Essay One: Ancestry

One of my ancestors was a man called Wild Bill Sullivan. He was the subject of a book written by another of my relatives, an aunt who was a professor at the University of Alabama. He had owned a huge parcel of land that was formerly inhabited by the Choctaw tribe. There a town named Laurel Mississippi was founded that was pretty much under the control of my family. Wild Bill was reputed to have killed several men who he felt had trespassed or had interfered with him in various ways. He had a hot temper that led him to snap decisions and violent solutions to dealing with those who crossed him. There were other relatives who were interesting. Two of my aunts on my mother's side lived in Laurel until past the age of one hundred. One of them lost her eyesight in the last years of her life and the other one burned to death as a result of standing too close to the fireplace to stay warm in the coldest days of winter. A spark ignited her nightgown and she was alone. The flames raced up the back of her cotton gown to her white hair. Alone, she screamed with no help to come. I often wonder what she may have been like as a person, as a woman, and if we might have been similar in views on life. My mother once shared with me some documents that show immigration to America by my ancestors aboard the Mayflower. She and my sister Elizabeth did some work on out geneology some years ago. My most famous ancestor was Anne Sullivan, who taught Helen Keller to communicate with the world. It seems that my family line carries good genes for teaching. We Sullivan descendants have a natural predisposition to share our knowledge with others. It pleases me immensely; there are so many predispositions that are negative. How fortunate to have one that contributes to the betterment of the lives of others. On my father's side, there are many Rhodes ancestors, including one that is world renowned: Cecil Rhodes, the diamond king of Africa. He mined millions for years, creating an empire of diamonds and establishing the Rhodes Scholarship program.