Genealogy Edition

I've got my parents back in the States chasing down our German ancestry and got the following from a cousin in Georgia. It's about my maternal Great-Great-Great Grandmother, Hannah Yearty. I thought this was a charming story:

Here is a story about Hannah Lynn Yearty and her husband, Henry Grady Durden. Hannah and Henry were the parents of Ella Virginia Durden Day, wife of James Talley Day. Ella and James were the parents of Ida Eugenia Day Wood, and through her and her husband (Green Berry Wood, Jr.), the parents of Albert Sidney Wood, Green Berry Wood III (Jaime's maternal grandfather), Edna Wood Compton, and Catherine Virginia Wood Johnson. There were five other children of Ida and Green Berry, Jr.

Hannah Lynn Yearty's parents, John and Martha Yearty, were Jews who emigrated from Hamburg, Germany, to the United States in the early 19th century. Because Chancellor Bismarck of Germany was conducting pograms against urban Jews, John and Martha decided to become religious refugees. John and Martha settled in Twiggs County, GA, where they bought farmland. This was a deeply significant symbol of freedom to them, since Jews were not allowed to be landowners in Europe. Hannah Lynn Yearty was the first of their children to be born in the United States.

Although John Yearty was now a first-generation American, he hoped that his daughters would marry good ol' Jewish boys. But these guys were hard to find in rural Twiggs County, GA! Hannah was practical: she literally fell in love with the Irish-American-Protestant boy next door, Henry Grady Durden. Henry reciprocated her interest. He would drive his cows over into her pasture so that they could meet and visit in the fields.

Hannah and Henry decided to marry. They went to her father, John Yearty, to seek his blessings. Alas, John Yearty emphatically said no! Henry was not a good ol' Jewish boy. So being good pragmatists, Hannah and Henry did the next best thing -- they eloped!

A few days after Henry and Hannah had disappeared, they came galloping back up to the front porch of her girlhood home on the same horse. They were met on the front porch by her gun-toting Daddy. Daddy John Yearty told people later that he had seriously considered shooting Henry but had feared hitting Hannah. Nevertheless, John Yearty warned that Henry Durden should never be trusted: "Any man who will steal a woman will steal a horse!"

Since Hannah was a feminist before it was fashionable, she hardly saw herself as stolen goods. She was an American now, Not a European Jewess.

Many thanks to my cousin, Nan Johnson, for allowing me to reprint the above. I had heard this story before but never in so much detail. Along with being the home of "Steinway pianos," I will have to visit Hamburg and see if the Yearty family still exists (altho I think it unlikely).

Have a great week everyone!

Jaime