Cetacean Family Object

(AKA Julie Griffith)

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Family Migration

This is a picture of my grandparents, my father, and his sisters.  It was taken in Athens, Texas around 1930.   

     My mother descended from Irish and English parents whose families left their homeland to escape poverty only to be confronted with it in America.  They settled in rural Tennessee and eked out a living as share croppers trying to feed ten children.  My grandfather died when my mother, who was the youngest, was twelve and my grandmother continued on, I assume, until all her children were grown and self sufficient.  My mother left Tennessee in her early twenties and, other than the above information, did not talk much about her family except for occasional comments about their extreme poverty.

     My father descended from more affluent pure English ancestors.  My father died when I was seven years old, so my information about his family might be somewhat flawed, but this is what I know.  The Elledge family came to America sometime in the mid to late 1800’s from England.  They settled somewhere in Pennsylvania and there were enough of them, and they were affluent enough, to organize their own town which they called Elledgeville.  At some point in time, I’m not at all sure when, some of the clan settled in Texas.  They bought a considerable amount of land in Texas that, as far as I know, my relatives still own.  My grandfather was the son of one of them.  I do not know what my grandfather did for a living, but he married my grandmother and had five children.  My father was the middle, and only boy, child. 

 

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