The Gilstrap Photos

Posted February 6, 2000, by Bryan Rampey

This is a collection of the old black-and-white Gilstrap family photos I have scanned from copies made with my 35mm Nikon FE and various close-up attachments. They are here for the enjoyment and enrichment of the Gilstrap family. Some of them are very old and may not have been seen by some of the family members. Now they are here online, safe from housefires, floods, coffee stains, and other natural disasters. If you have any suggestions as to when a particular picture was originally made, or where, or who might have taken the picture, let me know via email. Also, please correct any misspelling of names or any other error of fact. I'll be glad to add the information when I update the page. If you would like for me to include a link to your web page from here, just let me know. There are already some links at the bottom of this page.

Click here to email me at rampey2000@yahoo.com.

Be patient; it may take a while for some of the pictures to appear. While waiting, you can at least scroll down the page and read the text that goes with each one. If you would like to save any of the pictures to your hard drive, hold the pointer over the picture, click once with the right mouse button, then click once on Save picture as... when the menu pops up. Then you can view the picture anytime you like without going online.

This first page is dedicated to Julius Norman Gilstrap and Mattie Demarius Pressley Gilstrap, parents, grandparents, and greatgrandparents of so many who will see these pages. Julius was born on March 1, 1887 and died on July 16, 1969. Mattie was born on June 10, 1891 and died on February 24, 1966. They brought nine children into this world, and 34 grandchildren.

Their first-born was Julia, born June 5 of the year 1910. Julia only lived until February 8, 1912. Little Julia was followed by Nina Louise "Luke", who was born just 11 days after Julia died. Dennis "Dink" Zacharus was the first son, born January 10, 1914. Cecile Inez was to be next, born November 30, 1916. Wallace William "Bill" joined the family on April 19, 1919. Sarah Ellen came along on January 27, 1922. Margaret Opal joined in on August 19, 1924. Leonard Albert was born on June 16, 1926. My mother, Martha Jean, was the baby of the family, born on July 25, 1931.

They appear below with my mom sometime in the thirties at the old house that blew away in the tornado in 1937. This picture was originally in color or hand-colored.

Click here to see a very old photo of Dennis Zacharias Pressley (died November 28, 1931) and Mary Louise Whitten Pressley (died September 6, 1932), parents of Mattie Demarias Pressley.

Click here to see one of the older Pressley photos. Left to right: Oscar, Albert, Luther, and Dave.

Click here to see another one of the Pressleys. Oscar, Albert, Luther, and Dave, left to right.

Click here to see Mattie Pressley Gilstrap, at far left, with her sisters Laura (Green), Rose (Green), and Nell (Sentell), far right.

Click here to see one of Jule Gilstrap as a very young man, with his brothers John, Benson, Hardy, and Lester, and their parents, Ephriam O'Kay (Cade) and Biddie Jane Hughes Gilstrap. Missing are Riley, Attaway, Norman, and Josey. This is from the very early 20-th century. These people represent the fifth and sixth generations of Gilstraps in America, the first (Peter, born 1728, died 1795) having arrived in the middle 1700's. This information is taken from some excellent genealogical research done by Lois Gilstrap Childress, assisted by Doris Gilstrap Foster.

This one of them and Leonard must be from about 1930 or so.

Jule, "Dink", and Gordon Tillirson on the wagon with Sarah and Cecile. Or so it says on the back of the photo! They were visiting Dave and "Luke" Melton.

Here they are at the farm run by Louise ("Luke") and her husband Dave Melton. Jule is holding Mary Melton. According to reliable information, the little girl in the background just over Luke's shoulder is June, youngest daughter of Dink Gilstrap and his wife Epp. The girl at bottom right is Judy Dickard, daughter of Cecile and Walker Dickard, and the girl on the left whose face is turned is probably her sister Joyce.

Click here for more photos of Julia.

Click here for more on "Luke" and her family.

Click here for more on "Dink" Gilstrap and his family.

Click here for more on Cecile and her family.

Click here for more on "Bill" Gilstrap and his family.

Click here for more on Sarah and her family.

Click here for more on Opal and her family.

Click here for more on Leonard and his family.

Click here for more on Martha and her family.

Click here to visit my Rampeys page.

Click here to go to the pages I have dedicated to my VW Beetle.

Click here to email me at rampey2000@yahoo.com.

Click here to read all about me as a paid professional Spanish professor at Brewton-Parker College! Also, from here you can link to my wife Leslie's homepages, including her special sushi lessons!

Click here to go to Boyce Rampey's page dedicated to his growing collection of automotive discards!