Genealogy
My interest in family history begin when I was about 14 years old. My mother’s family held a family reunion of sorts in the small southern Indiana town of Hazleton where she was born. My mother was the oldest of eight children born to Charles and Blanche (Manning) Redfairn.
Being an only child, it was exciting to me to see so many people that I was related to. Since we lived in Memphis, Tennessee at the time, we only got to visit my mother’s folks about once a year. The family reunion was actually the first time that I saw some of these relatives in my life. I didn’t realize that I had so many cousins, aunt’s and uncles.
I remember after we returned home to Memphis, I started writing down all the names of the people I had met at the reunion and how they were related to me. My mother was always good with names and dates, and provided much of the information that started my family tree.
After a while working on my mother’s side of the family, I began to realize that I knew almost nothing about my father’s side. My Dad was never much of a talker when it came to his family. I always thought that it was because he wasn’t very interested in his family history. But soon I discovered that it was because he really didn’t know much about his family.
My Dad’s father Joseph Bryant Reeves was born in 1884 in Gibson County, Tennessee near the small community of Gibson Wells. His father Stephen Decatur Reeves who was a Civil War veteran died in 1886 when Joseph was only two years old. Obviously, Joseph didn’t get to know his father much at all. Joseph also died young at the age of 44. My Dad was only 19 years old when his father Joseph died, so he didn’t really have a lot of time to learn about his family either.
What amazed me so much was that my dad didn’t even know what his Grandfather’s name was. This was one of my driving forces in wanting to learn more about my family. It was as much for my dad as it was for me. When I first found information on my Dad’s Grandfather Stephen Decatur Reeves, it was like my dad had a new hobby too. He was excited to discover that his Grandfather had fought in the Civil War. The more I found out about Stephen Decatur Reeves, the more my dad wanted to know.
One of the pieces of information I found was an agricultural census of Gibson County, Tennessee for my Great Grandfather and his family. It detailed a complete inventory of farm animals that the family owned, how many acres of land they farmed and even how much butter was produced by the family. My dad was thrilled to find out about these things and so was I. It gave us a sense of what the day to day lives of these people must have been like.
My Dad passed away on January 19th, 1989 at the age of 80. I will always be thankful that I was able to find out this information about the Reeves family before he passed. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to know that I was able to do this for him.
Barry
