My dad was raised by his grandmother in the 1930s. So I heard a lot of stories about her lifetime. Her father, my great great grandfather came to New Orleans from Nantes, France in the mid 1800s. He was metalsmith by trade and settled in Plaquemine, LA, across the Mississippi from Baton Rouge. He married a woman named Mary and they had 3 children. She died before the children were grown and he married another woman named Mary. She also had 3 children. And she died before her children were grown. My great grandmother was the youngest of these three. Her father married a third time, to a woman named Mary, and she had three children. And he decided to move his family to Florida. The older children were grown by this time and remained behind in Plaquemine. My great grandmother was brought to Florida to look after her little sister and brothers. She didn't get along with her stepmother, and at age 14 (some time in the 1880s) she eloped with her 17 year old boyfriend. They ran a ferry service across the Withlacoochee River, and later made a living fishing between Crystal River and Cedar Key. I never met my great grandmother, but I knew and adored her little sister, also named Marie and called Mamie. Mamie was 3 when her sister eloped, but the two were close all their lives, with their families visiting each other often and when both were widowed in teh 1950s, they shared a house in Ocala. I've always been fascinated by their father and the three Marys that he married.
