MaMa Tom: a Life That Spanned Almost Century

MaMa Tom: A Life That Spanned Almost a Century tells the story of Sara Lula Rebecca "MaMa Tom" Jones Thomason and the generations of Jones, Thomason, and Bradley families whose lives stretched from the Carolina backcountry to the growing industrial communities around Birmingham, Alabama.Drawing on family photographs, original records, family stories, and MaMa Tom's own recorded memories, Joe E. Bradley follows a family shaped by farming, railroads, cotton mills, migration, and a remarkable tradition of faith. Among the family stories is their old South Carolina home and lodging place near the spring and historic "fountain" associated in family memory with Fountain Inn, South Carolina. Along the way are stories of Fountain Inn, South Carolina; Baptist churches that served as the heart of their communities; William Thomas "Major" Jones; Herbert and Lula Thomason; and the courtship of Paul Bradley and Blanche Thomason.Genealogical research continuing after the book went to press has also identified Mary Whitlock's traditionally recorded parents as James Whitlock III and Agnes Christmas Whitlock. Research into the parentage of her husband, William Jones of Country Line Creek, continues.More than a genealogy, this is a family story-about ordinary people whose work, humor, hardships, faith, and memories carried forward from one generation to the next.