My Great Grandfather was a Freemason

My daughter recently did some research on our heritage on my father's mother's side.

These are the Atkinson's on their Indiana farm in the 1800s. The matriarch in the middle is my great great grandmother, Deborah Atkinson Woodard. I wouldn't want to make her mad. The little girl on the far right is my great grandmother 'Minnie.'

Minnie went on to marry my great grandfather George Carroll. Here is his gravestone in Fort Wayne, Indiana, along with Masonic symbolism.

The Carrolls in my family came from Ireland and are distantly related to Charles Carroll, the longest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Minnie and George had several children, including my grandmother, Irene. Irene grew up to marry my grandfather Lester Ott.

My grandparents, Irene and Lester Ott

Lester was Vice President of Grant Company. Lester and Irene had two children, my aunt Carrol and my father Lyn.

Lyn Ott

My father would go on and study art at the Rhode Island School of Design. He and my mother met Baba in 1965 at the age of 40. He painted 500 paintings of Baba over 12 years, until he lost his eyesight in the 1970s. He died in Myrtle Beach in 1998.

The Carroll family traces its American heritage back to the Mayflower in 1620. My aunt Hazel (Irene's sister) was a Daughter of the American Revolution, which requires showing heritage to the revolution.