Your Family in History
by Charlene Notgrass
Our daughter Bethany had a surprising gift request for her recent twenty-first birthday. She asked for her dad's new history curriculum, "Exploring America: History, Literature, and Faith." She and I have decided to study it together. In many ways, our family is in a difficult time. My husband Ray is recuperating from two crushed wrists (The doctor described one of them as "in a thousand pieces") and needs a great deal of care, as do our three new adopted children. In the midst of the pressures, Bethany and I have decided to explore America together.
We began this morning by reading lesson one, "Why Study History?" together. I was struck by the way history has affected our family personally. God works through individual people to make history. Decisions of ancestors and events that happened to them affect their descendants for generations. I encourage you to think about your own family history. Gather stories from your parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Share the stories with your children and help them understand how history has affected them and their ancestors.
Except for a family story that says Ray's mother's Jefferson relatives in England are somehow connected with Thomas Jefferson, I don't know of any famous people in our family story. However, most of the people who make history are not famous at all. Most are ordinary people -- farmers, homemakers, soldiers, laborers, and the like. Let me tell you about how some historic events have affected our family.
The Places Where We Live
I am descended from the first French settler in Nashville (Davidson County) and from some of the earliest European settlers in Robertson County in Middle Tennessee. A short time later some of my ancestors moved to Cheatham County. Most of my aunts, uncles, and cousins still live in one of those three counties or in adjoining ones. However, our family was affected by economic limitations in the South during the early 20th century. While rural Southerners were migrating to places like Detroit to find jobs in factories during the 20s and 30s, two of my great uncles joined them. Their descendants still live in Michigan.
One of Ray's ancestors traveled to Maury County, Tennessee in a covered wagon in the early 1800s. About 150 years later, Ray became one of her many descendants who was born and reared in Maury County. Acts 17:26 says "...and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation..."
Our Family and the Civil War
Ray's great-great-grandfather served in the Confederacy during the Civil War. After getting wounded, he headed home. Somewhere along the way he died and became one of the many Civil War veterans whose grave is unknown to his family.
Our Family and World War I
One of my paternal great uncles was a pilot in World War I. At that time airplanes were brand new and dangerous. I can't imagine getting in one of those machines, much less flying one in a war! Uncle Doc was wounded and met his future wife while recuperating. After World War I wounded veterans received financial help for college. Uncle Doc had homeschooled himself with Sears and Roebuck textbooks as a child and was happy to take advantage of his veteran benefits, eventually receiving a doctorate.
Ray's dad was a young boy when World War I ended. He remembers getting dressed up in a child-sized World War I uniform and watching a parade of veterans returning home.
Our Family and World War II
Since my family lived in Middle Tennessee, my grandfather found a job during the war at the Vultee airplane factory in Nashville and was able to help supply our troops with airplanes.
World War II had a major impact on Ray's family. His father was a 28-year-old bachelor living at home in Columbia, Tennessee when he joined the army. Eventually he was sent to England to prepare for the Allied invasion of Europe. While in England, he met Joan, a beautiful young English woman. He landed on Utah beach the day after D-Day and served in the medical corps during every major military campaign in Europe. A few months after Joan turned 18, he received permission to fly to England to marry her. After a brief honeymoon, he traveled back to Germany to finish the war. When it was over, he came home to Middle Tennessee. Joan arrived a short time later on a ship carrying many other "war brides" and began her own role in American history.
Our Family and the Korean War
My dad was drafted during the Korean War. Because he had bad teeth, he was exempted from serving in Korea and served instead in Maryland and Kentucky. The Army pulled all of Daddy's upper teeth and gave him false ones. He was discharged on November 30, 1953 and I was born on December 2. I am thankful for my Daddy's bad teeth. I wonder if they saved his life and kept me from growing up without a father.
Our Family and the Polio Vaccine
My Uncle Doc, who was a pilot in World War I, did research that helped in the development of the polio vaccine. Today people are still discovering the blessings, dangers, and shortcomings of vaccinations; but at the time people were grateful for an answer to the fears of contracting polio.
Our Family and the Vietnam War
Ray had a draft number of 8 during the Vietnam War, but at that time students could receive an exemption from the draft and go to college. Ray used his exemption and our family is thankful that Ray did not have to serve in that horrible war. I might never have met him if he had.
Our Family and September 11
My cousin Debbie was in New York last September and visited the World Trade Center. We are thankful it was not on September 11; it was September 10. In our family we give each homeschool graduate a family trip. Mary Evelyn graduated last spring, and last fall we made the necessary preparations for her trip. We purchased economical tickets to travel by air, car, and ferry to Alaska. It was to be the trip of a lifetime. Our scheduled departure date was September 16 on American Airlines. Needless to say, we canceled all those reservations. Of course, we have nothing to be sad about compared to the suffering endured by thousands of people. We were just one of the many families who experienced one of the "ripple effects."
Another major event happened in our lives on September 11. It began on September 10 when our case worker at the Department of Children's Services called to tell us we had been selected to adopt a sibling group of three -- ages 7, 9, and 12. She told us we had to wait 24 hours to give a final answer. On September 11 in the midst of our watching the news stories on television and trying to figure out what it all meant for our upcoming trip, the case worker called for that answer. We said, "Yes." Ray and I met the children on the 12th, our three adult children who live at home met them on the 14th, and on October 6 we grew from a family of six to a family of nine (Ray's dad lives we us, too).
Our Family and June 14, 2002
June 14? What's special about that day? To most people it probably isn't special, but it is to our family. It was the day before Ray's 50th birthday. On the 13th Ray and I traveled to Memphis alone to celebrate his birthday and to sell curriculum at a homeschooling conference. About 10:00 a.m. Ray and I were hooking up a trailer to the back of our Suburban. While Ray stood between the vehicle and the trailer directing me, I backed into place. When I put on my brake, I heard a crash in the back of the car. Fearing it was the ice chest spilling all over our books, I hopped out of the car. Sadly, I didn't put the car in park and it rolled backwards, pinning Ray between the car and the trailer. In seconds our lives were changed: Ray had two terribly crushed wrists (requiring surgery and months of recovery) and I live with the knowledge that things would be very different for our family if I had remembered to put the car in park.
From the first, Ray determined not to ask, "Why?" He doesn't ask God and he doesn't ask me. For some reason and perhaps for many reasons, God spared Ray's life and He spared me from the horror of having run over or crushed my husband. Split-second decisions change the lives of individuals and families. Historic events change the world and nations and change the lives of families and individuals. Praise be to God Who makes all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).