Saturday, October 14, 2017

Sibling Saturday~Boys Will Be Boys!

George and Hattie Roberts Family
About 1907
Back Row -L to R:
   Lillie (Roberts) Hooper (1885-1930)
  Thomas Able Roberts (1887-1961)
  Hattie Roberts (1888-1972)
  George Washington Roberts (1890-1971)
Front Row-L to R:
  William Treadford Roberts (1894-1959)-my great grandfather
  Verdy Gil Roberts (1898-1976)
 Hattie (Brazell) Roberts with Lyda Roberts (1906-1981) 
 George Philip Roberts with Andrew Clifton Roberts (1905-1971) 
Walter Crawford Roberts (1896-1983)

Genealogy is so much more than collecting names, dates and places. It's the stories that help our families come to life. A few years ago, I was fortunate to connect with a distant cousin who shared the following story about the sons of  both my maternal great great grandfather George Phillip Roberts(1856-1930) and his brother Thomas Jefferson Roberts (1866-1955).
"George Phillip's sons as well as Thomas Jefferson Robert's sons among others had happily nicknamed themselves the " Twelve Raggedy-Ass Boys" This was more of a club than what we would think of now as a modern street gang: however, the boys did get into trouble...from time to time. Like the time they set fire to a neighbors outhouse ( in those days the boys referred to it as a "crapper"). the neighbor saw them do it and chased them down, but they ran into Thomas Jefferson Robert's store and hid there. When the neighbor came into the store to confront Thomas Jefferson Roberts, the boys acted like little angels and convinced Thomas Jefferson that they did nothing wrong. Thomas then "escorted" the the irate neighbor out of his store. Thomas Jefferson's store was built on a small hill and the back half of it was on stilts. The boys would often meet underneath the store and it was there that my grandfather, Charles Franklin Roberts and his brother Walter Roberts were playing butcher. they had gotten a hold of one of Thomas Jefferson Robert's meat cleavers from the store and were using a stump to cut up branches, toys and whatever else they could find. Then Charles noticed something that looked better to "butcher" when Walter had his hand resting on the stump. With one swift whack, Charles lopped off one of Walter's fingers. How the boys explained that one I'll never know !"
 ~Cody Dailey. Robert's researcher.

Four of the Roberts Brothers
Verdy,Walter,William and George
© Cheri Hudson Passey

What rascals! It's fun to think of the grandfather my mother knew and loved as part of the "Raggedy-Ass"boys. I wish he had lived long enough for me to ask him about their adventures. 

What about the siblings in your tree? Do you have any stories about their exploits? I'd love to hear about them!

Thanks for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,


4 comments:

  1. Wow! I don't know if I'd ever forgive my brother for cleaving off a finger, but what a great bit of family history.

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  2. lol...firs in outhouse...missing fingers...some rowdy boys

    ReplyDelete