In past blogs I have shared how my mother passed down to me one photo of my great-great grandfather and his wife – W. D. and Rebecca McDonald. They were standing in front of their West Texas home in the 1910’s decade. I called them “stick figures” because they were so small in the photo you could not distinguish any facial features or details.
Thanks to genealogy classes and research done after my mother passed, I found more photos and a life sketch that was enchanting to me. It led me to more discoveries.
W.D. McDonald was more than just a name. In 1855, at the tender age of 19, he enlisted in the U.S. Army alongside his 24-year-old brother. Stationed at Fort Leavenworth in the newly-established Kansas Territory, you can just imagine W. D. as a young Cavalry soldier, riding alongside his brother. Facing the challenges of the frontier: engaging in battles with Indians, safeguarding settlers venturing west, and hunting buffalo to sustain the fort. I was beginning to imagine a fuller picture.
After five years of military service, McDonald found himself in Grayson County, Texas. In 1861, he married Rebecca Elizabeth Cameron, though the mystery of what led him there and how they met remains unsolved—a trail I am eagerly pursuing. Just six months into marriage, he made the pivotal decision to join the Confederate Texas Cavalry.
What drove him to this choice, I wonder? The military records trace his journey through battles in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, culminating in the fierce confrontation at Pleasant Hill.
While any personal letters of his elude me, I’ve found accounts from others who fought in the same battles — they paint a picture of grueling hardship. I can scarcely imagine the conditions they endured or the personal toll it took on him. Yet, through these fragments of history, I piece together a narrative of endurance and sacrifice.
Captured and confined the last year of the Civil War in a Union prison, W. D. emerged not just as a survivor but as a beacon of faith. He became a minister, founding a prayer group that blossomed into a church. His obituary speaks of a man loved and honored by all, a testament to his enduring legacy.
I am left to speculate what impact he had on his granddaughter — my grandmother Aileen McDonald Stokes. She was a major influence in my spiritual understanding of how important God was in our lives. And her patience in teaching me to sew, crochet, and love beautiful antiques and hand- painted chinaware left rich positive impressions on me in very formative years.
I so wish I had their answers to my questions – what impacted you, what was important to you, what was your relationship with the Lord and what brought you to that relationship?
Then it hit me when someone posed the proposition to me this last spring when my brother died. Only my sister and I are left to tell the stories, the character, and the impact of our parents. And have I done that? Oh dear! Been too busy with ancestors further back.
But I have a footlocker of newspaper articles written by my mom – good luck. Brought me to pull up the audio I just had digitized to go into my permanent FOREVER digital storage of Mother playing piano – Daddy recorded several pieces – they were beautiful as she was a very accomplished pianist.
But her journey to playing that beautifully needs to be told – and I am the only one left to do that (my sister has told me it’s my task). Same is true of those personal, detailed memories of my parents and my grandparents.
I need to pull out the photos and start jotting down the memories as they get triggered. And keep going past the photos. I know I only have snatches of time here and there, but whatever I can preserve is all that will be available from first-hand telling.
Exodus 20:12 is one of the Ten Commandments “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” I know what I need to do to honor my parents – and I can’t delay. The days are passing and the busyness of life is robbing me of the focus I need to have.
Remember, the Israelites had not yet made it to the Promised Land when God gave them these Commandments. Blackaby recites the important points: God gathered the children of Israel at the edge of the Promised Land to review their pilgrimage with Him. They had spent forty years in a desert because their parents had not trusted God’s Word.
And those parents died without seeing the Promised Land. Even the revered Moses was soon to leave them without entering the Promised Land because he had not shown proper reverence for God’s Word. Many of them knew those who earlier had been put to death as a consequence of their disobedience to God’s Word.
He makes the important point – over the years, God’s Word had become the most important thing in the life of the Israelites.
My thoughts jump back to God’s Word about honoring my father and mother. Just to add to the guilt I am feeling about not getting those memories recorded yet, another scripture written by Paul reminds me that this is the first commandment with a promise. It implies earthly blessings and well-being, conditional upon the respectful treatment of one’s parents.
That’s not a new scriptural direction for me. Deuteronomy 6:5-9 and 20-25 are the cornerstones of my work in developing the Family History Bootcamp and teaching others to record and safeguard their legacy materials and memories. I need to read these daily:
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates….
In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.
OK – sufficiently chastised and getting motivated: earthly blessings, well-being, and righteousness. If those were not motivating on their own, what I realize is the power of knowing more about my great-great grandfather. His life data indicates the terrible and challenging events he lived through plus the mention in his obituary of his Christian conversion as a young man. I found another story of his faithfulness to prayer and studying scriptural teachings (since they didn’t have a Bible among the 4 men in the weekly prayer group).
It seems clear to me that the strength of his faith was communicated and impactful upon his granddaughter (my grandmother). Her personal sharing with me together with being with her at church as she played the organ and taught Sunday School, and through several “Billy Graham Crusades” on TV communicated well. Even hearing her humming hymns during all the hours she worked in the kitchen were a needed influence on me. Just who she was with me in my growing up years helped beyond my awareness of it at the time.
The impact was clear in my life. And my project now is clear – no more excuses! Get those parent and grandparent personal observations, stories, filling in the spaces between the data of their lives DONE!
As Blackaby points out – Our reverence for God’s Word is revealed not only by what we say but also by what we do. And to obey God’s Word is the surest way to experience all that God has in store for me.
Since I have drug you along in this revelatory experience in my life, ancestor stories that may match your spiritual legacy, too; I will pray it has been as helpful to you as it was for me. And if you are inspired (as am I) to get your parents’ or grandparents’ photos, key documents and stories secured for future generations, then consider checking into my Family History Bootcamp.
Why? It will in 5 days using brief videos and printed guides have you finished creating the place to put those legacy items. Your memories and stories can be attached as well. Yes, you can even “talk to text” some of your stories and memories – how easy is that?
Get the details – and then let’s get moving! Bootcamp – Candy McCune
