Isaac Blakey: Private Isaac Blaker

2011 marks the 166th year of Isaac Blakey birth. Isaac was the son of Andrew and Julia White from VA. Isaac was the only one in his family to carried the Blakey surname. His parents and siblings took the White surname.

The story has it, Isaac took the name Blaker from a billboard or a barber shop sign. Isaac was making his way down south to MS to join the Civil War on November 1, 1863. He served until May 13, 1866.

The Blakey surname was the name of the slaveholders in MO. When Isaac had to prove who he was... two of his former slave owners testify to prove who Isaac was. Isaac testify that his name was Isaac Blakey. 

Isaac Blakey1845 - 1917
Private Isaac BlakerMS Union Solder
1863 - 1866

The day of Isaac Blakey's birth was unknown.
The established date and year Isaac Blakey
was June 30, 1847 in Fayette Missouri.
According to Isaac's death record he was 72 years old.
The year of his birth would have been 1845

Why Did I Start This Family History Website?

There are many reasons why I started this family history website. I can say, the main reason why; I like to record my family history. I don't want what I've discovered, be lost.

I want to share what I know about my family history so others could read the discoveries I made and may add what they know. I hope that others will be inspired to search for their family history.

Also, I can say, I'm looking out for the future generations. They might want to know some things about their past generations. They might fun it interesting to see how we lived.

Through the years, I've shared what I've been doing. I've received some comments. There have been some encouraging words of appreciation. I'm thankful for that!

I hope what I share will be helpful to those who come across or see some connection on my  family tree. Also, it's nice that others will add what they know about any one on the family tree. Any information might be of help. We'll never know if we don't share.

In all, we all have a story to share. What I'm sharing is what I have discovered on my journey. I know that there can be more to what I share. I'm just one person. There are a lot of things I don't know. (There are a lot of people on my family tree.)

As for the most of what I'm sharing; it comes from information that I've researched. I was curious enough to start searching. I've found more than what I expect to find. There are many things I wish I can find.

I haven't touch some areas in the family history. I'm not sharing some information on living relatives yet. I will share in the years come. I try not to write about people who are living without their permission. However in some cases, I think some relatives wouldn't mind that I mention their names.

Thanks to all who read what I post. And to those who are connected to my lineage, I hope that you are recording what you know about your connections. Don't let what you know be lost. We know a lot but think that it isn't important to share.

What I've been seeing in doing research, there are some who don't share. There's so much that we know that we don't share with one another. We have our reasons.

I see a lot private sites on ancestry.com. That's OK! But I see the more open we are, some things may come to light. The little clues that we know can unlock some one's family's mysteries or secrets that are unknown.

O how I wish that my ancestors recorded some things about their lives. I've come across many ancestors who can't read or write. But they could talk. They had a memory of what they went through. I hope those who can write.... write some things down some of  what their ancestor told them. 

I believe that there are people interested in... where their ancestors came from. But the question is, will people start looking? Will we share? We can say this and say they. We can disagree on what was what. But will we search to find answers?

I hope that others will join in the search. I'm just one person. When others start it add what they know or heard, it builds that family tree. The tree grows by what we all add to what we know....

May we learn that family history is important. May we not let what we know or what we discover be lost. May we learn from one another and not be upset because some things aren't mention in our family history.

May we not be ashamed to share what we know about our family history. May God grant us with leads to follow. May we have a good attitude in searching. May we not grew weary in doing good. Amen.

Thanks for reading.
Staying On The Family History Journey,
Why Did I Start This Family History Website?

So what I have discovered want be lost.
So things will be passed down to generations to come.
Hoping that they will pass it on.

Peace Be With You,
Susan

Memories Of My Father, David W. Blakley Sr.

Some Thoughts / Memories On... My father, David...

This is re post from my Xanga site on Sunday, 17 June 2007

God blessed me with the honor of having a father for 25 and a half years of my life. My father was about 49 and half years older than I was.

He and my mother were already grandparents when I was born. Yeah, I was a Daddy's girl. Never had to have a whipping from my parents. Yes, I was spoiled. I was very shy and our parents' 19th child. [Indeed I am from the seed of David.]


I recall stories that some of my older siblings would share with us...That our father would take some of them to the store. There was a deal when you brought so many groceries.... you would get a wagon...Well, our father had 7 wagons for all of kids at that time.



Also, I heard that our father helped do some of the household things. He did some cooking in the early days with our mother.... He would cook some meals that were not on the market yet. Like making noddles in sauce mixing in hamburger.

And there was a snack that he would call "pudding in tane". I loved that...peanut butter mix with syrup spreading it on bread. I heard that that's on the market too.

My Dad told me that his father in law would put out the flag on my father's birthday. Yeah, my mother said that her father liked my father. Our Dad was our Grandfather's best son in law. My mother was a Daddy's girl too. [Photo of my parents in my mother's mother's house.]

I recall our father, after he had his breakfast, he would put out our lunch money on the dinning room table....the money would be in coins.. in a roll about 7 rolls or so... the earliest that I can recall, our lunch for school was about 60 cents. [That included an extra milk.]

I was told that our father helped out a lot of people in his lifetime. He was a giver of himself. Some people borrow things from him... He would help repair and built on to others houses. He even enlarge our family home over the years as our family grow.

Along with having a job, our father started a family trash business in 1939 in which he owned and operated ..... He loved to watch sports especially baseball. He loved cookies very much...We also had to have cookies in the house.

Our father was a quiet -kindhearted man and a very hard worker all his life. Our father's mother passed when our father was 13. Our father's father died when our father was about 5. Our father did not get to know his father. But our father was very fond of his Stepfather.

This year will be the 18th year since our father's passing. Our Dad departed from this life in the 52 and a half years of marriage to our mother. Our father was devoted our mother and supportive to us as a family.

I helped my mother care for our father....after he got ill...Toward the end of his life, he knew that it was time for him to go. He lived eleven more years than what the doctors thought.

Doctors were amazed how our father lived as long as he did. Our Dad was a fighter even up to the end of his life. Now our father and our mother are in presence of the LORD.

I think all fathers should be special in the eyes of the children in some way or other. I saw a lot in my father during the time I was blessed to be with him. He was the father that God choose for me. I thank God for my father. My father did the very best that he could in raising me while he was my father.

I recall my father working a lot as I was growing up, up to the time he got sick. I recall in my early days, I always wanted to help him do something in the yard. I had a closer father- daughter relationship with my father in his latter years. [Our father work a lot in my early years.]

1990 was the first Father's Day without have my father. It was not until I got the revelation in that year that I have an Heavenly Father. I was not saved but I thought that. I grew more to start back to honor Father's Day.

By 1994 I was a very happy girl. It's was like it was my first Father's Day that I had. I was saved and I got to go to my Father's House on Father's Day June 19th 1994...Juneteenth Day.

On that Father's Day I was SO HAPPY. One of my sisters told me that one of her kids ask her, why is Aunt Susie so happy on Father's Day? I have an HEAVENLY FATHER and I can honor and celebrate Father's Day.

To all you fathers out there....Thanks for being fathers! Fatherhood is a gift from God.

There are memories that children cherish of their fathers that remains in the hearts of children forever. For me I cherish the time that my father took me with him to get something when he told me to sit in the car and wait.

When he came back to start the car...we were out of gas. So we got out of the car a started walking....As we were walking my father held my hands.

[My father HELD my hands... He held my hands and prayed for me about 12 hours before his transition into the next life in the presence with Jesus.]

Another cherished memory...When I about cut off my finger...My father warned me about that sharp blade on the lawnmower but I touch it anyway. Yeah, my father rush me to the hospital and than took me to the drug store for my medicine.

He also so told me to pick out some candy while we were waiting for the medicine. [It was a big bag of candy. I think I shared it with some of my brothers and sisters.]

Those memories are still alive...we build everlasting memories in our lives from others who are apart of our lives...

For those who did not grow up with a father or did not have a good relationship with your father, I cannot imagine how you may feel. I grow up with nephews and nieces who had no father in their homes. Their mothers raised them the very best way that they could. There is a "lost"...without having a father in the home while growing up...early in life.

If you are saved, you have An Eternal Father...GOD, THE FATHER. He is our Heavenly Father forever. I see and think of having a Father in a new way. Our Heavenly Father is Someone completely different from our earthly fathers. [He is the FATHER of all fathers. He is the source of fatherhood.]

This blog was inspired as I was in the Upper Room on Thursday morning. I was seeking the LORD what to blog. I jotted down some notes and began to compose my blog on Friday and just started typing.

Then I went back in the Upper Room on Friday night before church. I reread my notes and jotted down some more notes. I prayed some more and here is my finish work. God Bless you all.

May you all Have An AWESOME Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Heavenly Father!

It's the first day of the week. I was glad when they said...

Let us go to the House of the LORD.

Stray Cats

I think that it was in the late 1980's when I realized that we had a lot of stray cats in our neighborhood. One day one of my brothers was cleaning up our of our mother's lots. He made a discovery.
My brother showed me a mother cat and her baby kittens. I cannot recall how many baby kittens there were. But the family of cats lived in a truck bed type shelter.

Through the days, weeks ahead the mother cat and father cat would abandon their kittens. One day one of my brothers saw that the mother and father cat would not let their kittens eat. I did not know that cats did that.

My brother would also see the mother or the father cat coming to get the food while the baby kitten would be eating. My brother noticed that there was baby kitten looking around as he was eating. And when the kitten saw one of his parents coming he would run away.

So then my brother started to chase off the mother and father cat when the baby kittens would eat. Through the process of time, there was one cat that draw fond of my brother. So my brother name that cat "Killer Wood."

"Killer Wood" would start coming to my brother, "Eddie". "Killer Wood" would only come to my brother. But eventually he would come to me and others.

I recall one time "Killer Wood would come in to our front door a little ways, looked around and went back out the door. I thought that that was strange.

As for "Killer Wood" we don't know what happen to him. My brother noticed that "Killer Wood's hair was shedding. The cat did not look right.

The last we heard of "Killer Wood", someone saw of him was going down a sewer in February 1999. "Killer Wood" lived to be about 8 or 9. That is good for a stray cat.

Then about two years ago, another stray cat came into our lives. This happened at the house where we use to live. This cat made his home under our house.

This cat reminded us of "Killer Wood." He was very friendly. We later found out that it was one of our neighbors cat that left home.

My brother Eddie named this cat, "Woody". "Woody would always come a running for something to eat. Then one day Eddie notice something about this cat.

"Wood" was a girl cat. She was about to give birth to her kittens. Then one day we did not know where "Woody" was. She had her kittens but we did not know where.

Not to long after the kittens were born, "Woody" came up to my brother, Eddie. "Woody" collapsed. It turned out that she was hit by a car. We ended up calling the animal control. They came and got "Woody" and her kittens.

The irony of this story. "Woody" came back to tell Eddie that she was hurt. That was strange. Perhaps she was worried about her kittens.

We did not know where the kitten were until they came out from under our house. There were about 5 of them. The were wondering where their mother was.

There are still a lot of stray cats in the neighborhood. Some of them look like "Killer Wood" and "Woody". Perhaps they are from the same family of cats.

By the way, it is against the law to feed cats that are not registered in St Joseph, MO. That is what a friend told me. Yeah, there is a fine, if caught. (Cat License)

P.S.
We don't feed stray cats. Our dogs don't like cats. They bark at time all the time.

What I am aware of on
my journey of transformation.
As I was thinking about some of the animals that live in our neighborhood, how they came a part of our lives. Seeing the birds , the squirrels, the dogs and stray cats, how they survived and eat every day. They depended on their source of food from somebody.

This reminds me of our Family Dogs and Neighbor Dogs that I remember as I was growing up. How they were a part of our lives. There were a lot of dogs in our neighborhood. Cats would not have made it back then.

From my Book of Thanks and Blessings....
Father God, I am thankful that you put animals in our lives to care for. I am thankful that we have FAITH as a mustard seed. I am thankful for the saving knowledge of Jesus my SALVATION. I am thankful for the HOPE the in within me. I am thankful for the Door of HOPE.

The Jennie Bartlett Connections: The Blakleys and The Lyles

I was thinking about my Grandma Jennie Bartlett Blakley Lyles's children. Grandma Jennie's life wasn't long. She passed away on December 26, 1926 at the age of 41. She was said to have had about 17 or 19 children. I was trying to piece together Jennie life through what I know about her.

My mother's mother Mary Allen Lankford told my mother, Lula that Grandma Jennie had 19 children. I have search records and found 17 of them. I've tried to piece together Jennie's life as when her children were born.

Jennie was born in May of 1883 in Carrollton, Missouri. She was the daughter of Elias and Harriett Hooper Bartlett. At some point in Jennie's life she, her mother and some of her siblings left Carrollton, MO. They ended up in St. Joseph, MO. I can't pin point the year when they again their move. Lucy Mossell, Jennie's half sister was in St. Joseph in 1900.

In the beginning stages of my search, I thought that Jennie may have eloped with John Blakey in MO.  John's family was from Chartion County MO area. I don't know where John and Jennie met. I can assume that knew each other for a year are so... 1901 or 1900

I came cross Jennie's marriage record. She married her first husband, John Blakey in April of 1902 in Excels Spring, MO. Before the year was up Jennie's first child was stillborn in Nov 1902.

I can assume since Jennie had a half sister living in St. Joseph, that was why the family came. Perhaps that was why Jennie and John settled there too. I see that Jennie's mother, Harriette and siblings, Lucy, Paul, Waneta came to St. Joseph, as well. I came across two Sam Barletts. Don't know if they were related.

Here is what I can assume of Jennie through her children's births:

Here's a list of Jennie's children by John:

Unnamed female stillborn Blakey 

StillbornNovember 10. 1902

Edna Blakey
1903 - 1904



John Blakley Jr.

John R. Blakley Jr
1905 - 1974

John married Alma Lottie
They didn't have children.
Lottie had children from a previous marriage.

Isaac Blakley

Isaac Blakley

1906 - 1980

Isaac married Anna Lankford
They had two sons
 

Paul Blakley

Paul Blakley

1907 - 1946

Paul married Cora Hinch
They adopted a son and a daughter.
The children took the Green surname
 

Cecil Blakey

Cecil Blakey
1908 - 1909


Cecil was a girl

Jaunita Blakey


Jaunita Blakey
1910 - 1910

Olbrey Pierson Blakley

Olbrey Pierson Blakley
1912 - 1943

Olbrey was a Reverend
He was believed to have fathered a child.

 

Mary Jane Blakley

Mary Jane Blakley Richardson
1911 - 2001

Mary married Eugene Richardson
They adopted two daughters
 

David Blakley

David Blakley
1913 - 1989

David married Lula Lankford
They had 19 children
 

 

Hazel V. Blakley


Hazel V. Blakley
1915 - 1933
Hazel died with child

Baby (Boy) Blakley
1917 -1918

Baby Boy's first name wasn't listed.

John Blakley Sr. died 4 months after Jennie's last child was born.
Jennie had to raise her children.

Jennie remarried to Chilton Lyle year unknown perhaps in 1920.

Jennie's children by Chilton Lyle

Doris Lyles
Davis Lyles
Dorothy LylesDon't know the name or names of this child (ren).
There were two death records.
There was a single birth with different names and death date.

April 27, 1920 to July 3 or 5, 1920

Faris C. Lyle

Sgt. Faris C. Lyle
1923 - 2008

Faris married Katheryn ?
They had 5 sons and a daughter

Geneva Lyle Jones



Geneva Lyle
1924 - 2006

Geneva married Carl Jones
They had 4 sons and a daughter

Edgar Lyle
Oct 17, 1925  to April 16, 1926

My mother told me that Jennie worked very hard.
She was a small woman. She died of a heart attack on Dec 26, 1926.
She left behind a husband, 9 children.
And some siblings.

As for Jennie's children, some of the older Blakley siblings took care of some of the younger Blakleys. As for the Lyle two children, they went to an orphanage home for children on Lafayette Street in St. Joseph, MO.

Hope to come across more some day.
Meanwhile...

Staying On The Family History Journey

Blessings,Susan