A Hiatus and a New Find

Last March shortly after my last post I had a medical emergency of sorts. I went to the ER the end of March in severe pain and found out I had a badly diseased and infected gall bladder. It could not be removed immediately but I could not eat as it was blocked. I had a billiary tube put in for about two months then had the surgery. After coming home I discovered the large incision was not healing and I needed to have a wound pump and wound care. This was my entire summer and I didn't do much research during that six month period. I have found it hard to get back on track but I am trying. A distant cousin had offered to do some research on my great grandfather, William Frank Kinard to find his parents.She did but I noticed that he was born in a different town, different birthdate and had another name on some documents and this didn't feel right. I did have his social security number so I sent for his orginal application (filed when he was in his late 50s.) When I received it I learned that his parents were two entirely different people and I was then able to locate his siblings on an old census. I finally have the names of his parents. That was a brick wall I kept hitting. Lesson learned. Don't trust other information given to you unless it checks out and feels right and when looking for someone's parents, if you have their social security number you can find them on their original application.

Making Progress

A few weeks ago I typed letters to everyone in Alabama who had the name Joseph Kinard. I knew that my Uncle Joe Kinard (he is listed on some documents as Joseph Lee but his gravestone says Joe F.) had two sons, Frank and Adolph. I couldn't find anything on Adolph after he turned about 7. I began to wonder if perhaps he changed his name. When I sent letters to the Kinards I found I included a Joseph A. in Mobile, Alabama. Sure enough, about ten days later I got a letter back from his son. During the war he had been teased about his name and started to use his late father Joe's name instead. Here is what I learned from Joe's son, now also called Joe. His father had hired someone to help him on the farm (which was in Flomaton, Alabama. His parents were buying the farm paying his grandfather for it I believe. His Dad was just 27 years old and went to confront the hired hand as someone reported to him that he had been selling the corn feed for the cattle to others which Joe had bought for his cattle. When he arrived it appeared someone had warned him and he was waiting with a shotgun. Younger Joe said that his father was shot in the chest but survived for awhile. He made his way into a cattle trailer but fell out and was injured during the fall. His mother told him his father was probably fatally injured during that fall. The farm hand was arrested and served a prison sentence but Joe couldn't remember his name. Joe tells me life was really hard for him just under 2, Frank 3 1/2 and his mother, Ervie. She took them for awhile to her father's. After awhile she dropped them off at an orphanage and turned up years later remarried. This happened a few times. When he was with his mother and step-father living in Pensacola, Florida he met several of his Dad's family members. He spoke fondly of Uncle Shug (nicknamed Sugar Boy) and his daughter, Virgie. He told me of visits with my grandparents. My Dad was out to sea by then. Talking to Joe was like being with my Dad and his parents again. They use the same phrases and have the same take on things. It was so comforting. Joe is my first cousin once removed. I finally got him to send me a picture. He is now 78 years old. He looks exactly like his grandfather whom we call Papaw. Ironically, Joe does not remember him as he was so young when he last saw him. I do remember him and we talk of him. It's hard to understand why Papaw did the things he did. He never watched out for his son's family. His son was just 27 when he was killed. I wonder if this is because he lost his wife when she was just 38 and he was severely depressed, perhaps never fully getting over that loss. I do not this for certain, I am so happy to have found Joe. I plan to make my way down to the Alabama/Pensacola area sometime this Spring if I can. I want to get my arms around Joe. He has lost all his family except for one son. He is so happy to have some family again. If anyone needs a good hug, I think he does.

Pressing Onward

I think one of the hardest things about searching is when you hit a brick wall. That means you have searched everywhere you need to and just can't find anything more. I've hit that with my great grandfather (Dad's mother's father.) As far as I know he was born in 1879 in South Carolina. His last name was Kinard and there were four males born that year that might be him. In those days the birth was registered by a family member whenever they had time. The name of the baby is not given. That's another problem...I have his name as William Franklin Kinard in his obit and on a few things. Seems he liked to use Frank a lot and did and there are some records that have Frank T.??? Remember he began working long before social security. I know where he was in 1922-6, in Flomaton, Alabama. That was where my father was born. In 1926 many of my great grandmother's family had Typhoid. My great grandmother had given birth two years earlier (my grandmother, her daughter was 21 at the time) and never fully receovered from that at age 37. My great grandmother lingered for a long time before dying. Four months later her mother died from it also. At that time my grandmother took my father (age 4) and her two baby sisters (ages 2 and 5) to her home in Alexandria, Louisiana. My youngest aunt didn't remember my mother. The boys were still at the "farm" barely making ends meet. At some point my grandfather left the farm and went to Texas where he worked for the railroad. When the girls were teens and in a rebellious period they went back to live with their father in Gregg, Texas where he worked. Many years passed and while her sisters kept in touch with my grandmother, her father did not. She got a call years later to come pick him up as he was living as a hermit and not doing well. She took him to her house where he remained for the rest of his life. NOW I would like to know; where in South Carolina did he come from? How did he meet his wife who had born in Florida and lived there? Why was my grandmother their oldest child born in Mississippi? So many questions. The saddest thing is this: my grandmother, the oldest outlived all her siblings. Her brothers died, one at only 27 and the other about 60. Her sisters both died fairly young. There were alcohol problems with the siblings, except for Joe. I cannot find Joe's two children, Adolph and Frank. Frank is called Joe. I have a photo of them. I wish I knew more, so much more.