[SCadaddle]

"Uncle Jeff" and Ben.

Ben was born in 1874. His brother Jeff sometime around then as well. My Dad, son of Ben, born in 1920 told me about who he referred to as "Uncle Jeff".

Apparently on the other side of the family farm lived a married lady. Sometimes in the mid morning when Ben and Jeff were working in the fields, she'd step out of her house and fire a shotgun---twice. That was Jeff's signal to pay her a visit since her husband was away. And Jeff always obliged.

Ben wasn't too happy about Uncle Jeff's activities and they had a huge falling out after Jeff paid some guy in the community $20 to claim he was the father of the lady's child. After leaving the farm as teenagers, they went their seperate ways and never spoke again. I don't know what year Jeff passed away, but Ben out lived him until 1963. When Ben heard that Uncle Jeff had passed, he made the trip to Jeff's town and paid for his funeral and burial.

Funny thing nowadays, as the grandson of Ben, one of the few people I really enjoy seeing at the family reunion is the granddaughter of "Uncle Jeff". And I could care less if I never saw my remaining siblings.

And as for the supposed child of "Uncle Jeff", I guess we'll wait for ancestry dot com to figure that one out and maybe a new participant at the family reunion.