I have sort of been alternating between my father's and mother's relatives; however, because of my research finds today, I am making an exception and posting about another paternal ancestor.  This is my great-grandmother Sally Belle Gibson Alexander.  She was my father's father's mother and my sister was named after her (Sally Belle Alexander).  She's another one I did not know personally, as she died in 1920.

Sally and her two brothers--John & James--were under the age of 12 when their father, died in 1862.  Their mother was still living; but in that era, women did not automatically become guardians of their children.  I was paging through Rockbridge County chancery records (online through http://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery) and found that John A. Gibson was appointed guardian of these three "children" at least through the settlement of the estate, which lasted until after Sally was married.

The most interesting thing I learned from the chancery records was that Grandma Sally's name was actually Sarah Isabella Alexander.  It appears on many pages of the record both before & after her marriage.  That tidbit explained an aberration I had discovered a while back in a book of indexed birth records that listed Sally's name as Sarah J.  In handwritten records, Js and Is are often misread, so I'm sure the record says Sarah I. 

Grandma Sally married James William Alexander in 1875 and one of their children was my grandfather, John Addison Alexander.  I saw estate records dated 1877; so, you can see that Sally's father's estate took a while to be settled--at least from 1862 to 1877. 

James W. Alexander died in 1890 and left Sally a widow with several underage children.  Several years ago I saw the court record that appointed her guardian of her children.  At least she had a little more status than her own mother.

Oh, and I called my sister today to tell her that she could/should have been named Sarah Isabella!

From the Lexington Gazette dated 20 September 1911. 

At the Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution State Conference, I attended a workshop on genealogical resources available through the Library of Virginia. One of them was the site called Chronicling America at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/.  This is an effort to digitize America's historic newspapers.  So I searched the Lexington Gazette for my paternal grandmother, Janet Fultz.  This is one of the articles that  showed up. 

I especially liked this article because the attendees included two couples--my grandparents Janet Fultz & John Alexander as well as Greenlee Firebaugh & Ossie Dunlap--before they were married in 1913 & 1914, respectively.  And about 29 years after this party, the children of these two couples were married.  Robert Tate Alexander and Sarah Elizabeth "Libby" Firebaugh were married in November 1940.  Tate & Libby were my aunt & uncle and I have many memories of them.  Maybe I can share those in a later post.

Gracie Allen Van Pelt Royall Barnett.  I remember my grandmother telling me she had a really long name and she would recite the list.  She is the only grandparent that I remember.  Of course, when I knew her, she didn't look like she looks in this picture!  She was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1885.  She married Samuel Moorman Royall, who died shortly after the birth of their daughter, Eleanor. 

I recently discovered through Census records that Grandma then lived with her mother's sister, Grace Brown. She worked at Miller & Rhoads department store to support herself and her daughter.  She later married John Graham Barnett (my grandfather) and had three more children.  So that's how she got all those names. 

I remember visiting Grandma in Richmond at her house on Florida Avenue.  It was a really cool house.  She had a swinging door between the kitchen and dining room; a shower in the basement, which had a dirt floor; and an upstairs back porch with stairs going down to the yard.  She also had a goldfish pond in the side yard and lots of flowers.

Every summer I would go to Richmond and stay with her or one of my aunts.  It was nice to be the center of attention and I got to experience city life.  A regular thing was to go to Miller & Rhoads Tea Room for lunch where my Aunt Eleanor was the hostess.  They had children's menus in different shapes (one was a rabbit mask) and escalators! When I went with her to the Methodist Church, she sang all the songs without looking at the hymnal because she knew them all by heart.

Grandma would come visit us on the farm, too.  She always had lifesavers in her pocket that she would share (the 5-flavor kind); cherry & lime are still my favorites.  She went to great lengths to get me to stop biting my fingernails.  She gave me a manicure kit & tried to bribe me with $5, but I just couldn't quit. 

There are several sayings that I attribute to her and all the siblings & cousins agree.  She would say that something would be ready in "two shakes of a lamb's tail."  I've heard others use that expression, too. But one expression she would use that I have never heard anyone else say was "I'm going to ramsquizzle you through a buzzard's wing!"  This was NOT a good thing.  We didn't know what it meant; but it sounded awful and when she said that, we knew we were in trouble!

She also came to visit us after we moved to North Carolina.  She would fly down and back.  In fact, my first airplane ride was flying from Winston-Salem to Richmond on a plane with her when I was about 12.

Gracie Allen Van Pelt Royall Barnett died in 1972 when I was in college. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond.

I love this picture! (Got it from my cousin, Bruce Alexander).

These are the Fabulous Fultz Females. Grandma Ida, the mother of the other four women, is the older one in the middle.  From left to right they are, Katherine Fultz (married Albert Luther  Bennett), Janet Ingles Fultz (married John Addison Alexander, Sr), Ida Virginia Willson Fultz, Josephine Fultz, and Mary Draper Fultz.   Ida also had a son, Isaac "Ike", who is not pictured. 

Grandma Ida was my great-grandmother and her daughter, Janet, was my grandmother.  I did not know either of them; but I did know the other three, who were my great aunts.

Draper trained as a nurse at Stuart Circle Hospital in Richmond; but when I remember her, she was living with my Uncle Jim.  Draper's room was at the top of the stairs off the dining room.  She baked the best homemade yeast rolls! And she swore by Rumsford baking powder for all recipes involving baking powder. She also was a knitter.  I inherited skeins & skeins of baby yarn from her, as well as several pairs of baby booties and unfinished baby booties.  She always seemed happy and I never saw her get annoyed or angry with anyone.  She liked to watch the birds and kept a diary of the birds she saw.  Among her writings was the following poem, that gives insight to her sense of humor.

     Spring has sprung.
     Fall has fell.
     Winter is here
     And it's colder 'n usual.  

Josephine, who we apparently called Phine-jo when we were very young, was a nutritionist at the Medical College of Virginia when I first remember her.  She graduated from Virginia Tech in 1929. (I'll have to talk more about that in another post.)  She lived in an apartment in downtown Richmond near MCV.  She once gave me a ride from Fairfield to Richmond to visit my grandmother (my Mom's mother) and that's when I saw her apartment.  I just remember she drove & I probably irritated her with my "Are we there yet?" questions.  She later retired and moved into Jim's house in the back bedroom that we still call Jo's room.  So she and Draper were both living with Jim & his family at that point.  Her personality was not like her sister's.  She often seemed grumpy and would speak her mind about things. Before she died, she gave me an applique quilt that she had partially completed.  I'm sorry to say it is still not finished.

I probably knew Katherine least well of these great aunts.  She was married and lived in Fincastle, Virginia (I think) when I was very young.  I remember seeing her and Uncle Al at some family get togethers.  And I remember visiting her house once.  After Uncle Al died, she moved to an apartment in Richmond just off I-95.  When I was in college and first living in DC, I stopped by to see her there several times.  She was very sweet and always happy to see me.  She tatted and I think she also crocheted. After she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, I didn't see her again; but we wrote each other a few times. 

P. S. If you look very closely in the upper left, I think that's my Aunt Libby Alexander on the porch.  

This is my great-grandmother, Mamie Elizabeth Love Barnett.  My mother, Jean Graham Barnett, is the dark-haired girl in the middle.  She is flanked by her cousin, Mildred Muire; brother, Scott Barnett; and sister, Ruth Barnett.  This picture was probably taken in the late 1920s in Richmond, Virginia.

I didn't know any of my great-grandparents.  In fact, I only knew one of my grandparents--my Mom's mother.  The great-grandmother in this picture was my Mom's father's mother.  She was born in 1864 in Mecklenberg County, Virginia, and died in 1930 in Richmond, Virginia.  She married John Graham Barnett, Sr., who was from Clarksville, Virginia. 

Mom said her father, John Graham Barnett, Jr., built a house for his mother and sister in Richmond next door to her.  So she saw her grandmother often.  My mother called her Grandma Barnett as opposed to Ma, who was her other grandmother.  But that's a story for another day.

This picture of my Dad, Jack Alexander, with his older brothers, Jim & Tate, was in an old black construction paper type photo album that a family member gave to my Dad.  It was dated 1921 by the person who created the album--probably my Aunt Midge given the photos that were in the album.

Because the picture was taken before my father's father died in 1923 and because of other pictures in the album that were taken at the same time, I know that the boys were in the yard of their home in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

Midge was Mary Annaliza Alexander (my father's father's sister).  She died when I was 2 years old, so I don't remember her. I do know that she was born in 1887, became a nurse, never married, and died in 1954. She also is responsible for the basis of much of my original family tree data.

In 1941, Aunt Midge hand copied a manuscript that described my 5th great-grandfather, his two wives, their 15 children, and their descendants through the late 1800s. In my early 20s, I received a photocopy of her work from my mother.  My recollection is that my Aunt Libby (Tate's wife) was making copies of Aunt Midge's book for her children and asked my mother if she would like copies for us.  My mother got a copy for each of her children.  (I could be wrong about the Libby part, but it was someone in the family).

Having just attended the Fairfax Genealogical Society's spring conference, I am taking up DearMYRTLE's challenge to start blogging about my family tree.  I'm past the hard part, figuring out a name for the site that I can live with!  Next I'll pick a topic and try posting some pictures.  (She said it was easy, we'll see).