Our Roots Are Showing......

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you who have found your Irish roots and to those of you who are still searching. Even before I began my own family research, I knew that we had some Irish blood. When I was young, growing up in Mississippi, I would ask my mother, "Where are we from?" And my mother would always answer, "We are English, Scotch, and Irish." When I asked my father the same question, he added that (his) "Grandma told me that we have German blood." My paternal grandmother's response to my question was (her) "Papa's family was Black Dutch from Pennsylvania," and (her) "Mama's grandfather was a full-blooded Indian."

The truth is that each of their answers was, in part, true, although my great-grandmother's grandfather was not Native American. I do not have all the answers yet for this particular ancestor, but it appears that his South Carolina heritage was likely a tri-racial one that possibly included some Native American blood.

Now that I am older, when I think about the names of families in my childhood neighborhood and of my classmates from school, l realize that so many of them were Scotch-Irish names. Names that began with "Mc," or an "O" followed by an apostrophe, may have outnumbered even the Smiths and the Joneses in Mississippi during those days. With over ten years of research behind me, and with a family tree that includes the names Atwood, Baldridge, Coggins, Gibson, Meriwether, Pettus, Porter, and Ragland, it seems that my mother's answer to my childhood question was the correct one.

And now that my brother has three sons with red hair and two of my own grandchildren have beautiful red hair, I do believe that our Scotch-Irish roots are "starting to show."

Private Meriwether - Is he Lewis or is he Albert?

I have posted this picture before in the hopes that one of my readers would be able to help me identify the man in the picture, but the mystery is still unsolved. So I thought I would try again today. What you see here is a picture postcard that I found among the pictures in my paternal grandmother's photo album. Handwritten on the reverse of the postcard is "Pvt Meriwether." I am unable to identify the writer, although I know for certain that it is not the handwriting of my grandmother.

My best guess at Private Meriwether's identify is based on this information: My great-grandmother's name was Margaret Susanna Merriweather. She had only one sibling, a brother named Lewis, who served in World War I. I have always assumed the man pictured here was Lewis. But recently, I found that Maggie, as my great-grandmother was nicknamed, had a cousin, Albert Merriweather, who also served in World War I. Albert and his family lived near Black Hawk in Carroll County, Mississippi. And now I am wondering whether the man in the picture is Lewis or if he is Albert.

Tracing the Meriwethers has been a difficult task for me, since the spelling has varied in its use in different parts of the country, especially in Mississippi. The original Meriwether immigrant to the United States was Nicholas, commonly referred to as Nicholas I. And I descend from the family in Mississippi that was headed by Robert Emmett Meriwether and Susan Thornton Meriwether, who lived for a time in Carroll County. Many of them returned to Shelbyville, Kentucky before the Civil War began. Since very few descendants of this old family remain in Mississippi today, I have no one to help with the identification of the man pictured in the military uniform.

I have examined this picture closely to search for any clue that would help identify the man. His uniform appears to be very similar to a modern-day Marine's uniform, and the medal that he wears on the left breast of his jacket is similar to the Navy Cross. The picture appears to be a posed, professional one, and it was likely taken for the sole purpose of making the postcard. The room that appears in the background is richly decorated, with a leaded glass window, wood paneling, and what appears to be an oriental rug. I wonder if the location was somewhere in Europe.

I am hoping again that someone who sees the picture can identify Private Meriwether and possibly claim him (and me) as a relative.