All My Ancestors

This is a photo of my great aunt and uncle, Inez Osborne and Noah Parker.  Noah died in 1946, before I was born, so I didn’t know him.  I always heard he was a big man and this picture certainly proves that.  Aunt Inez was probably only about 4’10″–they must have been quite a pair.

Aunt Inez lived to be over 100, dying in 1978.  This picture must have been taken around the time of their marriage in October 1913, in Lubbock, Texas, though I have no way of verifying that.  In 1916, they had a son named Raphael Winfield Osborne.  Raphael must have been named for Inez’ brother Raphael who had died as a 2 year old, in 1877, the same year Aunt Inez was born.  The older Raphael is referenced in their father’ Charles’ letter in an earlier post.  The Winfield is for Inez’ father’s middle name–he was Charles Winfield Osborne, author of the letter mentioned.  The Raphael named for his uncle also died young, in 1927 at age 11.

Part of the reason I blog is to write up what I know about my family.  Until I started working on this installment, I don’t think I ever realized that Aunt Inez was 35 before she married.  Interesting.  So now I go to investigate the rest of her siblings, and I find her next younger sister, Becky, married late as well–age 42.  Inez and Becky’s older sister never married.  The youngest sister married at age 23.  Most of the brothers married in their 30s–I knew the men in this family usually married “late.”  On the other hand, this may have been typical of the time.  Interesting to consider.

Noah and Inez’s daughter Mary is the person who helped me the most with this family’s research.  Mary grew up in Pampa, Gray County, Texas, where her grandparents, my great grandparents Charles and Gertrude, moved sometime between 1913 and 1920.  My dad, who was Mary’s cousin, grew up in Perryton, Ochiltree County, Texas, about 65 miles north of Pampa.  I’m still working on why my branch of the family didn’t seem to have much to do with the part of the family that was in Pampa–at least not in my lifetime.  It may be that everyone was just so busy making a living and rearing their families, there wasn’t time to socialize.   But I think there might be something more than that.  At any rate, I appreciate Mary’s giving me some pictures, some stories and some insight into the family.  I miss having Mary to ask.

Mary, her husband Ben, Noah, Inez, Raphael, Charles and Gertrude are all buried in Fairview Cemetery in Pampa.

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