My Fearless Female Ancestor Who Made the News

Posted by Liv | Filed under Green, Surname

In March 2010, Lisa Alzo, better known as, The Accidental Genealogist, launched a series of 31 blogging prompts for celebrating and honoring the “fearless females” in our family trees. This online viral event was so popular with bloggers last year that they wanted to know if Lisa planned to host this event again this year. So back by popular demand and to mark National Women’s History Month, Lisa launched her — Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month!

I stopped by Lisa’s blog this week to check out some of the prompts and to learn more about her family history, and this prompt caught my eye:

March 14 — Newsmakers? Did you have a female ancestor who made the news? Why? Was she famous or notorious? Did she appear in the social column?

My great-grandmother, Birdie Green Aldridge who was born August 13, 1888 in Chappell Hill, Washington County, Texas, was a female ancestor in my family tree (my father’s father’s mother) that made the news at age 83!

She was the talk of the town as her photo and comments about the upcoming election day in Parsons, Labette County, Kansas were captured in an article titled, “Tuesday Is Election Day,” found in Section 2 – Page 12 of their local newspaper on April 1, 1971. According to this article, Momma Birdie (the name we called her) had not missed an election since she moved to Kansas from Texas in 1912. The reason for that she says below is, “Voting is second only to worshiping God!”

Momma Birdie died six years after this interview was published on March 15, 1977. She was laid to rest in Oakwood Cemetery in Parsons, Kansas on March 21, 1977. Be sure to click the article above to enlarge and read about my fearless female who made the news!

Tags: ancestor, birdie aldridge, birdie green, chappell hill, family history, great-grandmother, Parsons Kansas, texas, washington county