Cracking more ice*

Finding a few documents, asking one question, and I’ve already, in my search, clarified some things for members of my family: The lady who my mother and her siblings grew up to know as “grandma” was actually “great-grandma.”

I started my free trial on Ancestry.com today following the confirmation I received from a fellow family historian that the genealogy database would be worth my funds. After hitting a wall searching for records to confirm the names of Grandpa Jodey’s parents (the COVINGTONs), I switched to my mom’s side of the family to find info on the WARREN line.

Searching in the North Carolina Birth Index, 1800-2000, I found a listing for my grandfather, born in Harnett County, N.C. The name listed as his father, I recognized from previous conversations with my mother. But the name listed as his mother — I never heard before. And neither did my mom nor my aunt, mom’s sister — I asked them. They were thinking, perhaps someone missteped when typing the records. I mean, the lady they knew as grandma was Sarah, not Bertha. My grandpa, though, cleared that up. Over the phone my mother asked him, “Daddy, what was your mother’s name?” Bertha BLUE was indeed his biological mother. However, he was raised by my great-great grandma Sarah (his grandma).

Exactly why this was so, I don’t know. But the unfortunate thing is this: Records suggest BLUE passed away in 1993 — in Harnett County, where my grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins have lived all their lives. She was either 83 or 84 years old.

I would like to find out more about this relative of mine and why her grandchildren didn’t know about her.

*Credit for the title of this post goes to my boyfriend, Mel.