52 Ancestors January Wk#4...CURIOUS

 Week 4 ~ Prompt ~ CURIOUS

It's the nature of a 'Family Historian' or Genealogist...curiosity that is.  Are you curious to know what it means to be a 'Curious Person'?  I was!  Who knew it was definable and fitting?!!  

1.Eager to learn or know; inquisitive (okay that's reasonable)

2.Prying; meddlesome (oops, that's a bit negative, but has some merit) 

3.Speculative interest (yes, otherwise wouldn't bother)

4.Attention to the inexplicable, highly unusual, odd, strange and done with painstaking accuracy and focus on detail.  (Nailed It) 

Meet my Second Great Grand Aunt Palmyra J. Akin Thedford. 

This photo of her was in my Great Grandmother Martha Jane Marley Carroll's Photo Album, and even though her  name was barely legible on the back, I somehow couldn't bring myself to admit that anyone could be named Palmyra.

Honestly, I really wanted this photo to be of my Great Great Grandmother Mary Josephine Leatherwood Marley, as I didn't have and couldn't find a photo of her anywhere. 

You would think Martha Jane would have at least one picture of her own Mother.

Finally, I resigned myself to the fact that it was not Josephine, and put it in the back of the 'Old Photo Album'.  However, the name really stuck in my head and Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a Google! 

Did you know that Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria?  

In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria located in an oasis northeast of Damascus and southwest of the Euphrates.  

It had been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the 'Bride of the Desert'.

Interesting, right? But still who was she and what was this portrait doing in my Grandmother's Album?  

Curiosity did not kill this 'Cat', and eventually her kinship and non-Syrian heritage was revealed..in an odd, prying, meddlesome manner through Ancestry.  If nothing else, I can chew a single waving leaf to pulp.

She was the Aunt of my Great Grandfather Stephen Bennett Carroll.

Born Palmyra J. Akin on November 7, 1845 to Stephen B. and Catherine Ann Akin Carroll.

Raised in Dyer County, Tennessee

Married John A. Thedford on January 9, 1867

Mother of Naomi B. Thedford born in 1876

Moved to Cleburne City, Johnson County, Texas

Died June 17, 1912

Buried Cleburne Memorial Cemetery, Cleburne, Texas

Brick Wall chiseled down one brick at a time 

leading to Great Grandfathers Carroll ancestors and my Tennessee Roots.

And to Cousins now Friends on Facebook...pays off to be Curious!