AT THE BEGINNING

Hello to all my wonderful cousins far and wide.  Some of you know that I have been researching  our family history for at least thirteen years.  It all started in August of 1999 when my dad, Roy Syx finally convinced me to accompany him to the Syx family reunion in Hueytown, Alabama.  In discussing the trip, we realized that it was my first trip back to see his side of the family in about twenty years.  Although  I was unsure what to expect, off we went.  The rest is history. 

Thinking back now I realize that the flight from Tampa, Florida to Birmingham was a life changing experience for me.  I began to ask my Dad lots of questions about the family in an effort to understand who was who.  I knew lots of cousins but did not have a big picture in my mind of the structure of the family.  So while we were flying over to Alabama, I decided it was time to start building a family tree.  Sounded like fun plus there had been a lot of recent publicity about family tree "making" on television that had grabbed my attention.  They had been promoting some new web site called Genealogy.com that was up and running on the 'internet' - something new that was popular for those who might have a home desktop computer.  So I was curious!  (And isn't it funny that it was such a new and exciting thing,  just that short time ago)

Well one thing led to another.  I immediately went shopping at the dime store in Hueytown to stock up on poster board and magic markers.  Then on the day of the 3rd Annual Syx Family Reunion at Brooklane Community Center, the tree was 'born'.  If you were there that day, you may remember that everyone divided into groups according to the Syx son or daughter (of John and Olive Ann Syx) they were descended from and each group began listing all the names of kids, grand kids and great grand kids in each branch of the family.  (I still have those poster boards by the way.) 

Carl Franklin, Lorn, Meredith Syx with Evelyn Syx Caldwell

I bought a program called Family Tree Maker and entered all the names.  We fixed and corrected for a couple years.  THEN the research began.  There was sooooo much I didn't know about the history of the family.  Who were our grandparents and great grandparents?  Where did they come from? Where did they live?  And when?  And why?  So much to learn.......


Not long after that, my Dad and I planned a road trip back to Nelsonville, Ohio to learn more.  It was believed that Nelsonville was where Grandma and Grandpa Syx were born.  We wanted to know more.  We learned much more but just scratched the surface.  During a visit to the Athens County, Ohio Genealogy Society Library, we were directed to another county where the Syx family of John Corbin Syx's side originated.

Well that is enough background information. Not going to bore you with anymore of that stuff now.
Lots of trips to Ohio, lots of names, places and faces later, the Syx Family Tree and MANY related branches now is firmly ensconced on Ancestry.com.  It also includes my mother's side of my family and many in-law branches of the tree as well.  As of today, it is 9704 people strong with over 2000 pictures in place.  Many of the old pictures are over 100 years old.  They are so precious to me.

Just last night I spoke to a member of my Great Aunt Carolyn Farrow Parkin's family, Aloma Miller, and discovered she has a large version of a photo of  Great Grandfather William Thomas Farrow who immigrated from England in 1857 that she wants to share.  Over the moon with excitement to see it.  I have an electronic copy of a much smaller version of the photo but this sounds like it could be an original.  It should be at our reunion in June in Hueytown.  Be sure to check it out. 

A NEW GREAT UNCLE HAS COME OUT OF HIDING

As a young child, my family lived outside of Akron, Ohio, also my place of birth. My Dad worked for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company as long as I can remember.   Another vivid memory I have never forgotten, is of going to downtown Akron with my Mom to shop, with my parents to see Christmas lights in the windows of O'Neils Department Store and to have my picture taken at a professional studio, the Syx Studio on Main St.  It was exciting for someone under 10 years old.

Mom and I often went to town on the bus from out in Manchester, where we lived.  Never had any illusions that the Syx Studio was in anyway related to our family.  Don't recall anyone ever saying, those are our cousins, or an uncle or a brother or any other relationship to us.  They just had the same last name as ours.  Sounded normal to me.  I was a kid.  What did I know!  As time went by, I even asked....are/were they related to us?  No one really knew for sure.  Some said 'yes' they thought we were related but some folks said 'no'.  All I knew was that several of us had our picture taken there as kids.  I have photos from that studio of myself as well as cousin Margaret Syx Brabham taken when we were very young.   Hmmmmmm?

Turn the calender forward to the Fall of 2012.  Due to a death in the family of Ruby Syx Ansley, youngest daughter of Uncle Wilbur J. Syx,  an album belonging to Uncle Wilbur, surfaced and came to rest in the hands of cousin Charlotte Syx Bell, in Madison, Wisconsin.  Charlotte was born, grew up and live a long time in Birmingham.  She is Wilbur's granddaughter.   Several years back, everyone in her family moved to Wisconsin.  They seem to be enjoying it (despite the cold weather). I was lucky enough to spent a few days with them back in November.  Charlotte and her husband Palmer Bell are now proud grandparents of two little boys and they are fitting into the Madison lifestyle very well. 

Wilbur's album was filled with a variety of items Uncle Wilbur Syx wanted to keep, including newspaper clippings, cards, letters (which I may talk about at another time), a typed journal about a trip to Florida, keepsakes and several pictures that I had never seen before.  The pictures were all very interesting.  I will have copies of all of them at the family reunion in June.  A few of them have already been posted  on Facebook.

One photo in particular got my attention for some reason.  It was labeled as W.A. Syx.
In all the research I had done, I found no record of anyone called W.A. Syx.  I checked and rechecked.  No W.A. Syx!  Obviously, he was someone that Wilbur knew well enough to keep a photo of the man.  It appeared to be a professionally taken photo.  AND  he 'looked' like a Syx. 

William Arthur Syx

At that point I searched city directorys on Ancestry.com and found a W.A. Syx in Akron, Ohio.  Guess what, he owned Syx Studios. What a surprise.  Then searched him on Census Records in the early 1900s and found his full name was William Arthur.  He was born in Ohio.  Had a wife named Ottilla and a daughter named Alma.    He lived in Noble County (near Caldwell) and Athens County(Nelsonville area) and eventually Summit County (Akron) at various times.  Then I looked for birth and death records.  His parents were "William" Six and Elizabeth Shockley who married in Noble County where W.A. was born also.  It appears that this marriage and birth all took place before a William Syx (our great grandfather) married a Matilda Gessel in Noble County.  I have not yet found a divorce between William and Elizabeth but  Elizabeth shows to have remarried and moved to Kentucky for the duration of her life where she raised a second family.  I'll be researching for a divorce in the very near future.

In conclusion, I feel pretty safe in saying that W.A. Syx was a previously unknown half-brother to Grandfather John Corbin Syx and his twin brother Uncle Jack (Andrew Jackson), Uncle Wilbur, and other siblings that we never knew, Antha, Alonzo and Homer Syx.  I suspect that some of the older children of John and Olive probably knew that he was a half brother, but never chose to speak of it.  I am positive that there are many secrets about the family that Aunt Ellen Syx knew but never revealed.    If you have any doubts, take a look at the above photo of W.A. Syx then compared it to the circa 1895 photo below of  great grandfather William Syx, also from Wilbur's album.  It was one I had not seen before.  They sure look alike don't they.  I'm convinced.