Cecelia's Dig

                               My Bigmama's baby brother was a faceless, nameless entity. I never knew his given name until I gained access to the U.S. Census Collection, back in 1998. When he died in 1977, my sisters and I knew him only as "Uncle Gray Ghost"..... the man who knocked on our grandmother's front door in the dead of night. It was the ONLY time he visited.                                 I once asked my grandmother why she called her brother "Gray Ghost". She said it was because he only came out at night. I remember the way he knocked verrrrry softly, so as not to wake up the house. He'd loudly whisper "Ernest...Ernest, it's ME!", between his knocks. Bigmama would call back to him, "Aw, Brotha! You only come around when you WANT something! Now, go on before you wake these kids."  I was awake by then, listening...

                                                 I met up with COOK family who were descendants of Louis Cook, born abt. 1830 in Missouri, (we think), and Mary Bryant, born abt. 1835 in Mississippi. Louis and Mary had a few children. Their son Henry Cook and wife Martha Abercrombie Johnson spawned a few children, and it was from those children that my cousin Karen's backyard filled.                                                  Walking into her back yard, I shook hands with the first men who greeted me. I went back to my car and grabbed my contribution to the festivities. When I ambled back into the yard, I had a folding chair in my left hand, my purse AND computer bag hanging from my right shoulder, and a 24 Pack box of Big Red Cola bal...