Generations Down a Red Dirt Road

Never stop looking !

noreply@blogger.com (Darnell Baker, Generations Down A Red Dirt Road) — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 03:06:00 +0000

For over 30 years I have looked for the marriage record of my maternal grandparents, Thomas Fritz Matherly (1893-1965) and Nancy Margaret Edwards (1898-1992). He was from Wilkes County, NC and his first wife died young and left him with 5 children. She was from Elberton, GA. I looked relentlessly for their marriage record and had pretty much come to the conclusion that maybe they never legally married and it was just a common law marriage because I could not find a record. Trust me, I looked. Well, I finally found the record. They were married on the 20th of December 1933 in Anderson, South Carolina. The record was there in South Carolina all along but it WASN'T digitized and put online until a year or so ago. It was Christmas time and I assume that they married on the way to Georgia from North Carolina for the Christmas holidays since that is where her family was. I've had some great finds over the 40+ years I've been doing genealogy but I think I was more excited to find this record than any of the others. Maybe because they were a real living breathing part of my life and two people I truly adored. I have such very fond memories of them both and that rock house on Bruce Garner Road in Granville County, NC.

I just wanted to share my joy in finally having this record. More records are added online daily. Never give up your search, go back every so often and check again. Maybe you will get lucky and find what your are looking for without having to wait 30 years like I did. Happy hunting!

Update: Issue with comments and replies not working

noreply@blogger.com (Generations Down A Red Dirt Road) — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 21:39:00 +0000

Due to the migration by Google of the removal of Google+ there are some issues with being able to comment or reply to comments. Until this is sorted out please email me directly at lenoradbaker@gmail.com. Sorry, but it's out of my control until the full migration is completed or Google resolves the issue. If you left a comment while logged into Google and you had a Google+ account then your comments will not be visible on the blog due to Google+ being eliminated by Google. Problem is as administrator of this blog I can see those posts, but I can't reply to them, nor can I reply to comments that were posted anonymously I sure wish I could. It's my understanding that all comments via Google+ are gone forever with no way to retrieve them. If you revisit the blog please leave another comment so I can reply if you never heard back from me regarding your post. Your comments are important to me. Thank you for your patience and for visiting. Darnell Baker

What Sacrifices Did Your Ancestors Make For You?

noreply@blogger.com (Generations Down A Red Dirt Road) — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 20:02:00 +0000

On Sept 6, 1934, Labor Day in Honea Path, South Carolina at the local cotton mill workers protested working conditions and supported Labor Unions. When it was over 7 men were dead, one of them was my ancestor, Charles Livingston Rucker.

Charles was the son of Mary Jane Dixon, my great grandmother, Addie Elizabeth Dixon Edwards sister. Charles was my grandmother, Nancy Edwards Matherly's first cousin, making him my 3rd cousin.

Note: In the newspaper clipping below the cemetery burial place mentioned is wrong, it says Hoke's Chapel in Ebert County but he is actually buried at Pope's Chapel Cemetery in Wilkes County, Georgia. Here is a link to his burial site on Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97532888?search=true

Charles Livingston Rucker

died of not one but two gunshot wounds that day. He was just 39 years old.

He was and always will be a hero of the working man.

In 1934 the General Textile Strike grew to the largest labor strike in American History. The workers at Chiquola Mill, the local cotton mill in Honea Path, circled the mill in protest of unsafe working conditions and low wages. A fight broke out and shots were fired. The day is known as Bloody Thursday.

Most local history books have recorded very little about the incident and local's kept their mouths shut about what happened that day. Fear, threats and intimidation were used to silence the story. Those that supported the union were fired and kicked out of mill housing or required to never speak of the incident or become involved in union organizing.

Not one person was ever charged for the murders that tragic day. Over 10,000 people attended the funerals of the slain men.

Today a monument is erected in the local park in Honea Path, just a mile from the mill to honor those who died that day. The stone is etched with the words "They died for the rights of the working man" and the names of the men who lost their lives standing up for something they believed in.

Charles Livingston Rucker was one of them.

What sacrifices did your ancestors make for you?

More information about the documentary "The Uprising of 34" can be found at http://www.pbs.org/pov/uprisingof34/film_description.php

After a few requests for the info here is a link where you can purchase the 88 minute film for home use for $44.95 https://store.der.org/the-uprising-of-34-p282.aspx

I found this today, where the film can be rented from Vimeo for $5.95 here is the link:https://vimeo.com/ondemand/uprisingof34#

Or FREE if your local library partners with Kanopy you can watch it for free, just sign up with Kanopy and check if your library participates. Here's the link: https://www.kanopy.com/product/uprising-34

You can also search YouTube for "Uprising of 34" and find more videos about this tragedy.

As always, I welcome your comments.

What Ancestor Do You Wish You Could Have Met?

noreply@blogger.com (Generations Down A Red Dirt Road) — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 16:37:00 +0000

What would you ask them? How would you spend a day together?

For me, more than one person comes to mind but for today I'm choosing my maternal great grandmother, Addie Elizabeth Dixon Edwards. Addie was a remarkable woman.


Addie and Grissom Edwards shortly after their marriage in 1897

She had 11 children. My grandmother, was her oldest daughter and helped her mother to raise all the younger children and did most of the cooking for the family.

Addie was born in Elberton, Georgia in 1880 to James Dixon and Nancy Charles. At the young age of 17 she married my grandfather Grissom Stewart Edwards in 1897. She spent her entire life in Elberton. After raising 6 sons and 5 daughters and celebrating 58 years of marriage Addie died in 1955.

Addie & Grissom Edwards and all 11 of their children, my grandmother Nancy in the dark dress, about 1940

Addie was a strong and resourceful woman and raised a wonderful family. I was lucky enough to meet many of her children in my younger years. My grandmother used to tell me that my hands looked just like her mothers, which makes me happy.

Addie and Grissom Edwards at their 58th Wedding Anniversary Celebration February 1955.

Who do you wish you could have met?

The Harricanes ("hair-uh-cuns") Ain't On No Map

noreply@blogger.com (Generations Down A Red Dirt Road) — Fri, 29 May 2015 03:47:00 +0000

"The Harricanes", pronounced "her-uh-cuns" or "hair-uh-cuns"or some say "hairkins" depending on who you ask, is a real place with a real history.

Even though national prohibition didn't become law until 1920, good ole NC took the lead in the fight of good vs. evil and was the first southern state to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages 11 years earlier, all the way back in 1909. Of course, "ain't nobody got time for that" and moonshine and liquor stills throughout North Carolina answered the call. Moonshine and North Carolina have a long and sordid history together including the area known as "The Harricanes" which encompassed parts of Wake, Franklin and Granville Counties in North Carolina.

The Harricanes was a place nobody claimed and nobody went to. To this day no one can tell you exactly where it begins and ends. I don't know precisely where it begins and ends but I do know when I'm IN it. If you take Highway 96 west of Youngsville and take a left at Pokomoke and travel west across the Granville County line where the road becomes Bruce Garner Road while you are in Granville County, and stay on that road until it crosses into Wake County where the road name changes to New Light Road then you are IN the Harricanes. Exactly where it begins and ends north, south, east and west of that is anyone's guess. Some say it runs all the way to Highway 50 to the west and Highway 98 to the south, and Pokomoke to the east, with the Grissom area of Granville County being just about dead center of the Harricanes. The Harricanes isn't on any map you will find, that's for sure. While you might find folks now that will admit to living there, back in the day if you asked the folks around there, you would get a different answer each time. That is, IF you got an answer at all. Most times the answer was "just up the road a ways" and up the road they would tell you it was "back that way" or "just over yonder". Because nobody lived in the Harricanes, or to rephrase that ,nobody SAID they lived there. The Harricanes was always someplace else.

The Harricanes had a reputation of being a place full of renegades and secrets. The area then was a well known dangerous place. In Raleigh's backyard, the Harricanes was the slums of it's time, the "wrong side of the tracks" so to speak even though there were no tracks or boundaries that anyone would claim. Even without a sign to mark the Harricane's location anywhere, the invisible "Keep Out" sign was clearly hung. A place known for moonshine, violence, cock fighting, gambling and late night dirty deals with a few dead bodies here or there, that was "The Harricanes". Just the stuff that legends are made of except it was all true. Ok, mostly true. It's been called many things over the years but I kinda like "The Bermuda Triangle of the Triangle" description the best.

Only the brave or just plain foolish intentionally went to or even through the Harricanes. You didn't just go for a Sunday drive through the Harricanes. The people of the Harricanes looked out for one another and had each others back. If you crossed one, you crossed them all and revenge was sweet. These folks stuck together. They were resourceful, independent and hard working. Despite what went on in the Harricanes that nobody talked about, they would all be in church come Sunday!

Folks from the Harricanes liked the bad reputation the area had and that bad reputation served a purpose. It kept people out and they liked it that way. The fewer strangers snooping around, the better. The only good reputation the Harricanes had was that some smooth, strong moonshine came from there if you were lucky enough to get your hands on a jar. Even if you heard about moonshine from the Harricanes through the grapevine, it was still only available if you knew somebody, who knew somebody, who knew somebody and even then it was doubtful. Even the Revenue Officers didn't like to venture into the Hurricanes looking for stills. There are a few stories of when they did, rarely successfully.


My Mother, Betty Matherly, age 16

My mother was raised in the Harricanes, on Bruce Garner Road and depending on who you talk to about where the Hurricanes was or wasn't located, my father Valton Mitchell, raised on a farm near Pokomoke was too. I remember when none of the red dirt roads were paved and were lined instead with chicken houses, tobacco fields, rock houses and an old country store or two. While no one back then would have dared say it, I'm proud to say "My family comes from The Harricanes". I pronounce it "hair-uh-cuns".


Back of my Grandparents home on Bruce Garner Road, Granville County, NC, about 1960

These days the Harricanes roads are mostly all paved and the area is full of subdivisions with homeowners who have never heard of "The Harricanes". All these years later nobody still can tell you where the Harricanes is. I'd say they did a pretty good job of preserving their secrets. The legend lives on.

Did you like this story? Share it or comment below.

Just How Popular IS Genealogy and Why Should You Care?

noreply@blogger.com (Generations Down A Red Dirt Road) — Thu, 28 May 2015 05:45:00 +0000

How many people are searching for their ancestors? There is no genealogy website more popular than Ancestry.com. More than 11 million people use the resources located at Ancestry.com each month. That number is just a drop in the bucket to the billions, yes billions of ancestors that are documented at the "world's largest" family history resource.

Genealogy is a massive industry in the marketplace around the world. You Tube has over 100,000 video's just on the subject of genealogy alone. There are millions of Facebook pages, countless blogs, websites and forums on the subject not to mention a good share of the 230 million people on Twitter who tweet about genealogy. Let's not forget Pinterest where you could literally spend forever it seems perusing the links and resources on categories related to genealogy and family history. Click on the links on the right to visit my Pinterest Boards on Genealogy or Facebook Group.

In addition to the endless amount of resources available on the web, much of it free, there are books, magazines and Genealogical societies in almost every major city in the world. There are podcasts, and apps for your smartphone and TV shows like Who Do You Think You Are, and Genealogy Road Show. Some of the most famous libraries in the world exist for sole purpose of housing and preserving genealogical records. The amount of information available is truly amazing.

Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah

So where do you begin? Well, honestly, the world is your oyster when it comes to answering that question. There are countless sites where you can create your family tree and search for your ancestors. I wouldn't begin to recommend any particular one but just Google "genealogy" and you will have more links than you will care to visit.

The Family Search website is completely free and offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS Library in Salt Lake City is the largest genealogical library in the world and is open to the general public at no charge. In addition the main Library in Salt Lake City there are LDS Family History Centers located around the world. A great amount of their collection is digitized and searchable on their Family Search website for free and more is added every day. Thanks to the internet, more than ever before, much of the resources regarding genealogy are now available online just waiting for you to find them.

My grandfather Thomas Fritz Matherly,1893-1965, age 16, , and his Mother, Cornelia Elvira Hamby, 1863 -1918.

You might find old photographs of your one of your ancestors or learn what they did for a living. There are birth, marriage and death records where you can view the actual documents along with military service records, land records, immigration documents, wills and the list goes on. Within some of these documents you can find many hidden facts like the color of their eyes or an address where they lived. Armed with an address, with Google Earth and Google Maps street view you can see the location, which is really cool. Each breadcrumb of information leads you just a little bit further down the road they traveled and you get to go with them.

Starting your search is as easy as knowing a name. Just start with what you know and it will lead you to what you don't know. It's like turning the pages of a good book, each page making you want to know what happens next, only this book isn't about a fictional character but instead the true story of your family, your story and your history!

I am grateful for the things I have learned along the journey of researching my family and their place in the world. I get excited with each new piece of information not only for the find itself, but because I know it will lead me down the road just a little bit further. It's fun and rewarding and has brought my family history to life. I encourage you to look into your family's past. You don't know what you don't know and you might be surprised with what you find.

Contact me if I can help get you started.

Irish Ancestors

noreply@blogger.com (Generations Down A Red Dirt Road) — Wed, 27 May 2015 08:18:00 +0000

Thomas McNeill , my 4th great grandfather, was born in 1810 in Killyglen Townland, Grangekillglen, County Antrim, Ireland. He was the son of Andrew McNeill and Elizabeth McCombs.

Left, A map of Antrim, Ireland which borders Lake Lough Neagh, the biggest lake in Ireland on one side and the Irish Sea on the other. Right, a photo of the Lake looking from Antrim.

At age 23, Thomas McNeill married Margaret McWilliams and they had 5 children born in Ireland, Eliza, Jane, Robert, William and Margaret. Their daughter Margaret is my direct line as she grew up to marry Grissom Stuart Edwards, my Grandma Nancy Margaret Edwards( Matherly's) father but more about that later. This line starts with Andrew McNeill but this story starts with Thomas. Here are the descendants of Thomas McNeil and Margaret McWilliams

Andrew McNeill (1763 - 1851)

my 4th Great Grandfather

Thomas McNeill Sr (1810 - 1879)

is my 3rd great grandfather

Margaret McNeill (1844 - )

daughter of Thomas McNeill Sr (my 2nd grandmother)

Grissom Stewart Edwards (1875 - 1967)

son of Margaret McNeill ( my great grandfather)

Nancy Margaret Edwards (1898 - 1992)

daughter of Grissom Stewart Edwards (my grandmother)

Betty Ann Matherly (1934 - 1995)

daughter of Nancy Margaret Edwards (my mother)

Darnell Mitchell Baker

daughter of Betty Ann Matherly

Margaret, born in 1844 was the last child born in Ireland to Thomas McNeill and wife Margaret before they came to America. Trust me , I know that's 3 Margarets in 4 generations. They were in Abbeville, South Carolina in the 1850 Census and daughter Margaret was listed as 6 years old. Based on that documented Census info, they came to America between 1845 and 1849. I have yet to determine exactly what ship they came on, but that is at the top of my "To Do" List. Many people from Northern Ireland left from the port in Belfast, Ireland which is not too far from Antrim, Ireland.


This is the type of passenger ship typically used in the early 19th century to transport immigrants to the US, can you just imagine crossing the ocean on a ship like that? What an adventure that must have been!

In my research of the area of Northern Ireland where both Thomas and Margaret McNeill were from I came across the most magnificent images of the area of Antrim. I can't believe anyone would ever want to leave such a beautiful place.


Antrim Glens Coastline of Ireland


Dunluce Castle, County of Antrim, Ireland

Glens of Antrim, Ireland

I mean who wouldn't want to live there? I have always wanted to visit Ireland because I've known all my life of my Irish Heritage but now it has really moved up pretty high on the Bucket List, like right at the top! A girl, can dream, right? A trip there would truly be a dream come true.

I will share more on Thomas and Margaret's life in Abbeville, South Carolina in a future post but for now here is a video that really shows the beauty of this magical place and the history about the area. I hope you will take the time to watch it and will enjoy it as much as I did. I would love to know what you think of it in the comments below.

Here is a cool fact. Shane's Castle built in 1345, is a ruined castle near Randalstown in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Castle is used extensively in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

I could be easily obsessed with Ireland. I feel lucky to have some real connection to such a beautiful place.

It Started A Long Time Ago and I'm a Little Farther Along

noreply@blogger.com (Generations Down A Red Dirt Road) — Tue, 26 May 2015 13:49:00 +0000

Welcome to Generations Down a Red Dirt Road. Today is the beginning of a new adventure for me. I have wanted to create a blog for a very long time and now here I am. As I research my family history this will be a venue to share what I find along the way with others and learn as I go. I enjoy history and plan to share some interesting places I find along the way as well. Some will have a connection to my ancestors and some will be unrelated to my specific family search but something I found learned about a historic event or a specific area that I am researching that I think is worth sharing or I personally want to know more about.

I don't know nearly as much about my ancestors as I would like but hopefully through my travels around the world via the internet I will be able to leave something behind to my children that they otherwise would never have known about their family history.I enjoy reading, writing, genealogy and history and this blog allows me to combine all of these.

I chose the name Generations Down a Red Dirt Road because it occurred to me that most all of my ancestors came from just that, down an old, red dirt road. Some have traveled far and some never left and some wish to return to those places we call home and where some of our fondest memories linger.

I hope you enjoy what your find here and will come back often. I have also created a Facebook Page and a Pinterest account just for Generations Down A Red Dirt Road, so please join me there too. You will find the links on the right for signing up and following along with me and to share with others.

The personal benefit for me is this blog will also serve in some ways as a journal of my attempt to get farther down the road as I look for my ancestors. I welcome suggestions,comments and questions and look forward to hearing from you. I hope you will find what I share here interesting and worthwhile. Help me spread the word so I'm not talking to myself here okay? .

I'm sure I have some kinks to work out so if something isn't working please let me know.

Thanks so much for visiting,
Darnell