52 Ancestors: Week 4

Week 4: Invite to Dinner

The prompt for Week 4 at 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is Invite to Dinner. I would love to have all my ancestors come to dinner and chat. Would that not be the best thing "next to sliced bread" for any genealogist or lover-of-family-history? I think so. 

For this challenge, I'm going to send out the invitation to my PaPa Dennis (as my mother and her brothers called him). Other grandchildren called him PoPo Dennis. Here's one of my favorite pictures of him: 

Oran Martin Dennis (born 10 Sept 1879-Guadalupe Co.,
TX and died 13 August 1956-Tom Green Co., TX)

I'd probably invite him to a picnic on the Frio River near where I live in southwest Texas. Something like the old picnics the Dennis' used to have years ago along the Llano River. 

"Picnic group" consisting of the Dennis family

As we visited, I'd hope that I could remember all the questions I have been wanting to ask him for years. I'd ask him to "Pass the chicken" and then:

1. Do you know where your father Marion Washington Dennis was born?

2. Did you know that your father is actually a Freeman descendant and not a Dennis? 

3. Did you ever hear him speak of family around Carroll County, Georgia?

4. Did you ever hear your father mention Elmore, Alabama?

5. Would you be surprised to learn that your male line is that of the Freeman's who are Native American Indian? [and the Dennis men are Y-DNA tested and Haplogroup Q-M3]. 

6. Your father had a brother. Was he named Joseph or John?

7. What was your Grandmother Dennis' name?

Surely after we discussed all my questions about his father (and mother), we would be ready for pecan pie, and I would hope he was as patient and kind as my mother said he was, as I continued with: 

8. How did you meet Nina Ada Baldridge? [See Week 3 blog post]

9. How did you get the nickname "Chief"?

10. Do you know what happened to Katherine, your adopted daughter, and her  husband and baby?

11. Can you tell me who these people are in these pictures? (I'd have pictures 

to show him!)

12. What brought you to Tom Green County, Texas?

13. Did you ever see your youngest brother, Marion William Dennis, after he  went to live with the Miles family?

14.  What was my grandfather, Aubra, like as a child?

I'm sure there would be more questions. And more stories. And more eating. And, I'm sure, lots of laughs and hugs. 

Revis