driving to east GA ...

... alone on Saturday to attend an event honoring a family ancestor. Even though I put forth some effort to recruit family for an amusing road trip, hoping that doing some genealogy research might tempt others to want to go along. Especially since my check to pay for bar-b-que lunch was mailed weeks ago, and I fully expected them to go in order to help consume that high-priced meal. That part worked out ok, when I decided to take a cooler and Styrofoam/take out boxes in order to retrieve that food I paid for. Plus a salad for me, as I knew I would not be eating a plate piled with meat.

The purpose of the trip was to be present when the Washington-Wilkes Sons of the Revolution made plans to dedicate a memorial to Owen and his wife. He was the son of a man from Virginia, and settled in the wilds of the eastern part of Georgia. When the British wanted to show those upstarts a thing or two, after the colonists refused to bow to English demands, the redcoats were soundly routed at the Battle of Kettle Creek. Yay us!

I think this man, who went off to defend family and farm, might be my fifth great grandfather. It gets confusing after so many 'greats', so I am not sure about that relationship. I do know there were lots of cousins there for the lunch and well organized program. Even though it was blistering hot out in the treeless cemetery in very rural Taliferro County, it was well attended. A good crowd turned out, including a group of Revolutionary re-enactors in full extremely warm wool jackets, vests, knee pants and white hosiery.  They presented the colors, as the event began, stood patiently by dripping buckets of sweat, waiting to retrieve the colors at the end.

Standing in the hot mid-day sun, the color guard then ended the ceremony by firing their muskets, and presented the Mourn Muskets before we adjourned. Decked out with tri-corner hats and bright metal buckles on their shoes in the fashion of that day. Those men, representing the frontiersmen, homeowners and hard working families of the early 1700's, added pomp and color to the proceedings, as we honored the ancestor who trooped off with the militia well prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence from the Motherland.