Genealogy: What is in a name? To me there is a lot within a name, and there are variations upon that name. Many women face that ultimate choice of personal identification when they are married, but many more will take on a nick name that can stick forever upon the text associated with our family lineage. It is not always the easiest thing in the world to understand or look at where we come from, but to me it makes perfect sense to want to know what kind of people you came from and where your roots have traveled to. As a druid, the family tree takes on much more, my guidance comes from the ancestral path that has been laid before me to know and to understand and to be able to spin their full story back into life so that it can live on inside of me and those around me. Remembrance is the most loving we can show somebody we truly care about them, and this is my way of remembering that of which has been lost to my family tragically, now I reclaim my heritage and can look at all aspects, from past to present and ultimately towards the future by way of the universal soul traveling with me.
Well my father, Robert Dennis Laird has been employed for over 25 years in a printing bindery in Madison. My mother Sharon is a housewife who enjoys quilting and sewing. My older sister Heather just graduated with a nursing degree and is currently working with the elderly. Then there me, Autumn Joy Laird, I just graduated with a double BS in Environmental Studies and in computers and am currently on the search again for a job. Rosalie is the baby a year younger than me, she is loves drawing faeries and gardening among the cats playing. Want more, just ask me...
This is my dad's father, Robert Delmar Laird. My grandmother was granted a divorce many years ago and bore 4 out of her 9 children to him. I only heard him once on the telephone before he passed away when I was a child. But these are my dad's remaining photos. After her marriage with Robert ended she remarried Dean Keele whom I will always consider a true grandfather, and to my dad a father. I miss him dearly because he had a way of keeping peace.
I had to look a little further back before I realized there was a missing portion of family who became out of touch with Robert's siblings. It was then that I met a new addition to the Laird family and began in earnest to find more out about my growing family tree. As if it wasn't big enough with my immediate family with so many aunts, uncles, and cousins from my grandma Edith Keele. Only now do I realize the value of these photos I have with me. It is hard for people to talk about hurt feelings but pictures can say many things. And to me these say that there is more information hidden here than in the hushed words of a time gone by.
Okay this next photo is one of Robert's dad, being my great grandfather - Virgil Emerson Laird. He was married twice and kept in touch with my mother though his elderly years. But again little is ever said about genealogy unless something is wrong or new gossip is stirred up.
Robert Delmar's grave rests besides his son Virgil Sr. and his wife Grace. Grace is pictured here holding my dad's sister Kathy as a baby. And then there is Jack and Cheryl Laird, Jack is one of Virgil's brothers who kept was lucky enough to get his photo taken by my mother. What an excellent memory for faces she has, she knows people that my dad no longer can recognize. I think she gets that from her mom who knows everyone in the county if they homesteaded here. But the Kelter's and that bunch is another story all together, one not as fragmented and much more willing to get together to eat some good food. Other than these wonderful folks pictured there are many many more additions that need to be added. Virgil's father, Charles T. Laird is a mysterious man, taking roots from somewhere in IL but moving to IA and planting his family there in the Otho/Fort Dodge area. The farm is no longer standing but, there are memories of my own dad's boyhood home before my grandma came back to Wisconsin, where I have lived out my life. I travel to a Jey's reunion every year, which is my grandma Keele's maiden name and although the Laird's are mysterious and the roadblocks keep emerging, the Jeys can be even trickier to work on. But perhaps it is because of my interest in my own last name that fits the purpose here. I cannot possibly show all the tree records but am doing my best to keep them straight and I want to be able to let a few other Laird's know a little about a potential family member.
Okay well just to give a run down on all my surnames here I have: Laird, Martin, Cecka, Kelter, Mueller, Scarbrough, Avery, Jeys .... and as I find more they will be added, I know I am forgetting some. I am always looking for Laird's of true relation and also the Jeys. So let us bring our gathering to a greater amount, and merrier is the renewal of the peace brought by the reunion.
An added note: there are surprises at every bend. The fall of 2001 when people were so critically reminded of their family, I found another long lost relative. He was put up for adoption and to my delight turned out to be a pleasant addition to the tree. Still slowly working on Charles Laird as well, we may have a brother to link him to Illinois but for now it remains a puzzle that needs some work. Though I enjoy it greatly.
I have written something about a poem I once heard of a Laird family. It has remained ingrained upon my genealogical search of just how much some of these people went through. Though I have no real connection to the woman in the story, I feel that maybe there is something still within the family blood that speaks through the women who have become Lairds through sweat and blood, by marriage and birth, by determination and strength. These are the women I greatly admire. They are the women who I know walk with us still beyond the dusty records that recorded their lives.
By
Autumn Joy Laird
Where
the great initial filigreed,
The
opening of them divided –
Halving
the parting of the letter,
When
the gate was closed -
The
emblem of the house was seen in entirety,
Such
is the story of the great house,
Women
of the scythe worked hard -
In
the southern plantations of cotton,
Under
the burning sun of their sweat -
Men
ruled over the subtle moon,
In
my family such as it is and was,
The
name of the woman -
Followed
behind the stern man,
But
softness of the Goddess touched them -
And
they bore a message of the future,
The
children of the mother’s blood lived on,
Where
no other the matriarchal line emerged-
Stands
the great moon where the deed was done,
The
house of the Lairds.
From
the earliest folk of heather flowered lands,
Rolls
the green manors,
Whilst
the men fight in battles they watched the flock -
And
waited for their loves return,
But
ruling in their place with strength -
And
determined women of watchful hearts,
Such
is the story of the plantation days-
Stands
one like all others whose life was touched,
How
many patterns have their been –
Among
the people of my kin,
To
be touched by the moons hands such as she-
The
mistress of the house who loved her servant,
Flying
to the aid of another of the feminine heart sounds -
Barring
a fight between the servant and a field hand,
Saving
her from the treachery befouling many of our time -
Work
of voices longing to prevent the rape of justice,
The
mark of the goddess wielded in form –
Raised
above in gleaming rage slashes the moon,
By
the hand of this unruly passion he struck the lady down,
Heavy
with child the act of violence forever marked,
There
on her belly pain conceived –
Through
the nursing of wounds by her servant dear,
In
her room on her bed she watched her grow full –
Tending
the needs of the child growing still,
When
the child came birthed from her waters –
The
form of crescent shape appeared on its leg,
Woman
of the Laird’s whose men walk forward in battle –
But
of the Goddess’ mark bears their names still.
Of
this lesson come my tears,
For
agony in tracing the father’s years,
Comes
my story in the path of old ways meeting new –
For
then did the old plantation burn in the wars separating the men,
And
the women waited for their loves returns –
When
brother fought another Sherman did burn their houses,
Fields
and stature disappeared and new family lines –
But
still faith is strong for it is now in my hands,
This
name that I bear as kin is strong –
The
gate still remains both a entrance and passageway,
For
those who seek the stories of the women can find –
Not
every man will understand how the goddess has laid her hands,
And
traced in our veins the mark of her face from ancient lands –
Where
green grasses blow in the wind scented of strong heather,
Land
Sky and Sea meet each other –
Turning
the seasons and wheeling in the cycles of the moon,
Waiting
again for the triumphant return of household crest –
That
name that speaks the lord of the manor best,
But
it is here we see on the leg –
Where
the woman’s sacrifice is heavy to bear,
That
place where all of us must return,
As
we are birthed into a history and a past –
That
began with the mother first and father last,
Together
as sun and moon –
Such
as it is and such as it was,
In
the house of the Laird’s –
Of
strong women bearing the red crescent moon.
My
Genes:
~Robert Dennis Laird
B. August 19, 1947
Fort Dodge, IA
married May 20, 1972
Sharon M. Kelter
B. November 10, 1949
Baraboo, WI
*Marguerite Mary Cecka B. Sept. 13, 1919
*Hubert Michael Kelter B. Nov. 3, 1909 D. July 12, 1986
Children
-Heather Shawn Laird
April 7, 1973
Prairie du Sac, WI
- Autumn Joy Laird
October 18, 1976
Prairie du Sac, WI
-Rosalie Lynn Laird
March 20, 1978
Prairie du Sac, WI
~Robert Delmar Laird (Buzz)
B. Otho, IA March 7, 1925
D. Fort Dodge, IA May 4, 1980
Married
Edith Louisa Jeys
B. September 5, 1929
(Remarried to Dean Keele B. Feb. 10, 1930 D. Sept. 28, 1996)
*Joseph Elnathan Jeys Oct.1, 1975 - Sept. 2, 1954 m.
*Lena M. Cumpston Feb. 4, 1989 - April 1, 1938
Children w/ Robert Laird
-Robert Dennis Laird
-Bruce Keele B. June 8, 1949 m. Eilene Hutter June 12, 1971
divorced, Children: Beckie Lee Keele and Erin Keele
-Kathy Diane Kennedy m. Gordon Pendergrass D. remarried to
Terry Kennedy
Children:
Stacy Williams, 1 child (Kyle Williams)
Cassie Cooper, 1 child (Drake Cooper)
Jason Pendergrass
Bradley Pendergrass
-Coleen Elizabeth Moen (Coco) B. March 15, 1953 married
Harlan Orville(Butch) Moen Jan. 25, 1972
Children:
Jenny Moen, 2 children (Russel Joeseph Garcia & Geena Garcia)
Tony Moen
Brian Moen, 1 child (Austin HarlanMoen)
-Christopher Alan Laird B. May 23, 1954
Children:
Jeremy LaChapelle Deaceased, 1 child (Michael Robert
LaChapelle)
Christy Servant m. Carl Servant, 3 children (Christopher, Austin,
Aubriana)
Cory Laird
Bobby Joe Bizeau m. Troy Bizeau
Dennie Laird
Kelly Laird
Toby Laird
-Children With Dean Keele (living family extends from here also)
Joel Keele B. Oct. 10, 1959
Kenneth Prentice Keele B. July 8, 1962
Loren Phillip Keele B. Oct. 1, 1963
Tim Merle Keele B. June 3, 1968
~Virgil Laird Sr.
B. Aug. 13, 1902 D. Feb 17, 1984
Married
Grace Martin (Laird)
B. Nov. 1 1904 D. April 6, 1980
*Mattie Martin & Jack Martin, had 2 sisters, Fern married to Ralf Tuller and Sadie married to Art Showers, a brother named James.
Children:
-Wayne E. Laird, Kalo, IA June 23,1923 - Nov. 22, 1992 Otho, IA
last known address
-Jack D. Laird, Fort Dodge, IA
-Franklin D. Laird, East Moline, IL
-Douglas G. Laird, Forth Dodge, IA
-Judy K. Van Kooten, Omaha, NE
-Virgil Emmerson Laird Jr. (Skip), July 1929 - Apr. 23, 2977 Columbus Ohio
~Charles T. Laird,
was a sweet man who liked to do jigsaw puzzels. His wife (Florence?) was ornery though. They lived in Kalo, IA.
Born in the 1870's and had a brother Frank? we believe they were from IL somewhere but are working on the details.
SOME GENEALOGY LINKS THAT MAY BE OF HELP FOR FELLOW LAIRD SEARCHERS:
SurnameWeb - Laird Genealogy Resource Center
RootsWeb's World Connect Project Global Search
