Sepia Saturday: Not a Shaggy Dog Story

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

I was surprised to find a perfect match for this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt featuring a man wearing his dog.

Burlington Cab Company 1956
Julia Slade and friends

The photo was taken at my grandparents’ home and taxi cab yard in 1956. That is my granny leaning on one of the cabs. I suspect the man holding the dog was a driver, but I do not know for sure. Maybe they were just friends of the family. 

I like dogs. I don’t want a dog. I don’t want to walk them. I don’t want to vacuum up their hair. I don’t want to follow along behind them with a plastic bag and a scoop. I don’t want to have to bother with boarding them so that I can leave town. But I do like dogs. Other people’s dogs.

Me and a dog probably 1952

This is one of my favorite pictures. That’s me with a dog. I don’t know whose dog it was or where this picture was taken. I like this picture so much that it is one of the few of me in a frame. I’m not even sure why I like it. Maybe it’s that vintage bottle or the way I was strapped into the seat with a towel or blanket or possibly a cloth diaper. Maybe it’s those little fists. Oh, maybe it’s the dog!

Apparently, dogs like me.

Granddaddy Slade
and George Moore's dog

Here is my paternal grandfather with his brother-in-law’s dog. When our family visited my dad’s Aunt Margaret and Uncle George Moore, the dog watched over me while I napped. No one could get near me until I woke up. Good dog!

My grandparents used to laugh telling a story about me and their neighborhood dogs. We lived in Burlington, North Carolina a short while when Daddy was helping out with his parents’ taxi business. I would gather all the dogs on the steps to our house to play school. Even after we moved back to Virginia, the dogs showed up faithfully, at least for a while until they got the hint. (Hmm, I wonder if the dog on that man's shoulders was one of my students.)

See – I really do LIKE dogs, but this is the only dog I need.

Planter - need a plant AND a new spot in the yard

For some good ol’ shaggy dog stories, visit Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - CHALLENGING: Those Pesky Slades

Slade Research, Why do I hate thee?

Let me count the ways:

1. The Slades of Georgia and Florida did not leave much of a paper trail. No death records. Certainly no birth records. Even a professional genealogist that I hired in Florida found precious little.

2. The Stephen Slade households of 1850, 1860 and 1870 are a mess making it nearly impossible to trace forward.

• Only Stephen and supposed daughter Julia remain consistent.
• Are Mary and Margaret the same person? Surely Margaret and Peggy are, despite the illogical difference in age from one census to the next.
• Were James and Mary Stephen’s children or perhaps his siblings or other relation? Mary was too young to be their mother, that is, if her age was recorded correctly.
• Peter and Pilester? Male OR female? Same? Different? I can find NO Peter Slade OR Pilester after their initial appearances. And what kind of name is Pilester, anyway?
• Cabel was possibly Louiza and back to Cabel, from Male to Female and back to Male. However, there is a marriage record for Cabel Slade and Charles Ross, suggesting she was female all along. Then there is the sale of land by Julia Slade and Emma C. Ross. Emma Cabel Slade Ross? Emma Cabel Louiza Slade Ross? What the heck???
• And what happened to the others? I don’t see them after the initial entry either.

3. My recent Slades are not SLADE at all. Three PERFECT matches and one genetic distance of 1 say they are CALHOUN. I never know where to put my research time. Should I concentrate on the Slades?  They were the legal family after all. Besides, it’s possible the oops-gotcha son might never have known the truth. Or should I concentrate on the Calhouns since that is where the DNA came from? If so, where do I begin since none of my matches seem to know which Slade woman and which Calhoun man (although I THINK I know).

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.