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My ancestors come in all shapes, sizes, colors and names. I appreciate that as our history is intertwined with one another. There is no escaping our past. That is why we study genealogy and that is to honor our ancestors for “going through” to allow us to live on this earth today and in future days.

Happy Ancestor Appreciation Day!

Like many of you, I am constantly searching and unearthing — when fortunate — new findings that shed light on my ancestors. It helps to instill confidence, grace, forgiveness, charm, intellect, strategies, empathy, joy, peace, reconciliation and more in our hearts and souls as we find out more about our ancestors.

Learning of our Native American ancestry and more, is also healing.

Here are a few of my new findings about our ancestors:

1. I am named for my (Ann’s) paternal Great-Grandmother Ann Crum Shanks Green. Her father is Alfred Crum. Alfred Crum was born in January 1869 in Alabama. He married Mary A Middleton and they had nine children together. He then married Mary Crum and they had two children together. He died on June 26, 1923, in his hometown at the age of 54.
2. I (Ann) have 793 DNA matches through my testing a decade ago through ancestry.com. As we work through the names, relationships and more of the potential 4th cousins and closer ones, here’s an ancestry.com message that I sent to one of my “for sure” newly discovered relatives on our maternal side:

“Glad to know that my maternal great-great grandparents, Robert Brant Wilks and Melissa Catherine Gray (always use the woman’s maiden name in genealogy) are your same relatives. My great -grandmother Edna Wilks is the oldest female in the family and Lorene was her younger sister.”

3. Also, on our maternal side, John Favor, a private from Alabama, fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

4. Below the family tree, is a U.S. Census Schedule that shows John Favor, Jr. is a “free white” man. John Faver, Jr. received a signed land deed on June 8, 1820 or 1830 (the deed is hard to read) from the U.S. government. The prominent signature on the deed for the family land in Limestone, Tenn., was U.S. President Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s lingering legacy is the tragic Trail of Tears aka Indian Removal Act.

Remember when I recommended forgiveness as part of our ancestral research. I have evoked forgiveness in the transfer of land in Tennessee during the time of the deadly trek of the nations of Native Americans.

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