Tombstone Tuesday

Ida and Ebenezer Brady forever resting in Union Cemetery, Guthrie Center, Iowa.

Pumpkin Tree

A bit festive eh?

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Who is Lula Nettles?

Well, it's Lula Octavia Nettles to be more precise, and aside from her being my great grand aunt and the name and face behind this blog, I'm not really sure!


I know that some of our family heirlooms have come from her (I think our hand painted fine china that my mom has).  There is a picture of her with the rest of the family with my great grandmother as an infant.

I know she was born in Texas in 1875 and lived to be 90.  I had never met her.  I had heard stories of her from my grand mother and she reminded me so much of what I remember of my great grandmother.

Researchers still don't know when she got married... we do know she had 2 boys, both of whom also passed before I was was born.  Sometimes it is not exactly advantageous to be the young researcher!  For some unknown reason she has caught my interest! There will definitely be more to come on her - consider this her rather brief introduction.

Are you ready to know who you are?

I have gotten a lot of questions from people once they find out that there is a 24 (almost 25!) year old obsessed with genealogy.  Let's face it, most of us who caught the genie bug are much older than 24.  The main question I get is "What got you into this?".  Such a simple answer comes with quite an interesting story- thus the rest of my family tree! I simply wanted to know where I came from.

I grew up not knowing many people from my dad's side of the family.  There was a reason for that and as I dug deeper and deeper I began to find out why.   Many many dark secrets start to come out of the woodwork... I remember a stranger telling me to be careful- what I find will not please many people.  A lot of skeletons get excavated amidst the rubble that is our relative's pasts.  The damage was done years ago and the ripples felt even through to today.  If not careful, it could cause more damage.

I feel that anyone who dives into genealogy must be prepared for anything- good and bad.  To know who you are is to know where you came from.  Parts of my family are a mess- quite literally.  Generations of fighting relatives, torn apart for various reason- neither one really worth it.  It is still that way, it hasn't changed much. 

I feel I understand members of my family better.  I also have a better relationship with my dad because of the work we are doing together on this project.  I also have a new, stronger sense of pride when I say " I know where I came from, and I will never forget it!".

Mary Rutter... where did you go?

I have been searching for links in my family tree for a little bit over a year now.  I had always had the interest just never really had any idea on how to get started.  Then with my dad's discovery of a complicated family line we both decided to dive right and and see what we could find.  One of the things that we found was Daniel Brady.  He is my third great grandfather.  He was a brick wall to knock down.  We were actually able to make quite a bit of progress on him (some has been mentioned in prior postings on this blog) while others still remain a mystery to us.  The biggest would be his wife, Mary Rutter.

There is several pieces of information that declare Mary as the mother of several of Daniel's children- all of which were born rather close together and because of poverty were sent to work as indentured servants on other farms.  One thing that we fail to find is a marriage record or even a census record listing Mary as his wife.  Part of this is because the census- as it is now- is only done every 10 years.  Their marriage was believed to last for five years or less.  She does not appear on the 1860 census (anywhere!) and doesn't resurface until 1880.  Daniel is listed in the 1860 census but is not listed as or having been married.  There is supposedly a divorce document floating around, though I have yet to see it and the one who has it has yet to share it. 

When she reappears in the 1880 census in Indiana, she is married to William Rice and has had 3 more children with him.  Also on that same census is Albert Brady who is listed as the 1/2 son of William.  Albert is 2 years older than William and Mary's eldest.  She passed away in 1912 in Indiana at the Soldiers Home.  We have so much to learn about her and she has been our biggest brick wall.  Others have reached out looking for information on her too, but I have only been able to provide what I have- which is very little.  Even her own great granddaughter hardly knows anything about her.