Getting To Know Me: Great Grandpa Charles Thompson

Each Thursday I would like to share a piece of my family and its history. It may be a photograph, a recollection, or just a piece of information passed down from one generation to the next. I thought it would be a good idea to have some memories put down for my children and grandchildren.

As promised, I'll be talking more about my Great-grandfather, Charles Thompson. I know that he was born in 1888. His wife, my Great-grandmother, Goldie Eliza was 11 years his junior. She died in 1933, only 34 years old because of illness. How sad for a husband and 6 children during the Depression to have lost a wife and mother. The picture above is at Great-Grandpa Thompson's gravesite. I'm guessing it was taken about 1950 because my mom, the little girl kneeling in the picture, is about 7 or 8 years old. Her brother, my Uncle Larry is standing above her with my Grandma Mary Thompson Lee.

I don't know anything much about the parents of Great-Grandpa but I do know he was in the navy during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. He was given a certificate signed by the President for having crossed the equator. My great-uncle has it now and my grandma showed it to me a few years ago. It is very large and worthy of framing, which they have since done, and hangs on the wall.

My grandma also told me that Great-Grandpa Thompson read the Bible through 8 times in his lifetime. Very impressive, I'd say. I don't think he was particularly religious as far as going to church, but it seems he knew Who had the answers and where they were.

My grandma was Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Thompson's second child and since her older sister, Marge, left home at quite a young age, my grandma became the homemaker, so to speak, for her father, younger sister, and brothers. She was very close to her "Daddy" which is how she always referred to him. She was quite upset when he finally remarried (after she was married and moved out of the house) and never really got along with her step-mother. Maybe it was loyalty to her mother's memory, I don't know.

I will be talking a little more about my Grandma's family next week and then it's on to my Grandpa Lee's side of the family. My mom was just given lots and lots of information about that side of the family by a distant cousin and she shared it all with me. I'm really excited about sharing it but first I have to go through it all myself.

For more of stories from my family, click on the Getting To Know Me catagory on the left. I'm really enjoying this and I hope my readers are, too.