Family History

One day after Mr. Mono and I first met he asked me what nationality I was. I said, "American." And he said, "yeah, I know that, but like where is your family from?" Amused, I said, "America." Growing frustrated, he said, "I know, but where are your ancestors from?" "America." Then I explained that my family on both sides have been in the US since before the revolution and that there really wasn't a "mother country" anymore. Not one that any of us would recognize at least--or would recognize us. Aside from my mother's rendition of Toora Loora Loora we have little to no customs resembling our original Scotch-Irish heritage.

Having a baby, or babies rather, has made me think a lot about our growing family tree and what I want my children to know about their family history. Talking to my dad this afternoon, we got on the subject of some of our ancestors.

The first was Gordon Wood
He was my grandfather's cousin and my dad says "he was the winningest football coach in US history." He's actually in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. His record has since been broken, but he's still well known in the football world.


My dad told me this story about Gordon and my Grandfather "Bid" He said the carnival came to town and they had a strongman contest. So whoever could go in the ring with the strongman for however long would win something, like 50 cents. Well, he said Gordon got in the ring with him and beat him up. These are the family stories my dad likes. Gordon lived with Bid some as they were growing up and they were pretty close.

The second person is Zebulon Baird Vance. Aren't you glad we didn't name one of the girls Zebulon. He was twice governor of South Carolina and a US Senator.


Zebulon was against the civil war and secession. He was really big into individual rights and stood by the rule of law. South Carolina is the only state to observe the writ of habeas corpus during the civil war. He was elected to the Senate in 1878 and was re-elected in 1884 and 1890, serving from March 1879 until his death.

Funny thing is, I think my dad kind of looks like a cross between Gordon and Zeb.