Bradford, Tennessee

Cooper and I had an interesting day yesterday.  At least it was interesting for me; I'm not so sure what Cooper thought about it, but anyway, he behaved pretty well.

We went with my mom and her sister, my Aunt Gene, to Bradford, Tennessee, to research our family roots.  It's north of Jackson, a little less than 3 hours west of Nashville.

Our first stop was in Skullbone, just a few miles east of Bradford.  This is Skullbone.

We had some family who lived in this town, including a cousin who was the second postmaster there, probably around 1900.

Then it was on to Bradford, for just a brief drive through town on our way to Trenton, to meet my fifth cousin, Tom, who I tracked down while doing some genealogical research.  He is a public defender there.  My mom had contacted him beforehand, and he was able to get off of work and meet us for lunch.  We had a nice 2-hour visit with him and learned more about the family still living in the area.

After that, we went back to Bradford and found my great- and great-great-grandparents' graves at a little cemetery out in the country.  By this time Cooper had been riding in the car and sitting in a restaurant for way too long, so I let him run around in the cemetery.  I know, it is sort of disrespectful, but I turned around at one point and caught him doing this.

In Bradford we found the house my grandmother grew up in and met the lady who lives there now.

We also saw the building where the drugstore once was where my great-grandfather was a pharmacist in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  His dad, my great-great-grandfather, had been a doctor in the area.  He had his office in the front of his house and made his calls on horseback.  After he died, in the 1860's, his wife, my great-great-grandmother, took over his practice.

We got back, exhausted, around 9:00 last night, but it was a really fun day, and I'm glad we got to do it.