Annie Elizabeth Ailstock, my GrGr Grandma

So who were you Annie?

Annie Elizabeth Ailstock (1852 - 1913)

is your 2nd great grandmother

Ellen F Grigsby (1868 - )

daughter of Annie Elizabeth Ailstock

Bessie Jane Ellis (1900 - 1981)

daughter of Ellen F Grigsby

Anna Lourie Gilbert (1915 - 1988)

daughter of Bessie Jane Ellis

John Charles Cheek

You are the son of Anna Lourie Gilbert - (not you?)

Annie Ailstock was uncharted territory when I first found her in the family tree. She just sat there for a while, I kinda ignored her. I thought with a name like Ailstock she would be Scotch Irish like a lot of the rest of my mothers family.. Then I started looking at her more closely after I had done everyone else I could in the tree.. Momma never told me, she may not have known.. Mommas family was lily white, or so she thought...

 When I think of Annie Ailstock, I think of Grandma Gilbert and Aunt Bettie Gilbert, Bettie braiding my Grandmas long black hair... I think of Bettie, tall statuesque a beautiful woman.. Or my own mother Annie Cheek, strong yet gentle, beat down by life, but knowing she was better than her circumstances.. Granpa Grigsby found something in Annie Ailstock, what was it, was it her exotic looks... her color...

 Annie Elizabeth "Lizzy" Ailstock is listed in the 1860 census as a mulatto.
  So what does that mean. It means she wasn't entirely of the Caucasion race..It could mean she was African, or Native American or both.. Her father Andrew Ailstock 1801, 1862 is also listed as Mulatto. After marrying Grandpa Grigsby in 1869, Annie miraculously appears as white in the 1870 Census...

Who was Annies mother? on her death certificate Phoebe Vess is listed as her mother.. but her father was never married to a Phoebe Vess. He was married to Phoebe Ricketts 1835, 1899. He was also married to Nancy Jane Ailstock his 1st cousin...born in 1806 . There was a Phoebe Vess in the area, only place I've ever seen a connection between Phoebe Vess and Andrew Ailstock is Annies death Certificate...