RAMBLE DOWN the YELLOW BRICK ROAD 

With Adeline LeVeta (Addie) Bottom

Wife of  Clifford Francis (Cliff) Hickman

"We Love You Addie Dear"

She is a member of the Hacker's Creek Pioneer Descendants as are many of us through out the country. Over the years I have been saving some of the GREAT STORIES that Addie has shared with us on the  HCPD List.

As a way of thanking her for the wonderful moments of "JOY" & "SADNESS" I have put together in this section her writings to us ALL in her words.

Now where was I!  Oh yes, traveling down the "yellow brick road of
genealogy" and the many stones we stumble over on the way!

Along the way you will find BITS & PIECES of LIFE & HISTORY that this WONDERFUL LADY has left behind for us, HER TREASURED RAMBLINGS.

I received a note from ADDIE about this web page.

Thursday, March 04, 2004

What an honor!   I do not feel worthy of this at all.  I thank you so much for your kindness.  
May God Bless you and yours and again thank you so much.  The page you have
placed out there in my honor is lovely indeed.

Addie here

Addie also asked for OUR PRAYERS for her as she is NOT WELL!!.

Dear Gloria,  I have been keeping you and Danny in my prayers and am forwarding this to you because I need your prayers right now.  And this is the easiest way to let you know.

Pray Danny is progressing daily positive in recovery. I have tried to follow his progress but have not been able to get in the web site lately because cannot stay because of what is going on with me.  But you are still on my mind.

God Bless you both,  Addie here

Addie
You know you are in our prayers and Danny is doing GREAT for the shape he was in and I just did a FW of your message to him.

We LOVE YOU Addie and PRAY you get to feeling better. BUT! to be HONEST HON wouldn't you be better off living with one of the boys. I know you would miss your home BUT!! for your good and peace of mind for the family. I know Gary said he was getting ready to go to Ireland and more. I'm sure Danny will be writing you ALSO.

Love & Prayers Gloria

MEMORIES

When I think of memories I think of yesterdays!  And believe me I have some to remember and praise the Lord I have so many pleasant memories.  It is like a fresh breeze blowing over me renewing my love for my family and who I am.  Many people say they would not like to live their life over again.  I would at the drop of a hat if I had the chance taking the bad times with the good as they say if you could you would not do anything different even if you wanted to.  So I am offering a suggestion:

"When the Winds of Yesterdays Blow on Me"  or a shorter version of it.

Just a thought from an old lady in Kansas.   Addie here

This has been discussed on the list before but think it bears visiting again.  

As I have said and keep saying "nothing is written in cement" unfortunately. Joy and others have given us some good ground rules to go by as we do our researching, what is primary and secondary and so on.  But I think the bottom line is never feels like you "got it in cement"!  In other words be "open" to everything you see, document it, marking those as discrepancies that you have proven to your satisfaction are in error but keeping them in sight for future reference.  As I assure you, you will come across them again and again.  Bringing them together all in one place many times you can see a pattern developing, for example people copying other people's work.  I find it is very beneficial to have everything together to look at when you go to recording any material.

Never be "should I say so stubborn" as to be closed minded to others research or reporting or findings if they differ from yours!   I have seen some so firmly standing on their material whether right or wrong and sadly they are only cheating themselves.

For example, I have a cousin doing just that with her great-grandmother's birth date.  When I have found at the court house documents filled out by the ggrandmother's mother declaring her birth date in more than one document.  The reason I did extensive research on it was the fact that we had her born before she came to America and I knew by all reports some first hand that she was the only child born after her mother came to America and we knew firmly the year, 1856, her mother came to America!  I suppose she feeling it was her personal line that her records and that was what we had always seen recorded should be correct.  But then another rather comical twist to this was the fact she called me over to look at some old pictures that she was willing to give me.  She was going to give me he ggrandmother's picture as she had no idea who she was and did not even recognize her name I guess at that point! I told her who it was and that surely she would want to keep it and she did.  I didn't take any of the pictures as I told her I thought she should offer them to her older brother first.  She did later make me some copies of some of the family which I really appreciated.  Well sorry I got carried away again!

Now where was I!  Oh yes, traveling down the "yellow brick road of
genealogy" and the many stones we stumble over on the way!

I have ran into vital static's not being correct and knowing for a fact on a first hand basis.   Names being the same I have found get recorded to wrong person etc.  I find as recent as my mother what I know to be errors.  My husband has a cousin that her year is recorded wrong (birth) but she has never changed it.

I used to think tombstones were gospel.  Boy did I have that wrong!  We have to stop and think years ago stones weren't stones they were wooden if at all and years of elements take care of wood. The old 16 and 1700 ones you may not find a record or stone confirming they are buried there but that does not preclude that they are not as elements took away wooden markings and no records available etc.  Same as the elements on the stone ones sometimes are very hard to read (3's & 8's etc) without extra work. For example pencil and tissue or perhaps chalk on the stones will bring out the dates and chalk will wash away with the next rain fall. And even then many times the dates are wrong.  Perhaps the people couldn't afford stones when their loved one died so the stone was placed years later and dates came out of someone's memory.  Another category is the monument people making errors and the family not making them correct them.  I experienced that with my folks
stone.  I made them do corrective measures three different times.  So when it came to my husbands, I told them they better get it right first time.  To which they replied they remembered me well and they would and they did get it right!!

 So many hands in the pot brings transposing of numbers and so many opportunities for things we just need to be open minded to and use common sense and then go from there if we are to get to the "creditable stuff" or what we think is creditable at least at that time.

We talk of proving this and that.  I guess we prove it to our satisfaction but I ask myself many times about proving what is really proving when we live so many years from the time we are proving! And we have found so many errors in the proven!

 I think of my husband as he would sat at the kitchen table reading his paper and I just around the corner within viewing distance at the computer working on our ancestors files.  Sometimes I would get so excited at what I had found at the library, court house or other documents accumulated and I would work it up and present it to him.  I especially remember when I broke through getting past Sotha Hickman to his father and back a couple generations past that, I will never forget his remark, "How the hell do you know they are my relation"?  There was never any excitement in his voice concerning his ancestors but he was excited about his grandchildren, his nieces and nephews and siblings etc.   I think if I ever wrote a book on the ancestors, I would entitle it, "How The Hell Do You Know They Are My Relation."   The remark may be sunny but has a ring of truth in it also!

We have to keep in mind as we read the books that that was the information that seemed the most creditable to the writer in their research at that time period.  If you are like me your work is changing all the time.  But once you have written a book it is rather permanent no matter how much newer information you might glean.  In the books I many times see a pattern there also.  People copying people etc. sometimes almost word for word!

I know as I write what I call My Hickman Epistle or my Bottom Epistle, etc for family reunions etc, I am always frustrated that I documented that material and already perhaps within months I have found errors in it because of new information that I have turned up!

Census records are very good but they too have errors.  Perhaps the party isn't home and a neighbor gives them the information.  The best he can do is give "guesstimations".  But I am always very thankful for census information whether right or wrong! It has the ability hopefully correct or near correct establishing the family in a certain area at a certain time and gives you the people living in that household, gives you the place born, where their parents were born and ages of those listed. It is a superb stepping stone whether correct or just ca!

Even certified Genealogists their writings are sometimes in error.  They have produced the best of their ability. And they are certainly much more knowledgeable and most qualified than I am in how to go about these matters. And they do wonderful work. But if you are human you are subject to error! Not intended but human! And not even to their knowledge at that time. However, there are those, I am sorry to say that swear by the accuracy of any certified genealogist.  They do, do wonderful work but as I said, "nothing is written in cement"!  And I think a good genealogist would be the first to say the same.

However, we must be very grateful for their hard work and for these books and the web sites and all those that gather the information.  Like LDS, Don Norman and others I can think of.  They make for good stepping stones and that is wonderful and to our advantage.  It was through LDS that I got my break through on Sotha.

Well I have dwelled on this enough I think and if you are still with me,
Thank You for listening and may God Bless each of you,  Addie here