Brick Wall Crumbles....Discovering Isaac.

From "Isaac King....My Ultimate Brick Wall" - What I have learned in this seemingly never-ending search is that I should reserve all judgement until I have verifiable proof and not get my hopes up. I can recognize my need to know more and be sensitive to my dad and what he may be feeling. It has been a long road and the end is nowhere in sight but I will continue to search until I find that one clue or hint that breaks down that brick wall. I know it's out there...I just have to be patient. I WILL find out who Isaac King was and where he lived."

That is what has been keeping me going the last 16 years. Whenever I started to feel that this search was hopeless, I would think I just had to be patient and I would find him. Well that day finally came and it was so surreal. It was a regular Sunday...nothing special going on when I received a call. It was from the mother of a match I had contacted on Ancestry. I had recently spoke to my dad about his family and realized that there had been some major miscommunication about Issac's last name. It was not King and I could not believe that in all this time, we had the last name wrong. I immediately contacted the cousin that had been communicating with me so far and noticed that she listed this surname in her tree.  In my last message, I had left my phone number to contact me. We begin talking about our connection and family surnames. She asked me what was the name I had for my biological grandfather. When I stated his full name, she responded, Oh! That is my uncle. I was stumped. I was at a loss for words. What was I supposed to say now? It was like my brain stopped working. Thankfully she asked me what I knew about the history between my grandparents. I repeated the story that I was told:

"Isaac and Vera had been dating for a while when she became pregnant. After she had my dad, she went to see Isaac to talk about their future. She found Isaac at another woman's home and he refused to come outside. The woman told her that he did not want to see her and to go home. Vera, in a fit of anger, threw a rock at his car and stormed off. Later she found out she was married and she felt betrayed. Isaac did not want anything to do with them and she never spoke to him again."

She stated that she will reach out to her Uncle and my heart stopped. Until this moment, it never occurred to me that Isaac could be alive. My dad is in his late 60's. I had assumed that Isaac died a long time ago. The knowledge that I have a living grandparent out there was surreal. She went on to say that she will see if he would be willing to speak with me. I am really not sure what I replied with since my mind was still reeling but obviously I gave her some answer that gave the impression that I was okay with whatever she was saying. I could not believe how fast this was going. I called my dad and let him know that I found him. I told my dad that I may get to talk to him soon and did he have any questions. My dad was not interested but told me to call him when I heard something back. 

 I hung up and tried to figure out my next steps. First on the agenda was a Google search with the new surname to see if I could find any new information. BINGO!  I was then able to do some research on Ancestry and find info on his parents and grandparents. It is amazing how the pieces started coming together once I had the correct name. For the first time since I found out that John Keys was not my grandfather, I knew who my ancestors were. It is a surreal experience to have a clear picture of who your family is and that is such a part of how you self-identify and then lose that. You start questioning everything about yourself.  Your quirks and personality become puzzles. Which piece comes from which ancestor? My whole world was rocked when I found out John Keys was not my grandfather. I definitely felt like I had lost a precious part of myself. I was afraid that I would change for the worse because I did not have this person who was the moral compass of the family. Now I was faced with a new living grandpa. I wondered if I was able going to be able to speak to Isaac.How was he going to respond to a new grandchild appearing in his life? Was he going to be open to communicating? Was he going to deny the connection? Was he going to be an ass? I nearly drove myself crazy with questions.  Luckily, within the week, I was able to have a brief conversation with Isaac. He was very accepting and friendly. I asked him about Vera and he told me a different version of the story, however he did not blame everything on my grandma. His version was :

"Vera and I had a relationship. Her dad lived down the street from us. When she became pregnant, I wanted to raise my son but she did not agree. She then left the area and I did not see her again until two years later."

I know from records that my grandma did leave Chicago at this time and moved to Tennessee with a new husband (although she was still legally married to John Keys as they did not officially divorce until the 70's) and they had two children, a son and a daughter, Vera. Baby Vera died a year after she was born. My dad told me he met his dad when he was around 5 and he did not like him. My personal thought was that by this time my dad was being raised by John Keys and was happy with him and did not want another dad. Isaac told me that he spoke to Vera off and on over the years about my dad and checked in until she moved to California in the 60's. He then lost track of them. My personal thought at this time is that there is three sides to every story: his side, her side and the truth. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I figure that Vera was unhappy in her marriage to John and I can't imagine that he was too happy either. The year my dad was conceived, Isaac was 19 and had just lost his own father. I think that they were two people dealing with emotional trauma and leaned on one another but neither was ready or mature enough to deal with the outcome. I think my dad should have a conversation with Isaac because neither of them are getting any younger and it may be their last chance to do it. 

Looking back now, I can now admit that there was no change to who I am. I was raised by good people and they instilled their values into me. In a way it validated my personal ethics and cemented at least for me, who I am and how much pride I have in myself and my family. Regardless of Isaac, I will always be a Keys. My next steps now are to research Isaac's ancestors and figure out their story. I am open to having some type of relationship with Isaac but I am happy with the grandparents I had and I do not feel that I am missing out if that doesn't happen. I have no idea how my dad and brothers feel about Isaac but I would accept whatever decision they make in that regard. The best part of this process is that I now have the names of my paternal ancestors and I get to discover their stories.

Wiley Keyes, Willis "Buck" Keyes and Isom Keyes Duckworth - The Hunt for the Connection

Isom Keyes Duckworth was my 3rd great-grandfather. It took me a over a decade to find him and begin to fill in his story. Isom is special in the sense that he seems, at least to me, to have been a strong prideful man during a time when it was dangerous to be a black man in Mississippi, sometimes even fatal. Isom was born in 1842 in Taylorsville, Mississippi. He later married Jane Crosly and they went on to have 13 children together, at our last count. Pretty straight forward, right? But the qualities that make Isom special are in the details. 

Isom was born a slave and we believe the slave holder was Wiley Keyes (born 1807 South Carolina died 1889 Mississippi). One of the first of many mysteries was discovered this last year. We have census records from 1880 - 1920 for Isom and his family. In 2016,  a 1870 census record was found that listed Isom's surname as Keyes. Why did Isom change his name from Keyes to Duckworth? Was he a Duckworth first, sold to a Keyes and changed it back to Duckworth after slavery ended? We are not 100% sure who Isom parents were but we knew that he listed the birthplace of his father as South Carolina on every census he was listed on. While perusing through the census records, I noticed the other names that lived around him. There was Willis Keyes, (Black) and Wiley Keyes (White). I believe these two will lead us to a definite conclusion about who his father is some day. 

1870 Census Record for Willis Keyes

1880 Census Record for Wiley, Willis and Isom

First, let's discuss Willis Keyes. Willis was used as a buck during slavery and was called Buck up until we were able to discover his real name. Willis was born in South Carolina in 1815. He appears on the 1870 census with his wife and approximately five children. I say approximate because I was unsure at the time if one of the adults listed is his daughter or daughter-in-law. Now it is rumored that Willis had about 7 different families and we have only documented one. I recently found Willis on the Freedman's Bureau record. It was a share cropping agreement between Willis and his family and their former slave holder, Wiley Keyes of Mississippi. The documents lists all 15 of his children, information that we did not know. The document is an amazing find as it was signed July 3, 1865. It also gives us a way to track all of Willis's children with his wife Jennie. There is a mystery about Willis: for some reason in the 1900 census, he went back to the name Buck. It is a curiosity. Because both Willis and Jane disappear after the 1900 census, I assume that they passed before the next census in 1910.  I believe eventually we will find the families of Willis and track those children as well. My major questions about Willis are: A) Who was the father of Willis, B) Who were the other wives and children of Willis and C) When did Willis obtain his land and who did he purchase it from?

Sharecropping Agreement between Wiley and Willis Keyes

Now, let's get to Wiley. Wiley Keys was a prominent slave holder in Smith County Mississippi in the 1800's. Just like Willis he was born in South Carolina. My first peek at Wiley was when I was researching  Isom. Wiley and Isom lived next to each other in 1870. I did not think much of it at the time except that Isom's surname was listed as Keyes, which was the only record we have found that lists his name as anything other than Duckworth. As I stated above there is also a record from the Freedman's Bureau that lists that Willis had worked for Wiley at one point and may have been his slave holder. I know Isom lived next to Wiley in the 1870 census and continued to do so until Wiley passed away. I do not know much else about Wiley but have reached out to some of his descendants hoping to get some clarification on some things especially the biggest mystery of all.  

1870 Census record for Isom. Wiley Keyes lived next to Isom

 One day, I had a shaky leaf hint for him and it was the 1870 census. It had a large surprise for me....on this census record, Isom's last name was Keyes. I re-checked the other family members and it was the same Isom. Isom also lived next to a Willis Duckworth, born 1840 and his family and he lived right next to Wiley Keys. I have heard rumors from the family in Mississippi that Isom inherited the land from Wiley Keys. It is said that Isom had enough land that he gave his 13 children no less than 40 acres each! If true, Isom had enough land that he could give away 520 acres and still had enough land for himself. I am researching land records now to see if I can prove this. I do know that the census records for Isom indicate that he did own his land. Now I just need to figure out A) How much land did Isom have, B) How did he get the land, and, here's the big question, C) Who was Isom's father?

As you can see, there are a lot of blank spaces in the life story of Isom and I do look forward to filling those spaces up. I would like, one day, to have answered all of these questions about Isom, Willis and Wiley. I have a blanket idea of what life was in the South for African Americans in the 1800's but I would like a clear view on what life was like for my family. My Duckworth and Keys family is nearly innumerable and a great number of them still live in Smith County, Mississippi. I want to connect to as many relatives as possible and rediscover those roots.

Fleshing out my King Line Part 1

I was going through my matches one day when I realize that I had two new close matches. One match appears to be a 1st or 2nd cousin and the other looks to be a 2nd or 3rd cousin. The first thing that I became aware of was that neither of these matches were a match to my mother, who I tested a couple of months ago. I could feel my excitement growing already because I knew these were most likely matches to my father. As I have stated previously, my father's paternal line is a blank so the possibility of a close match to that line nearly had me giddy, So the closest match did not have a family tree attached but the other match did. When I looked closer at the match, I realized that we are related through my paternal grandmother. So I circled back to the closer match and realize that they were not related to each other! I began to realize that I was looking at a match to my biological grandfather.

I wrote a blog about my grandfather, Isaac King here. One of my most frustrating brick walls is this man. I know very little about him and unfortunately, my father doesn't know much either. All we have is his name. When I initially started on my journey, I did not even know that he existed and that John Keys was my grandfather. Even now there are times when I am working on Keys matches and it'll hit me that I need to refocus on my DNA branches. It has been 15 years since I first heard Isaac King's name and for the first time, after a few breaks that led to nowhere, I feel so close to getting some information.


I reached out to this match and (HOORAY) I get a response. We exchange two more messages, which does not reveal any pertinent information, and then....NOTHING. The match stops responding! It has been a week since he logged into Ancestry and I am ready to pull out my hair. I try to keep reminding myself that maybe he got sent out of town for work or maybe his computer crashed and it is taking time to get it repaired. I just feel so FRUSTRATED to get so close and have it stop. Hopefully I will hear something soon from this match and I hope there is concrete information about my King line. Until then, all I can do is wait.....

When the unthinkable happens....humanity lost.

Usually the emotions I experience when researching my genealogy are the usual...joy, frustration, anger, puzzlement and satisfaction. I have been researching my family history for over 18 years and it has been fun and satisfying for most of it but recently I came across a situation that I was not ready for and I was not sure how I was going to deal with it.

I have a certain method to my genealogical madness...find the ancestor, find the records to cement birth and death dates, verify that I have the right people and then go about fleshing out their story with census records, personal memories and so on. I was working on one of my Windham ancestors, when EUREKA! I found his death record which listed his final resting place. I was so excited to get this information that I googled the cemetery to get the contact number and that is when my nightmare began.

As I sat staring at my computer, staring at the numerous news articles about the scandal associated with this cemetery as well as pictures of the relatives of those living, searching for the graves of their loved ones and not finding them, I could feel my horror grow. The staff at the cemetery, who had decided that money mattered more than human decency, had been double selling burial plots, removing the original remains and tossing them in a pit on the property or tossing them in mass graves. I sat there in disbelief, anger,  and surprisingly, anguish. I had never met this ancestor but he was my ancestor and I would not be here without him. The idea that someone may have disturbed his final resting place and treated his remains like that broke my heart. I also had the notion that eventually I would need to speak to my dad about this since this was his grandfather.

Jeff Windham seems to be a simple man. He had his family but he would take off at times and he had two names. He either went by his first name, Jeff or his middle name, David. It seems to depend on the status of the person in his life. My great grandmother called him David. He was a junk man and my dad tells stories of Grandpa David taking him and his brother with him sometimes to collect metals and whatnot around the neighborhoods. My dad always smiles when he tells those stories so I can tell that he enjoyed himself and he loved spending time with him. The last thing I want to have to do is tell my dad that Grandpa David,s grave was violated and that I'm not sure where he is. The idea that his remains had been disrespected in such a way made me sick and if I thought about it too long, I would begin to cry. 

After contacting the funeral home and the detective that was on the case, I learned that Grandpa David's grave was not one the graves disturbed. I cannot express the relief I felt when I heard those words. I am also thankful that my family did not have to deal with that type of heartache and the good memories are intact and untainted. Our dead should be shown the utmost respect. To treat them like garbage is the act of a soulless individual.  For those who committed these crimes, I hope that they realize the hurt they cause and learn that your dignity, self respect and humanity are not for sale. Some hurts cannot be fixed and while some will never forgive them, I hope they spend the rest of their lives being agents of good in their community. My heart goes out to the family members of those whose remains were disrespected and violated. I hope they were able to find their loved ones and able to close this chapter on this nightmare and get on with good living. I know that this will not be the story of some of the families and my prayers are with them.

Isaac King....My Ultimate Brick Wall

Isaac King is an enigma...wrapped up in a mystery....buried in a 15,000 piece puzzle. He also happens to be my paternal grandfather. I never met him...I never even knew he existed until I was in my mid-twenties. Growing up, I believed that John D Keys was my grandfather. He was the patriarch of my paternal family and he was loved and adored. I do not remember much about when he was sick. I was only eight at the time and unlike most of my childhood memories, my recollections of this time in my life are hazy at best. Granddad was fine one day, sick the next and then my mom was trying to explain his death to me. What I do remember is how heartbroken my family was...especially my dad. I had never seen him so sad. At the time I had no idea that he was not my blood relative.


I was in my early 20's and I was speaking to my mom about my Granddad and she let it slip that he was not my biological grandfather. Wait..what?!! Who is my grandfather? What is my real last name?! I could not believe that I was 24 years old and did not know who my grandfather was. It took me a couple of weeks to broach the subject with my dad. My dad is AWESOME. I really love him and he has always made sure that I knew that I can come to him with anything. I am also very protective of my dad and would never allow anyone to hurt him. I did not know the circumstances of this bombshell so I was worried that asking him would bring up some painful memories. You know, now that I think back on this, I realize that I was not scared of his reaction to this or if he was going to tell me the truth because I knew he would. When I finally asked him about the situation, he told me that his biological father's name was Isaac King and that he also had brothers in San Francisco somewhere. I was shocked that my dad had extra siblings and that he sis not know much about them. My dad is all about family and he is glue that keeps everyone together. My dad also told me that he met Isaac once when he was a child. Dad stated that he did not like him too much and after that day, Dad never saw him again. I had so many questions but I did not want to reopen any old wounds. Based on the little he told me I could tell that whatever the situation with Isaac, my dad did not have any positive feelings for him. Also, my grandma was still alive and I was not sure how she would feel about me digging into her past so I tried to let it go and just remember Granddad.


My search for Isaac was renewed after I took a DNA test. I had hundreds of cousins and I had no idea how any of us were related. Thankfully my parents were open to DNA testing and I got them tested as soon as possible. However it give me a very few answers and tons of questions. My family tree is pretty extensive but you can see the big empty branch that represents my father's paternal line. The only thing that is there is a name...Isaac King. I have no date of birth, birthplace...NOTHING. I cannot adequately express my frustration with this. I have a need to know more but I don't have any real information that I can actually research. The name itself is pretty common and they are all over the country. I may find something in the 1950 census but I will not wait that long to find out more info. What I do have are several men that look like my dad. I have one match to my dad who recently shared an old picture of him and his dad when he was a baby. This pictured stunned me because his father could be my father's twin. When I showed the picture to my dad, he laughed and asked where did I get that picture of him. You can imagine the hope that flared, although premature, that I had maybe found a connection to my biological grandfather. Unfortunately, we still have not been able to figure out the connection.

A few months after that I was talking to my mother on the phone while checking on my DNA matches on Ancestry and came across a new match with the surname King, I decided to take a peek and found an Isaac King. When I clicked on the the link and there was a picture of this person Isaac. This man looked just like my father. I actually felt like the floor under me had shifted. Here is a man named Isaac King who is the ancestor of a DNA match AND he looks like my father. At this point I realized my mother had been calling my name for quite some time and I demanded that she get online so that I can show her this picture. I sent the picture to my mother with no explanation. She was speechless when she saw the picture and when I told her what the man's name was she told me that I need to share this with my dad. I texted him a copy of the picture and told him to call me. I immediately reached out to the match to try and start a dialogue so that we could figure out if his Isaac King and my Isaac King were the same. My father called me a short while later very amused that this man looked so much like him. My dad asked me who was it and I told him that his name was Isaac King. My dad was quiet for a little while and then asked if it was our Isaac King and I stated that I did not know but that I was checking into it. We chatted for a little bit and then I went back to researching. After talking to the match as well as another family member of this Isaac King I had to accept that this Isaac was not my paternal grandfather since this man lived and died in the Caribbean Islands and we had nothing showing that he ever visited the US. Another disappointment but not a complete letdown and now I have a DNA connection to a King family.

What I have learned in this seemingly never-ending search is that I should reserve all judgement until I have verifiable proof and not to get my hopes up. I can recognize my need to know more and be sensitive to my dad and what he may be feeling.  It has been a long road and the end is nowhere in sight but I will continue to search until I find that one clue or hint that breaks down that brick wall. I know it's out there...I just have to be patient. I WILL find out who Isaac King was and where he lived.

 

My Dad

My match's Dad

Discovery of a warrior...Meeting Mama Cille

Lucille Polk was a strong presence in my mother's family growing up. My mother told me stories of Mama Cille...how she knew when my mother was pregnant just by looking at her, how she had a big heart and took in foster kids. Lucille was called Mama Cille by all her grandchildren and great grandchildren and we heard about how much she was loved by her family and how tough she was. However, outside of my grandmother, Wadie, I doubt any of us had a clue to what had happened in her life.

Mama Cille was born in Hearne, Texas to John William Polk and Selena Jones. I don't know much about her childhood. She died a year before I was born and the details of her life were not shared with me as far as I can remember. Most of what I know about Mama Cille is from the few stories that were shared with me or the research that I have done on my own. I would have loved to meet her and hear her voice. I don't even know what she looked like. What I do know is that her life was not easy.

Mama Cille was 14 when her mother, Selena passed away due to influenza. Within a few short months, Mama Cille married Wade Hamilton Kerr. From what I know of Wade in his younger years, he was not without his demons...he had a serious drinking problem and he would get violent at times. Things were very rocky during this time in Mama Cille's life. She had suffered through a still birth in 1933 and found herself pregnant again by 1934. By the time Mama Cille was was 22 she had three children and her marriage was falling apart. It was not long after that Mama Cille and Wade separated. Mama Cille continued to do what she needed to do to take of her children and put food on the table. Mama Cille definitely did not go through this alone...she had a great support system in her sisters, Martha, Mary, Anna Bell, Mattie Mae and Aunt Ruby.

 After a time, things started to turn around for Mama Cille. She even met a new man, Willie Fountain and they had a brief romance. Unfortunately this was the beginning of a dark time in her life. Willie was not a good man and he scared my grandmother...she would hide whenever she heard him coming. I do not know exactly what he did to my grandmother as she would not talk about it but it affected her all of her life. Eventually grandmama told Mama Cille what was going on. Mama Cille broke things off with Willie. Now here is where things get a little murky.

In 1937, Wade is arrested for the murder of Willie Fountain. According to the newspapers and court records, Mama Cille and Willie were seeing each other while she was estranged from Wade. Eventually she and Wade decided to reconcile. Mama Cille had previously given Willie a lock of hair that he wore on his hat. Mama Cille wanted it back so she and Wade went to Willie's to retrieve the lock of hair. We will never know what exactly happened during this meeting but at the end,  Willie was dead from a gunshot wound. Wade turned himself into authorities afterwards. I have some doubts that the reason Wade shot Willie was because of a lock of hair. I cannot help but wonder if the reason the shooting took place was because of the treatment of my grandmother by Willie. There is a big part of me that thinks that in spite of the fact that Wade was not a good husband he would not stand by and let anyone harm his kids.

For Mama Cille the following seven years are full of upheaval. The story is covered all over Corsicana... I am pretty sure that everyone was talking about it and now her husband was in jail. Wade fought the charge for two years but he was eventually was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years. I am not sure what happened between Wade and Mama Cille during this time but they could not work it out and she filed for divorce and it was granted in March of 1940 shortly before Wade was released from prison. Whatever happened between Wade and Mama Cille, their marriage was over and she later listed herself as "Widowed"on the 1940 census.

From what I can tell, Mama Cille decided to start anew and made the decision to relocate to California. At some point my grandmother followed her and so did Mama Cille's sisters. I have heard numerous stories of life in California and now that I think about it, my grandmama never talked about living in Texas. She only spoke of her memories here in California. 

Mama Cille settled in the Bay Area and rebuilt a good life for herself with her family surrounding her. Her children had grown up, married and settled in the Bay Area as well. At the end of her life, she was surrounded by her sisters, her children, her grandchildren, nieces, nephews, foster children and friends.

It is really inspiring for me to see what Mama Cille lived through. She had many trials and tribulations through her life and she seemed to handle it all with a strength and dignity that appears to have never failed her. I guess that famous quote is right, "It is not how you weather the storm, it's how you dance in the rain". I am proud to be her descendant and I have a better understanding of why the women in my family are so resilient. My mother is my hero and I have always wondered where she got her amazing strength and courage. How could she keep a positive attitude while in the midst of heartbreak and turmoil? Apparently it is a trait that Mama Cille instilled in her children and grandchildren.  Mama Cille was an amazing woman and while I feel sad that I never got to know her personally, I am happy that I was able to research her and tell her story.

*I want to give a shout out to my Aunt Lisa who helped me piece a lot of this together. I never would have understood the depth of character Mama Cille had if my Aunt had not filled in the blanks. Thank you.

The Hunt for Wade Hamilton Kerr

Growing up, I spent time with my grandmother, Wadie almost everyday, I had a slightly unconventional family circle. I had two parents, two step-parents, numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. Rounding out the family circle were my maternal great grandparents. My mother's paternal grandparents were always in my life and I spent every summer with my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Lang Jackson. She was the matriarch of my family from my point of view. But on my mother's maternal side, the family wasn't as full. My grandmother Wadie talked a lot about her mother and her brother but never mentioned her dad. I never really noticed this until I got older and realized that I knew nothing about her dad and she never brought him up. I asked her once where her name originated and she told me she was named after her father, Wade. She changed the subject after that and I did not ask anything else because it seemed to make her uncomfortable, I assumed that he had died when she was young and I did not want to make it worse for her. Grandmama spoke often of her little brother, Bennie. The family had not heard from Uncle Bennie since the seventies and it made her sad that she did not know where her brother was or if he was alive.

Wadie Kerr

After Grandmama died, I doubled my research into her family. In 2011, I came across the death record for her father, Wade Hamilton Kerr. I was shocked to read that he died in 1972..30 years after his wife, Mama Cille, listed herself as widowed in the 1940's census. I was extremely curious about what had happened between him and his family. In my estimation it had to be bad since my mother nor her siblings had ever met him. Wade died in Wyandotte, Kansas and had lived there since the fifties. He had remarried and his wife is buried beside him in the Veteran's Cemetery. I had so many questions. Why did he move? Why did the family completely break from each other? Did he and his new wife have any children?

A few months ago, Wade had a shaky leaf on Ancestry. When I looked into it I found a record in Texas on Convicts. Apparently Wade had committed manslaughter and was incarcerated in 1936 for the murder of a Mr Fountain. I wanted to know what happened. Why did he kill this man? Is this what caused the collapse of the family? I took a trip to the local genealogical society to peruse newspaper articles and I hit paydirt:

I did a little more research and found the Appellate court records. It was called the Lock of Hair Murder. Apparently Mama Cille and Wade hit a rough patch during their marriage and separated. At this time they had three children. Mama Cille met Mr. Fountain and entered into a relationship, during which she gave him a lock of her hair. After a while, Wade re-entered the picture and he and Mama Cille decided to give their marriage another go for the sake of their family. Things were okay for a while but Wade did not like the fact that Mr. Fountain had a lock of Mama Cille's hair. He demanded the she get the hair back. Together they walked over to Mr. Fountain's home to get the hair back and for some reason Wade brought his shotgun with him. Mama Cille asked Mr. Fountain for her lock of hair, which he kept in his hat. Mr Fountain gave her the lock of hair and I am not sure what happened between them but it ended with Wade shooting Mr. Fountain. Mr Fountain succumbed to his injuries. Wade was arrested and spent almost 5 years in prison. Three days before his release, Mama Cille filed for divorce. There is no one alive that can tell us what happened between Wade and Mama Cille or what was the reason for the separation of the family. I have many question, suspicions and theories but I have to live with the fact that I may never know what happened between them


It was very gratifying to find part of Wade's story and learn about what happened to him when he was young. I later came across his obituary:

I found it interesting that they used my grandmother Wadie's nickname, Babo. Since Uncle Bennie lived in Kansas at the time I wonder if he was at the funeral. I wonder what Wade's funeral was like. Was it full of people who loved him and told funny stories at his repast? I hope so. I don't know what caused Wade to break from his first family but I know it caused a lot of pain in my grandmother. Grandmama had a full life and a large family. We really came together when she passed and her funeral was full of people who loved her and would always miss her. I hope that Wade had the same experience. I hope that whatever mistakes from his past did not stop him from making a new, happy life with his new family.