Family is Family, No Matter the Distance
with Amanda Arthur

Amanda Arthur – Family is Family, No Matter the Distance

[00:00:00] Heather Murphy: Today I am here with Amanda Arthur and am pleased to have her here and share her experiences with her family history. Amanda, could you start by introducing yourself, please?

[00:00:11] Amanda Arthur: My name is Amanda and I am a blogger geologists at cool girls genealogy. It's kind of the blog that That genealogies and just for older people, you know, younger generations and how cool it is since the name. So, I, you know, that's, that's me in a nutshell I just try to use different aspects of his story, like baking and food and traveling and stuff like that. To show how cool genealogy is.

[00:00:39] Heather Murphy: So, how did you start becoming interested in learning about your family history?

[00:00:44] Amanda Arthur: My mom was the family genealogist back before there was ancestry and all the online resources that we have now. And she used to drag me when I was in high school to the archives on weekends, and she would cut a deal. Hey, you know, this Saturday, come with me and do research next weekend and go hang out with your friends.

We kind of have this deal going back and forth and I absolutely hated it. I hated doing the research, I hated sittin' there indoors for a weekend. Miserable. And then somewhere along the line I'd looked past the dates and stuff like that started like reading newspapers and getting the stories of ancestors.

And I was like, this is kind of cool. Like these people are real people before we just dates names and didn't really mean anything to me. But then once I started like learning who they were, it started clicking and I just was. It stuck with me since then. Like after that, I kept asking him when we're going, where are we going next? Our vacations turned into research vacations. It was just, I was hooked and I've been doing it ever since.

[00:01:45] Heather Murphy: Do you remember one of those initial stories or initial ancestors that were one of those that caught your attention?

[00:01:53] Amanda Arthur: I do. And it's kind of a funny story. We were back in Gilmore, girls was huge. And if you know anything about Gilmore girls, you know, they were in the Emily was in the Daughters of American Revolution. So I kinda got in my head, well, if I'm going to do this you know, when it shows up in floor, right.

So I talked my mom into let's start looking for revolutionary ancestors and we found one his name's John Raccoon Miller, and he's from the Knoxville area east, Tennessee. And I started hearing his stories. Like he fought in the revolutionary war. He is in North Carolina militia. And he tapped in and, and led his militia into battle at the Bella Kings mountain and what he did there.

And he was friends with John severe, who eventually became governor of Tennessee. And then once the war was over, he was still popping up in newspapers. He grew silk worms but like, nobody did that in Tennessee, but, and even the newspaper article said, don't know how this happened, but this is what he does. And just like little stories like that.

I was like, this man is fascinating. And he was definitely one of those types of people. Like to dabble in with everything. And I started to see myself in that, like, I am very much notorious for all the hobbies, since there's just one hobby. It's like, oh, I'll try that. Okay. I'll try that. And that was me. I could see myself in him. So it was that I liked to call him a gateway ancestor. He was the one that got me hooked.

[00:03:15] Heather Murphy: Good. What are some other experiences that you've had with different ancestors as you've learned about them?

[00:03:21] Amanda Arthur: Back to my ancestors. I'm originally from Michigan. I was born in Michigan and moved to Tennessee when I was 11. And that was, I don't want to date myself, but it was early nineties. And so, and then I moved to a really small town in Tennessee. Like it was the two stoplight town. Everybody that lived there was from there, grew up there.

Their ancestors were from there. So I was like, who's this outsider? Well, I started with raccoon John Miller and then my other ancestors from Tennessee, they kind of gave me. It's like, I have roots here. I may not have been born here, but I have the roots that I'm just as much of a Tennessee and is all these people I was going to school with, you know, they didn't care about the history.

They didn't care about that, but it just kinda gave me a little bit of confidence. You know, my family helped found this state. I mean, they were here back in the 17 hundreds. I have deep roots in Tennessee I'm as much of a Tennessee and as anybody else. So it's kinda neat to hear the stories of, you know, when they founded the state and see those documents.

And you have like that concrete piece of yourself that shows, you know, this is, this is my roots. This is where I'm. You know, all my traditions were Southern my whole family's from the south. We just randomly say Michigan. And so it just kinda gave me that little extra confidence that I needed to, to make friends And like, feel like I fit in.

Okay.

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[00:04:41] Heather Murphy: And it also sounds like you've used your personal history to connect with the state and other history that was going on there within Tennessee to give you more of a sense of place and belonging.

[00:04:57] Amanda Arthur: Exactly. I mean, it was just, it was one of those things. Like, I always knew that my family is from the south always, you know, that's just what we were. We, we, my great grandparents lived in Kentucky, so that's where we all always went on holidays, but it was kinda like, okay, yeah, we're from the south, whatever.

But when I finally started digging into the people that live. You know, the fact, like I said, that is Tennessee and came from Ireland, Scotland and came to the south. Like, it's it, wasn't just one of those. Oh, my great grandparents are from here. This is like, I am Southern. You know, this is who I am. And, and you know, they talk about how the ancestors speak to you and how they're there with you. And they were, they, it was because of them that I felt that that sense of community and this, thissense of belonging.

[00:05:38] Heather Murphy: How else has knowing your ancestors impacted your sense of identity?

[00:05:43] Amanda Arthur: I'm a big proponent of DNA testing of like going, and I know the ethnicity estimates aren't a hundred percent, but I feel like if you know what your ancestors. More or less came from it kind of helps you figure out who you are because when I, of course I have Southern ancestry, so, you know, slaves and things like that.

So it's not surprising that I have African DNA. And I had a cousin reached out to me about two years ago now on ancestry DNA. And she was like, yeah, I think we're cousins. Yeah. I'd love to chat or whatever. So we got to chatting and she is African-American and I'm white. So our, I can't remember like our six or seven times great-grandfather she descended from the slave line.

He had relations with a slave. She descended from that line. I descend from the white line basically, but it kind of gives me that sense of. That's family now, like when things are going on in the world and we especially came close during, you know, the black lives matter movement and all that.

And it was just like, this is my family. Now this is my identity is wrapped up in hers. I don't understand exactly her life experiences, but I know that that's my family now. And it hits different when like history and things like that happens. It's like, it just becomes more personal and it becomes part of you instead of just being something that happens out in the world,

[00:07:02] Heather Murphy: How has learning what your ancestors have gone through their experiences changed how you view your life and live it?

[00:07:11] Amanda Arthur: It just makes me more aware. Of other people's life experiences. Like I, it makes your world so much bigger. It's not just you, what happens to you? Like they were, I have, you know, ancestors, they came to a different world and they had, they took chances and they were adventurous and they had hard lives.

They encountered, The ups and downs that we do, but on a different level. And it just makes it to where, I break fingernail. It's not really that big of a deal anymore. When I know that I had ancestors trekking across the mountains, it's just, it kind of puts your life into perspective and.

It just really makes you appreciative of what you have. All the people that came before you is what led for you to be where you are now. And so when you look back, it's like those sacrifices that they made, made it possible for me to do the things that I do. So, if I do something like, go to school and, you know, go to college and graduate.

You know, that's a big deal because somebody fought for education. They were fighting for the right to go to school and things like that. It's this, it makes it, it makes your world so much bigger.

[00:08:18] Heather Murphy: So, what is a story of one of your ancestors that has done that, that has changed your perspective on how you look at a certain thing or a certain way?

[00:08:27] Amanda Arthur: It's like, you're on my mom's side. So my mom's mom's father. He was just very eager. He grew up in east Tennessee and they were, they went to Eastern Southeastern Kentucky. She was very poor. He never wanted his family to feel that poverty. He was very inventive and like the things that he did for his family.

And he was very inventive. He was a trader, he was a coal miner, but then was also a trader to, try to make a little extra in and not make his Not allow his children to feel, that generational poverty that he had. And so it's just when, knowing what he did for his family, it just, it changes my perspective on things.

It makes me more appreciative of the little things And to hear the stories that my grandma would say about the things that he would do and Trying to think of one off the top of my head, you know, there was a joke that he, invented pay-per-view, he had one, he had set up a TV in the living room and had guys sitting outside the window, trying to watch the TV and he would charge them so they could come and watch.

I don't know what they were watching on TV, but things like that. So it's like being inventive and, , not just accepting where you are. Like, knowing that he really put forth the effort he had, I think a sixth grade education and he would play when we go to Trey, he would play on just the four old country boy, I don't know. He was a very smart man and he wanted to learn and, he didn't get the schooling, but he made sure that he knew. how the world works and what was going on in the world. And that was very important to them. So it makes me want to further my education, because I know I have ancestors that, you know, that was important to them. So it should be important to me too.

[00:10:13] Heather Murphy: And how have you seen his impact on your, your family as you look at his children and the generations that come after, how can you see the fruits of his labor?

[00:10:27] Amanda Arthur: Oh, a hundred percent can see it. Cause my grandma was very much. One of those people. She always wanted better for her kids so that, that was my mother. And then she, so my mother wanted better for me and I a lot in my great uncle, my grandmother's brother, she was always the inventive one. Like he would, come up with schemes and things like that.

And it's just, he wanted better for his family. It's just seeing that only because your family has a. Whatever's written in, in the DNA or whatever, be it, , being poor or, addictions or things like that, it's, it is part of your family and it is part of who you are, but it doesn't have to define who you are.

And I think that's what I've seen in generations after him is that, you know, you were dealt a hand, but you didn't have to accept it. You could, Right look that you wanted to write and that's what he did. And so I think it's inspiring for all of us great grandchildren that came after him, cause his kids did it and then their kids did it. And now we've, we've got that responsibility where, this is, we have to make the most of it. He did what he did so we can have the opportunity.

[00:11:31] Heather Murphy: Yeah. And just as time goes by each generation has greater opportunities than the one before, just because technology and science, everything advances. But if you don't have that, Little bit of let's look how to make things to our advantage and use them to better ourselves. Then it doesn't matter how much the world's getting better. If you don't have that example to follow, or that one person that says I'm going to make something better. And then that can snowball throughout the generations.

[00:12:04] Amanda Arthur: Right. And I mean, it's like it, would've been very easy for him to be like, you know what, I'm why try, You know, I've been dealt this, I live in the mountains, I'm a coal miner. This is all I'm ever going to be, but he wanted to be more, he wanted to do better. And which I think is just an aspiration to live up to.

[00:12:19] Heather Murphy: You mentioned in, before in our correspondence about your seventh grade grandfather of learning about him and the battle and how he died. Can you tell that story and how it impacted you?

[00:12:31] Amanda Arthur: So this is my seventh great-grandfather whose name was Robert Messner he is from North Carolina. Well, he's, I believe he's from. Originally from what Carolyn, I haven't really pinpointed it like way was, but he was Ang with Carolina regulator. And I always joke if he watched Outlander, you? know, all about that, the regulators but he was he wasn't in the battle.

He somehow was in, he was the regulator, but didn't fight. I don't know exactly the ins and outs of that, but he was there at the battle of Alamance, 1771. And. After the battle governor Tryon came in and he, no, he's wrangled up all the regulators and he hung a bunch of them right there. But I think set apart seven or eight of them to make examples. He was afraid of your town and be like, you know, this is what you get when you go against the crown and this is what's going to happen. Well, the data they were going to get hung, his wife and his oldest son, who's I think 11 or 12 at the time show up because they're in a panic, you can't hang him, as anybody would be.

And the story goes. And ran up to him and read it right up to governor Tryon and fell to the ground and started begging. Do not hang him. You can not hang my father. My mother will die without him. You have to, you'd have to save him, hang me instead, but let my father. So governor Tryon cuts a deal with Robert Mestre and says, Okay.

if you can go find Herman Husband, who is like the leader of the regulators who escaped the battle, find him, bring him to me. I'll I'll let you let you live. Let you go. But I'm going to hold your wife and your son here hostage until that happens. So. Short story short, Robert master goes off. He finds Herman Husband, but he doesn't have enough manpower to bring it back. So it comes back to North Carolina and says, I found him, but I couldn't get him to come.

So, what now? And governor Tryon ended up hanging him. He hung him with the other men that he was making an example of. And so that's how Robert Mister died. But what got me is in North Carolina and Hillsborough. Just outside of where the Battle of Alamance took place. There is a stone in the ground with a wroght iron fence around that says, this is the place where the eight regulators were hung and it lists their names on there.

And standing there. I mean, I get chills talking about it, standing there. Like I felt that connection to Robert Messer. It was like he was Right. there with me and it just made that connection of what I read. so much deeper. And it was like, I guess the ghost of Robert Mester was there with me. And I just feel like if you can get out and touch history, Genealogy touch where you're ancestors , where it makes a huge impact.

And that, I mean, I'm always telling people, go travel, go travel. If you're on a trip and you know, like so-and-so's, they're here, go visit their gravestone because that experience, I want everybody to have, because it was just such a profound impact on me and made history that happened years and years and years ago, real, like it was a tangible, tangible story about that.

[00:15:36] Heather Murphy: So that, that story happened about 250 years ago. And some could wonder how something that happened so long ago could actually like matter to you. Now, there are so many stories, so many people between now and his story. Why do you think that his story matters to you?

[00:16:00] Amanda Arthur: I think its just because he's my relative. He's my grandfather. I mean, it may be seven times, but he is because of him. I am here, , because of him and his son and then line goes down. But because of it. He came to America or, his parents came to America. I can stand there. So it's that connection? Yes. It's names and dates, but that story of his son begging to save his life.

 It's just, that's my grandfather, regardless. Just like I look at any cousin, you can be fourth cousins, five times removed. You're still a family. It doesn't matter. And at some point we share a little bit of DNA, no matter how big or how small. So it's just. No matter what that's family.

And like I said before, it doesn't matter what color we are. That's my family. So I think it always matters no matter how far back in history, you know, if you go all the way back to, you know, Mary queen of Scots or somebody that's still your family, may it a little bit different. Cause it's a little bit farther back, but still it's just, it matters.

[00:17:01] Heather Murphy: I think that's interesting. And that's a perfect example of how learning about your family history can make the world smaller. Like you were saying before is because it does make a difference, even though the connection is so. Distant, whether it's cousins or a direct line, several generations back, it forms a bond with people and circumstances of history that you wouldn't have had otherwise. And it allows you to see the world differently because it just, even though that that strand is so, so thin, it connects you.

[00:17:39] Amanda Arthur: And that's one of the reasons why I encourage younger generations to get into genealogy, because I think it makes a more profound impact when you learn about history, when you can place somebody in those stories, like if you know your civil war ancestor, you place them at this battle. It just, it makes it more real.

[00:17:57] Heather Murphy: So if you were to give somebody advice that was just starting on their family history journey, and just thinking about getting to know their ancestors, what would you tell them?

[00:18:09] Amanda Arthur: I always tell anybody to start with what, you know, just jot down, even if you just know your name. So your grandparents start with what, you know, because I guarantee you're going to know more than you realize when you start writing it all down. Then after that ask questions, find the people in your life that would know the answers like your grandparents or your great aunts and uncles, or even cousins, aunts, mothers, whoever it is.

Somebody knows a story about somebody. So start there. Genealogy can be complicated. It can get really, you know, rabbit holes are everywhere, but it doesn't have to be to start off with just, do a quick search of your grandmother's name in the newspapers, because there could be a story there it's just, when you're first starting out, don't bite off more than you can chew.

Just start with what, you know. And then keep building and before, you know, it you'll have this huge tree and you'll be like, oh, Hey look at all my family members. But yeah, just make it simple. Just make it tangible.

[00:19:05] Heather Murphy: And if you had to sum up. Why you think it's important for someone to research their family history? Why it's been important for you to research your family history? What would you say if you had to just sum it up?

[00:19:18] Amanda Arthur: Identity. It helps you to know who you are. I think that's the easiest way and that's why I encourage people to do it. It's not all old dead people. It's who you are, and those people made you who you are today. And I think that's why we should all know where we come from.

[00:19:36] Heather Murphy: Well, thank you. And thank you for sharing your stories and your experience. It's been great to talk about.

[00:19:41] Amanda Arthur: Thank you for having me.