Genealogy: Meet my parents

Hello, kittens & dawgs! How’s life treating you? Years ago, we bought two hardcover books about DH’s Kennedy/Horn family heritage and ever since then I wanted to learn about my family background. Last month DD#2 inspired me to do my own digging with ancestry.com after she mentioned it. So, here goes nothing! I’d like you to meet my parents: Joetta Hagerman and Oscar Roberts

image was snapped inside my maternal grandparents home in Jolo, WV (Groundhog Hollow). My mother is about 14 or 15 here. My Dad is 7-years her senior. The small child is of my second cousin, Michael Campbell (son of Della Payne & Charlie Campbell).

daddy 2 - Copy — My daddy is the baby with his big brother, Bill. I’ think the the young boy in the front row, may be Jirvis and one of the two girls is Virgie. I’ll update the names of the these children after I talk to Daddy. (click on image to enlarge. It really makes a difference!)

My daddy was born in southern West Virginia on July 15, 1938. His parents are Nancy Roberts and Arthur Lester. Everyone called grandma by her nickname Nannie. It’s unknown how she came to inherit it. I know nothing of my grandpa. My paternal grandparents never married. Daddy has five siblings; four have passed ~ James Carlos, William “Bill” Lester, Jirvis, and Virgie. Virgil Dee is his only living sibling. Dad spent his early childhood years down a little dirt holler called Estep Ridge in Paynesville, WV (McDowell County).

MomBeFunkySepia3 — Judging by this photo, I think Mom was either in the first or second grade. I’m not sure which school she attended, but I’m thinking was the one in Jolo. **Note to self:** Ask mom which elementary school she went to.

Mom was born April 4, 1945 to Leatrice Joy Payne and Joe Crockett Hagerman. Friends knew them as Joy and Crockett or Joe C. Mom is the oldest of seven: Minda Faye Hagerman-Bishop, William Fredrick “Freddie” Hagerman, Roger Dell Hagerman, Gordon Neal Hagerman, Mary Lou Hagerman-Plotts, and Ralph Randall “Randy” Hagerman. Mom spent her early childhood years up a different little dirt holler known as Groundhog in Jolo, WV (McDowell County).

My parents married 25th of August 1960. Daddy worked in the coal industry until diagnosed in the late 1970s with Black Lung disease. In my early years, Mom worked as a cook for a local Head-start/Kindergarten. After Daddy left the coalfields, she worked at a company store for one of the coal mines. If you don’t know what a company store is, then the best way to describe it is to say it’s like a mini Walmart. It has a bit of everything.

Awarded Black Lung benefits in 1980 helped my parents to move to Bland County, Virginia. Years earlier, they bought 10-acres of land from my maternal great-grandparents with the dream of building a home one day there, which finally happened with the settlement. This is where they still live today.

My folks are now in retirement, but that doesn’t mean they have time to relax with three of their seven grandchildren and their children (7-great grand kids) living nearby. They live on a fixed income, but I must say I count them wealthy with the love of many and a place of their own.

Thanks for making me apart of you day and for stopping by to meet my parents!

**NOTE: If you’re family and find something is incorrect in my information, then please let me know as I want the best descriptive details possible for my family history**