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In Memory of Sadie L. Greening Sparks
September 20, 1936 -- August 19, 2010
( Over 32 years of extensive research below )
The Ancestry & Descendants of
Thomas Jefferson Greening
& Wife
Sarah Delphia "Sadie" Ray
of
Nacogdoches County, Texas
& Some Collateral Lines
Copyright October 18, 2000-2010
By Sadie Greening Sparks, a gr/dtr
NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE IN ANY FORM
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provided for the free use of those engaged in non-commercial genealogical research .. Any and all commercial use is strictly prohibited. Researchers may copy and
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From Records compiled by me during the years 1976-2003
and conversations with various relatives, incl. my Dad,
J. C. Greening; his sister Lola F. Greening Hancock; and his brother, C. F. "Lep" Greening.
Dedicated to my husband Clyde Harold Sparks,
who has been so generous in time and money;
to our four sons, Terry Odell Sparks, Michael Shane Sparks, Loy Dean Sparks, & Clyde Harold Sparks, Jr.
who never complained about the amount of time I spent at the libraries, courthouses, cemeteries, etc, while I was doing this research;
to all my Siblings,
and to the Memory of my Parents & Grandparents
& especially to the Memory of my Beloved Aunt
LOLA GREENING HANCOCK
1915-2001
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The Story Tellers.....
We are the chosen.
My feelings are in each family there is one who seems called to find the
ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell
the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. To me,
doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing
life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe.
All tribes have one. We have been called as it were by our genes.
Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do.
In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood
before and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the
ancestors you have a wonderful family, you would be proud of us? How many
times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there
for me? I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I
do the things I do? It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to
weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen.
The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to
doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to
accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to
respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their
resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family.
It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. It
goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. That
we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do.
With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because
we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my
family.
It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and
take their place in the long line of family storytellers.
That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young
and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.
(Tom Dunn, Author)
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Sadie Greening Sparks
Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
These pages were highlighted in Dick Eastman's Column
------------------------------------
SPARKS FAMILY (MY Husband's family)
------------------------------------
MY FAMILY: GREENING
Mason Greening Family (Wife #2 Margaret Haynsworth)
Incl.
Susannah Greening Brumby family (Husband, Thomas Brumby)
BRUMBY, The Next Generation or Two
Col. A. V. Brumby Family Pictures
John Greening Family (Wife Mary Whitehead)
Incl.
Wade Horace Greening family (#2 wife, Sophronia Adams McCashkill)
Eldridge Swepson Greening Family (Wife, Eliza Hughes)
Rufus William Greening Family (Wife, Only A. Outlaw)
Mary W. Greening Guy, Pegues Family (#1 Husband, Thos. T. Guy)
Beatnah Greening Cater Family (Husband, William G. Cater)
John James Greening Family (Wife, Sarah Ann Warren)
Incl
Virginia Elizabeth Greening Dubois Family (Husband, Dr. Samuel Patton Dubois)
Dubois Page By Judy Baugh (My Cousin)
Swepson Whitehead Greening Family (Wife, Rebecca Bullock)
Willie Lillian Greening Ellsworth Family (Husband, John C. Ellsworth)
Thomas Jefferson Greening Family (Wife, Sarah Delphia "Sadie" Ray)
Peter Mellett, #2 Husband of Margaret Haynsworth, Greening
Richard Haynsworth, Sr Family (Wife Mrs. Margaret (MNU) Dyne)
Incl: Richard Haynsworth, Jr. Family (Wife, Elizabeth Hesse)
Henry Hesse Family (Wife, Elizabeth (MNU)
Benjamin Whitehead Family (Wife, Mary Elizabeth Swepson)
Incl Mary Elizabeth (Swepson) Whitehead's #2 marriage-Rev. Eleazer Clay
Sarah Whitehead (Husband James Coleman)
Jane Whitehead Jeffries (Husband Richard Jeffries)
William Whitehead Family (Wife, Elizabeth Harvin)
Nancy Whitehead Gayle Family (Husband, John Gayle)
Ancestry of John Gayle
Elizabeth Whitehead Taylor Family (Husband, Clark Taylor)
Swepson Whitehead Family (Wife Margaret Hoggard)
Joseph Whitehead of Dinwiddie Co, Va (BRO. to Benjamin)
Other Whitehead Records, Mecklenburg Co, Va
Richard Swepson Family (Wife #1-Jane (MNU)
Incl: Ann Swepson Boyd Family (Husband, Alexander Boyd)
Sarah Swepson Sims Family (Husband, Leonard Henley Sims)
Richard Swepson Sims & wife Rebecca Dromgoole
John Swepson (Records, VA, GA NC)
William Mallory Swepson Family (Wife #2-Nancy J. Redd)
Thomas Swepson of Nansemond Co., Virginia
Hinchey W. Warren Family of Conecuh Co, Ala (wife Mary M. UNK)
Incl:
Amanda Warren Boulware Family (Husband, Mortimer P. Boulware)
Richard Warren Family (Wife, Sarah MNU)
Hinchey Warren, Sr, Family (Wife, Rachael Anderson)
Incl Family of Capt. Josiah Warren (wife Nancy Doty)
Incl Family of Sarah Warren (Dtr of Capt Josiah & Nancy Doty Warren) (Husband, Ichabod Scarborough)
Robert Warren Family (Wife, Judith (MNU)
Carolus Anderson Family (Wife-UNK)
James Anderson Family (Wife, Elizabeth MNU)
Reuben A. Young Ray Family (Wife, Margarette Hood)
Incl: his children's families
Margarette Adline "Addie" Ray Matlock Family
John L Ray (Wife: Maggie Ruthven)
Rosie Ray Green (Husband: William S. Green)
Reuben Warner Ray (Wife: Nancy Eva Lewis)
James Joseph Ray (Wife: Florida E. Wheeler)
Leona May Ray Drell (Husband: Charles Drell)
John Langston Ray Family (Wife Saran Ann Orr)
Incl:
Adline Ray Olds Family (Husband, Robert E. Olds)
Martha Jane Ray Bradford Family
Elizabeth Ann Ray Honea Family
William Ray Family (Wife, Elizabeth "Betsy" Langston)
Incl. his children's families, Georgia & Texas
Reuben Y Ray (Wife-Keziah Sharp) & some Desc
Zachariah S. Ray family.(s/o Reuben Y. Ray)
William G. Ray (Wife Nancy Young) & some Desc.
Coleman L. Ray (Wife Rachael MNU) & some Desc.
Joseph Green Ray Family (s/o Coleman L. Ray)
Wade H Ray (Wife Margaret Parker) & some Desc.
George Ray Family (#1 Wife, Name UNK))
Samuel Langston Family (Wife #1-Sarah Young, Dtr of Reuben Youg, Dist 96, Spartanburg Co., SC)
John Langston III Family (Wife, Mary "Ann" Mangum)
John Langston II & wife name Unknown
Includes: John Langston I & wife Catherine MNU)
John Mangum Family (Wife Frances Bennett)
Richard Bennett, Jr Family (Wife UNK)
Capt. William Bennett & wife Grace
Richard Bennett, Sr Family (Wife Ann MNU)
Thomas Bennett & w/Alice MNU
-------------------------------
GENEALOGY POX
WARNING: Genealogy Pox is very contagious to adults. Symptoms: continual complaint as to need for names, dates, places. Patient has blank expression, sometimes deaf to spouse and children.
Has no taste for work of any kind, except feverishly looking through records at libraries and courthouses. Has compulsion to write letters. Swears at mailman when he doesn't leave mail; frequents strange places such as cemeteries, ruins and remote desolate country areas. Makes secret night calls. Hides phone bills from spouse. Mumbles to self. Has strange, far away look in eyes.
NO KNOWN CURE
TREATMENT: Medication is useless. Disease is not fatal, but gets progressively worse. Patient should attend genealogy workshops, subscribe to genealogy magazines and be given a quiet corner in the house where he can be alone.
REMARKS:
The unusual disease is-the sicker the patient gets, the more he enjoys it!
-------------------------------
Though we all must choose
our own paths in life
and the journey may
sometimes seem far,
If we learn from our
ancestors' struggle and strife,
we will be better yet
than we are.
Our grandfathers etching
our history in stone
and grandmothers with
silken threads weaving,
Empowered us with
the will to be strong
and succeed if we
keep on believing.
------------------------------
"For the sons become the fathers, and the daughters will be wives, as
the torch is passed from hand to hand
and we struggle through our lives.
Though the generations wonder, the lineage survives.
And all of us from dust to dust will all become forefathers
by and by.." Dan Fogelberg