'Dad Always Referred to Him as the Last of 17 Children'
Apparently the web listings are incomplete and I have further research to confirm the truth or falsehood of my grandfather's claim of being the only one of his siblings to "escape" Texas.
So after last week’s father’s day column in which I discussed some Swindle family history - my grandpa’s story that he was the only one of his many brothers and sisters to leave Texas - I shared it with my Dad and he alerted me that the web listings were incomplete and missed a few of the children in both families:
Dave your granpa Ralph was the last of 17 children. 11 in the first family, and 6 in the second. Your web listing of the 2nd family is missing Zelma (Zip), after Melba, and Weldon (Tiki) after Zip, and before Uncle B (LaRae’s Dad.) Ralph’s nickname was “Red.”
I don’t know offhand who is missing from the first family.
… [Other various family message exchanges.]
Dad always referred to him as the last of 17 children. I have memories of Uncle Tiki and Aunt Zip, as well as Uncles Bee, and Charlie.
He then sent me various images, some that I’d seen before, and these in particular which I’ll share here:
So there are 2 more full siblings of grandpa’s - Zelma aka “Zip” and Weldon aka “Tiki.” I guess nicknames were common in the family if Grandpa was “Red.”
And then there are 3 half-siblings from the first family who I do not have in the list of 8. I’ll save this second research endeavor for another post in what I guess might now be an ongoing series of family/genealogy online research coupled with interviewing my Dad on what he knows.
OK, so are there any obituaries or online history profiles of Zelma “Zip” Hays (her married name) and Weldon “Tiki” Swindle? Here’s some information via an Ancestry page of Uncle Charley, my grandpa’s closest older brother in age:
OK, so for Zelma, her place of death is listed as Texas:
Now what about James Weldon Swindle?
OK, so now I can confirm that all of Grandpa’s full-blood siblings died in Texas and all but at least 3/11 of his half-siblings did too. Well, to heck with it, maybe I can figure out who these missing 3 siblings could be with this source that confirmed the places of death on the 2 2nd family missing siblings.
Here we go, the listing of the 11 children in the first family:
Now who was I initially missing whose places of death need to be determined too?
Beatrice Swindle (1893-1977)
Bertha Swindle (1893-deceased)
Mettie Swindle (1896-1977)
Intriguing! So could it be that for at least some of these Swindle women of the first family, they were not included in the previous list because they are not buried in the family cemetery? Did some marry and thus get buried alongside husbands? Or what happened with this Bertha Swindle? How come her date of death is not listed?
Well, first off, where are they buried or where did they die?
Beatrice died in Texas:
Her husband is named as Bertice Orien Boler and they had 4 Boler children from 1912-1918. One appears to have died the year she was born, the others lived into old age. Thus some of my grandpa’s half-nieces and nephews from the children of the first family were his own age.
Bertha? Her exact place of death or burial is not listed, but Texas is:
It appears she was married to a man named R. Byron Bagley and had two children - Emma Loraine and Bertie Jean. Bertie Jean died in Texas while Emma Loraine’s time and place of death are unlisted.
And last, Mettie Swindle. What became of her? Her place of death is listed and interestingly she died the same year as her sister Beatrice. Were they close? Did one’s death deeply impact the other?
She is listed as marrying John Elvin Priddy and having 2 children.
Tentative conclusion after researching this bit of family lore:
It’s true. Yes, from the available evidence it appears that my grandfather, Ralph Swindle, Sr., was telling the truth when he said he was the only one of his siblings to “escape” Texas.
Implications for me:
Part of why I am so weird is because I am from a family that is so weird. Born of the experience of a man born the youngest of 17 children, my father took his own unique “weird” path through life, the first Swindle for earn a Ph.D., and now I too have charted a similar strange course of exploration and opposition to dominant cultural norms.
And that’s not even factoring in the “weirdness” on my mother’s side of the family!
Bonus, curiosity research!
Can I find through this website alone any evidence of any other children of my grandfather’s full-blooded siblings of 5 others who produced children of my father’s generation who in turn produced children of my generation? Can I figure out now if I have any hidden cousins I might be able to contact today?
So let’s work starting at the beginning:
Zelma: from everything I’ve seen at multiple sources and in the historical documentation my Dad sent there is no evidence presented that she and her husband, the Baptist minister James M. Hayes, had any children.
Melba: Died at 17 in 1927, so no known children.
James Weldon, apparently “Uncle Tiki”: no spouse listed, no known children.
Bernice Oxley: A spouse listed, but no children, and he died in 1962.
And “Uncle Charley” - the only one of my grandfather’s siblings I ever remember hearing about: no children listed but a long marriage to Maudine Brazil starting in 1943 and apparently lasting all their lives.
Doesn’t this seem a bit strange? Of 6 children in the second family, my grandfather was the only one to have two children of his own, my father and uncle? Or was this lack of having children more a reaction to being born into an already-huge family? Or did they all strive to have children and just could not for one reason or another?
Questions likely much deeper and more difficult to research than what the internet can offer right now. If they can ever be known at all.
UPDATE: How could I have forgotten Aunt LaRae who my Dad even mentioned in his text? I’ve met her - she’s apparently the daughter of Bernie Oxley. And I’ve met her daughter years ago, who is a generation or so older than me as I recall.
But I guess no one else from the 2nd family so far. Maybe I should dig deeper for future posts…