From English grammar to a family history lesson.

I typed this blog weeks ago. I wasn't happy with it at the time so I set it aside for a bit. I have gone back and edited it some. I did get some of the old family photos scanned so I feel better about posting it now. 
It just didn't seem right to not post pictures of Great Grandma Carrie when I was going to blog about her.


I have a few different blogs that I like to follow in my effort to keep myself entertained. I read one this week about the current use of the English language. It reminded me of my Great Grandmother Carrie. She was a school teacher and passed her ideas of proper English on to her only living child, my grandfather. One of their pet peeves was ending a sentence with a preposition.

Where are you at?

Wrong. Bad form. Incorrect.

I can still hear my Grandpa say in answer to this, "Between the A and the T". A nonsense answer in response to a poorly worded question. He was supposed to have learned this saying from her. Just in case you don't know...... The proper way to say it is "Where are you?".
You never know, I might have some one reading this that would not know that. I wouldn't want to leave them wondering.
It could happen, me the one who needs an English lesson, could teach someone something.  For those that know me well you can quit laughing now......

I think of him and her every time I hear someone say it incorrectly. I have caught myself saying it that way too. I am sloppy in my speaking habits. I try to do a bit better in my writing but I am not a writer. I catch many mistakes when I proof read but I always find more when I go back and read it after it is posted. All of this made me stop and think about what Grandma Carrie would think of the world today. Her world was so very different.

Carrie E BOYD b: 23 Dec 1884 in IN

She taught at an Indian school called Requah somewhere in Mayes County, Oklahoma. 

Here is a photo of the old school building she taught in.  It was long closed when this photo was taken.

 

From what I have been told she had to quit teaching after she married. She was considered an old maid by the time she married. Only one of her children lived past infancy. They all had a milk allergy. My Grandpa was able to survive on goat milk.

Here is a picture of them. 

I know if it was me I would have the hardest time not over babying my only living baby!

That side of the family is supposed to be Wyandotte Indian. I have not been able to confirm that though. The French called them by a different name, Hurons.  That is a name that is seen in history books.  I did find the family in the 1900's on a Indian reservation when Oklahoma was still Indian territory.

1900 census: Wyandotte Nation, Ology Boyd(41,IN) Nov 1858, sawyer, saw mill, Emily (39,IN)

Aug 1860, marr 22 yrs, 5 of 8 chil living, Dora(18,IN) Oct 1881, Warren(17,IN) Jul 1883, teamster,Carrie(15,IN) Dec 1884, Ada(13,IN) Apr 1887, Emma (10,IN) Dec 1889

Here is a picture of Grandma Carrie and her little sister Emma.

Emma is on the left and Carrie is on the right.  I don't know what year it was taken.  On the back it only lists their names and that it was taken in Wyandotte OK. 

I don't know why the family moved from Indiana to Oklahoma. They are listed as white in the census but whites were not allowed to live in Indian territory back then. Confusing. I know many people did not claim their Indian blood because of the poor treatment they received. Is this what my family did?

I like the Ology name of my GG Grandpa. I have heard his name was Oliver. I can see the little census taker going from door to door asking families their names and my Grandpa saying Ollie G Boyd. Of course this is just a guess because an earlier census (1870) has him listed as Zoology when he was 12 yrs old. There is just no telling what that poor man's real name was! (His headstone simply says O. G. Boyd) Some of the names of other families in the same area were very much Indian names. I think my favorite Indian name on that same 1900 census was Chops A Log. Did his family shorten it when they talked to him? I like names so it makes me wonder.

I was able to trace the Boyd line all the way back to the 1500's in Scotland. There was a quick stay in England. An English lady married into the family at that time. Then the family was back in Scotland, A short stay in Ireland then back to Scotland. Then off to the good old USA. I don't know what year they came to America. All I have is when the when the last Boyd in our family line was born in Scotland.

James BOYD b: 6 MAY 1669 in Kirkintilloch, [parish], Dunbartonshire, Scotland

The next James Boyd was born in the Virginia.
So here is when one branch of my family made it to America. Some where along the line they must have married a Wyndotte Indian. I don't know if it was Emily, that was married to Ology/Ollie/Oliver/Zoology. I don't think it was the next generation back. Daniel Boyd's wife has a history that does not seem to account for any Native American blood.

DANIEL BOYD, farmer, York Township, born in this county in 1831, is a son of Elijah Boyd, whose history appears above. He grew up on the farm with his parents, and shared the limited advantages of the common schools. In 1854 was married to Laura A. IRBY, a native of Indiana, and daughter of Joseph A. and Eliza (WALKER) Irby, natives of Tennessee and Indiana respectively. Her parents married in this State and subsequently moved to Illinois, where they now reside at Caving Rock. After his marriage Mr. Boyd began operations for himself; he made his first purchase in 1857, which he sold in 1860, and then purchased his present farm of 113 3/4 acres, on which he has since resided and has done a general farming business, and has been fairly successful. Mr. Boyd has reared nine children: Fernando, Ology, Angeline, Joseph, Jennie, Emerson, Norris, Daniel and John.

I think I need to look closer at back when the family was living in Ohio. That is where the Wyandotte's were from before they were made to move off their traditional lands.

So how did I get from a complaint of poor English to this long drawn out family history? Simple. My weird head made the connections and I went with it. I tend to over think things. And I tend to carry on too much.

But I wanted to document that I still think of my Great Grandma. It happens pretty often too. She was an interesting lady. I wish I knew more of her story 1st hand. I was too young when she died to be interested in family history. That interest came many years later and much too late to ask her. I do cherish the memories that I have. She was always kind to me. She lived next door to Grams and Gramps and I remember walking over to visit. I learned how to braid hair from her. She had very long hair that she kept braided and wore it wrapped around the top of her head. I remember helping her with it after she washed it. I remember looking and gently playing with some glass trinkets that she had on display in her house. I was always so surprised when she let me play with them. My nick name back then was Debbie Do and the Don'ts. I was always being told Debbie DON'T touch that. (I wonder why? LOL!) Great Grandma Carrie never told me no. She just asked that I be careful. I was so thrilled to be given the chance that I was extra careful. Decades later some of those same little trinkets sit on a shelf in Gram's house. I still remember them being on a little mirrored display on the top of a wooden side table. The table wasn't as lucky. It didn't survive.

Here is a photo of what she looked like when I was a young girl. 

No that is not me in the photo.  I wasn't born yet when this picture was taken. 
She still looked like this when I was about 6.  She always wore a dress.  And her hair was always braided.

You aren't forgotten Grandma.