Southern Graves

Not to be outdone by his wife Margaret Peavy , Edward Greenway Hitt, Jr. (b. 1920 Illinois, d. 2001 Georgia) was a pretty cool cat. His obituary in the 9 September 2001 edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says as much. Copyright prevents me from printing it in its entirety here, so let me just itemize some tidbits about the son of Edward Greenway Hitt and Lamar Jackson Slaton: - Edward was a retired insurance executive and underwriting member of Lloyd's of London. - He co-founded The Southern General Insurance Company about 1951. - He founded the Southeast Commandery of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus in 1980. - He attended Emory University, and memberships included The Society of Colonial Wars, The National Society -- Americans of Royal Descent, The Military Order of the World Wars, The Georgia Trust for Historical Preservation, Historic Oakland Cemetery, and the Georgia Historical Society. - He "was the great great great grandson of one ...

Margaret Peavy Hitt passed away almost nine years ago. That's it. Pretty short time in the grand scheme of my personal genealogy. When I discovered Margaret was a third cousin of mine, this notion made me a little sad. Like Margaret, I have lived a large portion of my life in the state of Georgia. In fact, from about 1997 - 2000, I lived less than an hour's drive from her! I sure wish we could have met. Margaret Peavy Hitt was one cool chic. She was a woman with a newspaper career. Even though women have had a foot in the door of that field for centuries, it was just that -- a foot in the door. The National Women's History Museum has a great online exhibit I highly recommend, Women with a Deadline . I just finished reading it and learned oh so much. Did you know: · The Women's National Press Association was founded in 1882, but women were not allowed into the male dominated National Press Club until 1971 . · Nellie Bly pioneered investigative journalism i...

Photo © 2012 S. Lincecum So, a couple of days ago I told you how I happened upon the grave of a third cousin of mine some time ago in Atlanta, Georgia's Oakland Cemetery. As mentioned in the previous post, my source of information for how Margaret fit into my family tree is/was from a Peach County, Georgia history and lineage book published by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1972. Margaret Peavy was the daughter of Jack Peavy and Katherine McGaw. Jack was a son of Charles Drury Peavy and Belle O'Brien Bowles. Charles was a son of William Henry Peavy and Elizabeth Jackson. William was a son of Littleton Dickson Peavy and Ann Mims. Littleton and Ann were my third great-grandparents. Now that we got that out of the way... Have you ever began learning about an individual that might be a relative and discovered they were such an interesting character that you really wanted to be able to claim them? Yep, I'll bet most of us have been there. That's...

While on a recent visit to Atlanta, Georgia's Oakland Cemetery, I happened across a tombstone with a fairly common surname from my mother's side of the family. I always snap a photo of these finds, just because, well, you never know. Margaret Peavy Hitt with husband Edward Greenway Hitt, Jr. Photo © 2012 S. Lincecum This is the only angle I shot. No close ups, no studying of surrounding stones. Nope, not any of that smart stuff. Still, I'm glad I took this photo because Margaret Peavy Hitt is my third cousin. Genealogy serendipity strikes again! Of course, I did not know this until I returned home and took a peek at my genealogy database. And, truth be told, I still don't have proof of this relationship. My source for the data is a Peach County, Georgia history and lineage book by the Daughters of the American Revolution published in 1972. Margaret's obituary did wonders for bolstering my theory. The names included in the item published in the Atl...