Wordless Wednesday

My Dear Aunt Dawna surprised me this weekend with a package of family photos that she thought were best left in my care as I have the most interest in family history. She had scanned some things for me and was now giving me all of it. The best part though was to sit and listen to her and my mom tell stories of the different family members. If only I could figure out how to work the recorder option on my cell phone I could have recorded it. But instead I'll rely on memory.

The most intriguing picture out of the whole package, though, was the one above of the old cabin. According to my aunt this cabin is where my great grandfather Martin Hayes/Hays was born in OK. Now according to my other Aunt, Mary, Martin's birth certificate states that he was born in Hominy, OK 4 April 1907. Martin's mother is the same woman I wrote about recently whose brick wall I crashed through, Mary Jane Vest Hays.

In the image below is the back of the photo. It is a message from her to Martin "To Martin a Reminder Mother." This is so special. I have so few things of my ancestors. Now not only have I broken down the brick wall and know so much more about my gg grandmother, Mary Hayes, but here I have something in her own writing.One can only speculate about the meaning behind her message to her son. Was she telling him to never forget the humble roots he came from? Was she telling him to not forgot Oklahoma where she and his sibling still lived? A little behind that is that Martin and his father James Martin Hays picked up and moved out to CA. James divorced Mary. Supposedly he went back to OK at some point, but she wouldn't take him back as he was an unfaithful man. This is of course passed to me by other family members that knew Mary better than we did. Our family knew James better as we are all from CA. Or was she reminding him that he would inherit property of the family upon her passing? Who knows I can only speculate as to what the message meant.