Ollie Ossilean Posey Wilson was my mother’s
grandmother. I first heard her name
spoken when I was just seven years old.
My mother had recently joined the Mormon church and her interest in genealogy
was piqued during her conversion to Mormonism.
Mother began a regular correspondence with her grandmother asking
questions about her life and growing up in Georgia. Family history became a life long passion for
my mother and she passed that passion on to me.
The first ancestor I ever learned about was my great grandmother
Ollie. Her name was so unusual that I often asked
about her and how she got her name.
Ollie Ossilean seemed to be an unusual name. No one, not even great grandmother, knew why
she was given this name. Over the years
as I have researched the census records for Taylor County, Georgia, I have learned
that Ollie was a common name for girls, but I have yet to learn where the name
Ossilean derives or why her mother, Julia, chose it.
I met Ollie in 1975 when I was around 8 years old. My parents piled my brother and me into our
car (without A/C) and we made the long trek during the hot summer from Denver,
Colorado to Georgia. I remember that
trip well. One does not forget endless
car rides with no air conditioning!
Besides the heat and very few rest stops along the way, the trip was
made memorable by our visit with Ollie. She
was a frail woman, small in height and weight, and had a very deep Southern
accent.
My mother brought a tape recorder and conducted a thorough
interview with Ollie. I have this cassette
tape today. I am glad I had the
foresight in the early 1990s to transcribe the interview and later convert the
tape to CD. Both my mother and great
grandmother have since passed away and to hear their voices again brings tender
emotions. What it also brings is information
over looked. I have read the transcript numerous
times, but it isn’t until you know the question you want to ask that you begin
to look for the answer.
During our visit with Great Grandmother we were introduced
to a man my mother as a child had called “Uncle Jay Bird.” I was told he wasn’t in fact an Uncle. In the South, family friends are often referred
to as Aunt and Uncle. Older cousins can
sometimes be referred to as such, as well.
But back to the interview. I was
curious as to who this “Uncle Jay Bird” really might be. How close of a friend was he or was there in
fact a genetic relationship? Reviewing
the transcript, I found that Ollie revealed his name, Edwin Hill, as well as
that of his brother, Bernice (yes, a brother!) who had recently passed
away. This clue was what I needed to
further research Uncle Jay Bird. In the interview,
Ollie tells of Uncle Jay Bird being terribly abused by his step mother when he
was growing up, and often Ollie would feed him and let him hide in the tree in
her yard.
In the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Edwin Hill is found living
with my Great Grandparents and their two daughters (one being my grandmother Katherine). This confirms the name she has given for
Uncle Jay Bird, and if they were, in fact, as close as she claims, it isn’t
surprising to find him living with my great grandparents during this
census. But then something else happened… Ancestry DNA.
Several years ago, I took the Ancestry DNA test. Those who have tested with Ancestry will tell
you, you can go quite some time before you get a match that catches your
attention. Recently, I received a third
cousin match with a grandchild of Bernice Hill, the brother of Uncle Jay
Bird. Shock and surprise! And yet, maybe
not so much. Reynolds, Georgia is a tiny
town. Cotton farms surround the area and
little else. The population there was
small back in the day and even smaller now.
Many of the people living there are related to each other in one way or
another. But how is it that Uncle Jay
Bird is related to me?
Doing a side by side generation comparison of Bernice’s grandchild
back to Bernice’s parents, and giving allowance that due to some age gaps being
greater than others, it appears that Bernice and Uncle Jay Bird may be my great
grandfather Judson’s half brothers. In most
any other circumstance, I would be able to sort this out except for one small
matter… Judson’s dad. Judson’s father
was known as General Wilson. No, not A
general. That’s his name. Try searching that name just after the Civil
War era! What’s more, General Wilson
died at the age of 27 when Judson was just a few weeks old. We have no parentage for General Wilson. He is our Brick Wall. One my mother spent her adult life trying to
tear down.
And then there are the dates that put everything into a
muddle. Judson was born 1880. Uncle Jay Bird was born in 1903. Even if Judson had fathered Edwin Hill, that
would not give us a genetic match for Bernice.
General Wilson died in 1880, so he cannot be the father of the Hill boys. But what about Judson’s mother Louisa Brumbeloe
Wilson? Well, that is the next journey I
am embarking on.
If Great Grandmother Ollie had not introduced me to Uncle
Jay Bird, and had not given us his real name, I would never have questioned his relationship
to my family nor given much notice to his brother’s descendants who matched me
in Ancestry DNA. I feel as though Ollie
is reaching out from beyond and trying to help me in solving this mystery. Her clues have been great so far. I hope to come across more as time goes on.
Great Grandmother Ollie was married when she was just 13
years old. She lost 9 children before she
carried my grandmother full term. She had
a big heart and the stories I have heard of her helping strangers in need are
indeed a testament to her upbringing and giving nature. She is my first ancestor I have researched
and the first and only ancestor I had the good fortune to meet in life. It seems fitting that I chose her to be the
first ancestor for my 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge. Keep the clues coming Ollie! We will solve the Uncle Jay Bird mystery yet,
and perhaps along the way, tear down a long standing brick wall!
