Welcome to the Weekend Chat, my fellow WikiChatterers, and greetings from Cathey’s Creek where the tourists are filling the roads. While our township is not so much of a destination point, we are a gateway to the mountains west of us. We don’t begrudge all the traffic, just as long as they leave lots of dollars behind!
On the Homefront: Our hummingbirds have not come back in full force yet, but we have one ruby-throated that has already staked a claim to our feeders. We call him, “Jack.” (Get it? Jack, the ruby-throated hummingbird = Jack Ruby). A female came in the other day and perched on the feeder and wouldn’t move. Territorial Jack kept trying to get her off, but for about 30 minutes she refused. Here’s Jack making the attempt…
On the Genealogy Front: Made an interesting discovery this week. Working Paw Creek families still, I came across one by the name of Cashion that moved to Lee County, North Carolina, between 1911 and 1915. I remember my grandma telling me that her Uncle Charlie Neal (no profile yet) and his family moved there from Paw Creek. Now my interest was piqued! Why were Paw Creek families leaving to live in Lee County? There was nothing there, or was there? I went hunting for some Lee County history and found that in the early 1900s there was a textile boom, and when farmland became scarcer in Paw Creek, folks moved there for jobs. Turns out that one son of this Cashion family married Uncle Charlie’s daughter. Not surprising… they were (in Southern terms) related to each other, if only through some marriages.
This kind of migration was common in much of the area where I grew up. My paternal grandparents met in Gastonia, North Carolina, after their families left the impoverished southern mountains of that state for jobs in the cotton mills in the same time period my other families were leaving to move further east for the same reason. This kind of study adds so much more to genealogy, putting flesh on the bare bones of dates and such.
I hope y’all, at least in the northern hemisphere, are enjoying the summer. Our friends in Europe are suffering through a terrible heatwave, especially in Spain where our fellow member, SJ, lives! (Try to keep cool, SJ!)
Enjoy the Chat, everyone. Can’t wait to see what Dorothy has for us. It’s always great to hear from so many around the world.