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Greetings. I want to share a couple of thoughts with you before you go through the site. I thought it real interesting that I had someone in my family at the time I was a teenager, whom I could talk to and be with whom was actually born before 1900. Of course, that seemed really old to me then. Unfortunately, I didn't do anything with it. So the years rolled by and my maternal grandfather and my paternal grandparents died. After that, the urge to get serious about looking into my family still took a few years to come, but now its finally here and I'm putting it down on paper. If those years proved anything to me, it is to get information, stories, reasons why or why not from relatives now. Once they are gone so are all the stories, first hand.
I've learned that my family came from the Southern parts of Alabama and Georgia. They were not statesmen or generals or world leaders just hardworking, family oriented people who helped others as much as possible. My great-grandfather Joseph K. McKinney was born 2 years after slavery ended, but I haven’t found much information on him. I will never find out from my grandfathers themselves, how they came up north and got to know each other and live together. I did however, get the information from my parents as much as they could remember.
My paternal grandparents, Lorenzo Walker born Feb. 6, 1906 and Pincy Mae Tarver born August 1, 1902 were married in Wadley, Georgia on June 20, 1925. My maternal grandparents L.D McKinney born October 29, 1892 in Alabama and Mamie G. Hunter born August 28, 1922 were married on April 4, 1939. From what I’ve been told about my maternal grandfather is, he came up north searching for a different kind of life and religion. He came up north and met my paternal grandparents. He was in his late 30’s and they invited him to their church, “The Almighty Church” a non-denominational religion. He worked for them and lived with them until he met my grandmother, at the time she was 17 years of age. They were married on April 4 1939. To this union there were 14 children born. I can remember stories of when my mother and her family would go to Michigan for church. Because there were so many of them they couldn’t all fit in the car so my grandfather hitched a large trailer type wagon to the back of the car and that’s how they rode all the way to Michigan. Of course at the time they thought it was fun, looking back on it now they realize how dangerous it was.
For as long as I can remember we’ve had family reunions on my paternal grandparents’ side of the family, to this union there were 4 children. My grandparents’ house was in the middle of our house and my uncles’ home. My dad’s older brother and sister didn’t stay in the country and make their home where they grew up, but they did live in Oberlin. We lived in Oberlin on a farm on Quarry Road. We owned the property from Hamilton Street down to the railroad tracks. The three houses were setup next to each other and Reunions were always held at my paternal grandparents’ home because there was so much farmland. On the farm we raised chickens, pigs and horses. Of course the girls didn’t do much outside farm work but we definitely had to keep the inside house clean. Between my family and my uncles family there were 14 children, (8 boys and 6 girls). During the family reunion times, we had folks coming from all over mainly from the south at least 150 people or more just to get together and have a big picnic and it was always wonderful.
First and foremost, this research of my family has taught me alot about people. The people I've come into contact with during my search have been wonderful. I have to admit that the experience alone has made this research worthwhile. I've grown to know each of them and their lives through the elders in the family and feel love for them as I write about them or uncover some new facts about their lives.
For me it has become a quest....s
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