Genealogical Research

I just learned about Wordless Wednesday. Yes, I had seen the term before, but had never paid close attention (I tend to focus on other things when reading blogs). I can’t quite get away with a wordless blog post, much as I would like to, so I will do the next best thing and provide a caption.

This photo is of my maternal grandmother, Ruth Virginia Anderson (1921 - 1990). She was the daughter of Nonley and Eula Dills Anderson. In 1942, she married Lake Randolph Ledford (1905 - 1980), a widower with two children. Paw-Paw was a mail carrier when he met my grandmother. One day while making his route, she met him at her family’s mailbox, and they eloped to Clarkesville, GA, then returned to the Union community to make their home. Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw went on to have ten other children, the third of whom was my mother.

Maw-Maw was one of the finest women I have ever known. Possessed of a kind heart and a giving nature, she turned away no one in need. My mother recalls her mother saying often, “Let me live my life by the side of the road and be a friend of man.” Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw were founding members of the Longview Baptist Church, located just south of Franklin, NC, where Paw-Paw was a lay preacher for some time.

What I remember best about Maw-Maw is the way she lived. She whistled when cooking, or would hum a tune, often Rock of Ages. She always wore a dress, even in the winter, though she would pull on sweatpants if it was chilly so that her legs wouldn’t get cold when she went to milk the cows. She tended a garden, raised her own chickens, hogs and cattle, and foraged for berries in the woods surrounding the old logging trail. She loved to fish, and could often be found with a line dropped in the crick just below the house. Her yard was filled with flowers she tended. The crocuses planted atop the old, filled-in well were the first harbingers of spring.

Maw-Maw died on Thanksgiving day, 1990. She was still so very young to me. Though she had dozens of grandchildren, she managed to make us all feel special. Each year for my birthday, she would make me a black walnut cake with nuts taken from the tree growing in her front yard. We spent many a day together, cleaning out the attic and going through what everyone else considered junk (but which were treasures to me, the budding genealogist), picking berries, and such. She would tell me stories of the family as long as I would listen, and was instrumental in setting the path I am now on in so many ways. I miss her terribly, but cannot wish her back, as I believe her to be in a far better place surrounded by the people she loved. I do regret that my son never knew her, for she was a good woman who blessed the lives of everyone she met.

I do apologize for this long post. I intended only to write a few words about my grandmother. I hope you will forgive me for rambling on a bit about a woman I loved dearly.

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