CHAPTER 1
THE FORDS
I've been interested in genealogy as long as I can
remember. I was born in Louisville, Ky. June 12, 1930. My
grandparents lived all the way across state from us. (Tompkinsville, Ky.) The
first I can remember is about the age of 2 when we moved to
Madison County, Kentucky, We were about the same distance
from my Grandparents, around a hundred miles, or a all day
trip by automobile in those days. My Grandfather, Samuel Ford
died 28 years before my birth. My Grandmother, Eliza, died
when I was about 5 years old. and My Grandfather Benjamin Price
Ford died when I was about 7. The one remaining Grandmother,
Bell Ford, lived until I was about 26.
by
W D Ford, Jr
She knew very little about her ancestors. I did
search her mind while she was still in good health, but
really very little information was gained. "The folks came
from the (Old Country), in a wagon train. There was some
kind of trouble and they left in the middle of the night!"
So, before her, her husband, and my Dad's parents, I
had little information. Also, I soon found that any kinfolk
I talked with knew less about our ancestors than I. The
feeling I got was that they didn't know, and they could care
even less. A couple of exceptions were Flavil Ford and Sandy
Speakman Poe.
Flavil Ford is the only first cousin I stayed acquainted
with throughout the years. He died about 3 years ago.
His son, Michael is now interested in the family tree.
Sandy Speakman's Father,"Floyd", and his Brothers, Joe
and Amos,and I, were childhood playmates and remained best
friends. Joe was killed in the Korean War and Floyd died a
few years back. Amos and his wife still visit us at the
time of this writing, and we visit them. They live in
Madison County, Ky. Amos is retired from his very
successful career with IBM.
What triggered my intense search for knowledge of my
Ancestors? Why the search? I think that all my Uncles and
Aunts are dead. A few of my first Cousins are still alive,
but not one could I find, or recognize should I meet them on
the street. I have spoke to my only Sister only once
since our mother died. I have no ideal what my nephews and
nice are doing.
Perhaps a catalyst in the search was I needed something to
occupy my thoughts. In 1969, I lost my job just to be
reinstated in it over a year later. I was a Electronic
Engineer working for the Army Corps of Engineers in charge
of a Test and Evaluation Laboratory. The Laboratory Chief of
Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, of which my
Lab. was one, was a Military Col. that took a dislike to me.
When ordered to reinstate me, my Laboratory was dissolved
and I was given a meager job with no challenge. I had too
many retirement credits to give up and it was not feasible to
relocate with a bad reference. So, "I became one of those
reinstated government employees that never work out.", I
survived by finding other interest.
I think at this point of my search I know that if I
don't finish what I have searched out, and recorded, it will
be lost forever, while if I can leave a record, someone may
at a later date be able to search even further into the
past. With Internet becoming popular and more genealogy
sites appearing, searching will become easier, and searching
overseas will be possible from sitting in our own living
rooms.
Man is the only being capable of leaving
individual records of past generations that can be read and
understood by future generations and he doesn't brother to
do so. Isn't that a waste ?
What was my Father and Mother like ? My Dad in his
later years was inflicted with arthritis and bored to death
by inactivity. He had been a farmer and had managed a 600
acre tobacco farm in the heart of the Blue Grass of Kentucky
for James Stone,who was Secretary of Agriculture under Hoover. I
once said to Dad, "Why don't you write a book ?", well, he
didn't even want to talk about it. Till this day I don't
know if he didn't think he had the talent to do it. Or the
knowledge.
I don't think I really knew my parents. Sure, I know
Dad liked watermelon, open beef sandwiches, like to eat in
Greek Restaurant. Liked to play cards, to shoot craps, like
to fight (but didn't much). He wanted his children to get all the
education they could. My Mother ?, a very hard working
woman, milked cows, raised chickens, raised a garden, did
the house work, cooking, raising of the children, quilting,
sewing. listened and watched soaps on the radio and TV. She
spent about 4 years in bed during the time I was in the 5th,
6th, 7th,8th and 9th, grade. I did the housework and look after
her while home and going to school. She was treated for
diphtheria, which she didn't have, heart problems and almost
died before she was found to have a deficiency of vitamin K.
Although I have traced the Fords back to 1679,
that seems very little when compared to the history of mankind.