| OLD RANEY PHOTOS |
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| When I started trying to find my ancestors in 1980, all my dad could tell me about his mother's family was that they came from North Carolina and her maiden name was Raney. When a cousin showed me this photograph in 1999, I almost cried, because Granny's mother, Armina, and her aunt, Martha, had become very real to me. Finding her family has been an amazing journey and the story of the 3 women in the photo below makes me want to travel back though time to talk to them and learn more about them. |
| Mary Bell Raney Gibson, her aunt, Martha Jane Raney Warren and her sister (my grandmother), Mattie Frances Raney Berrier |
| Mary Bell Raney Gibson, was born in Haywood, North Carolina on June 22, 1869. She married William E. Gibson on June 13, 1886 and they had 4 sons and 2 daughters. Dad talked about "Aunt Mary and Uncle Will" and said they were not really kin to him, he didn't know she was his mother's sister. |
| My grandmother and namesake, Mattie Frances Raney Berrier, was born in Haywood County, North Carolina on January 4, 1872. She married Daniel Grant Berrier in Boyds Creek, Tennessee on August 30, 1891 and they raised 7 children: one daughter; Lela Ellie, and 6 sons; Robert Ralph, William Franklin, Fred Lee, Theodore Monroe, Jean Kendall and Henry Everett. She died in Knoxville, Tennessee on February 28, 1957. |
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