Happy Thanksgiving from Moran Place

While we give thanks today for all of God's blessings we take time to reflect on our family members that have passed on.  This is Kent's father, Nathan "Bub" Moran, taken about 1981/82.  Thanksgiving was always a big event at Moran Place and even though Bub was ill, you can see he took his role of turkey carver seriously!  

Merry Christmas from Moran Place 2013

Virginia Shumate Moran bundled these Christmas memories together many years ago.  When I unraveled the ribbon that had tied them together I found that most of the names on the gift tags were of her close family.  Sisters Louise Shumate Durway passed away in 1921 and  Maibelle Shumate Harris passed on in 1960, both in Texas. 

After the death of their parents, Nathan M. Shumate and Margaret Jane Adams, the three sisters went to live with their Uncle Quincy Shumate in Newbern TN.  The Quincy Shumate family became the girls second family and they thought of their cousins as siblings.  Hattie Mai Shumate Kingry died in 1956 in Colorado. Martha Belle Shumate Baum also lived in Colorado, date of death is unknown but about 1959. 

The tag to from Virginia from Aunt Mollie is most likely from Mollie Tatem Collier, wife of Robert L. Collier, of Crab Orchard Kentucky.  The Collier's didn't have children of their own and the Shumate girls spent a lot of time with the Collier's after the death of their mother.  Mollie died in 1938 and Robert in 1942.

The tag from "The Cobb's" would be from Virginia's sister-in-law, Marion Moran Cobb.

Money Makes the World Go Around 1899

Since the Moran's owned the Dresden Bank we have quite a bit of bank ephemera as you can imagine.  I came across a Dresden Bank check from James B. Ezzell to W.W. Shannon in the amount of $500 which was an impressive amount of money in those days! We won't ever know what the money was for but it's an interesting piece of family and bank ephemera.

On the left side is a Revenue Tax Stamp of two cents initialed and dated by J.B. Ezzell.    We may not have tax revenue stamps on checks in 2013  but I bet there are a lot of hidden fees behind banking today!

On the back you can see the path the check took to get back to the Dresden Bank.  The Shannons' lived in Macon Mississippi so the first stop was the Bank of Macon Mississippi, stamped by N. Scales the cashier.  Then on to the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis where it was stamped by J.A. Omberg, Cashier.  Making it's way to Nashville and the Fourth National Bank where it was processed by J.T. Howell and then back to Dresden.

Here's a closeup of William Washington Shannon's signature on the back:



If you're interested in the Shannon Family you might like to read the post about Montie Shannon.  Montie was the second born of W.W. Shannon and his wife Ellen Owens.  She was also the second death among their children.  Their first born, Callie, died in 1882.  Montie came along in 1884 and survived only 3 years.  Most of this branch of the Shannon Family are interred at the Oddfellows Cemetery in Macon, MS.  If you'd like to virtually visit the graves and leave flowers you can find them here.

Here's the Ezzell/Shannon/Moran family connection:

Side notes:  James A. Omberg, the cashier in Memphis, went on to become the President of the First National Bank in Memphis!  He's buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Noah Scales, the bank clerk in Macon, is buried in the Oddfellows Cemetery with the Shannon family.

Joseph T. Howell, the bank clerk in Nashville, is buried in Mt. Olivet and went on to have a distinguished career in banking.  His headstone proclaims "Mason, Banker, Pioneer Patron of Aviation."

Genealogy Creep

Genealogy Creep, sometimes known as Genealogy Spread.  Caused by the ever increasing desire for another place to sift through old, dusty, moldy, dirt laden "treasures" requiring more and more room to place items of interest to be researched for that next blog entry, scanning project or a place to sort those boxes you're waiting to pick up on that next visit to the family home.

Symptoms: watery itchy eyes, sneezing, and sniffling due to the dirt and dust. A noticeable change in demeanor when people try to "touch" your stuff or even worse move it!  An insatiable urge to join sites such as Ancestry.com and Genealogybank.  Poking around in cemeteries and knowing more about your dead relatives than your live ones.

Treatment:  At this time treatment options are limited but include Benadryl, learning relaxation techniques, practicing yoga, and limiting computer time.  :)

Genealogy Creep has been known to be contagious!

This used to be the dining room table.  Now it's a victim of "genealogy creep" and is just
one of the many places in our home that have been taken over by the past.

Things you might be surprised to find in your family tree...

Click to enlarge

Search for Consanguinity at Amazon!

Turner Morehead had two wives.  Not at the same time of course. Ann Ransdell was his first wife and she had a lot of kids. Mary (Polly) Hewitt Hooe was his second wife and they had a bunch of kids as well.  All told Turner Morehead had about 20 children.  As you can see, that caused a huge snarl in the family tree.

I've color coded the connections but  I'm sure I've left out a few somewhere in this part of the tree.  For now I think this shows exactly why our son was born with one pinky shorter than the other!  Heh.

As my son says, "that's jacked up mom."