I chose to post this on June the 28th because it is in between the two days that I could have posted it on. My mother, Margaret Marie Ferguson, was born on June 29, 1938 and died on June 27, 1990. She was born to Elsie Mae Norton (Nordan) and Morris Singleton (Singletary) Ferguson.
My grandparents were the bane of all genealogist, they changed their own information without the benefit of legalities. Elsie maintained that she was born October 29, 1910 when she was listed in the 1910 Census (taken April 1910) as a 6 month old child. Not hard to figure out that she was born in 1909. She and one of her brothers decided they didn't like the spelling of their last name so they changed it from Nordan to Norton. My grandfather couldn't decide what his middle name was so he varied between the two. While my grandfather was dead when I was trying to do my genealogy, my grandmother was alive for about 25 years after I started. No excuses, hunh? So, lesson 1, 2 and 3 - document, document, document. A person's recollections can be tainted with a bad memory, a desire to be younger than her husband, or having stories handed down which lose their truth as time goes on. (I suspect that the age confusion began when my grandmother realized that since her husband-to-be was born on October 10, 1910 she was almost a year older than him. Hey, it matters to some people.)
Both of my grandparents were from Johnston County, North Carolina. The Ferguson line came to America from Scotland by way of a colony in Virginia and down to North Carolina. I have a written story about how the Ferguson line came through a family with two sons and a daughter and were in a colony that was attacked by Indians while the two sons were out hunting with a group. Supposedly the entire colony was wiped out except those that were out hunting. I tell you this story because it is what has been handed down on the Ferguson side. Remember what I said about stories being handed down? This is also the side that is supposed to have an Indian in the lineage because of the foreheads and cheek bones found on the Ferguson side. I've done a lot of searching and have not found any evidence for either story but at least the story about the colony in Virginia is written down and I can find the people, just not the story.
The Nordan side is one that I traced to England. (I think. I'm doing this from memory and remember what I said about memories??) Most of the people I found on this side were farmers and stayed in the same general area. I was fortunate to know my great-grandmother on this side. Elsie's mother was Polly Ann Norris and though her birth date was never confirmed, I do have the date she thought it was. She was nearly a hundred when she passed away. I think Jennifer was a baby when Polly died. Both Polly and Elsie were excellent quilters and I was really pleased when I learned how to quilt and could have something else in common with them. I kept in touch with my grandmother more to honor my mother because I knew too many things about her to really like her. Horrible to admit I guess, but it's the truth. Polly on the other hand was a delightful woman and I am glad I got to know her.
Margaret was born fifth of seven children. Her only brother was 13 months younger and they were the closest. When she was 13 she had a really bad year. She had Rheumatic Fever that resulted in a heart murmur and damage that lead to the valve replacement surgery that she died from years later. She also had Bright's Disease. She was sent home to die and was really sick for a while but she got well in spite of their sage advice. After she recovered she went back to school but was a year behind all her friends and never fit back in. Then she fell in love with a boy, found herself pregnant and sent off to an unwed mothers home. The baby died about a month before the due date but the doctors had her wait until she went into labor so she had a period of time ofcarrying around this baby that she knew was already dead. I have no idea why, I only tell you what Mom told me. The baby was a boy. Needless to say, going back to school was no longer an option so she dropped out and went to work.
I'm not going to reveal ALL of the warts on the skeletons in our closet but I will say that my mother did not have good memories of her mother. It disgusted the know-it-all teenager in me to see her trying to win her mother's love and that of her sisters who didn't care about her either. I know times were different and child rearing has changed over the years but one thing even I could see as a child growing up, Mom was the black sheep of the family. Some of her older sisters did things that were horrific and some were even illegal. Yet they were the "good" girls while Mom was the "bad" girl. Basically, Mom got caught and that was her biggest sin. I continued to visit my grandmother until she died yet I do not feel the least bit guilty that I no longer have contact with Mom's sisters. I have cousins that I would love to see and have a relationship with but not enough to go back to the way things were.
My Dad dated one of Mom's sisters and met her that way. He didn't like the way she was treated by her sisters or her mother and knew that Morris was too afraid of Elsie to stand up for Mom. After a few months of seeing Mom, they decided to marry. It all came to a head when he went to the house to pick up Mom for a date and he caught Elsie beating Mom with the cord from an iron. He stopped it and promised that she was never going to lay a hand on Mom again without consequences. If you knew my Dad you also know he didn't say it that nicely either. Personally, if my 16 - 17 year old daughter was dating a man eight years older than her, a man who had just come back from Korea where he served in the Navy???? That is actually one of the things that my Dad listed as why Elsie was a terrible mother.
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