Today I’m happy to start what I hope will be a long string of messages to showcase my research on my Stevenson side. In the process of sharing it here I will also be able to enter everything into my database and source it. It’s something I’ve been needing to do for a long time and now I have no excuse not to as I have to re-enter everything into my database anyway!
So, I will naturally start with my maternal grandmother, Winnie Ida Stevenson. I featured a picture of her on my Wordless Wednesday and Tell Me Thursday posts this week. Unfortunately, I really don’t have a lot of information on Grandma Winnie. I will try to give you what I do know.
BIRTH
I don’t have a birth certificate for Winnie so I have to take the information found in her death certificate to give her birth date. According to the death certificate I was able to obtain from the Harrison County Courthouse in Texas, her birth date is April 15, 1903 and she was born in Marion Co., Texas. This is the same date given on her tombstone. Her parents were Emmit Johnson Stevenson and Nettie (may be Gennet) Eudora Freeman.
MARRIAGE
For many years I had no idea of when my grandmother and grandfather were married. No one knew! None of my aunts and uncles, my mother, no one! I searched the courthouses around where they lived at the time they were probably married, including Harrison, Marion, Cass, and Gregg County in Texas. I could not find anything. I finally took a leap of faith one day and posted a request on RAOGK to see if someone would look for the record in Shreveport, Louisiana. Voila! I was rewarded with a scan of the marriage license. According to that license, George Charles Forbes and Winnie Ida Stevenson were united in marriage on January 31, 1922! Isn’t it wonderful when you are able to find something that you thought you would never find and all it took was to ASK? 
CHILDREN
- Juanita Eudora Delcinia Forbes
- Adelaide Raymond Forbes
- Van Ellen Wayne Forbes
- George Charles Forbes, Jr.
- Calvin James Forbes
- Patricia Ann Forbes
- Jerry Don Forbes
- Winnie Ruth Forbes
DEATH
Winnie Ida (Stevenson) Forbes died on February 2, 1940. According to the death certificate the cause of death was Labor Pneumonia and Asthenia. She was laid to rest at Pope City Cemetery on February 3, 1940. At the time of her death, my mother had just turned 6 years old!
SUMMARY
I’m not really sure what happened after my grandmother’s death. All I know for sure is that my grandfather was left with 8 children ranging in age from 17 years to 4 months! My Aunt Juanita took on most of the responsibilities for raising the younger children. At the same time, most of the Stevenson family relocated to several different places. A few stuck around Northeast Texas but most of them moved to Florida and one moved to Idaho. With all the relocations, most of the family lost touch with the Stevenson relatives.
Fortunately, my Aunt Juanita was able to stay in touch with quite a few of them. She introduced me to a couple of them and I was able to gather some information from them. Unfortunately, my Aunt Juanita passed away on July 1, 2008. I really miss her and all the knowledge she was able to share with me!
It’s no surprise that I don’t have a lot of information on my grandmother. She died at a young age, a lot of her children, including my mother, don’t even remember her and she left little behind to reveal anything about her! I look forward to learning more about her as time goes on.
Thanks for stopping by to read my post.
Ken