These are my parents. My mother was a child of 13 when My daddy first met her. He was a man of 25. That is unthinkable in this day and age, but in 1937 , it wasn't. They married 3 years later when my Mom was 16 and my Dad was 28. I have read some of his love letters to her that my sister retains and it is obvious that he fell pretty hard for her. They were married in a double Ceremony with my Daddys brother Robert and Josephine Andrews on June 22, 1940. My mom had just turned 16.
My mothers name was Blanch Beatrice Morris and my Dad was Elmore Lee Peacock. You can tell by the past tense that they are both gone. Mom died in 1978 and Daddy followed her in 1986 due to an automobile accident. It was hard growing up with them as my parents until my Daddy stopped drinking when I was a teenager, then he became the best Daddy anyone could ever want and I am really thankful for that. They had 6 children together.
I believe that this picture was taken the day they married. My Father is on the right with Robert in the Center and my Uncle Hardy on the left.
This picture is the youngest one that I have of myself and I was about two. You can see that I was barefooted and the picture was taken in my front yard, according to my sister Ruby. This was the age I was when my parents entered into a legal separation. They didn't divorce until years later, and they never lived together for any length of time after that.
This is me at 5 with my younger sister Donna Gail. She is almost 3. We were inseparable as children because we were all that each other had at night when we were afraid. We are in front of the house that my Daddy built in 1949. My sister inherited the family home when my father passed away and still lives there. I visited recently after having been away for many years and it was a deja vue moment for me:-)
I have studied the early years in my family for almost 30 years now and I have discovered many things about my family that I am proud of and some that I am not.
When I began my journey in 1982 , I just wanted to know who I am, and where do my people come from? I made my first visit to the National Archives and was immediately overwhelmed by all the reels of things that I had no clue about. I did not know anything about how to look up the names or find out where they lived in any given year, but there were kind people there that helped me take my first steps.
One of the first questions that I had to ponder was would I be able to live with what I might find? I always ask this same question of anyone that desires to look into their own past, as many secrets have been hidden or “swept under the rug” and genealogy exposes them to the air again in many cases.
Some possible things that may happen is that you could be kin to your own husband and not know it.
Your Grandmother could be born in a brothel and you may never know who your G Grandparents were. This was the scenario to the kind gentleman leading me around and showing me where to find things. He softly asked me “ are you sure you want to do this?” Well of course I am sure, but I had my first heartbreak that very day. He introduced me to the census and I sat down with excitement starting with my Grandfather and when I found him, I also found my Great Grandparents but they were living apart. As I dug deeper, I discovered that they were divorced. My Great Grandfather James Hardy died in 1912, the year my Daddy was born, so they had an official divorce before 1900.
I had tears in my eyes as I looked at the evidence before me. I guess I was shocked because I was divorced and I had hoped that I was an anomaly in my family besides my parents. But it was not to be. We had a generational legacy of divorce in our family but it went far deeper than that. I uncovered tall tales that had ounces of truth in them and I discovered where I came from.
Here are a couple of photos of my Dad's parents, my Grandparents. Grandpa was named Lucious LeeRoy Peacock and Grandma was named Lula Arritta Creamer, after her Aunt Arritta Gilmore, her Momma's sister. Daddy ended up naming most of my 5 brothers and sisters with some type of Lee in it to honor himself and his daddy. By the time they got to me, Gloria Ann Peacock, they had dispensed with that for which I am thankful. Someone told me that my brother LeeRoy wanted to name me Suzy and I wish they had let him because I have disliked the name Gloria all my life. Many people have called me Annie over the years and now most know me simply by Kimmee and I like that!
Grandpa Lucious and Grandma Lula Creamer Peacock
They had They had 7 children but one died at aged 2 of Fever according to my Aunt Mary Elma, daddys sister.
My Aunt Elma, daddy's sister told me that the day this picture was taken Grandpa was in pain with his gall bladder or kidney. She could not remember which but Grandma wanted a picture so she cajoled him into it. They both look to be in pain to me:-)
My Grandmother was a remarkable person and the one that I credit for helping me turn out in love instead of hate. I had a hard start in life but she always showed me love and it is true that if one person cares, it can make a huge difference in ones life.
Grandpa Lucious and Grandma Lula Creamer Peacock in front of the house that I remember as a child in Jay.
Grandma Lula and her sister Lizzie Creamer
This is the census from 1930. You can see my Grandparents and my dad listed. He is 18 as he was born in 1912.
This is a photo of My Mothers parents. Her parents were 1st cousins and both named Morris. Her Dad was named Admiral Dewey and her Mom was named Ola. Everybody tells me that I look like her and I think I do too. They had 7 Children.
This is how I remember Granddaddy Morris
He used to come to the house a lot when I was a teenager. He never remarried after Grandma Ola died in 1954. She was only 51 and the story is that she starved to death feeding her children from her own plate. Food was scarce in those days and Grandpa could not keep any kind of job. It was hard to feed all those kids and I believe that is one reason my mother was married off so young.
This is the 1930 Census with my Maternal Grandparents and my Mom at age 5. She was born in 1924.
This is not meant to offend anyone as I am a Southerner born and bred myself, but they say that genealogy in the South is easier because there are few branches on the tree and that has proven to be correct in my family. Cousins married each other, nieces married their uncles, and all in all it is a confusing line from the Morris and the McCurdys on both sides.
My Great Grandparents on Mamas side were both Morris' that married McCurdy's..
The line looks like this so as not to get any more confused than you are going too:-)
Myself Gloria Ann Peacock
Daddy
Elmore Lee Peacock
Paternal Grandparents
Lucious LeeRoy and Lula Arritta Creamer Peacock
Paternal Great Grandparents
Lucious= James Hardy and Amanda Diamond Peacock
Lula= Josiah Blackman and Mary Jane Gilmore Creamer
2nd Great Grandparents
James Hardy=Levi Jr.and Mary Elizabeth Johnson Bell Peacock
Amanda = Robert and Harriet Ray Dimond, Diamond
2nd Great Grandparents
Josiah B. Creamer= Michael and Mary "Polly" Odom Creamer
Mary Jane Gilmore= William and Caroline Finklea Gilmore
3rd Paternal Great Grandparents
Levi Jr.= Reverend Levi Senior and Jemima Pearson Peacock(Quaker)
Myself Gloria Ann Peacock
Mama
Blanch Beatrice Morris
Maternal Grandparents
Admiral Dewey and Ola Morris
Great Grandparents for Admiral
William Dave and Elizabeth McCurdy
Great Grandparents for Ola Morris
Ervin and Charlotte McCurdy
2nd Great Grandparents
William Dave= William "Bud" and Matilda Jane Spears Morris Said to be Indian
Elizabeth and Charlotte McCurdy= George Washington and Mary Jane Carnley McCurdy
Ervin = Burril-Burrel and Rosannah Carnley Morris (sister to Mary Jane Carnley)
Matilda Jane Spears. Unknown. According to Aunt Elma, Matilda is an Indian and her parents were killed by white on Mims Island and the rest of her family integrated with the white settlers to save themselves.
The reader is beginning to get the idea of how intertwined the lines are now. Elizabeth and Charlotte are sisters and their parents, my 2nd Great Grandparents were George Washington and Mary Jane Carnley McCurdy. GW served in the Civil War and was wounded. He was an invalid after that and died in 1879 having never recovered from his wounds.
Ervin and William Dave are Uncle and nephew adding further confusion.
This is a picture of Great Grandfather Ervin Washington Morris
Great Grandma Charlotte "Lottie" McCurdy She had 16 children, 13 of them lived. Story is that she was 12 when she got married and since she had her first child at 13 or 14 this is entirely possible.
I don't have any photographs of George Washington or Mary Jane Carnley McCurdy
I do have a picture of George Washington McCurdys father. His name was Elijah McCurdy and he married Barsheba Sunday. She was only 13 when he married her and he was her Guardian. He was in his 30's at the time. There are scandals on this side of the family right and left but I won't go into all of them at this time. So that the reader does not think that it is my Mothers side that had all the scandal, entire books have been written about the Peacock line of scallywags on my Fathers side:-)
My Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather Elijah McCurdy..This photo belongs to Leamanda Barnes, a cousin of mine. ( I had the photo colored)
The one thing that I have found on this journey is that if there are family secrets, they will be uncovered and you might not always like what you find, but find it I must so I journeyed on.
Elijah's parents are unknown and many are researching it at this time to find out how we can connect this line to Scotland and to King Robert The Bruce of Scotland. It surely goes back to there as the names all coincide with familial names from the 5 McCurdy brothers that came to this Country from Ireland in the mid 1700's. It is just a matter of narrowing them down and gathering the evidence to support it. You can say all kinds of things in genealogy but if you do not have the evidence to back it up, it is hearsay.
To be continued... Love to all, Kimmee
You can read about the Peacocks here:
http://www.peacockfamily.org/
And The McCurdy /Morris connection here:
http://jenniferhsrn2.homestead.com/mccurdy.html
