Returning "Home" to Paintsville

This past weekend turned out to be a special treat as a colleague and I attended the Eastern Kentucky Genealogy and History Conference in Paintsville Kentucky! We not only manned the Kentucky Historical Society information table, but were doubly honored with invitations to speak. This event was already special in a personal way as my Grandmother's roots are very strong in this part of Kentucky. Since I had not been to the area since I was about 13, the excitement of going back was exhilarating. Within my presentation I had already planned on including a couple of slides outlining my family connections to the area in the hopes of finding some Pace, Connelly, Salyers, Musick, Caudill cousins. What I had not planned on was the cousin encounters that took place!

As I have explored previously in older posts, our family left the Magoffin, Floyd and Johnson County areas of Kentucky to re-settle in the Portsmouth Ohio area during the 1920s. The patriarch of the family, Albert Pace, had just died and our family seriously had a lot of mouths to feed. This,of course,would require more opportunities for work,which were just not available at the time. So, my great Grandmother, Fannie Connelly Pace took the family up north to create a new life. The group embraced Ohio and settled there permanently, but we never forgot our Kentucky connections.

Many of the Pace/Connelly descendants still reside in the Portsmouth Ohio area and to my surprise, I had some dear cousin connections beginning Saturday morning! As my colleague and I were setting up our KHS table on Friday evening, I noticed a table that was reserved for the Scioto County Genealogical Society. This piqued my interest immediately, and was eagerly anticipating the arrival of the folks who would be manning this table for the weekend. Ironically, the sweet ladies who arrived to perform this task on Saturday were none other than my close Pace cousins! Carolyn and her daughter Jodi are also descendants of Albert Pace and Fannie and have been our champions for the Pace/Connelly family reunions over the past several decades! In fact, if it was not for Carlolyn's dedication over the years, I'm sure this reunion would have faded away many years ago. These two also continue their faithful work in regards to the family by making several trips to the Paintsville area each year to help with cemetery maintenance and fostering family connections.

 

After our lovely surprise of being able to see each other and catch up with family gossip, we had the honor of meeting another Connelly cousin for the first time! Edward Hazelett was in attendance and related that he too was a descendant of our mutual ancestor, Captain Henry Connelly! At 86, he is quite the charmer and a wealth of information!

For anyone with Eastern Kentucky roots, you should really put this event on your yearly calendars! The folks responsible for this event are wonderful to work with and the attendees are so welcoming.....always hoping to make new cousin connections. Probably the most rewarding aspect of this conference: listening to the stories passed down through the varied generations. Kentucky is known for its strong oral traditions, and this conference is one of those places that allows you to bask in that tradition - transporting you back in time and celebrating our proud heritage!

BTW, as promised to my audience, here is the snap I took of your lovely faces!

For more information, visit their official website: http://ekygc.org/
or...."like" them on Facebook to view the very latest comments and announcements: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eastern-Kentucky-Genealogy-Conference/124723554244747?ref=stream

A Change of Pace

As this time of the year rolls around, a group of faithful family members gather for their yearly reunion up in the Portsmouth Ohio area. They are all descendants from one branch of the Pace family.....a branch that has two distinct histories....one in Eastern Kentucky and one in Southern Ohio.

The Pace family (L-R: Pearl, Albert, Challie, Fannie, Alberta, Vearl,
Dorie, Gracie Pace Adkins with Husband Raleigh Adkins and two children.)

This Pace story is one of hardship, determination, love and faithfulness. It begins in the Eastern Kentucky Mountains - and exemplifies the rich Appalachian spirit that is so often mocked simply because of their humble way of life. Within the areas of Magoffin, Floyd and Johnson Counties, the Pace and Connelly families united with my Great Grandparents, Albert Pace and Fannie Conley (Connelly). It is said that Albert was a descendant of the early pioneer Richard Pace of Jamestown Virginia, and Fannie the descendant of Captain Henry Connelly of the American Revolution. Within the mingled generations it has actually been discovered that both are descendants of the illustrious Captain, but very far back down ye olde family tree - I better not hear any Eastern KY snickering about that one!

Pace homestead in Bear Tree,
Magoffin County Kentucky

This couple produced many children, and several of their descendants were very faithful in interviewing the children of Albert and Fannie. According to some of the family interviews, Albert and Fannie were greatly admired for their hard work and love of family. They made their home near Salyersville, Magoffin County,Kentucky, in a small area known as Bare (Bear) Tree. Growing up, I always heard Great Grandpa Albert referred to as "Prince" Albert Pace. As an adult, this term always perplexed me because I was pretty sure that wasn't his real name. However, caveat observed - I don't have his vital records, so, Prince could really have been part of his name. Ironically, when a cousin passed along this photo of Albert, all fancied up, I wasn't surprised that the "Prince" portion stuck to his memory. Albert did not live to be an old man, but died rather young and with a full head of hair - which I thought was interesting, since he never looked like the Prince Albert tobacco can image - but when looking at a younger image of the real Prince Albert, the "Prince" label made complete sense!

Tale of two Princes: Prince Albert Pace (1874-1923) and Prince Albert of Great Britain

According to the oral accounts, Albert was a man of many trades. He worked in the "oil fields", he worked in the mines, he "stacked whiskey frames", and according to the census, he was a farmer. All of the accounts from his daughters describe a loving and cheerful man. His daughter Sarah remembered him as a very devout man: "Everyday before he walked the many miles to work he would go to a spot behind our little house, beside a big tree. There he would stop, on bended knee and pray for his family. The spot where he prayed was worn bare from the pressure of his knee on the ground. For many years after he died, the place stayed bare and the print of his knee was there. I always thought that meant he was still watching out for me." Unfortunately, Albert, aka "Poppy" as his children called him, died from an unknown illness in 1923 around the age of 51. At the time of his death, he left a pregnant wife, eight children and one grown daughter from a previous marriage with two+/- grandchildren.

Fannie Lou Conley Pace
Cottle Malone (1882-1956)

After the death of Albert, Fannie's life changed completely. She worked as many odd jobs as she could cram into one day while taking care of her children. The memories surrounding these years include the image of her staying up late at night to do mending by the fire as part of her local paid duties. Instead of marrying again right away, Fannie gave birth to Georgie, four months after Albert's death, but then had to bury Georgie, 22 months later. Not long after Georgie's death, Fannie's two oldest boys learned about work up in Ohio and convinced their mother to take the entire family to Wheelersburg, a suburb of Portsmouth Ohio. Historically, this was a common move for many in Eastern Kentucky at the time. Factories were growing by leaps and bounds up along the river, and the number of jobs grew right along with them.

Not long after settling with her young daughters in a small dwelling near Meade, Fannie married their landlord, Bill Cottle. During these years, she also ran a small store, and faithfully attended a local Pentecostal church in the area. After Bill died, she married a man by the name of Malone, but kept working hard until her death in 1956.

Meade Pentecostal Church

Another consistent memory associated with Fannie was her kind nature. All of her children remember her very fondly. And so, after this northern migration, all of her children and descendants stayed north of the river, for the most part. I think we might be the only ones who returned to Kentucky - many decades later. For this reason, the family reunion is always held near the Portsmouth area each summer. If you recognize this clan and wish to join in the reunion fun, just contact me directly and I can give you the particulars.

Many thanks to my Pace cousins for keeping our oral history alive: Carolyn, Jodi, Brenda, Marcia, Bob, etc. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't know the rich heritage that comes from this side of our family. For additional connections to this branch, the connected surnames include: Salyer, Caudill, Musick, Crace/Adkins.

Albert and Fannie's children at a Pace Reunion years ago.

For Those Who Mother Us...

In honor of Mother's Day, I pulled out this old family favorite from the Beyersdoerfer Collection. All of these women are Beyersdoerfer mothers holding, what appears to be, their children of near identical age. The photo was taken sometime around 1915 on the Beyersdoerfer family farm in Bracken County, Kentucky. I am very rusty on which woman is which, but I'll give it a shot: from R-L: Aunt Addie (Hiles) Beyersdoerfer, Aunt Rose (Beyersdoerfer) Pangburn, Aunt Nora (Beyersdoerfer) Reuss, Great Grandma Nellie (Cox) Beyersdoerfer, Can't remember the name of the lady with the cloth on her head - could this be Aunt Gladys - the wife of Uncle Charlie Beyersdoerfer?, Aunt Celia (Beyersdoerfer) Gosney. Needless to say, it must have been a long winter to have all of these babies born in the same season!

As an added highlight to this year's Mother's Day weekend, we are also celebrating the 90th birthday of my grandmother Bessie Louise (Pace) Daniels. She was born in Magoffin County Kentucky to Albert and Fannie (Connelly) Pace. Not only did she raise four of her own children, but in 1988 she (along with Grandpa Charles) was named Foster Parent of the year in the state of Ohio. Over the years she cared for over 60 foster babies.....and I mean babies - some newborn to a few months old! She's still going strong these days....going to church, shopping, and family functions.....and still playing mother to her Shih-Tzu - Sarah Jane.....you go Grandma!

Of course I mustn't forget my own Momma, Pamela (Watts).....the dearest, bestest and most loving Mother a kid could have! And believe me, my brother and I gave her fits while growing up! She too is still mothering us all the time while being very active in her church and tending to her half acre perennial garden. Being the daughter of farmers means she loves this time of year that allows her to be in the garden getting those fingers dirty!

So Happy Mother's Day to all those special mothers out there - those dear mothers of the past, or the dear ones of the present......we couldn't have done it without you!

C

5/9/2010