52 Ancestors – Week 21 – Nicknames

52 Ancestors – WEEK 21 –
Nicknames 

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

My great-grandfather
Charles Wesley Thomas was born in 1882 in small coal mining town in western
Pennsylvania called Nemacolon part of Greene county. His family were Welch and
immigrated to America in the 1760’s.

My father always called
him “Bumpy”. I used to ask why and he would jokingly laugh and say
that when he died[1],
he had a sudden heart attack and fell down the cellar stairs. The vision in my
head of him bumping his way to the bottom made sense. His obituary in the Connellsville
Daily Courier upheld the story with his nickname listed.[2]

Later, when I was older, I
interviewed my Dad and he told me that at age 9, his first job was in a coal
mine as a “trapper boy” who hooked the coal cars together. He also
told me he played baseball in the minor leagues. Charles obituary says only
that he was a “well-known sandlot baseball player.” Well for me that is close
enough.