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Abernathy

Mamie Bell Abernathy

Great Aunt

(1903-1996)

Mamie Bell affectionately known as MaDear was born on July 9, 1903 to Virginia Baugus and Robert Sambo Tyson. She would meet and marry James Hovie Abernathy and together they were blessed with seven children.

My great Aunt Mamie was truly a great source of information. Well into her nineties she could recall information about family members as if they were sitting right next to her.

Without the support from Aunt Mamie, I would have never been able to connect the dots as much as I have regarding most of the information that I’ve compiled over the years.

As a kid I remember seeing great Aunt Mamie at family reunions in East Texas, but at the time I was really too young to know how and who she was, and how important she was to my grandfather “Hoot”.

When I began this quest for knowing my ancestry family member after family member if asked a question would always tell me to ask Aunt Mamie, and that I did. Affectionately called 'MaDear' Aunt Mamie was truly an amazing lady, with a sharp mind and wit. For example, when I first began tracking down my great great-grandfather, I had one hell of a time. The only name anyone could give me was 'Bible' Tyson. Believe me no record for a 'Bible' Tyson exists anywhere, I looked. One quick call to Aunt Mamie and the smoke cleared, the clouds disappeared, and the waters rolled.

“Oh honey” she said, “His name was Noah, not Bible, Bible was just a nickname”.

My very next visit to the library resulted in me locating not only him but hundreds of others, and that trail has not gone cold to this day. With that one bit of information, I was able to trace our Tyson roots from East Texas all the way back to the early 1600’s on the peninsula of Accomack County, Virginia, and family, it doesn’t get much better than that.

With all the help that Aunt Mamie provided I really never got to see her as an adult. The very year my wife and I had planned to go see her in Dallas, she passed away and a lot of family history left us that day as well. All that she knew and all she could have told me was forever lost.

I vowed that day that I would never let an opportunity like that happen again, and I’ve been on a mission ever since to compile a true family history that she’d be proud of.