My Scots great grandmother was widowed in 1921. She had 13 children all under the age of 20 at the time. 11 boys and 2 gals. Boys all decided that converting the 2nd outhouse to a still house was a good way to make money.<<<
LOL, so dangerous we would be, if we lived near each other.
My fathers mother is Scots, his father a full blood Cherokee on the Oklahoma reservation, I have one tiny photo of the great grandfather and none of my grandfather, that granny gave to me.
Still smiling about the stories told about granny, seems the cops got word that she was making whiskey and they came to get her/it.
At the time she was a widow, no education and 2 kids.
They say the cops managed to park the car over the spot that she had the boys bury it and so the cops could not find it.
My dad made beer and there was always some working ....
Granny married again and had 5 more kids.
She was always a soft spoken Virginia lady and would not tell us anything about her past.
I asked her how a Scots lady from Virginia, married a full blood Cherokee, who worked on the railroad.
She told me that I did not need to know, as it happened a long time ago and was no ones business......
Granny was always telling us, “If it happened yesterday, forget it, for it is past and done with and should not be talked about..” and she did not talk about the past.
It is our Scots blood that binds us in our twin paths.
HA! We do have much in common. I only know the heritage of my family on my mother's side. It was my mother's parents who raised and taught me. My mom and dad are still around and good parents, I was just born when they were very young and they preferred to enjoy their youth and let my grandparents care for me. On mom's side there were 3 great grandparents who were full blood Scots and one who was Cherokee from Oklahoma.
My dad's family has always seemed so odd to me because they just didn't talk about any heritage. I would ask because it was talked about on mom's side but I only got silly responses. I guess they are the melting pot people. Some of them are nice folks, but just doesn't seem they have any past. Although my dad is a wonderful story-teller and his influence also caused me to love history. He told stories of growing up during WWII and of his uncles who were "in the war." Those things I liked to hear too although the uncles never discussed it.
I think you will understand though when I say that daddy's family always seemed like "hollow people" to me as a child. They didn't tell the stories of heritage and didn't have skills to pass on. Even as a child I knew I should be recieving something from them but they were empty. Nice folks, just no depth.