After hearing about ancestry.com from my coworker, I'm now hooked. Digging through old census reports, war records, marriage certificates, etc., and piecing together family locations, relations, and histories, it's a fascinating tour through America's past, with the added excitement of finding out about one's ancestry. Check it out when you have a chance, but be wary that it can be addictive and sap away your hours. I'm just getting started, but here's some of the fun tid-bits I've uncovered about the Cherrys:

Charles T Cherry, my grandfather's great-grandfather, was born March 14, 1801 in England. He moved to the United States in the late 1820s. From what I can gather, he married Ann Mabel in England and had 8 children with her. Later, he married Mary, 20 years his junior (good job C T Cherry), and had Frederick Tinsley Donne, Charles Henry, and Frances. On the 1850 census, however, there were only 10 people living in the household, one of which was not a Cherry (Mary Hatey), not quite sure what was going on there. In the 1850s he moved to Tennessee and by 1880 all the children had moved out and only he and his wife, Mary, lived in the same house. A year later, they moved back to Marston (St Lawrence), Northamptonshire, England without their children. His occupation was listed as a farm laborer.

Frederick FTD Cherry, son of Charles T Cherry and my grandfather's grandfather, was born in July of 1841 in NY. In the 1850s his parents moved to Tennessee. While in medical school he enlisted in the 17th infantry regiment of Tennessee as a private on May 20, 1861 fighting for the Confederacy. He fought battles throughout TN and in Chickamauga, GA. He was captured and was a Union prisoner of war. After the war, he returned to TN, received his doctorate in allopathic medicine from the University of Nashville in 1868 and married Kate Elizabeth Smith in 1870. They had six kids: Mortimer, Charles Quintard, Arthur Donne, Annie Mary, Frederick Smith, and Susan. The youngest, Susan, or "Susie" as she was called in one document, was born when Frederick FTD Cherry was 50 years old. He remained in TN until around 1905 when he and his family moved to Sallisaw, Oklahoma. He died from an aneurysm in his thoracic aorta on June 2, 1913.

Frederick Smith Cherry, son of Frederick FTD Cherry, was born December 11, 1880 in Missouri. He lived in Winchester, TN, until about 1905 when his parents moved to Sallisaw, OK. His occupation was a Drugist. At the age of 38 he joined the army to fight the Germans in WWI. After the war, in the mid-20's, he moved to Okmulgee, OK. All in all, he ONLY had three children, Francis, Mabel Bonnie, and Frederick Tinsley Donne, named after his father.

Frederick Tinsley Donne Cherry, my grandfather, was born February 6, 1912 in Sallisaw, OK. He moved in the mid-20s with his parents to Okmulgee. He went to Okmulgee high school and Oklahoma University participating in football and track. He worked as a "soda jerk" in high school. He worked as an engineer for the British American Oil Company in Overton, TX, where he met and married my grandmother, Virginia Pearl Salyer. He continued working for the oil company until his superintendent told him he would have to quit “preaching” or resign. So, he resigned. He was unemployed and worked odd jobs until he was called into active duty, at which time he had three kids: Starley, Ron, and Mary. Before leaving to Europe, my grandmother was pregnant with number four. He fought in London and Belgium during the Blitz and the Battle of the Bulge. By the end of the war, he was Captain Fred T. Cherry, and had spent forty-four months in the war. After the war, Fred became a Baptist evangelist and preached the rest of his life all over the country. They had eight more kids, bringing the total to eleven, and in 1950, they bought a house in the "country" south of Edmond, OK. Fred had a fatal heart attack in October of 1970, six years before I was born. Grandma, now 92 years old, still lives in the house south of Edmond. She has 42 grandchildren and 100 great grandchildren.

Note: a lot of the specifics about my grandfather were garnered from a letter written about my grandfather by my grandmother that I found on ancestry.com. This much detail is not normal. However, there is an enormous amount of detail on the Civil War, each division and battle described in more detail than I would have ever imagined. Quite fascinating, if not a bit boring after reading through pages upon pages of mundane activities and battle reports.