On Monday, I wrote about Anna (Carnes) Forrester. Today’s spotlight is on her daughter, Mary Lourania (Forrester) Ward, my great-great-grandmother. This is the woman that my grandmother refers to as Grandma Ward.
Mary was born on July 7, 1864, near the end of the Civil War. She probably was born in Fannin County, Georgia and as far as I know, she lived there all her life. As a girl, she lived with her parents Anna and Coleman Forrester; she appears in their household in the 1870 and 1880 censuses.
She married William H. Ward in Fannin County on September 9, 1888, at the age of 24. Their first son, my great-grandfather, Newton Coleman Ward, was born two years later. They had seven more children by 1910, but only six of their children were living. I only have names for seven of their children – all were boys.
Like most of my female ancestors, Mary was a farmer’s wife. She is listed as a farm laborer on the 1910 census and the homemaker on the 1930 census. I’m sure that both those roles applied to her all her adult life.
She died in 1944, three months shy of her 80th birthday.
This post was written for Women’s History Month. To see all posts in this series, click here.
