoe and the children.  My grandmother was Ida Martin Taylor and a sister of Joel Arthur Martin (Grandma always called him Bub and Mother and others always called him Uncle Bub), so the Martin's are my family also.  When John Winston was a baby they let  my Mother Addie May take him.  Roscoe nicknamed him Jackie after me.  I was about 11 at the time and remember him well.  Mother and my Stepdad wanted to adopt him, Roscoe was willing but Norma took him back.

About the lie detector test, one of the State men that gave it told Uncle Bent that they were the meanest people he had ever given the test.  They could lie and never show it.  This was never published but passed from Uncle Bent to my Mother to me so I believe it.  There is some history I can give you about our Martins and family and community remarks about the fire.  The house belonged to Mother and Roscoe's cousin, Addie and Charlie Cheek.  The house was located in the country just off Route 45 before you get to Vienna.  I was raised on down the country road from there.  It was a small house but was a two story house with 2 rooms upstairs.  That is where the children were.  They never had a chance.  I also have the death certificates of the 5 if you want a copy.  Also copies of the cemetery and where they are buried.

My distant cousin also found my email, or maybe my contact button on my blog.  Here is some additional information:

"After I hear from you, I will send more info that I have by e-mail or reg. mail however you prefer.  My grandma Ida was your Great G'Father's sister...My wife was excited that you found Roscoe and the children on Find A Grave.  She put them on because she didn't want them forgotten..."

Wow, huh?  It's a lot of information to digest.  There are many things of interest, and I will tackle them in length in my next post, provided the seances I have planned this weekend while in New Orleans for a wedding at St. Patrick's Church don't produce some "connections".  That's a joke.  Well, the seance part is a joke.  The New Orleans wedding at St. Patrick's Church is not, but wouldn't that be cool if we could actually talk with our ancestors instead of trying to read their minds?  [Of course, that would take all the fun out of it...]

So, Do You Have a Nickname?
Now, I'd like to point out that some of the information that my distant cousin has already provided and the info that he is willing to share is exactly what my blog, "Family Stories" is all about.  Certainly, names, birth dates, and death dates are welcome and important, but where else would I find out that my Great-Grandfather was affectionately called  "Bub" by his sister Ida and "Uncle Bub" by other family members?  My Paw Paw called him "Pop" as indicated on her photos of him.  So, this is another piece of my great-grandfather's story.  [It also makes me think about my loved ones' nicknames for me.  Do I have them written down somewhere?  Well, the ones that I actually like, that is...]

Yes, I Have a "Thing" for Jewelry
It's also interesting to note how the info he gave me compliments the info that I've been able to assemble on my own.  It reminds me of the "multi-faceted-ness" of family stories.  [Yes, I'm making up words now.  Just "go" with it.]  How, as the family stories are created, the family members are all a part of it as it occurs.  Each family member representing a "facet" of the gem ~ the family story, and when the light actually shines on another facet of the family story, well, it's just that more beautiful, is it not?

There's That Word Again...Forgotten
My distant cousin mentioned that his wife put the memorials on Find A Grave "...because she didn't want them forgotten..."  And that is what it seems to "boil down to" every time, doesn't it? We want our ancestors and loved ones to not be forgotten.  So we search, we write, and we search a little more, then write a little more.  All so they won't be forgotten.  No matter how they lived.  No matter how they died.  They will not be forgotten, which is why somehow, someway, and someday Roscoe's children ~ Jack, Bill, Jerry, and Cheryl ~ will have a tombstone...in remembrance.  They will not be forgotten and neither will their story.

So, now you know why I am in genea-bliss right now, albeit with a herd of centaurs chasing me.  [A group of centaurs is a herd, right? ;) ]

Sources:
Martin Research Files. Privately held by Caroline M. Pointer, [ E-address & street address for private use,] Conroe, Texas.

Shii. Image of Athena and Jason on Cup made by Douris ca. 480-470 B.C. [Digital Image]. 2006. Public Domain.  
 (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douris_cup_Jason_Vatican_16545.jpg : accessed Nov 2009 at Wikimedia Commons).

Clicgauche. Bronze Young Centaure Malmaison. [Digital Image]. 2006. Public Domain. (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Centaure_Malmaison_crop.jpg : accessed Nov 2009 at Wikimedia Commons).

 Dic-as. Diamond La Luz de Dia. [Digital Image]. 2003. Public Domain. (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diamant_la_luz_de_dia.jpg : accessed Nov 2009 at Wikimedia Commons).

Michael, Nick. Beham, (Hans) Sebald (1500-1550): Buffoon and Two Bathing Women (P. 216, B. 214), copperplate engraving, 1542, a good impression of the first or second state of four, trimmed just inside the platemark, retaining a strip of blank paper outside the borderline. [Digital Image]. 2006. Public Domain. (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hercules_fighting_the_Centaurs.jpg : accessed Nov 2009 at Wikimedia Commons).