Ad Hoc Genealogy

Visiting casually with a man this morning who belongs to my club. He's from Kentucky, is almost 78, is a retired farmer and works with, of all things, mules, for amusement. Belongs to some kind of association that raises them, trains them to work, for show, etc.

"What is your last name?" I asked.

"Evans," he said.

"Well, what was your father's name?"

"Perry," he said.

"Was your mother's name Gladys?"

"Yep."

"Well, I'll be danged! We're cousins, then."

I told him Perry came to my dad's funeral in 1968. Perry died at age 92, Charles (that's his proper name, although he has the nickname "Sug" as in sugar) told me. Charles -- "Sug" -- has a brother we called "Pee Wee." I'd incorrectly recalled that Perry and Gladys (and Sug and Pee Wee and Toad -- love those nicknames -- Toad was merely a play on Theodore -- and a sister whose name I've forgotten) lived near Crestwood, Kentucky, but the nearest town was actually Smithfield, where there is a wonderful restaurant called "Our Best." Sug told me that Pee Wee lives close to the original family farm, which was sold when Perry and Gladys died.

I also told him that in the early 1970s, my son John, his MaMa, and I visited Perry and Gladys at their farm, c. 200 acres. Perry took John and me for a tractor ride across his land and we visited the cattle herd. I saw that one of the Charolais cows was a bull, and I said, "Do you think it's safe to get off the tractor?"

Perry laughed and said that he'd never had a mean bull and this one was no exception. Indeed, the big fellow looked up at us for a moment and continued grazing, obviously wishing us no harm. We did keep our distance. Sug laughed and said they'd had no troubles with bulls but there was one mean cow they'd had and she had charged Sug when he was dealing with her calf. They sold her.

Sug invited me to come visit Pee Wee with him and I think I will do just that. We will have fun.

Sug also told me that he had a female relative who married a man named Bowyer, and that is another lost name of interest in my genealogical quest, so I may be able to get some more information about my roots.

I told Sug that our common (?) great-great grandfather was also named Charles and that he'd been born in 1791, had married Lena Palmer (b. 1791) in Cynthiana, Kentucky, and had then moved to the Providence District of Trimble County, Kentucky. Charles ended his days, apparently, living with his son and my great-grandfather James T. Evans (the CSA Orphan Brigade corporal) there, and that was where my grandfather, Tom (John Thomas) Evans, grew up.

It's kind of like detective work and it's pretty exciting.