Open Response to cousin Kirby Grider in Iraq

Sent Fri 5/25/2007 9:10 AM

Dear Kirby Grider,

What an honor to receive such a complimentary letter. Just this one letter expressing appreciation for the work I’ve done gives me hope that it’s not done in vain. Knowing there are others like myself who just want to know and appreciate those people that came before us and generated the seeds that today have become myself - makes it an honor for doing it all. Thank you very very much for expressing your appreciation.

I hope this letter finds you and you can forgive me for the long delay in response. You may have been put aside, but you were not forgotten. Thank you for the bravery it takes to keep up such faith.


[Your letter has been sitting on my desktop as I’ve pondered and played and forgotten. But I’ve left it there to remind me to make the time to reply in a proper manner.]

In response to your letter:

So you knew Goldie, huh? That’s cool. I’ve got some pictures and video of her and me in her last years. She gave me lots of good material, documents, and photos. I need to trace back to where you say your family and mine tie and maybe I can find some pictures you’d be interested in.

So you remember stories of Grandma Phoebe, huh? That’s super cool. There’s maybe one or two people left alive that actually remember her. One of them is my Uncle Roy who was a child when she was around. He is about 80 now. (I’ve named my dog “Phoebe Dove” as a keepsake of her name.)

Scotch-Irish blood is a bit of a misnomer. There was hundreds of years of warring and land switching between the three sections of northernmost England between the mixed bloods of Scotch/Irish/English. This is what has come to be known in common language as just “Scotch-Irish”. They in reality were migrants from those warring tribes in that three-fold area that arrived into the 13 colonies right AFTER the main English settled the coastal plains. Since all the good lands were taken, they were forced to reside and “settle” the backwoods lands and into the Appalachian foothills.

They were a warring and migrant class of people where the women kept what little homes they maintained and the men did mostly warring. They were tough and fit into the rough life of mountain living and Indian fighting. These were where the original hillbilly archetypes come from.

The families moved up and over the Appalachians and up the Ohio valley which pretty much ends in the Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Missouri valleys and bottom lands. (Look at a relief map and you can envision it.)

That’s the high level view of what populated these areas and where our ancestors in Southern Illinois came from.

As far as your personal family history goes… considering that you have two children and the interest is deep within your heart, I would strongly recommend you not put off pursuing your father and his history.

Get at least the names and pictures before it is too late. Don’t put it off. Your mother may be embarrassed or something, but she needs to get it off her chest also. It will make for a blessed conversation between you and your mom.

Thanks for being a soldier and taking on the hardship of being over there in Iraq.

My advice:
Research, find, and write down who you are, where you came from and what you think.
You never know who it might help plus you’ll make it that much harder for them to forget about you.

Again, my sincerest apologies for such an extreme delayed response.


Your friend and cousin,
Mitch Sanders