Family Tree

So I'm up late (which is bad since I've been pretty good this week) because I've gotten sucked in to my mother's side of the family tree. My father's side is pretty cool, too, but I think that when you have some badass Southern women in your family, you really can't go wrong. There are also some really awesome names, for example:

My father's grandmother (Rebecca, for whom I am named)- Arvazena (middle name)
My father's aunt- Gazell
My mother's grandmother (Flora, for whom I would like to name my daughter)- Anzilly
My mother's grandfather (Flora's husband)- Tullious
My granny- Marjorie Mavorette (named for a French actress who died, Mimaw saw it in the paper and thought it was pretty)
Flora's sisters- Hettie, Minnie Leota
Flora's stepmother- Stella
Mom's dad- Leo (middle name)
Granny's sister- Maureen. I was to be named for Maureen, but my granny and mimaw and all the others were convinced it would bring bad luck-- Maureen died when she was two of influenza (1927-1929)
Mom's aunts- Della, Zelma Dean
Mom's other assorted aunts- Gussie Vera, Myra Nell, Eva Pearl, Hautie Ardilla
Mom's other assorted uncles- Theopholis Wahtheu, Byron

I know my extended family tree isn't all that interesting to everyone, but I just thought those were some really awesome names. Now I'm never going to figure out what to name my daughter-- guess I'll have to have two :P

The database I used is pretty cool, the Edenfield Database, and very well researched. I have a few blanks to fill in for them, and I'm actually going to help because they're really involved!

I was telling Krystal earlier that my favorite story is actually about Rebecca, my father's grandmother. She was Native American, her grandfather (I believe) being the chief of the Creek Nation Tribe in Colbert County (named for him, Chief Colbert) and when her husband died and she was left with a whole mess of children (six or seven? my aunt Gazell being the youngest), the state of Alabama declared that she couldn't own land because she was Native American. She camped out near her property and when the corn was ripe, she took the children and they harvested all the corn and walked to Memphis. That's right, walked. That's somewhere between 150-200 miles.

Speaking of Memphis, my Aunt Gazell was named when her father went to the Memphis Zoo and saw a Gazelle-- he asked a keeper the name of (in his opinion) the prettiest animal there and was told "That there's a gay-zell" so he went home and spelled it best he could and her name is pronounced "gay-zell".

OK, I'm going to stop boring you with my family stories and try to hit the hay-- lots of stuff to get out of storage tomorrow and then Jeremy on Saturday! Huzzah!!