• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Blog Archives
    • Posts by Surname
  • About
    • What’s New
    • Site Map
    • Copyright and Disclosure
  • Family Tree & Stories
    • Hankins & Petty
      • John William McCauley & Verda Waller Hankins
      • Thomas Leander Hankins and Samantha Angeline Petty
        • Thomas Richard Hankins
        • Albert Elvie Hankins
        • Aggie Lee Hankins
        • Verda Waller Hankins
        • John Corum Hankins
        • William Perry Hankins
        • James Bailey Hankins
      • Albert Elvie Hankins & Isabella Jane Goodloe
        • John Houston Hankins
        • James W. Hankins
        • Thomas Leander Hankins
        • Mary Madore Hankins
        • Bessie Walker Devault
      • John R. Petty & Margaret E. Thomas
        • Melissa A. Petty
        • Henry Milton Petty
        • Samantha Angeline Petty
        • Mary E. Petty
        • Daniel B. Petty
        • Joseph Bunyan Petty
        • Oliver Perry Petty
        • Nathaniel T. Petty
        • John Franklin Petty
        • W. O. Petty
        • Benjamin W. Petty
    • Hopkins & Howard
      • Elmer Dennis Hopkins & Emma Ewers Taylor
      • James Arton Hopkins & Lucinda Howard
        • John Covey Hopkins
        • Henry Mattison Hopkins
        • Elijah L. Hopkins
        • Elmer Dennis Hopkins
        • Columbus Ora Hopkins
        • Leo Berry Hopkins
        • Howard Doctor Hopkins
        • General Grant Hopkins
        • Lula Mae Hopkins
        • Walter Hopkins
    • Lanier & Bennett
    • Taylor & Owens
      • Elmer Dennis Hopkins & Emma Ewers Taylor
      • John Cook Taylor & Emma Jane Owens
        • Grace Taylor
        • Susan Taylor
        • William Robert Taylor
        • Emma Ewers Taylor
        • Hartford Conn Taylor
        • Anna Rose Taylor
  • Most Wanted
    • Who was John R. Petty’s mother?
    • What happened to Emma E. Lanier Childers and her children?
    • Who were William Taylor’s parents?
    • Who was James Arton Hopkins’s father?
  • DNA Matching
  • Contact Me
  • Subscribe

Documenting the Details

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma Ewers Taylor Hopkins wrote her life story in a spiral notebook. This 12-part series is a transcription of that notebook. [Emma was my maternal grandmother.]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — The Background & The Beginning

April 21, 2016

This entry is part 1 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

The Background Emma Ewers Taylor Hopkins was my maternal grandmother. If you’ve read my About page, you know that she was responsible for my interest in genealogy, even though that didn’t happen until more than 20 years after she died. Sometime in the 1970s, my mother bought a fill-in-the-blanks family history books for my youngest […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — Childhood

April 28, 2016

This entry is part 2 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Growing Up in Rockcastle County “When my brother started to school, I led him by the hand and stayed with him at recess afraid he would get hurt. When I was 10 yrs old we moved back up near where […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — Employment

May 5, 2016

This entry is part 3 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Three Jobs and a Few Notes on the Family “When I graduated at 16, I was too young to teach. No one around there went to college. A few went to Normal school to try to pass teachers examination but […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — Elopement & Early Marriage

May 12, 2016

This entry is part 4 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Some text is omitted to protect the privacy of living family members. Eloping to Jellico on the Train “On Oct 11, 1920 I married Elmer Dennis Hopkins.  When I was 11, at my sisters wedding, I decided to elope. This […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — Work & Travel

May 19, 2016

This entry is part 5 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Several pages following the last post deal with her daughters’ lives, including their weddings. That information has been omitted for privacy reasons.  Postmaster and Other Jobs Elmer was sick 1 1/2 yrs in 1935 & 36 and I took examination […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — Bits & Pieces

May 26, 2016

This entry is part 6 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Some text is omitted to protect the privacy of living family members. Organizations & Religion “I started in P. T. A. when Edna started to school and am still a member. I served 2 yrs as pres of the Loyall […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — Papa

June 2, 2016

This entry is part 7 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Some text is omitted to protect the privacy of living family members. Papa “Papa didn’t want any of us to have boyfriends. We did not get to go to parties and have friends in like some children. But we loved […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — Grandparents & Relatives

June 9, 2016

This entry is part 8 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Some text is omitted to protect the privacy of living family members. Cooking and Sewing “I couldn’t boil water when I married. I took a cookbook with me to Jellico. The first biscuits I made were hard as rocks but […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — Mama

June 16, 2016

This entry is part 9 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Some text is omitted to protect the privacy of living family members. Rocking Babies “My greatest delight was in rocking and singing to my babies. This is a pleasure many mothers deny themselves but it is the greatest tranquilizer that […]

Emma: In Her Own Words

Emma: In Her Own Words — The Flood

June 23, 2016

This entry is part 10 of 12 in the series Emma: In Her Own Words

Transcription of my grandmother’s notebook. See Part 1 in the series for a full explanation. Some text is omitted to protect the privacy of living family members. The Flood “I had lived in my house 52 years and the water had never been in my house. But in Apr. 1977 6 ins. rain fell very […]

Older Posts

Footer

Subscribe to get an email when new content is added.

Copyright © 2009–2021 Linda F. McCauley · Gallery Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress