Fifth Generation

Before I talk about the immigrants, which in family meant I will be talking about my family 8 to 10 generations back, I will start with the present and move backwards to the Fifth generation before I start at the beginning and move forward. That is the proper way to do genealogy I have learned. You start with the most present and move backwards. I am still a beginner at this! So I will start with myself, I am 1 and move back.

1. I will not give my full name for privacy purposes but my last name is Lee and I was born in Memphis, TN in 1977 two weeks before Elvis Presley died in the same city. I have no middle name as my parents thought that since I would eventually marry I could use Lee as my middle name. I am the daughter of Charles Henry Lee and Patti Etheridge.
I grew up in the LDS church which was difficult to be in the South. I have four brothers and in Memphis as a child most of my relatives lived nearby except for my father’s parents who lived in Florida. I would see my relatives every week and visit my grandparents in Florida in the summer. We lived in my father’s parents’ house until I was 7 years old. My mother has a sister in California and we would visit her every few years. We would go to my great grandmother’s house (Mildred Warren Johnson) in Dyer, TN for Thanksgiving. My great- grandmother would not cook turkey, but cooked chicken. There I would see all of my great grandmother’s relatives. On Friday’s we went to my Aunt Ida’s house (my father’s sister). She was married to Jimmy Hart who is an entertainer. They had lots of fun things to do at their house. Aunt Ida likes watching scary movies and we would drink coke, eat pizza and popcorn at her house. She would have the best Halloween parties. She moved to Florida by the 1990’s. My dad’s brother Irby moved to LA, California, and MArsha moved to Knoxville when I was very little. We soon started going to her house for Thanksgiving where we would play Nintendo games all day. We moved into our own house when I was 7. My mother’s family still all lived nearby. We would see my mother’s parents on a regular basis. I went to Grandview Elementary School and later went to Craigmont Junior High which I hated. Then when I was 14 we moved to Chattanooga, TN. We moved into my great grandmother’s house, Ruth Fowler Keith Lee. My father’s parents lived 10 minutes away. I went to Tyner High School which was a terrible school, my parents put me into a county school, East Ridge High. I did choir, but I loved history and language and would spend hours reading and studying language. I started University at UT Chattanooga. I started out in International Business. I did soem volunteer work in the ESOL department and decided to get into TESOL. I went to BYU Hawaii campus to study TESOL which has one of the best programs in the nation. I got married, ran out of money, and came back to TN after a year but took enough classes to teach ESOL. I did an internship at Walt Disney World and was in an International Exchange program where I studied at Yonsei University in South Korea. I work on my minor in International Studies there. I finished a degree in English at UTC in 1999. I got a divorce in 2000, and had no children. In 2001, I became an ESOL teacher for Hamilton County,TN. I had met my present husband during that time. He was in New York when 9/11 happened and soon went active duty military. After boot camp he was sent to Hawaii to Schofield Barracks. I joined him soon after and we were married in Hawaii. So, I was married twice in Hawaii. He went to Iraq. He is now in the reserves and we now live near DC. I am a housewife and proud of it and have three small children.