Saturday, January 14, 2012

mist of time

This is a rather blurry picture of my great, great, great grandfather, but of course it is being viewed through the mist of time........
His name was Barnabas Ray. He was born in 1804, the first son of Hudson and Margret Ray.
He is not the husband of the great, great, great grandmother pictured previously as he is from an entirely different branch of the family tree.
He is however, the great grandfather of my grandmother, pictured previously, branches eventually merging as they do.
He is remembered for being the father of seventeen children. He married his first wife in his late teens. She promptly produced seven children and then died young, poor thing. Four months later he married again, this time to my great, great, great grandmother Lucy, an ample and prolific woman.
They had ten children together, and Isaac was their second son. He married Hulda Lyons and followed in his fathers footsteps by having a large family, including twins.


My great grandfather was one of their sons. He was the husband of Minerva Haddock, from the previous photos. And of course that makes him the father of my grandmother Mollie and the grandfather of my mother Norma.
He is remembered for many, many things. Stories abound, but his early baldness is the most repeated historical fact. Isn't that just like life.

2 comments:

  1. I love family history! How neat to have these old pictures! Was that 3 wives over the course of his life or at once? Just thought I'd ask....

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  2. How funny you are! I imagine that when his first wife died and he was left with a houseful of children to raise, a second wife seemed more than a romantic notion. Enter my great, great, great grandmother, bless her. She did her best and added ten more children not heeding the warning presented by a very fine previous example of the danger of mixing work and pleasure.
    By Glenda on mist of time at 1:25 PM

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