The
family of Mark and Gina Cannary, est. 1985
Gina's side:
I was
born on November 21, 1960 in Lubbock, Texas, to Marlin Eldes
Griffin Whitworth (1925-1975) and Jeannette
Ogden Sweeten Sharrer Whitworth Parry (1930-2023). I
was the 6th baby for my mother (an XR tech) and also the 6th for my
father (a salesman) - their first child together. My mother had
been married twice before. Her first marriage to produced Jeannette (b. 1947), Sherry (b. 1948), and Alene (b.1950) .
(it was during her pregnancy with Alene that my mother went to school
to be an XR tech) Her second marriage brought Kenneth (b. 1954) and Margaret (b. 1956). Her third marriage produced myself, Melissa (b. 1961), and Kurt (b.
1964). By the age of 34 my mother had eight kids.
When my
parents divorced we were still living in the house I grew up in on
62nd street in Lubbock - just the four of us. (Mother, me, Melissa,
Kurt). My mother was working at West Texas Hospital in Lubbock having returned to work full-time to support us.
She took a job at John Sealy/UTMB hospital and we moved to
Galveston the summer of 1971. In 1976, My mother went to
California to study Ultrasound. Shortly afterwards, she became
a registered U/S tech and worked well into her 60's as such, working
in Houston Victoria, Saudi Arabia, and as a travel tech. She
remarried in 1990 to her 4th husband James Parry (d. 2001) and lived
in California with him until they built a house in North Zulch,
Texas. Jim had 3 adult daughters. After Jim passed,
Mother bought some property near downtown Brenham, Texas, and built a
house where she lived until she died in 2023.
I
graduated Ball High School in 1979, went to Galveston College for one
year, attended UT Austin 1980 - 1982, then transferred to
Southwest Texas State University. At the end of my second year in
college, my mother had sold the house in Galveston and moved to Victoria,
Texas. I completed my studies earning a BA in
Journalism and English. In college I worked retail, and at a weekly newspaper in San Marcos. Mark and I moved to Austin right after getting engaged in December 1984, then
married on October 5, 1985. I worked at a credit union, retail
clothing shop, and a mortgage company. Mark was an insurance agent. We bought
our first house in 1988. Our children were born
in 1990, 1991, 1995, and 1998. I went to Austin Community
College in 1992 for Radiologic Technology, and graduated in 1994 with
an AAS. We bought our second house
in 1997. Mark stayed with the insurance industry and I have been employed as an XR tech since 1995.
Jeannette (Gina's Mother)
My
maternal grandparents were Beatrice Margaret Pledger
Dodson (d. 1979) and Malcolm Ogden (d.
1968). They were never married. My mother had a
half-brother named Robert (d. 2016),
who was 3 years older. My grandmother was separated or divorced
from her first husband Harry when my mother was born, however Mother's first
birth certificate names her as Patsy Jean Shoquist.
It was later changed to Jeannette Ogden, and she was called
Jean. My mother was raised by my grandmother, and only visited
her father once, in Florida, where he lived with his wife, Cenie.
Malcolm and Cenie had no children together, but may have adopted. Beatrice's parents were Olivia Pledger (d. 1937), and Lawson
Pledger (d. 1958), a Baptist preacher. Olivia was Lawson's 2nd wife. I know nothing about Malcolm's side of the family.
Beatrice's second husband
was James Dodson (d. 1991) and they were married until her death.
Beatrice had two half siblings: Annie V. Pledger (d.
1963), Lawson C. Pledger (d. 1963), and one full sibling with Lawson and Olivia - Mattie Eletha "Jimmie" Hollingshead (d.
1994) married to Jervis Hollingshead (d. 1991). Aunt Jimmie and Uncle
Jerry had no children.
My mother was married four times in total, and had eight children:
*Jeannette had two kids - Douglas, and Deanna with her husband Charles. They divorced
and she remarried once.
*Sherry had two kids - Raul Jr., and Jean with her husband
Raul, Sr. They divorced and she never remarried.
*Alene had two kids - Christine, and James, Jr.
with her husband James, Sr. They divorced and she
remarried T. Neeley, but was divorced after 20+ years.
*Kenneth (d. 1999) had two kids: John with wife Loretta, and Phillip with wife Becky.
*Margaret (Maggie) had three kids - Matthew, Jason, and
Amber with her first husband. She divorced
him, and he has since died. She remarried in 1999.
*Gina had four kids - Spencer, Chloe, Dylan, and Grayson with her husband Mark. Mark died in 2021.
*Melissa had two children, both daughters. Ashley,
born in 1981 (with her first husband, and placed for
adoption), and Olivia born in 1997 with her 3rd husband who died in 2015.
*Kurt had no children.
At the time of her death, my
mother had 17 grandchildren, in addition to great and great great
grandchildren.
Marlin (Gina's Father)
My father was married four
times in total, and had 9 children.
He had four kids from his
first wife Tonee: Byron (b. 1945), Karen (b.
1946), JoAnn (b. 1949), and Paula (b. 1950). {He also had a
daughter, unknown to him, born to a high school girlfriend and placed
for adoption. Her name is Mary Margaret and she lives in Marble
Falls}
He had no kids with his
second wife.
My mother Jeannette was his 3rd wife. After I was born, my mother
and father would go on to have two more children together - Melissa
(b. 1962) and Kurt (b. 1964).
When my parents divorced in
1971, he remarried a distant relation, Wanda, after
moving to Oak Ridge, Tennessee where he owned and operated an
electronics store. Wanda had two children (Susan and
Cindy), and together they had Marlin, Jr. in 1974.
Before Marlin Jr. was a year old, my father died of lung cancer. Wanda (d. 2013) remarried and had one more
child, a son named David.
My paternal grandparents
were Muriel Preston Griffin Whitworth Clark (d. 1988) and Isaac
Dewey Griffin (d. 1976). Muriel and Isaac had one child, my father
Marlin Eldes Griffin, and divorced in 1928 when Marlin was 3.
My father had lots of cousins, as Muriel came from a large family.
She remarried a man named CV Whitworth, who helped raise
my father. They divorced and CV died in 1975. She married her second husband (d. 1992) in 1938
and they were together until she died. He remarried in the
late 80's. Isaac Griffin was remarried to his second wife and
had two more kids - Joyce and Dewey. My father changed his name to
Whitworth as a young man, then changed it back to Griffin after he
divorced my mother and reconnected with his father. When
Melissa and Kurt and I visited my father in the summer, he and my
step-mother Wanda would tell people our last name was Griffin.
My father was the parent who
pulled all of us aside and told us that he and my mother would be
divorcing. At that time, only my parents and the three of us were
living in Lubbock together. I was almost 10, Melissa was 8 1/2, and
Kurt was 6. My father lived in Lubbock for a short time
following that and we would go to his apartment infrequently, or he
would pick us up for a "date". This only happened for a short while,
as soon he would move to Oak Ridge and marry Wanda. We went to
Tennessee for a couple of summers and
we also spent time with two older sisters (Karen, JoAnn) as my mother
had returned to work full time and needed childcare for the summer.
My Dad had a total of 9
kids.
*I have no information
on Mary-Margaret.
*Byron had two kids with his first wife - Eldon, and Pamela. He remarried once, and divorced.
*Karen had two kids - Devon, with her
first husband, and Deanna (d. 2014) with her 2nd husband. Karen is unmarried now.
*JoAnn (d. 1999) had four kids - David (placed for adoption), Jerry Jr., Sabrina, and John with her first husband Jerry Sr. They
divorced and she remarried and later was divorced.
*Paula had one child - Tonee (last name and father's name
unknown to me). I have no other information on her.
*Marlin Jr had no kids, is not married.
*Melissa and Kurt and Gina are
listed under Jeannette above.
Mark's side:
Mark was born January 31st,
1961 in Galveston, and died in July 2021 in Austin, Texas. His
parents were Marie Serena Jenson Cannary Crawford (d.
1996) and Harry Allen Cannary, Sr. (d. 1977) Mark was the
third child, preceded by a sister, Sharon and a brother,
Harry Jr. Marie was a housewife and later, a
bookkeeper. Harry was in the military, then the grocery
business in an executive position. They settled in Galveston,
but may have also lived in Jacksonville, Hitchcock or LaMarque. Harry Sr. and Marie divorced in 1977. Marie remarried in 1978 to Waylon (d. 1982), a druggist in Galveston. Marie is buried next to Waylon in Gilmer, Texas.
Marie's parents immigrated from Norway. Her mother, also named Marie, was a cook, and her father Jens was a ship's captain. Marie and Jens Jensen settled in Galveston and had four children: Marie S., Violet, Aagot, and John.
Harry's family was originally from
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. His mother Mary Margaret Walsh
Cannary and father Oatha Core Cannary had
five children of their own: Roy, Florence (Floss), Grace, Gladys, and Harry. Harry was a WWII fighter pilot who won several medals.
For the most part, Mark was
raised as an only child, as his siblings were teenagers (16 and 14)
when he was born. He graduated from O'Connell High School in 1980. In
high school and college Mark worked briefly as an electrician
apprentice/journeyman, and apartment handyman. He attended SWTSU, finishing up
his BA in Finance/Economics in 1991. Mark married Gina in
1985 and they had the aforementioned 4 children: Spencer, Chloe,
Dylan, and Grayson. Mark died July 23, 2021.
Mark's sister Sharon (d.2015)
married Tom (d. 2018) and had two children: Bryan, and Paige (d. 2022). Bryan has two children with his wife -
Macie, and Bryce. Paige never married or had
children.
Mark's brother Harry Jr. (d.
1984) married three times. With his second wife he had two
sons, Scott, and Brian. With his third wife he
had 2 children, Jennifer, and Bradley.
Scott
Cannary had no children and died in the late 80's.
Brian
Cannary -
Jennifer
Cannary married twice and had two kids with her first husband -
Brandon and Baylie.
Bradley
Cannary -
Believe me when I say this was no walk in the park putting together. I had to walk away from it several times. I will need to edit it as I discover more information about his parents and grandparents. But I hope that one day my kids will at least have some names of people related to them and a way to keep them all organized. And I may expand it, as well.
Have you worked on your family history?
Gina
*I removed most of the last names of living people
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