Our Family Story

4:52:59 AM EST

I am looking for anyone with information on or ties with Bissetts, Allens, and Hooks, from Breckinridge County, Kentucky.

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4:51:11 AM EST

Lonzo Roberts, my maternal grandfather.  I have no idea what year this was taken.  My uncle John looks so much like him in this picture.

Iva Myrtle Hook Roberts, my maternal grandmother.

Mamaw, with her roses.

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4:36:12 PM EDT Five years ago, May 19, my father died.  I just wanted to share a few pictures of him, and of the beautiful gravestone that Mom picked out.

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10:38:07 AM EDT I will return soon, hopefully, to re-do this site.  I am interviewing my mother for some info.

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9:39:03 PM EDT

     This is my Great-Grandfather Samuel Jasper Hook and my Great-Grandmother Eler Elijah Bissett Hook.

They were my mother's maternal grandparents.  She was named Eler after this grandmother.  You can tell she had a lot of Native American in her, can't you?  I don't know a lot about their early years and am hoping to find out more. 

 My great-grandfather Sam Hook with my mother's oldest brother, Leland Roberts, and my great-grandmother Eler Hook with my mother's sister, Elnora Roberts.

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12:48:55 AM EDT

    This is my dad in his sailor's outfit.  I guess this would have been around 1946 when he got back from the war.  He's straddling the fence at my Uncle James' house.

  This is mom at about the same time.  She is sitting on the steps of their house on US 22.  Isn't she pretty?

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5:12:06 PM EDT

This is my parents in the summer of 1996 with their two youngest grandchildren (mine) and their five oldest great-grandchildren:

My mom is holding their twin great-grandsons, Donovan and Alexander Williams, four and one-half months old; beside her is my son, Andrew, almost 7 years old, holding his little sister, Eler Beth, 6 months old; beside Andrew is their great-granddaughter Summer Clay, 6-1/2 years old; beside Summer is my dad, holding Summer's little sister, Tacie, four months old and another great-granddaughter, Taylor Smith, also four months old.

  This is my dad and Andrew in the Fall of 1990.  Andrew was just over one year old, and he is helping Papaw plant a tree.

 

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2:17:37 PM EDT
Feeling Happy
Hearing A SIMPLE LIFE by Ricky Skaggs

My Parents right after they were married, February of 1947.

     Jeff and Eler Dowell

This picture was taken at my Gradfather Roberts' farm in Union Star, Kentucky.  My father was just getting ready to turn 25 years old, and my mother was 23.

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7:29:59 PM EDT

Jeff Dowell, Jr., bottom right.  He was just a baby here.  Next to him on the left is his brother James.  Uncle Jimmy died in the late 1970s.  He had married my mother's sister, Elnora; her only sister.  Their three children and the seven of us, therefore, were "double cousins".  In the back row are their two brothers Theodore (Uncle "Thidore", as everyone in the family pronounced it), and Burton.  Uncle Theodore and Uncle Burton also married sisters, Cecil and Vera Roberts, respectively.  Cecil and Vera were my mother's first cousins.  So these four Dowell brothers married two sets of Roberts family sisters; two daughters of Lonzo Roberts (my grandfather), and two daughters of Blaine Roberts (my great-uncle).  Uncle Burton died in the 1980s and Uncle Theodore in the late 80s or early 90s.  Aunt Cecil died in the 70s, and Aunt Vera is still with us.  She visits Mom often.  She has Parkinson's Disease, but seems to be holding her own.

Back, left to right:  Theodore Dowell, Burton Dowell; Front, left to right: James Dowell and Jeff Dowell, Jr. (My Dad).  These are the four youngest boys of Jeff and Lucy Dowell at that time.  There would be one more boy and two more girls born in the next few years to make a total of 12 children in all before my gradfather died in 1928.  This picture was taken in the back yard of my grandparent's house.  This house was still lived in by my Grandmother Dowell when I was born.  I can remember visiting her there often.  She died before I turned five.  She had lived there with the second oldest of her sons, Uncle Harlan, until her death.  Then for a few years her youngest son, Uncle Leonard lived there with his family until the house burned down around 1975.

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7:26:44 PM EDT

Jeff Dowell, 1922 - 2002

This is my Dad, Jeff Dowell, Jr. in 1943.  He was Gunner's Mate 1st Class aboard the USS Tappahannock, a tanker servicing ships in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

He was about 21 years old, 5'11", with very pale blonde hair and blue, blue eyes.  He was neat and trim and looked good in his US Navy uniform.

  The USS Tappahannock was a tanker.  My father told stories of how he would have to send a connecting line over the water to the ship they were servicing, and to do this he would shoot it over the water with his 4-10 shotgun.  My mother still has that gun.

I have not written in this journal for a long while.  I've been busy, but also I've been a little depressed and down lately.  The three-year anniversary of my father's death just recently passed, and I think that has been weighing on my mind more than I had realized.  He died May 19, 2002 and was buried on May 23.  My Mom and two of my sisters were up visiting today and my mother brought some of her old photos that I had asked for.  I wanted to scan them into my computer so I could copy them.  That got me to thinking about Daddy and I wanted to share this handsome photo of him with my journal.  I'll probably write some more a little later.  I will also put this entry in my other journal, http://journals.aol.com/helmswondermom/DustyPages/entries/1233

For more information and pictures on USS Navy Oilers or on the USS Tappahannock:

AO-43 USS Tappahannock

• Mattaponi class Fleet Oiler:
• Displacement: 21,750 tons
• Length: 520'
• Beam: 68'
• Draft: 30'6"
• Speed: 17 knots (max); 10.5 knots (econ)
• Armament: 1 5"/38 DP, 4 3"/50 DP, 4x2 40mm, 4x2 20mm
• Complement: 242
• Capacity: 135,000 barrels
• Geared turbine engines, single screw, 12,800 hp
• Maritime Commission T2-A (MC-K)type
• Built at Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. and commissioned 22 Jun 1942
• ex-SS Jorkay

Additional Links:

• "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships" -- USS Tappahannock
  See Also:
• The parent directory for more information on this class and type
• Reunion links for scheduled reunions
  and possible contacts for crew lists
• Sources of ship's documents: logs, action reports, etc.
  -- mostly from the National Archives

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