Grace and I had many, many phone calls trying to figure out just how many kids her Great-grandfather had. It appears "poppa was a rolling stone". What's sad, is in that era...it was no surprise. It appears by Grace's count (and with the help of census records in Ancestry.com), Old Tom Warner had from 6-10 half Black children. Grace was surprised at the newly found brood. I was surprised Grace wrote them right into the family tree. LOL
I had the privilege of meeting Grace while down south in July 2007. I think she was as excited as I was about meeting each other and the day finally came. With my Mother, Aunt and 2 cousins in tow, we drove an hour to meet her. Prior to going, I asked Grace if I could bring anyone. Her response was, "Bring everybody!" So that we didn't get lost, I met Grace's daughter at a gas station, so we could trail her to the house. To my surprise, her daughter (Debbie) met me with a huge smile and hug. She too was excited.
We followed Debbie to the house and was met at the door by Grace. Here stood this little old lady in a house dress and house shoes with a BIG LOUD southern drawl that was all too familiar to me by now. Again, I was greeted with warmth, however, Grace immediately wanted to get down to the business of this ancestry thing. To my surprise, Grace had two, two inch binders filled with pictures, the family crest and LOADS of information about the Irish ancestry. Grace had been working on the family tree for 20 years! Before I could even get into the binders, Grace sped me away to her garage, which looked more like a library because it had all the books and references she used prior to the "Internet era". Wow! I could have been happy just to sit in her garage and read for a month, but she wouldn't let me. We suddenly sped off to her bedroom where there were MORE books. I could hardly take it all in when she suddenly said, "Yeah...I've researched my Momma's side of the family all the way to Jesus." I immediately laughed because I thought she was joking. She wasn't joking. She showed me (very quickly) the ancestral links. I could hardly believe my eyes! After that, I was hooked. We literally forgot all the other people who were sitting in the livingroom and Grace got down to the business of showing me the different paths of our ancestry.
One of my cousins wandered in and that's when I realized it had been a little over an hour. I finally was able to move Grace back out to the livingroom to explain to me all that she had given me. This had to be a gift from God. This was an answer to me feeling so lost and not really knowing what my heritage was.
Grace continued sharing with us the stories behind the pictures, her trip to Ireland and about her family. Unfortunately, the Warner homestead had just been pummeled to the ground by a tornado earlier that year. Not a single thing was salvageable. Thankfully, years ago, a relative had given Grace copies of letters, certificates and papers found in an old trunk.
It was finally time to say goodbye. Grace didn't want me to leave. She had more to share but we had to drive an hour back to my parents old hometown. As we hugged to say goodbye, I noticed something that almost startled me. My eyes were the exact same color of Grace's eyes. Let me just say, my eyes are green but it's a weird cross between an army and olive green. (An optometrist once told me the color of my eyes weren't even on her color chart. lol) I looked at Grace and said, "Are our eyes the same color?", she said, "I do believe they are." and we both laughed. That did it! That sealed our bloodline for sure! LOL I have never in my life seen anyone with the exact same eye color as me.
As we traveled back, I was satisfied to know (part of) where I came from. I'm so glad we took pictures and video taped the experience. I'll never forget it...and neither will Grace. Since then, we still call each other from time to time...and talk about the family line. I don't think Grace will rest until she tracks our family line all the way to Jesus. (That just cracks me up!)
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