#11-2020. Luck
With genealogy, luck is a word often used. Sometimes luck when searching for ancestors is a huge part of the research. Was the luck due to good investigative research process, or the angel on the shoulder luck? Sometimes, one never knows!
Most of my luck was inherited. The luck is in the form of physical information. With any luck, I have several generations of information, which might include the person I am researching or writing about. Yes, that includes pictures that are labeled. I have funeral cards, address books from my mother and grandfather, newspaper articles, family group sheets done by others, lists of families done by ancestors (before family group sheets were a “thing”), a couple of Family Bibles and stories written by my mother.
My Luck is a thank you to my mother who inherited and added onto to her family history. Long before computers! My Luck is a thank you to my paternal grandfather who also kept track of family, labeled pictures and worked his grandddaughter, Donnee, to pass down family history. He was prolific in writing his family history, or his life story, through out the years.
The unlucky part is that seldom is there a citation noting where they found the information. My mother always said when asked where she got it….”Well Aunt Gilla said”. Apparently she was the expert! But which Aunt Gilla?
Gilead Ann Jasper born in 1839 in Kentucky and died in 1934 in Philomath, Benton County, Oregon. This Gilla was a sister to my mother’s great grandmother. She must have known some of the history, first hand. Was she the Aunt Gilla who "said"?
But there is another Gilla in the family. Gillian Ann Lloyd, born in 1873 in Walla Walla County, Washington and died in 1947 in Tacoma, Washington. This Gilla was a sister to my mother’s grandfather. And she collected and worked on the family history. Was she the Aunt Gilla who "said".
Both Gilla’s were probably referred to as Aunt Gilla.
I love this picture of Aunt Gilla Jasper Irwin and the story. What knowledge and information she had. I sure would like to talk with her!
The article says that Gilla is 90 years old. So the article would have been written about 1929.
But as the majority of newspaper articles are lacking the name of the newspaper as well as the date.
My luck will be earned finding it!
