Monday, April 27, 2009

Inez Koonce Jacox - 1906-2009

My oldest living relative was Inez Koonce Jacox. She lived to see two World Wars. She lived through the Great Depression, Jim Crow laws, Civil Rights demonstration. She lived to see a Black man elected president of the United States. She lived an exemplary Christian life, praising God and wanting to be in the center of His will until she passed away yesterday morning. She was 102 years old.
Inez was my grandmother's sister. She lived all of her life in Tennessee but I got to meet and see her several times. She was frank and honest and reminded me a lot of my grandmother. My mother has grown to favor her as she has gotten older. The one thing I remember most about her was that she didn't like photos of dead people. She claimed "haints" were attached to them. I've never understood how a God-fearing woman could also be superstitious but it seems to run in my mother's family. That superstition kept her focused on the present so I never got any information from her. What a loss. What an accomplishment. She lived long and well.

Friday, April 17, 2009

To Tweet or Not to Tweet -That Isn't The Question

I confess. I have been tweeting when I should have been blogging. It is easier to write a quick line or two than a paragraph. I have more excuses for my lack of posts. March was a very stressful month for me. I moved from my home of 18 years to a temporary (I hope) stay at my childhood home. Economics bit me in the butt and I had little choice but to move. It was hell. Distilling 18 years of collections, furniture, paper and memories is hard enough. My home was 2100 square feet. My space now is considerably smaller. But a woman's got to do, what a woman's got to do. I will survive.

That being basically over, I am now planning my summer break. I am going to take off for five weeks and visit Fort Wayne's Allen County Library, the archives at Nashville, TN and Jackson, MS, possibly the National Archive and a few courthouses and libraries in between. At least, that's the plan now. If I can do that, I will be a very happy genealogist.