Tipton Family Tree

 

Me from the 1993 Tipton Family Reunion 

Today I spent the morning on the phone with Bob Tipton, a distant Tipton relative. We wanted my permission to take a DNA test for our common Tipton family line.

As I have mentioned many times before in this blog, I am very interested in researching my family tree, especially my paternal Tipton line. 

The photo above of me was taken at one of the occasional Tipton family reunions held here in southeastern Pennsylvania. Most of the Tiptons in this area are descended from my Tipton grandparents who had eleven sons (no daughters). The photo was a freeze frame on an 8 mm film, thus the blurriness. 

Note that the date is 1993. At that time I didn't know anything about my paternal Tipton family line other than the name of my grandfather, Fieldon Jacob Tipton who moved his family of young sons to southeastern Pennsylvania from the mountains of western North Carolina in 1929 to work as cheap farm labor on his brother-in-law's fruit and vegetable farm. My father was ten years old when he arrived in Pennsylvania. Eleven years later he met my Mother, is from old Pennsylvania Quaker stock, and married her. I was their first born son in 1941. Two more sons arrived in subsequent years. 

In 1994, my late brother John (he died this past September), was living in South Carolina. He said a co-worker, who often visited his relatives in the western North Carolina mountains and family cemeteries. After one trip he told my brother that he often encountered many Tipton headstones in the cemeteries he visited. Thus began my foray into Tipton family genealogy. The next year, 1994, I made a trip with my brother to those same mountains and discovered much information about my Tipton family history. 

My late brother John and I at the Tipton-Haynes historic site in Johnson City Tennessee 1998,
attending another Tipton Family Reunion

That was the year I began building my family tree, first on Family Tree Maker and later on Ancestry.com.

Since that time I've had intense periods of research and then times that life caught up with me and I had to abandoned my family research. 

Well folks, I'm back to researching my Tipton family history. I've always loved doing research. I can literally spend hours researching and building my family tree. I've even built out my maternal branch which is just as interesting as my Tipton family line. 

Too often I put off researching but time is catching up with me. My legacy will be what I leave on Ancestry.com about my family research. I have many stories to tell. 

I'm telling you all this because you may not see me post as often on this personal blog. I do not intend to stop posting but probably can't just as often. I still am Bill's full-time caregiver which is taking more time these days. Caregiving and running the whole household here at Casa Tipton-Kelly still takes up a lot of my time.  Before Bill's strokes, we used to pretty evenly divide the household duties around here. Bill did the handyman work (including electric and plumbing) and I did the cooking, shopping and paying bills. Now I do it all. And frankly folks, it pretty well takes up much of my day. I only have time to write this blog when Bill is sleeping as he is now. 

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I spend about two hours on the phone with a Tipton cousin talking about our Tipton family history research. This conversation reinvigorated my interest in doing more research before I leave this planet. 

Some have advised me to "take time for myself" when I became a caregiver. And I agree! And there are few things I enjoy more (trips with Pat) than researching my family history. I find it very relaxing and fascinating. 

Life goes on folks. Until it doesn't but in the meantime I'm off to a new path.

Have a great day everyone!

Family Skeletons

Alfred Hickman with his mother Ethel Hickman Hadfield and her sister Grace Hickman Weaver; behind Ethel is her husband (and my grandfather) George Hadfield and Grace's husband H. Ralph Weaver. The child is my aunt Grace Hadfield Tinder Wagner.  Photo taken 1916 in Downingtown, Pennsylvania

Yesterday I received a letter from my cousin.  I know what is in the letter. I choose not to read it.  

Two weeks ago I received a letter from her in which she requested that I remove the information about our maternal grandmother that I had posted on Ancestry.com.  I wrote her back telling her the reason I had to turn down her request. I'm pretty sure the letter she wrote back to me is either chastising me for refusing her request or disowning me. Either scenario is not one I wish to engage in at this time.  Thus, that letter from my cousin will remain unopened indefinitely.

Now that I have you intrigued as to what is the subject of my cousin's consternation, I will now divulge the family skeleton I discovered whilst doing my family research.

After I left my job at First Fidelity Bank in Philadelphia, and had a period of unemployment, I began a log postponed project of researching my family tree.  I began with my paternal Tipton relatives. I got very involved and unearthed a lot of family history and a few skeletons.  

My Mother observed with interest my total involvement with my paternal family history and wistfully said "I guess you're not interested in my family history." She had a point, I had done very little research on my maternal family tree.  I told her "I will research the Hadfield's too."   She said "While you're at it, could you find out who Uncle Afred was?  Every time his name came up every one would clam up. There was something strange about him that no one wanted me to know."  

My Mother told me that Alfred Hickman was raised at her mother's (my grandmother) brother. But she doubted that he was her brother. 

My grandmother, Ethel Hickman Hadfield

Alfred Hickman was born in 1911, when my grandmother was fifteen years old.  Alfred died in 1922, at eleven years of age of diphtheria. My Mother was born in 1923.  She said Alfred was always a "mystery."  

I started my research on uncle Alfred by asking my Mother's older sister "who was Alfred Hickman?"  My Aunt Grace, who was slipping into dementia at that time and would die a few months later said "Oh!! Uncle Alfred!  We DON'T talk about him!"  Upon further questioning, she told me that Alfred was indeed my grandmother's son born out of wedlock and raised as her brother.

Now to prove this fact.  I got Alfred's death certificate from Ancestry.com.  His death certificate listed my great grandparents as his parents. 

Alfred Hickman 1911-1922 photo taken 1916

I decided to get Alfred's birth certificate. That was no easy task that I was to discover. I wrote to the Pennsylvania Department of records. They responded back to me that only direct descendants (children) could obtain his death certificate. Since Alfred died at eleven years old he had no children. I wrote back to the Pennsylvania Department of records and explained that Alfred didn't have any children because he died at eleven years old and that I was his great nephew. They sent me his birth certificate. When I read his birth certificate I discovered a different name listed as Alfred's father. The name listed was Harold Griffith Sutton.  Ah ha, the family skeleton was exposed.

Harold Sutton was eighteen years old at the time of Alfred's birth. My grandmother was fifteen years old. Both worked at the Lloyd estate in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. My grandmother was listed as a "governess" which is the same as a baby sitter. Harold was a gardener at the Lloyd estate. I think you can figure out what happened here. In 1911 a birth out of wedlock was a scandal. In fact when I graduated from high school in 1959 such a birth was also a scandal, that's why one of my classmates didn't graduate with us, she was pregnant. 

I posted this correct information to my family tree which I maintain on Ancestry.com. I told my cousin that I had discovered this information about  our grandmother. She advised me not to post the information to our family tree.  She said "grandmother would have wanted it that way."  Uh, really?  All the parties involved are long dead. My grandmother died in 1923 at the age of 29 years old from complications from an incomplete abortion. Yes, another "skeleton" I discovered about my grandmother which will be the subject of a future blog post.  Harold Sutton lived a long life and died in 1983 at age of eighty-nine years of age. He married in 1919 to a woman named Sarah and they produced six children. Harold was a college professor who lived his life in Connecticut. I don't know if he family knew about his love child, Alfred Hickman. But they probably will now since I have posted the Truth to the Internet.  My grandmother married my grandfather in 1915. They had five children (my Mother being the youngest) before my grandmother died in 1923 from her incomplete abortion. My Mother was a motherless before she was two years old because of a decision my grandmother made.

Now, some may agree with my cousin that I keep this information about my grandmother a secret forever.  I cannot do that.  I will not lie about my grandmother.  I will not lie about my uncle Alfred. His memory deserves the truth of who his real father was. I will not participate in perpetuating a lie. 

We all make decisions in life. My cousin suggested that perhaps our grandmother was raped. How does she know that?  Still, history deserves to know the truth. 

My maternal grandparents 1921 - my grandmother was pregnant with my mother,  she is hiding her pregnancy behind her oldest child Grace

My Mother at the Birmingham-Lafayette Quaker cemetery in West Chester PA at the grave of her grandparents William and Esther Hickman - the small headstone flush with the ground at her bottom left is of Alfred Hickman, her uncle who was raised as her mother's brother by William and Esther Hickman.  Bill is in the background in the two tone brown jacket.  This photo was taken by me April 7, 2002 when I used to take photos of headstones in cemeteries for my Find a Grave account. At the time I did not know who Alfred Hickman was, he was always a mystery to the family and his secret would not have been known forever until I discovered the Truth.  Alfred will no longer be forgotten.

Genealogy Break

Twenty years ago (1994) I began researching my family (Tipton) history.  At first my research consumed just about all my time.  Then Life interrupted.  

Since then, I go in spurts in researching my family genealogy.  Right now I am in one of those spurts.  

Yesterday I received two different e-mails from distant cousins inquiring about their Tipton connection.  I talked to both of them today on the phone.  One lives in Montana and the other lives in Ohio.  Both fine fellows and coincidentally, both related and not through the Tipton connection but through their Bennett family connection which is also in my family.

All of our ancestors were hillbillies from the western North Carolina mountains (which I am proud to admit, true Americana - Appalachian stock sometimes referred to as "hillbilly.") 

So folks, my usually daily blog postings here may not be so daily for the next few days.  Rest assured I am still here and in fine health but taking a little detour here whilst I update my family history on Ancestry.com.

Something Pretty

Tennessee garden April 2011

I'm running late today folks.  Not going to do a "proper post" as my friend Dr. Spo says.  However, I did want to post SOMETHING so why not something pretty?  I was sorting through my huge backlog of digital photos that I took during our trip Down South this past spring. I have yet to do a "proper post" on that trip but here is one of the images I brought back with me   I think I took this photo at the garden of the motel we stayed on the Quiet Side of Cades Cove, Tennessee when we visited there this past April.

We're looking forward to going back this spring. This will be the third year of a Trip South.  We started these trips so Bill could visit his old hometown in Toccoa, Georgia.  I added a stop to visit my brother John and his wife Barbara in Greenville, South Carolina.  Along the way we also visited Johnson City, Tennessee which is right over the border from my Ancestral Roots, which are the western North Carolina mountains that border eastern Tennessee.  My dad, grandparents and all his brother were born up there in those hillbilly hollers.   So beautiful up there in those hills.  This is just a taste.

My Grand Passion

Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton Cooper
1830-1915
My paternal great-great grandmother

So what does this old picture of an old woman have to do with my Number One Passion?

When I first began my genealogy research of my family back in 1994, I didn't know the name of my paternal great grandfather.  My father didn't know the name of his grandfather because he was brought to Pennsylvania when he was ten years old with his eight brothers (two more were born in Pennsylvania for a total of eleven boys, no girls).  My father was a hillbilly from western North Carolina where where the mountains border eastern Tennessee.

I was always interested in my family history but had little hope of finding anything about my paternal line because my father showed no interest and had no knowledge other than he was born in Pigeon Roost, North Carolina.  Well, to make a long story short (a more detailed story is on my blog "Tipton Tales and Trails"), through a lot of hard work which included much travel and many interviews with family relatives I was able to establish a basis for my family tree.  From there on out it was just a matter of filling in the missing pieces of the puzzle.

One "piece" that always eluded me but I knew existed was a picture of my great-great grandmother Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton.  I was told that one existed somewhere but no one knew where it was exactly.  Just last month I found where she was buried quite by accident.  I was working on my Ancestry.com account and was reading through an obituary for a daughter of one of Martha's sons and it mentioned survivors.  I called one of the survivors and through our conversation she told me where Martha and her son Baxter Tipton were buried!

This folks is how genealogy research is done.  Through a lot of digging through records and interviews.  You just never know when a "gem" will pop up.

I told my brother John who lives in Greenville, South Carolina that Martha was buried at a church cemetery in Ashville, North Carolina.  John and his wife Barbara took a week to tour the "homeland" (as we call those"hollers" in the mountains of North Carolina that form the border between North Carolina and Tennessee) and found her grave and took pictures for me!  I was so excited but I thought this was as close as I would get to see my paternal great-great grandmother.

Then lo and behold last week a book arrives on my doorstep called "The History of the Toe River Valley Volume X."  These books are written by Dr. Lloyd Bailey, who is a professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.  Lloyd is the person who was the key to me researching my ancestry.  I will be forever grateful to him.

Every time a one of his volumes of Toe River Valley History comes out I order it.  This volume has to do with how the Civil War affected the mountain folk.  As I was flipping through the pages I came across this picture of Martha!  I couldn't believe it.  My heart started to race!  This was finally the picture I've been looking for.  WOW!  Now I feel complete.  The only way this could be better is if I had a picture of her husband, my great-great grandfather John Tipton.  But that is probably impossible because he was killed while recruiting for the Union Forces in those same mountains in 1863.  He and some of his neighbors were ambushed by a Confederate Calvary which was lead by a Colonel Noah Wichter.  Colonel Wichter and his men were in the mountains trying to discourage Union sentiment and especially recruitment for the Union forces.

After my great-great grandfather was killed Martha and her neighbor went to fetch his body and he was buried on the family farm.  She was now a widow with eight children.  Not an easy situation to be in those harsh days of the Civil War.  Life in the mountains was difficult even with the husband alive.  So here she was a widow during those difficult times with eight hungry children to raise on her own.

Her third child was my great grandfather Hiram Tipton.  He was eleven years old when he lost his father John.  Hiram's fifth son was Fieldon Tipton was my grandfather.  Fieldon's fifth son was my father Isaac Tipton.  And here I am, the End of the Line.

Martha never did learn to read or write.  She signed her application for Civll War Widow's Pension Benefits with an "X".  But she did raise her children all to be successful.  In fact, Martha remarried to a doctor; Dr. Thomas Cooper.

Looking at her face looking at me through all these years gives me a sense of tranquility and completeness.

I know that some in my family and friends think that I take too many pictures and I can be annoying with always wanting to take "just another photo" but I'm telling you...there will be someone like me one hundred years from now who will appreciate all the photos I've taken of my family.

I may not have a family, and I haven't written the Great American Novel.  In fact, I have no discernible talent but one thing I do have is a passion for researching my family history and putting the record out there for future generations.  I love it!

My Family Tree

A Short One

Me with our tour guide outside Cades Cove, Tennessee this past May

Just a short post today.  I have to get ready for work so I don't have a long time to ramble on (which should be a relief to some of my readers!)

I go to work tonight again (third evening in a row).  Last night was crazy at the hotel.  Several guests need that top notch quality service that only Ron can offer (I am a gem and I know it).

I spent all morning "relaxing" by updating my Find a Grave account and Ancestry.com.  I also made a call to the wife of a distant relative after I discovered her husband had died earlier this year.  He had helped me a lot on one branch of the family tree and I was going to give him a call next week.  While I was going through the Johnson City, Tennessee obituaries updating my records there was his obituary!  What a way to find out that my friend James Tipton had died.  We had a long conversation and it got quite emotional at times.  She told me he knew something was wrong with him and he refused to stay in the hospital because he didn't want to die alone in a hospital.  So he pulled all the tubes out of him and went home.  He died at home several weeks later. So sad but that is the way I would want to go.

Do you see what I'm doing again?  I'm talking about death.  I meant for this blog post to be a "short one" which was a picture of me and a local guy from our trip down south last year.  That's the picture at the top of this blog.

Bill were going to visit Cades Cove Tennessee.  The night before we stayed at very primitive (for me anyway) lodgings right outside the park.  The next day before we were to go in we saw a replica of "how they used to live."  So we stopped in for a visit (a $5.00 donation was requested.)  Well, it was well worth it because this gentleman took us on a guided tour of all the replica homes.  I'll post those pictures tomorrow.  But I wanted to post this picture of me with him.  He was such a happy guy that he made me and Bill smile a lot.  We still have good memories of him.  And he's a grandpa!

Standoff

Okay folks, this falls under the category "You never know what Ron's going to post."


For the most part of this extremely hot and humid day, I've been here at my computer updating my Find a Grave account.  While I enjoy updating my account, occasionally I like have to take a break from posting just names and dates.  That's when I check out the newspaper from near where my dad grew up and left when he was ten years old.  My dad was born in the mountains of western North Carolina, near the border with Tennessee.  The place where his family lived was called "The Bailey Settlement" which probably was just a shack by one of the holler roads that lead up to the top of the mountain.  Yep, my dad was a hillbilly I'm proud to say.  Of course I didn't feel that way when I was growing up but now I'm proud of that fact. My paternal ancestors were from Appalachia.

The earliest settlers arrived in those hills in the late 1600's.  They were of English and Scotch Irish descent. I've been researching my family tree for almost twenty years now and these are documented facts.

During the late 1920's, my grandfather moved his wife and nine sons (my father and his eight brothers) to southeastern Pennsylvania.  Two more sons were born in Pennsylvania.  I guess you could say technically the two new sons weren't hillbillies since they weren't born in the mountains.

My father met my Mother on a double date.  He was with another girl and she with another guy but once Mom saw him she told her girlfriend "You get in the back, I'm sitting with HIM."  The rest is history.  Mom and Pop got married (she was 16 and he was 20).  They produced three more boys (of which I am the oldest) and here I am today writing about it.

So what am I getting at with this sleazy picture at the top of this blog?  Some years ago when I visited my "roots" in those mountains, I was shocked at how little life had apparently changed since my grandfather and grandmother got out of those mountains to start a new life in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Just this past spring Bill and I were in Johnson City, Tennessee (the biggest town near those mountains) and we visited the "hollers" again and still see remnants of the homes of those very poor folk who used to live there.  However, while riding up and down those beautiful mountain "wiggly" roads (as Bill calls them), we noticed that more and more retirees from out of state have built modest homes that now dot the sides of those roads.

So I was lulled into thinking that maybe the Hatfield and McCoy days were way behind us (by the way, my Mother's maiden name was "Hadfield" - no relation) but checking the Johnson City Press today for Tipton obituaries what should I find on the front page.  Yep.  One of those men who give abad name to hillbillies.  Read the notice, he was threatening to shoot his hostages with a bow and arrow!  OMG.

One of my favorite bloggers post a weekly feature called "Mug Shot Wednesday."  Doofus here looks like a good candidate.  Come to think of it, this guy could just as easily be here in Sussex County.  Do you think?

Sorry folks, no pretty flower shots today.  Sometimes we just have to get into the nitty gritty.  It's called "balance."  Like I said, you never know what I'm going to post.  Predictable I'm not.

F.A.G.

My account for update my Find a Grave info

F.A.G. is the acronym for Find a Grave.  Find a Grave is a website that was originally started to identify burial places of famous people, (usually movie stars).

I discovered Find a Grave through a tip from my cousin Tim Tipton who, like me, made numerous trips to graveyards searching for information on our common ancestors.  Tim told me that I could go to the Find a Grave website and probably find a lot of information about our ancestors.

I went, I saw and I was hooked!  Over the years I had taken many pictures of graves and their headstones.  Now I had a place to put them.  I joined the Find a Grave community (which ironically has the acronym of FAG - oh the irony since I am gay) to share my information and also to fulfill photo requests.  Many a time Bill and I searched and visited nearby graveyards to fulfill a photo request for a far flung relative or friend of the deceased.

Me at my great-grandfather's grave in Limestone, Tennessee

Since joining Find a Grave, I have made many friends in the FAG community, most of whom are straight (again, the irony).  Like my genealogy research, sometimes I'm hot and heavy into it and then sometimes I take months off and do nothing because I'm caught up in other aspects of my life in "retirement".  More irony, I have never been busier in my life than I have in my retirement but I've also never been happier.  No irony there, just contentment and happiness and much to look forward to each day that I wake up and see the morning light.

Over the past two years I have taken hundreds of photos of grave headstones that I haven't posted to FAG. A couple of weeks ago when I was fulfilling another photo request for a FAG member, I noticed that I now have competition down here in Lower Slower Delaware for Find a Grave contributors.  In fact, I have discovered that someone else is posting pictures they have taken of gravestones!  I have dallied too long.  So for the next couple of months, I'm going to try and post my backlog of pictures to Find a Grave.com.  I may not have as many blog postings so if you're all wondering what happen to Ron, it is just that I am shifting priorities.  Just so many hours in this retiree's days.

Before I leave, one more irony.  About a year into my membership of Find a Grave I discovered who founded Find a Grave.  It is a man by the name of :

JIM TIPTON.  

Jim Tipton, Find a Grave Founder

Grand Aunt Daisy

My Grand Aunt Daisy talking to my cousin Anne Tipton on the iPhone -first time Aunt Daisy has used the iPhone - picture is indeed worth a thousand words

This is a correction to my previous posting about my 'cousin Daisy." My friend and fellow blogger sent me a comment that in Vietnam my relationship with my 'cousin", who is the daughter of my great-grandfather would be my great aunt. I check my relationship calculator in my Ancestry.com account and he is right, Daisy is my great aunt. Now none of this is of probably any interest regular readers of my blog who are used to me either complaining about working too much, getting old, or reminiscing about my glory days. But it is of great interest to me and my GREAT AUNT Daisy. I will call her as soon as I can and inform her that she is my aunt.

Now, just to make this a 'regular' blog posting, I received a call today from my manager at the hotel. He asked if I could come into work tomorrow to fill in for another co-worker who has a family emergency. Of course I said "yes" and there goes my two days off. It was nice while it lasted. Well, at least I got something done today. I canceled the 10 ton delivery of top soil and instead ordered a six cubic yard delivery to make the raised island to surround my three new and expensive river birch trees. Again, nothing of great interest to the average reader of my blog but this is what is going on in my life now.

I am looking forward with great anticipation to getting back into my regular schedule. There is just too much going on in this retiree's life right now. There I go complaining again.

Thank you Tai for notifying me of my error.

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr.

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr. - 1880

January 1867 - 13 May 1944

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr. was my maternal great grandfather.  He is the young man standing on the right holding at hat.  I do not know the context of this picture.  I received it from my cousin Randy Reynolds after he cleaned out his Mother's personal belongings when his family placed her in a nursing home.  Randy was named after his great grandfather. His mother, Jeanette Hadfield Reynolds is Randall Hadfield's granddaughter.  She was the family keeper of all the old Hadfield pictures.


Do you see a family resemblance between me and my maternal great-grandfather?  I do and others in the family say the same.  The genes pass on down.


My great grandfather was born in January 1867 in Philadelphia to my great-great grandfather Thomas Hadfield and Sarah Leighton, from whom he received his middle name.  Thomas and Sarah Hadfield emigrated from Derbyshire, England by way of Liverpool to the United States on the ship 'Underwriter' through the port of New York CityOctober 28, 1863.  Thomas Hadfield was 25 years old when he arrived in the United States.


I do not remember my great-grandfather because I was only three years old when he died in 1944.  My earliest memory of anything on this earth is when I was four years old in 1945. However, my Mother remembered her grandfather well.  She only remembered him as an 'old man' though and as some of these pictures attest, my great grandfather Randall Hadfield was a very handsome man in his youth.

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr. 

abt. 1880

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr.

abt. 1885

My cousin Randy told me that the family story was that the rest of the people (or person) was cut out of this picture by Randall's future wife, my great grandmother Belle Donaly.  We don't know the reason why but we suppose there was some kind of animosity involved towards the other person in this picture. Who else was in this picture will be one of those mysteries for the ages I suppose.

Randall Hadfield - about 1890

Quite the dapper young man with the world ahead of him.

Randall Hadfield, Sr. and his family - 1910

(Click on picture to embiggen)

This picture was taken at his father and mother's 50th wedding anniversary celebration

Randall is with his wife, my grandfather, George Lincoln Hadfield (the tall 14 year old boy standing by his right shoulder) and the rest of his family, including Randall Hadfield, Jr, sitting on his knee

Randall and Belle Hadfield abt 1942

This picture was taken on the porch of their last home on Chestnut Street in Downingtown, Pennsylvania bout 1942.  Sitting on my great-grandmother's lap is my cousin (once removed) Sandy Hadfield, the daughter (and only child) of Randall Hadfield, Jr. Randall Hadfield died in this house two years later.  

Aren't these old pictures great!  I have more to post.  I wish I had a lot more though!

Embarking on a New Adventure

Tomorrow I embark on a new adventure. I begin classes for training as a census enumerator for the 2010 census. Classes are at the Light House Church in Laurel, Delaware, 23 miles from where I live. Classes will be for one week, 9 to 5. The first three days are classroom training. The remaining two days will be in the field. When I first was told that classes would be held so far away, I told the Census Bureau representative I wasn’t interested. Part of the reason was my fear that I would be assigned to conduct census training to far away from my home. Late on Friday a higher up in the bureau called and assured me that they would make every reasonable effort see that my area of responsibility would be in the Milton-Lewes area. I was persuaded. I’m easily persuaded. So, we will see.

I’ve held many different jobs in my lifetime. But I’ve never been a census taker. Somehow this is fitting because for years I’ve worked with old census records in doing my Tipton family genealogy research. I’ve looked at those old census records and noted the misspellings and thought “why couldn’t they be more careful?” Now I will have a chance to correct that error for future generations of genealogy researchers. Maybe this is my legacy as an amateur genealogist.

Life’s patterns do work in strange ways. I started out my work career as a five year old child running errands to the local grocery store for relatives and neighbors. From there I progressed to newspaper boy, office cleaner, dishwasher at local restaurant, meat counter clerk at local farmer’s market, soldier in the Army, hotel night auditor at the Pittsburgh Hilton hotel, accounts payable clerk at Lipsett Steel Products, remittance clerk at Girard Bank, trust operations manager at Mellon Bank, research project reconcilement and control manager for Fidelity Bank, gardener on private estate, trust operations manager (again) at Downingtown National Bank, front desk clerk at Hampton Inn (hotel work again), trust operations consultant at First Financial Bank, front desk clerk at Marriott Hotel (again), front desk clerk at the Inn at Canal Square, and now U. S. Census Bureau enumerator. Along the way I took no acting jobs.

For the past sixty years I’ve always had one kind of job or another. I’ve always had to keep bringing the money in. I wasn’t one of those fortunate children whose parents were committed to putting me through college (although I wanted to go in the worst way.) I didn’t have enough self-confidence to work my way through college so I joined the Army, perhaps the best decision I ever made in my life. I learned more in the Army that I ever would have in college. I matured immensely and gained a level of self confidence one I got away from the environment that did little to nurture self-confidence.

Through the G. I. Bill I gained a college degree (associate degree in business management from Peirce College in Philadelphia.) Also, because of my service in the Army I am now receiving lifetime care from the Veterans Administration. All the years I had complete medical coverage from my banking jobs, I never used it once. It wasn’t until I lost my job with the bank that I was in need of medical care. The care I received from the Veterans Administration Medical Center was the best I’ve ever received in my life for which I will be ever thankful. Socialized medicine work for me, so there Harry and Louise.

The only serious medical care I received before was when I was 17 years old. I had failed my medical induction exam to join the Army. I was informed that I was born with a hernia. The Army would not take me until I got it fixed. I had the operation. The operation went fine but I caught a staph infection from the hospital which almost killed me. I had the staph infection for six months. After a series of operations, the staph infection finally disappeared. I took the medical examination again. This time I passed and I joined the Army January 27, 1960.

Someday I will sit down and write the story of my life. My story may be of little interest to most people but I would like to do it for myself at least and for those future Tipton family genealogy researchers. Fifty or a hundred years from now some researcher may pick that book of my life story and be encouraged to write their own life story. In the meantime, my life story isn’t over yet. I have a whole new chapter to write starting tomorrow. The adventure continues.

A New Day

As I opened up my garage door this morning to put out my trash can for pickup, this was the view that greeted me. Frost covered the grass on my front lawn. Without the wind, the 27 degree temperature was bracing instead of painful. Lights from my neighbors’ houses punctured the early morning haze. This literally is the dawn of a new day for me.

At 10 o’clock this morning I have an appointment at the Inn to take a census employment test. I have my birth certificate, Social Security card and DD-214 (proof that I was in the Army) certificate at the ready to prove that I am a citizen of these United States. This is a job that is almost a perfect fit for me. As part of my genealogy research, I work with census records through Ancestry.com. I am a stickler for detail and accuracy. I also like to get out, ride around and meet people. The only downside is if I have to take a census in an area away from my home. I’ll work the census if it is in my neighborhood or nearby. I won’t work if I’m assigned to an area like Georgetown or Dover. I wouldn’t think that I would be assigned those areas but you never know with the government. I'm hoping common sense applies.

Speaking of the government, I’m sorry to see Barack Obama get off to such a bad start choosing people for his cabinet who don’t know how to pay their taxes. What kind of rules do those people play by anyway? If I make a mistake on my taxes I get notices from the IRS threatening fines and/or jail time. Annually I fill out a means test form for the VA. If I make a mistake of even $1.00, that form is bounced back to me, threatening to take me off the VA medical care system. I guess what Leona Helmsley said all those years ago before her arrogance caught up with her, “Only the little people pay taxes.”

The other thing that makes me angry are the bonuses the Wall Street and banking executives continue to pay themselves, even though their financial institutions are failing. It’s like Senator Claire McCaskell said “What planet are these people living on?” The tired old excuse that these crooks use is “You have to pay good money to keep good people.” What? A million dollars won’t do? What’s with the billions of dollars in bonuses? It’s not that hard to understand really. The past eight years have seen the greatest transference of wealth in this country from the middle class to the upper class in our history. Now we see the result; loss of jobs, home values falling, and zero interest rates. Great job Republicans and Democrats. They’re all in it together.

Thank goodness I have my genealogy research to get me away from all of this. Recently I have met (through e-mail) several distant relatives who are researching heretofore unknown branches of my family tree. I get a great deal of pleasure and comfort discovering and sharing information about my family with other family members. I am so thankful that I have the time and resources to indulge in this favorite pastime of mine. Genealogy research and taking digital are my two favorite activities at this time of my life. I’m looking forward to spring when I can begin my other favorite activity, gardening. Each year I try to outdo myself from the previous year with an outstanding floral display. Even though I continue to have sadness in my home, I still have a lot to live for. For that I am very thankful.

Visit to Cousin Elsie

In 1994 I began my research into my Tipton family genealogy. For many years I had wondered where my father came from. All I knew was that he was a “hillbilly” from Pigeon Roost, North Carolina. He and his eight brothers and parents moved to Pennsylvania around 1929, when my Father was nine years old to work as tenant farm labor on their Uncle Don Byrd’s farm near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Two more brothers would be born in Pennsylvania. As anyone who has studied their family tree knows, the first place you start is to ask your parents questions. What were their parent’s names and when were they born? Then you ask what were your grandparents’ names and when were they born? Well, my dad didn’t even know his grandparents names. Early on, I learned when one road comes to a dead end, you go down another road. In this case I asked another relative, my Uncle Ed. He knew the name of his grandfather, my great-grandfather (it was Hiram Tipton born 05 Mar 1852 - died 1933.) Thus began my long quest to find my roots. Over the years since then I have sometimes devoted much time researching my family history. However, there have been periods of time in which my job so consumed my life, that I had to take a leave from family genealogy research. Then I had the problem of selling my house in Pennsylvania and moving to my retirement home here in Delaware that ate up over two years of my time. What happened, before I realized it, 10 to 12 years had slipped by. During that time, some of my older relatives passed on, thus ending the most valuable source of information that any genealogist, amateur or professional could have. One such missed opportunity occurred in 1996 when I discovered that my Mother’s aunt was still alive. She was 96 years old and lived in West Chester, only six miles from where I lived and worked in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. My grandmother died when my Mother was only two years old. Here was an opportunity to talk to my grandmother’s sister and find out what my maternal grandmother was like. Also, it was an opportunity to find out about that side of my Mother’s family of which I knew very little. I called her and she was clear of mind and anxious to talk to me. Alas, I was so caught up in my work that by the time I got around to calling her again, she had died. I tried not to make that mistake again. I had several interviews with my Aunt Peg (Mrs. John Henry Tipton, born 14 Jun 1915 - died 15 Jan 2006), before she died at 90 years old a few years ago. Before she passed on, she loaned me several priceless old family photos, including one of my great grandfather that I had never seen before. I scanned those photos into my computer and now some of them are posted on the Internet for posterity. Last week I called my Father’s first cousin, Elsie Mae Gouge Kilby (born February 24, 1922.) Mrs. Kilby is also clear of mind and asked me to stop by “anytime” to visit her. That is what I did today. She lives in Kelton, Pennsylvania, right over the border between Delaware and Pennsylvania. Ironically, her house is just a short detour from the route I take to my Mother’s house in Pennsylvania. Bill and arrived at the agreed upon time, 1 pm. She lives on a heavily traveled turn on Rt. 796, Jennersville Road in a house that is over a hundred years old. Her divorced son lives with her and is her caretaker. Coincidentally by Mother also lives with her divorced son who watches over her. Elsie Mae Gouge Kilby is the daughter of David Gouge (born 05 Mar 1881 died 1946) and Cynthia Abigail “Abby” Tipton born 29 Aug 1880 died 30 Apr 1971). Abby Tipton was the older sister of my grandfather Fieldon Jacob Tipton, Sr. (born 04 Jun 1884 – died 08 May 1939).
Mrs. Kilby welcomed Bill and me into her 100 year old home. She introduced us to her son, Robert “Buster” Kilby. We got settled into our seats and I took out my family lineage sheets for her family. I read dates to confirm with her. She corrected me on some dates, and added dates that I did not have. She shared some anecdotes with me like the time she and her husband eloped to Elkton Maryland with my Uncle Ed Tipton and his future wife Mable Thompson to get married. They wanted to keep it secret but the news of their marriage was in the newspapers the next day so the "secret" was out. Cousin Elsie told me that "back in the day" one got married "first." Then she produced a reprinted picture of her father David Gouge as a young man when he attended Milligan College with his first cousin, David Edwards. This was exactly what I was hoping for. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an original picture but a poor ink jet copy. I asked her if I could borrow the original copy so I could scan it into my computer. She said she would have to “dig the pictures out” and asked if I could stop back because she couldn’t do it now because she was recovering form a recent fall. I gave her reprints of pictures of my grandfather, grandmother and her brother. She did loan be two old pictures, one of her brothers and sisters and mother taken in 1963. The other picture was of her and her sister Mary with their mother taken about 1918. What I’m really after is that picture of her father looking handsome and majestic in is suit along with his cousin in their official college picture. Another cousin, Anne Tipton (born 21 Aug 1935), had loaned me a picture of her father, George Britt Tipton (born 31 Mar 1897 – died 28 Dec 1969), son of my grandfather’s older brother Dove Tipton (born 11 Nov 1875 – died 22 Jul 1951) that was also his official Milligan College student photo. Finding these grand old photos of these handsome young men and beautiful women is one of the great joys of discovery when doing genealogy research. While I like adding dates of birth and death and marriages and children, the special treats are when old photos are discovered. With these old photos I can scan them into my computer and eventually post them to the Internet so these individuals will never be forgotten. I add these photos to my family tree and now I also add them to the web site Find A Grave.com. That is the true joy for me in genealogy. First I discover my roots. Secondly, by permanently recording this information I leave a legacy for future generations. It is a good feeling. Today was a good day. I’m looking forward to my return visit to Cousin Elsie.

Searching For Gravestones In Cemeteries

A few weeks ago, my distant cousin (Tim Tipton), and fellow genealogist researcher called me to inform me that he was finding more Tipton headstones in cemeteries in North Carolina and Tennessee. For many years I have searched cemeteries for records of my ancestors. I've taken many pictures of their headstones. Tim has been posting his photos and information to the Find A Grave.com website. Ironically, this web site was founded by another Tipton, a Jim Tipton. There must be something in the Tipton gene that pulls us towards exploring cemeteries. Through Tim Tipton and another fellow Tipton researcher, Paul Tipton of California I discovered Find a Grave.com. Now I am posting my own cemetery photos to this web site. From my location here in the southern most county of Delaware, Sussex County, I had determined that most of the cemeteries in my area are unrecorded on Find a Grave.com. Thus, I have another "hobby." It's more like a passion. The extra dividend this pays is that I can also look for cemeteries and take photo requests for friends and relatives who live far away and cannot visit the final resting places of their loved ones. Below is the text of an e-mail that I recently sent to a fellow Find A Grave.com member who is going to take photos of the final resting places of my partner. His Mother and Father are buried in the Toccoa City Cemetery located in Toccoa, Georgia. All of us who are posting to Find a Grave.com are volunteers. It is heartening to know that there are so many volunteers who are willing take their own time to help bring peace to distant relatives of the deceased. This has really been an excellent week. We have elected a president that gives us new hope for a better future. Barack Obama has promised to end the divisiveness that has poisoned this country for far too long. The world has shown by its joyous reaction to the election of Barack Obama that we're on the way to be respected again in the world community. It is indeed heartening to me to know that there are still unselfish people in the world who are willing to help and make life better for all of us. It is a good feeling. Below is the text of my e-mail to my fellow photo volunteer:

Ron,

At first I put graves on findagrave, but I do so many hundreds of photos for myself and everybody else I know, I could not live long enough to post them all on findagrave. So I just e-mail the photos to the people that request them and ask them to post on findagrave. I wish I had time to do my own. Some of my "cousins" and I have several private family web sites, and I post all my photos on there. There are several people I have met on findagrave that I take pictures of any of their family names I find when I'm out and about - and I'm out and about EVERYWHERE in about a 50 mile radius, so you never know what you might run up on. And invariably some of the ones I find are people in their family they never knew existed. So it's a lot of fun, and I enjoy it - it's really the only serious hobby I have.

Anyway, I just took my dogs out - and it's raining! But maybe it will clear over the week-end so I can get the photos.

Pat

Pat,

Guess what? This morning I found two of the three photo requests that I had from Find A Grave.com. I am so happy that I found them. These are my firsts photo requests. This is the fourth time I've been to the St. Johnstown Cemetery in Greenwood, Delaware. I recently retired to Delaware (November 2006) from Pennsylvania. I'm still learning my way around down here. I've never been to this cemetery. It was an adventure for me to go to that part of the state for the first time. This is a learning experience, fulfilling photo requests for grave sites. I thought I would find the cemetery and, viola! There would be the grave. Nope. It didn't work that way. My first visit, it was so cold and windy (big time wind down here on the flat plains of seaside coastal Delaware) that I could hardly stand it. I returned and couldn't find the graves that I was looking for (Lester Cleaves, Matthew Faulkner, and Lonnie McAdams.) Finally, I called the church pastor. She didn't know where they were buried (it's a large church graveyard - very pretty) and she advised me to call the man who actually buried the decedents. I called him and he told me the location of Mr. Cleaves who, as I suspected, didn't have a headstone yet (from his picture, he looks like he comes from very humble circumstances). I couldn't find them on the third visit. After receiving your e-mails last night, I decided to give it another push. This morning I made the trip again under cloudy skies. The skies threatened rain. However, I was determined to find Mr. Cleaves' final resting place. I have the print out of his picture looking at me whenever I'm at my computer. It makes me feel guilty that I haven't found him yet. Well, this morning, about the third grave site I checked, there he was! Some plastic flowers, and a little plastic covered market with Mr. Cleaves visage starring at me. I found him! Quickly, I took a picture before the rains began to fall. Below is Mr. Cleaves.


Now I was on a mission. I wanted to find the other two photo requests. One was for a one and a half year old baby named Matthew James "Matt" Faulkner. His smiling, sweet little face also looks at me (it's on a print out I have clipped to my clipboard near my computer) every day when I'm on the computer. I was convinced that this baby was at the big Faulkner headstone with all the plastic flowers. However, I couldn't find a place marking for him. I was looking for one of those plastic ones since he only died this year. Well, this morning I found him. He was located away from the family Faulkner headstones and by himself. The photo of his grave site is below:

Coincidentally, his final resting place was very near Mr. Cleaves' grave. I quickly took this picture and then began looking for my last photo request for the grave sit of Lonnie McAdams. However, the rain really started to fall now, so I had to leave. I will return when the weather is more accommodating. One thing about searching and exploring cemeteries, you know they are not going anywhere.

A New Passion

Here I am pictured at my grave site at the Northwood Cemetery in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. All I need now is a headstone. I haven't decided yet on what I want for my permanent memorial. I do know that I want something unique for my counterpart next century who will be researching me. Yep, my new passion (actually an old one that I've revived) is cemetery trolling. I don't know why, but I've always enjoyed walking through a cemetery (preferably on a nice sunny day - not at night) and reading headstones. I can't explain it, but I feel a sense of completeness when I read the headstones and wonder about the people below and their history, their life. I first started exploring cemeteries looking for dates to back up my genealogical research. However, I soon discovered a relaxing karma (no better way to explain it), as I walked and communed with the departed. Recently I discovered a web site devoted entirely to graves called Find A Grave.com. How ironic to discover that the man who started this web site was also a Tipton. Jim Tipton is his name. I haven't contacted him yet but I will. I think his interest is more in finding graves of famous people, which is find. That is also interesting. My focus right now is finding and recording as many graves of my ancestors as I can in my remaining lifetime. Oh how I wish I had started doing my family research when I was younger. However, it was much more difficult then without the advent of the Internet. The Internet has opened up so many more avenues of information that it almost overwhelms me. But that is good. I firmly believe everyone must have a passion in life. Mine is my family research and recording as much of that information as I can before I depart from this planet. Even though I'm getting a lot of my information from the Internet and other Tipton researchers, nothing replaces the "in person" visit. Visiting distant relatives and recording their verbal history before it is lost. Also, if I'm lucky, those distant relatives will have pictures of our common ancestors. That's how I found the picture of my great grandfather Hiram Tipton. I had never seen a picture of him before. What a thrill that was seeing it for the first time. I look forward to my remaining days knowing that I have so much history to uncover. I'm not a religious person but sometimes I do think a greater power put me on this path. Just maybe.