Digging for History

Grandma Maggie

I was looking for an interesting person to share in this posting and put my stacks of history books away and decided to stick with the theme of sharing history through my own personal stories. This is what I know of my Grandma.  She was born Mary Magdalene in Ripley, Tennessee in January  1899.  She did not like her name and called herself Magalene, then Maggie L. , then Maggie.  What I knew of my paternal grandmother was that she lived in Memphis and had been a teacher in a one room school house.  

Grandma's teaching certificate dated July 1918.

She was married twice and had two children from her first marriage.  One of the children was sadly killed in a fire.  

The child on the left is my Daddy the girl is his sister Mary.  

I knew  my Grandmother was active in her church and was a woman of faith.  As I dug for more clues about her I found them in her bible.  Her bible had keepsakes, a dried leaf, newspaper clippings family history (names of relatives) and book marks that held the place of familiar readings.  I remember summer visits with my Grandma and her taking us on outings to show us off to her friends.   I wish I knew more about her.  She passed in the 70's . I wonder if I was like her at all.   Maybe it was her DNA that influenced my becoming  an educator also.  I gifted my daughter with her name linking her to our family history.  We carry our elders with us sometimes by choice and sometimes by who we become.