“Were any of your ancestors lucky? Maybe someone won the Georgia Land Lottery? Do you consider yourself lucky to have discovered a particular ancestor or document?” prompt from Amy Johnson Crow for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.
I feel lucky just to be here when I learn about many of the situations my family have survived, or not survived. I haven’t found any who won anything spectacular, keep hoping that will be me one day.
My great grandfather didn’t survive a gruesome train accident but luckily my grandfather was already 4 years and 8 months old. He was the youngest of the three Cook children, Maud, Frank and Bernard Roy.
The wife of Ben Cook, Katie (Kinney) Cook was the daughter of Patrick Kinney from DeWitt, Iowa. Patrick Kinney also was involved in a train accident. It may seem like this post is the opposite of lucky, but it does illustrate my point, I am lucky just to exist. Katie was left out of this article but was named in other articles and census, etc.
My grandfather, John Kirkwood, on the other side of my family was involved in a couple of mining accidents. This one was very serious and he was incredibly lucky to survive. It was reported in newspapers all around the state of Iowa. This one happened before my mom and her sister were born.
I don’t have a newspaper account of the next one but John’s wife, Myrtle (Smith) Kirkwood, her father was also involved in a mining accident. This one I learned about when I asked my mom about the following photo. She thought this was the mine where her grandfather, Charles William Smith, was working when he fell down a shaft and injured (maybe broke) his leg. She said he was unable to work for quite awhile so her mom quit high school and began working at the mining store.
Many of my ancestors had dangerous professions, took long and arduous journeys, and survived illnesses that others did not. They chose to leave their countries and try their luck in the United States. I think they wanted to work for a better life for themselves and their children. My grandfather, Bernard Roy Cook who was only 4 when his father died from a train accident also worked for the railroad. He chose a safer way and became an accountant.
Whether you call it luck, God’s will, fate or something else entirely, I still feel very lucky just to be alive.
My Tree in the Forest 