If You're in Ogden on Memorial Day . . .

For myself and my kids, I wanted to post about some of the ancestor graves in the Ogden Cemetery. I went two years ago with some of my dad's cousins and met a few more there. As I had remembered correctly (though my wife still made me check the cemetery plot map online before we drove around), our Vaughans, and coincidentally, our Wheelwrights are on 10th Street, just to the East of the entrance on Ninth. For the big Thomas and Isabella Vaughan monument turn right down Tenth to the Vaughan marker on the left or East. You will see several other of Thomas and Isabella's family including the Burnetts who did a lot of family history.

The large marker for Thomas (1850-1894) and Isabella (1858-1919)

My Great Grandfather, George Robert Vaughn, born in England (1886-1951)

Sarah, a Choctaw: Mother of Nations

My latest and last missionary son emailed me some family history work that he was doing for me to check over. It is on the Hartsfield line, ancestors of Carters, to Easterlings, then Petersons (my maternal line). They were Southerners with a family tradition that Sarah, married to Rueben Hartsfield in about 1783, was a Choctaw Indian.

Sabra Ann Carter

The best evidence we have is that Sarah's granddaughter, Sabra Ann Carter (1840-1921), looks like she could be the granddaughter of a Native American.

She appears to have the jet-black hair, high cheek bones, and long, straight nose that could indicate Choctaw ancestry.

This is entirely plausible as the Hartsfields (also "Hartfield"), along with the Easterlings and Carters, ended up in Choctaw Mississippi country. The Choctaw were a large language/cultural group but not united under any particular affiliation until President Jackson ordered removal to Oklahoma. Then there were two distinct groups, the Oklahoma Choctaw and the Mississippi Choctaw, the latter not federally recognized as a Tribe until 1945!

From Access Genealogy the Choctaw were noted:

Grandma Peterson and Meadow Gold (and Billboards)

Went to Dick's Market to buy mayonnaise and came out with a lot of other stuff. I did exercise restraint because I wandered close to the bakery but bought no donuts.

My treat was Meadow Gold Ice Cream which was on sale 2/$5 so I got French Vanilla (fancier than regular and a necessary staple of life - Vanilla is a flavor - not the bland absence of such). Along with that I got Rocky Road which has real miniature marshmallows.