Seasons to come, seeds to follow, I am a descendent of the Henry Ratliff.
We believe that Henry Ratliff, Sr. and Mary Holmes Ratliff descended from Yazoo County, around Benton, Mississippi area over 158 years ago. The earliest record, we found of Henry Ratliff and Hanna is around 1800's. We had stories told to us by our uncle Cofield Ratliff and Ludy Hettie "feet" Thomas and daughter, Fannie Reid about Mama Liza Jones, who is the mother of Henry Ratliff. Mama Liza (b1837 - Census 1880) as they called her, started her journey from Virginia to Mississippi. Sold to a slave owner, she left four children. We do not know how many children she had once she married and bore more children. One of the children’s name is Henry Ratliff. Archives …show more content…
If they are indeed Ratliffs' then it is very likely that they are descendants of Henry Ratliff, Sr. Moreover, and our Henry Ratliff is the father of descendants we outline here, who was born 1853 in Benton, Mississippi. His wife Hanna -was born in 1857 in Benton, Mississippi. Henry and his first wife, Hanna, bore six children: Jane, Mary, Manda, Miza, Ella, Henry. The 1880 census revealed that during that time, Henry was 27, Hannah was 23, Jane was 8, Mary was 7, Miza was 5, Ella was 4, and Henry was 2 months. It is not written, but we believe that this was a happy and loving family. Henry, seconded marriage with Mary Holmes produced several children, and yet another by the name Henry Ratliff. I will spotlight line of Henry Ratliff, Hanna and Mary Holmes. Very little about Hanna. Henry was born in 1853 and Mary Holmes was born in 1864. Henry and Mary married November 27, 1895, in the Yazoo County Courthouse in Yazoo City, Mississippi. A copy of Henry and Mary Holmes married license is found in this history. (Appendix A) Henry Ratliff was a farmer, a hard working man like his father. His wife was the keeper of the house. Like most women during that time, she was proud of her good cooking and housekeeping skills. Henry Ratliff. Did not appear in the 1910 …show more content…
Much of her training, teaching and love showed me was how to be the woman I am today. My grandmother was a virtuous woman and would help anyone in need. She would always say “My Love of Life is Jesus Christ, to serve him and not man.” She would remind me, by saying, “Serving God is a narrow road.” Sometime your family will become your enemy, some time we don’t understand, but we must hold fast to what we know is right.
There may not always be peace in your family, but always serve God and follow him. Proverbs 22:6 King James Version “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Granny Hettie did just that alone with my mother. Fannie was born in 1933, and I in 1960. My mother is a kind in addition to being tenderhearted, whom all who know her, love.
If I had to put a label on her, just like her mother, she is a virtuous woman. My other raised 10 children of which nine are still living. Fannie taught us to be kind one to another. “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32. So I inherit my tenderhearted from my