You
can learn from your past, but it takes effort sometimes to trace the history of
unknown ancestors. Rose Eddington of St. George, tells us about the
difficulties she had trying to gather information about her father’s side of
the family because he never talked about his parents. Rose was able to find out
later that her dad had mixed feelings about his father who deserted his family
when they were traveling cross country leaving his wife with three children to
support. Later, the mother and her daughter died in the influenza epidemic in
1919 leaving the two sons alone. Rose’s father the oldest son married, and
helped his younger brother enlisted in the Navy. A sad story and easy to
understand why Rose’s dad didn’t want to talk about his past.
It wasn’t until years later that
she learned more of her father’s ancestry from a step brother who shared the
history of her 2nd great grandfather Reuben Phillips: Born of
Welsh descent, he was born in Tennessee. Well educated, he taught school for
one year, married and started a family. He moved his family to Little Rock,
Arkansas then to California where they settled first at Clements near Stockton
and built a home. Eventually they moved to Oregon and bought a farm. After a
few years they returned to Cambria then moved to Los Angeles.
His grand daughter Stella Phillips
describes him thus: He had what is called wanderlust––never living too many
years in one place. As they were pioneers, in a wilderness, they had to begin
at the beginning, which was a necessity––building a house. When a girl married
in those days, she took upon herself an almost impossible job. Besides the
needful housework and cooking, there was also the spinning and weaving,
supplying the whole household with clothing. There were no sewing machines, so
everything must be done by hand. A mother was busy from dawn until the wee
small hours, then up again at dawn. Reuben Phillips and his wife
were Christians in the Baptist faith. I have seen Father Phillips so full of
the love of Christ and his teachings that he would laugh happily to himself. I
loved to hear him talk. His wife was more quiet.
The first step in gathering your
ancestor’s stories is to check home sources. Contact relatives that might have
information or old photos to share. NEXT TIME: Share Your Past. I’m looking
for stories about your parents to publish in my column. How did their lives
effect you? What important principles did they teach you? Leave your family history in a comment.