Host Andrew Martin welcomes to this first episode of Series Six, family historian and author of ‘Quilt Of Souls: A Memoir’ – Phyllis Biffle Elmore. He will be hearing how Phyllis became interested in family history, the importance of oral histories, and finding out what led Phyllis to write a book about her grandmother.

Listen to the episode

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others…

The Life Story – Lula Horn

Phyllis has chosen to tell the life story about her Grandmother, Lula Horn who was born in 1883 in Sandersville, Mississippi, USA and reached the grand age of just a few months shy of 105 years old.

Phyllis’ memories of her grandmother are rich, and she refers to her as ‘an icon’. It’s no wonder, considering young Phyllis had been sent to live with her in rural Alabama as just 4 years old. With little else to do, Phyllis would spend a lot of time with Lula and listen to her stories as she worked and made quilts for others.

The Brick Wall – Lula Horn’s family

There’s a Brick Wall in Sandersville, Mississippi that is bothering our guest Phyllis because it focuses on the missing aunts and uncles of her grandmother.

Phyllis knows that her grandmother’s (Lula Horn) siblings were sold on in slavery, aside from sister Ella who was killed by her enslaver, and so almost as a duty to her grandmother, Phyllis has been trying to locate modern descendants of them via DNA matches.

Having tested with AncestryDNA, and uploaded her results to comparison site GEDmatch, Phyllis has been able to eliminate the other DNA matches, leaving her with a small number of likely matches to her Grandmother’s line… but it just doesn’t quite fit together. Can you help?

• Who were Lula’s siblings?
• Are there any modern descendants?
• Do you have matches against GEDmatch kit A331399?

If you think you can help Phyllis with a research clue or an idea, then you can contact her directly at her email address she mentions in the episode, via her website www.thequiltofsouls.com, or alternatively you can send a message to us and we’ll pass it straight on.

In the meantime, Phyllis takes some convincing before accepting Andrew’s help, but will she find it useful?…

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Resources

A list of resources and websites mentioned in this episode:

• www.ancestry.com – Ancestry
• www.gedmatch.com – GEDmatch DNA and Genealogy Tools
• www.thequiltofsouls.com – ‘Quilt Of Souls: A Memoir’ by Phyllis Biffle Elmore

Credits

• Andrew Martin – Host & Producer
• Phyllis Biffle Elmore – Guest
• John Spike – Sándor Petőfi