A Proud Pa

William Robert Jordan as a young boy.

When I started to use ancestry.com to aid in my research, I began asking my dad more probing questions about his side of the family.  Afterall, the entire reason I picked my research back up was because I wanted to learn more about the Native Americans on my dad's side of the family.  Needless to say, I haven't fully been able to prove the Indian blood yet, but my husband reminds me that I am Indian everytime I turn red in the sun!

So last spring my dad handed me a folder with pictures and old family memorablia that his mom had given him.  In it was a picture of his grandfather, William Robert Jordan.  Having never seen the picture before, I immediately began to ask questions, of which my dad had plenty of answers for William had lived with my his family throughout his childhood. 

"Pa" Jordan and his red tie

Out of all of the stories my dad told about his grandfather, the one that I hope to never forget is this one:

"As a boy I remember there being a chest in the basement full of my grandfather's Irish kilts.  He often would put them on and leave the house.  Along with the kilt, my grandfather refused to ever leave the house without his red tie on.  The red tie let those in the community that did not know him, know that he was Irish.  He was so proud that his mother's family had immigrated to America when she was very young."

Recently while corresponding with my dad's cousin, Nettie, I learned that William Robert Jordan's mother, Anne McCarthy, had not just immigrated to the United States in 1850 during the potato famine, but she had in fact lost a brother, Andrew, in the process. 

Hearing these stories, and the many others I have learned throughout the process of researching my family, makes researching my family's past all the more special.  I want their struggles to remind me how lucky I am to live the life I have today.  I hope they are proud of what I have become and how their struggles have provided their family members today a truly blessed life.

"Pa" Jordan- How I wish I knew the story behind this picture!