Porch Swings, Fireflies, and Jelly Jars: October 2025

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Esther A. (Bryant) Johnson Lacy died 1881

Esther (Bryant) Johnson married her second husband, Robert Lacy, 22 March 1848, in Pike County, Illinois. They had at least eight known children in addition to the four children that Esther had by her first husband, Samuel Johnson.

By 1868, Esther and Robert Lacy had moved to Kansas. After years of searching, I have finally found Esther's death notice in one of those "twenty-years-ago" newspaper columns. To be more precise, this column was news from twenty-two years ago. I have not yet found the original notice.

According to this notice, Esther A. (Bryant) Johnson Lacy died on 25 August 1881 in Clifton Twp., Wilson County, Kansas. To date, I have not found a place of burial for her. I suspect that she and her husband, Robert Lacy, are in unmarked graves.

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About Me:

My favorite memories from childhood include visits to my grandparents in East Texas. At dusk we'd run around my grandparent's yard, catching fireflies and putting them in jelly jars. When darkness descended, we'd return to the porch. It was a special treat to sit in the porch swing. Inevitably, the adults would launch into family stories of Pink Kelley's brush with Sherman's troops, of Great Uncle Hood Brown's tragic death, and of the Kelley family's wagon trip to Texas, among many others. The stars on those nights were magical.

I began my genealogy research in the summer of 1975, less than a month after my high school graduation. When I married in 1983, I started researching my husband's family as well. I was fortunate to start this hobby as a youngster because it gave me an opportunity to correspond with researchers who are long gone; to ask questions of family members -although not enough, never enough; and travel a bit. The result is a lot of information. I've come to the realization that I will probably never be able to afford to publish, so this is my publication.

This blog contains a mixture of information on my husband's family and mine. I've expanded into a second blog called Flimsies and Frippery with the intention of focusing on quilts and dolls, but I have several historical research entries there with more planned, which is why I don't get more quilting done.

Ultimately, genealogy is my passion. This is where I plan to record family stories, research adventures and misadventures, and those serendipitous moments that happen out of the blue. You should be warned that I have a bad habit of going back and adding information and links to individual entries, so it is beneficial to check back often if there is a family of particular interest to you. If you wander in and discover that you are a cousin, please contact me.

Since many younger family members who are new to genealogy are starting to contact me about their ancestors, I've started adding family trees to help them see how everyone is connected. The trees are divided between my family and my husband's. You will find them below under the label's Family Trees - My Husband's Side and Family Trees - My Family's Side.

For better or worse, this blog reflects the research, thinking, and writing of a human.