52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks 2019 Challenge #2 Challenge

This week's word is challenge which is an interesting theme because it can be viewed from so many POV. We all have challenges that affect our lives in our own ways & I don't think time, whether it's the current day or the past, changes things too much. The past year has been a challenge & as the months have passed, things have continued to be a challenge for us. But I am reminded of two ancestors, women (& they are not the only ones whose lives could have been seen as challenging) who had to deal with not having a man in their life to help them from day to day. One was my maternal great grandmother Susan Elvira Dennington Turnipseed Stewart whom I have written about before who sent her husband away to prison & was left behind to finish raising their children by herself. Another was my maternal third great grandmother Mary Ann Covington Holland. I don't believe that I have written about her before so I will do so today.

Mary Ann Covington was the daughter of David Covington & Rachel McIntyre. She was born on 19 May 1824 in Rutherford County, NC. She married John Benjamin Holland who was a son of John Rickman Holland & Elizabeth Walker. They were married in 1843 & migrated to Texas in 1846 where they took up land & settled in Burnet County, Texas. Burnet County was a wild & lawless part of the Texas Hill Country then. Their third & fourth children (daughters Harriet & Mariah, my gg greatmother) were among the first white children to be born in the area. I was able to find several land transactions among the ecords of the Burnet County Courthouse during my last visit to Burnet in 2017, including a bill of sale for teenage slave girl that Mary Ann owned which surprised me greatly at the time because I thought the Holland family had left that way of life far behind them in GA. Indians roamed the territory killing settlers from time to time & generally running amok, until one day in the summer of 1856, they came upon Mary's husband John & killed him. He was laid to rest in the family burial ground on their homestead where they still rest together today, but this left Mary all alone with several children still left to raise. It would be a challenge in any era to have your husband & sole supporter die & leave you with all the work of raising children & running a farm, but it must have been even more so back then. Mary managed to do it all on her own somehow & lived to the ripe old age of 96. She died in Burnet County on 22 February 1921. I would have liked to ask her what life was like back then. There is only one known photograph of Mary which makes me laugh. I'd like to think that she's where I inherited my bad hair days from. I don't know when the picture was taken or how old she was, but all joking aside, she looks like she was possessed of a great amount of determination (if not a determinedly grumpy looking disposition). I'm sure some of the things she lived through were not easy on her, but without her determination, I would not be here & I'm grateful to be of her line.

52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks 2019 Challenge #1 First

It is a new year & a new 52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks challenge. This week's key word is First. As before, the key words are not intended to be specific. They are just to get you going. This post will be short as I have already written about this particular ancestor before in years past. The word first brought to my mind an ancestor whom I loved very much in this life who was gone long before I was ready to give her up. She was my paternal grandmother & her name was Beulah Mae Houston. She was the first ancestor I can think of in my family who was married multiple times (in her case, she holds the record for it with a record number of six different spouses. You can read more about her if you're so inclined by clicking here. We will see how far I get on this year's challenge. The first year I participated, I made it to June. Last year, life got in the way for us & I only made it four weeks due to circumstances beyond my control. Again, new year, new challenge!