How a World War changed an Alabama Family, Part 4

by Glenn N. Holliman

 1940...the Storm Grows....

At this time in his life two decades after the Great War, Bishop Holliman was, as were millions of other Americans, an isolationist, one who wanted no involvement in European conflicts.  This opinion was shared by many during the late 1930s and early 1940s. 

However, by summer 1940 Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark had fallen before the Nazi war machine.  These frightening events  moved more and more Americans to support rearmament and aid to England.  Great Britain stood alone against increasing fears of a world dominated by an aggressive government of Germany, a militant Japan and a Mediterranean bully, Benito Mussolini's Italy. Collectively, these were the Axis powers of World War II.  Below the two dictators who lost their lives in 1945 in the conflagration they initiated.

 

Ulyss and Pearl Holliman  of Irondale, Alabama were devout Christians, and had raised their family as Methodists.  Their second daughter, Loudelle, married a Methodist minister in 1935, Charles T. Ferrell, born in Mississippi, and educated at Birmingham-Southern College and Yale Divinity School.  Loudelle and Charles helped Bishop obtain a part time job as youth director with the North Alabama Methodist Conference in the late 1930s.  This work - several summer youth conferences and his own deep commitment to the Christian faith - are evident in Bishop's pacifistic and humane opinions captured in memoirs written in 1991:

"And so it was as the clouds of war loomed ever more ominous on the horizon that I was a student at Birmingham-Southern College, having entered in 1937.  During those years I was very active in youth activities in the Methodist Church, and a principle focus in those times was 'world peace'.  At all of our youth conferences, programs, and camps, ironically one of the courses would be labeled, with some variations, 'World Peace."- H. Bishop Holliman, 1991
  

 

 Above, Christmas 1940, young Charles Halford Ferrell tries out his new Greyhound wagon for his parents, The Rev. Charles and Loudelle Holliman Ferrell.  Loudelle and Charles would write faithfully to her siblings, while Charles pastored Methodist Churches in North Alabama during the war.

 

Bishop along with two brothers, Melton and Ralph and a brother-in-law, Walter Cornelius, were soon to be swept into the growing maelstrom.  War would come to this Alabama family.  Melton (1908-1958) is pictured below with his mother, Pearl Caine Holliman (1887-1955) in the late 1930s in front of the Robert and Vena Daly, Sr. home in the 2300 3rd Avenue North of Irondale, Alabama.  Not a young man, Melton served in the U.S. Army in England, France and Mississippi during 1944 and 1945.  While overseas, his health broke. He died of a heart attack 13 years after the war at the age of only 49.

With the fall of World War I ally France in June 1940, the U.S. Congress passed a conscription act to begin the building of an American army which at that time was one of the smallest in the world.  Later that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to pass the Lend-Lease bill that gave assistance to Great Britain, aid short of war. 

At the same time, relations between Japan and the U.S. continued to deteriorate.  Japan pursued its war in China, and cast covetous eyes on the Dutch, British and French colonies in southeast Asia.

No matter how isolated the U.S. was in the Western Hemisphere, the world had become a dangerous place.  Led by FDR, Congress began to appropriate massive funds for naval, air and army armament.  However, 'isolationism', remained strong - many Americans did not wish to see the United States once again involved in a European war.

"Remember, we were still living in the shadows of the First World War, and the death and destruction wrought by that conflict were being brought out into the open, and we were able to look back and view the catastrophic horror.  Also, we were learning how the profit motive entered into whether we should go to war, and we were taught that greedy munitions manufacturers profited from the deaths of countless millions.

In the late 1930s and early 40s, I struggled to stay in college and worked part time at the Methodist Youth headquarters at 516 N. 22nd Street in Birmingham.  I was making maybe 25 or 30 cents and hour to fold letters, run the mimeograph machine and do other such menial chores  The job had been designed to aid a ministerial student.  I had been given the job my second year in college by Charles Ferrell, my brother-in-law.

He was Conference Youth Director, so through his beneficence I was able to make a little spending money and stay in school.  My association with the ministers in and out of the office and my participation in conference youth programs strengthened my faith in the 'rightness' of peace and the evils of militarism and war." - H. Bishop Holliman, 1991.

Bishop Holliman, left, sometimes had his mind on items other than religion while attending Methodist youth conferences in Alabama and North Carolina in the early 1940s.  Note the cute blond on the far left.  Dad is in a coat and tie, and oh, those white shoes and pants.

 

Next the War moves closer to this Alabama family....

Have questions about Holliman family history and associated families? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you.

Announcing also a "Seminar and Site" gathering October 18 and 19, 2013 in Fayette, Alabama for Hollimans and associated families whose ancestors are from that area. Space at the Rose House Inn is limited for the occasion due to a football weekend. For information, contact me at glennhistory@gmail.com. GNH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How a World War changed an Alabama Family, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

A Humorous Letter that captures the Mood of a Divided America....

"I felt we would not enter World War II.  We had learned our lesson, I thought, from the last war.  Surely we would get burned again. So I went merrily on my way, doing my thing, and not worrying very much about the ultimate consequences of what was happening in Europe." - H. Bishop Holliman, 1991, a Navy veteran of World War II

Spurred on by lively conversations with brother-in-law Robert W. Daly, Homer Bishop Holliman, born the year of the infamous 1919 Versailles Treaty, a Birmingham-Southern College student, typed the following tongue-in-cheek letter to himself.  While meant to be humorous, nineteen year old Bishop, captured the ambiguous feelings of many Americans in the autumn of 1939 as Europe once again plunged itself into an abbess.

Notice in the letter, he refers to the divisive issues of the embargo and neutrality which divided the U.S. Congress.  Only with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941 did American public opinion coalesce, and Congress overwhelmingly vote war. 

Above Bishop Holliman, right, with his Methodist pastor friend, The Rev. Paul Nelson Propst in 1940 at a Lake Junaluska, North Carolina religious retreat.   Note the formal wear. Bishop would give Paul's middle name to his son, Glenn Nelson Holliman, in 1946. 

Bishop had been raised in the Irondale, Alabama Methodist Church.  Thanks to his sister Loudelle's husband, The Rev. Charles Tigert Ferrell, he would work several years as youth  coordinator for the North Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church.  This position allowed him to help pay his tuition at Birmingham-Southern College, a Methodist school, from 1937 to 1941.

Below, Bishop's 1939 letter to himself captures his religious and isolationist beliefs as World War II began in Europe.  On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and reluctantly France and Great Britain declared war on expansionist Germany.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, thanks to the automobile and paved roads, Bishop and millions of Americans were able to travel and see the United States as previous generations had not been able to do.  Below, inn this 1939 photo Charles Pugh (far left) of Irondale and close friend of Bishop's stand with The Rev. Stewart Butten (far right), having just returned from a Methodist retreat in Knoxville, Tennessee.

 Notice the street at 2300 3rd Avenue, North, Irondale, Alabama is unpaved.  Third Avenue would be paved, ironically, during World War II.  The Ulyss Holliman home is in the background.  The automobile has a running board.  And what natty dressers just returning from a trip, still in white shirts, ties and oh, those white shoes!  A month or so later, Bishop would write the above letter to himself.

Next posting, the World War and the Changing Mood at Home....

Have questions about Holliman family history and associated families? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you.

Announcing also a "Seminar and Site" gathering October 18 and 19, 2013 in Fayette, Alabama for Hollimans and associated families whose ancestors are from that area. Space at the Rose House Inn is limited for the occasion due to a football weekend. For information, contact me at glennhistory@gmail.com.  GNH

How a World War changed an Alabama Family, Part 2

by Glenn N. Holliman

1939 - The Storm Rises....

"It was my lot in life to have been born at a time that propelled me into draft age just at the time WWII broke upon the scene.  For several years - since 1937 - we had been hearing about Hitler; we heard his speeches via radio and we read accounts of his threats to absorb all of Europe - 'Today Europe - Tomorrow the world'.  - H. Bishop Holliman, unpublished memoirs written 1991

For my father, Bishop Holliman, a college history major, the new war brought energetic campus discussions, theological talks with his Methodist youth friends and friendly arguments with brother-in-law, Robert W. Daly, Sr.  My Uncle Robert was famous for 'egging-on' his young in-laws, verbally sparing just for the sake of a good argument and on just about any subject.  He helped sharpen their minds and characters during the 1930s.

Bishop was the fifth of seven children, born 1919, and whose life would go in different directions because of the War. Robert was a mentor and 'big brother' figure for the three youngest Hollimans who still lived at home in 1939. In addition to Bishop, Virginia (1922-2011) and Ralph, born 1924, resided at 2300 3rd Avenue North, Irondale, Alabama with their parents, Ulyss (1884-1965) and Pearl Caine Holliman (1887-1955).

Four older children had left the nest earlier.  They were Melton (1908-1958), Vena (1909-1990), Euhal (1912-1989) and Loudelle (1914-1998).

Above, Melton Holliman as a Shades Cahaba High School senior in a natty bow tie.  After graduating in 1927, he began clerking in his Uncle Floyd Caine's drug store.  There he learned the pharmaceutical trade, and made a successful career as a major salesman for Wyeth.  His career was interrupted from 1943 to 1945 with service in the Army and medic duty in England, France and Mississippi.

Robert W. Daly, Sr. was a third generation Irishman, his immediate ancestors only six decades in the States by 1940.  His grandfather, a civil engineer, had helped construct the Alabama Central Railroad.  His father, Karl Daly, had been an Irondale, Alabama farmer.  By the 21st Century, the Daly fields had long been subdivided into large housing tracts for suburban commuters, but the highway bears his name.  Robert left the farm and become a banker in the early 1920s.  

Vena and Robert Daly fishing along the Coosa River in 1938.  Although Vena wore a bandana to protect herself from the Deep South sun, Robert fished in a white dress shirt and tie.  It was indeed a more formal era in the decade prior to the War. 

In 1931 Robert built two brick houses in the 2300 3rd Avenue North block of Irondale, on the steep hill overlooking the railroad switching yard.  Vena, his wife, had come of age in the house next door, the home of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman since 1921. 

Of the seven children, Vena Vivian Holliman Daly was the first to marry in 1928.  Husband Robert, born 1901, wise and full of mischievous good will, managed a bank in Woodlawn, Alabama.

Ulyss moved his growing family from Fayette, Alabama in 1917, seeking employment in the bustling, hard-nosed, blue collar steel city of Birmingham during an earlier World War. He found his carpentry skills in demand by the Birmingham Electric Company that ran the street car line.  From that year until his retirement in 1949, he repaired the wooden trolleys.  In 1953, the last street car ran in Birmingham and an era closed.  But Ulyss had earned enough to support his family during Depression and World Wars. 

By 1939, a new World War had already engulfed both Asia and Europe.  The military government of Japan invaded China in 1937, a snake trying to swallow an elephant.  On September 1, 1939, a half-mad, anti-Semitic dictator of a resurgent Germany ordered a Blitzkrieg, a lighting war, on Poland.  In the name of reclaiming lands lost by the 1919 Versailles Treaty, Adolph Hitler, (pictured) who came to power in 1933, vigorously pursued his dream of a Greater Germany that would dominate Europe.

In the autumn for 1939, for the second time in a generation, much of the world was at war.  What would the United States do?  Would it once again come to the rescue of the European democracies?  Would the country remain neutral while Japan extended its conquest of China? 

And how would it impact the Holliman family of Irondale, Alabama?

Next a County Divided....

Have questions about Holliman family history and associated families? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you.

 Announcing also a "Seminar and Site" gathering October 18 and 19, 2013 in Fayette, Alabama for Hollimans and associated families whose ancestors are from that area. Space at the Rose House Inn is limited for the occasion due to a football weekend. For information, contact me at the above email. Hope to see some of you there. - GNH

How a World War changed an Alabama Family, Part 1

by Glenn N. Holliman

War on Two Fronts - World War II at Home and Abroad....

 Above the German Army 'goose steps' toward war under Adolph Hitler....

 

From 1939 until 1945,  violence, unprecedented destruction of life and property and mass movements of military, workers and refugees swept Europe, North Africa, the Pacific Islands and Asia. Scarcely an American, civilian or military, was not affected by the investment of the United States in armaments and the training and positioning of 13 million soldiers, sailors and airmen during World War II.   

Over 200,000 Americans died among the 50 million or so who perished across the battered planet.  Six thousand Alabamians lost their lives among the 250,000 who mobilized. 
 
In the United States, after a decade of the Depression, rearmament, a massive government stimulus plan if you will, led to full employment.  Positions went begging as millions of young men were conscripted into the military.   

The steel industry in Birmingham added 7,000 jobs in two years.  Childersburg, Alabama, population 500, was overwhelmed by 14,000 construction workers to build a DuPont plant.  Ship building in Mobile, Alabama increased the city's population from 79,000 to 125,000 between 1940 and 1943.  Workers, pulled from economically depressed Alabama farms, literally lived in tents to take advantage of well-paying jobs in the Gulf Coast port. 

For the first time in American history, large numbers of women worked outside of the home, filling positions once held exclusively by men.  With their own pay checks, women enjoyed increased independence and an enhanced ability to determine their own futures.

 

 Left, the iconic Rosie the Riveter of World War II fame, illustrated the importance of women in the work force.

Millions of men and women left home and relocated to work in war industries or to serve in the military. Geographical, gender, class and racial divides were crossed. Customs and mores altered under the pressures and stresses of world war and rapid change.  There were marriages under war time deadlines, and later John Doe letters and divorces.  American families were never the same.

The Ulyss Holliman family of Irondale, Alabama, with seven offspring born between 1908 and 1924, was not immune from these economic, social and military forces.  This family saw three sons and a son-in-law go to war and a daughter propelled into the work force which would lead to a career track in banking.  Three children would marry during the conflict.  After the war, two sons would use the G.I. Bill to further their educations and go on to expanded careers in government and business.

Below on the lawn ca 1938 at 2300 3rd Avenue North, Irondale, between the Ulyss and Pearl  Holliman house and the Robert and Vena Holliman Daly house (background), pose numerous members of the family not knowing they would soon be swept into a World War.

Left to right are Ida and Melton Holliman, young Ralph Holliman, his older sister Virginia, Ulyss and his wife Pearl Caine Holliman with her hands on Mary Daly (Herrin).  Robert and Vena Holliman Daly are on the far right, the parents of Mary, the first grandchild of Ulyss and Pearl.  Both Melton and Ralph would serve in France with the U.S. Army.  Virginia would marry in early 1942, work at Robert's bank and discover she enjoyed a business career outside of the home.

Pearl, age 51 in this photo, would age dramatically during the war, consumed by worry for her children and their sacrifices.

Because this large family saved many of the letters they wrote each other during the conflict, one is able to relive these fateful years and explore the tensions and worries of a family and nation in transition. 

Below a 1944 airmail letter from the oldest Holliman son, Melton, age 36, from his Army deployment station in New York, just before shipping overseas to England.

 

 

 

Below, an envelope from Bishop Holliman, age 23, to his sister, Loudelle Holliman Ferrell, age 29, who saved his letters from the War.

The articles which follow are based on these letters, family interviews and my father, Bishop Holliman's memoirs.   I have divided these years into 'The War Front' and "The Home Front', allowing a look into the events, home and broad, that so affected the lives of this extended family

I am grateful to the Ferrell, Daly, Herrin, Cornelius, Hairston and several Holliman families for preserving and sharing these irreplaceable resources on the war.

These articles are written with several audiences in mind:

 - One, for the descendants of this family.

- Two, to provide some wartime history of Irondale, Alabama and other families mentioned in the letters. 

- Three, to add to the record the story of the World War II generation that saw their world upended and their lives forever changed.

My WWII sources, other than a life time of reading and an M.A. in history, are:

Alabama, The History of a Deep South State by William W. Rogers, Robert D. Ward, Leah Rawls Atkins, and Wayne Flynt (1994)

The Dark Valley, A Panorama of the 1930's by Piers Brendon (2000)
A History of the Second World War by B.H. Liddell Hart (1971)
The Great Crusade by H. P. Willmott (1989)
World War II by C.L. Sulzberger (1969)
A World at Arms, A Global History of World War II by Gerhard L. Weinberg (1994)
Total War by Peter Calvocoressi and Guy Wint (1972)
Blood, Tears and folly, An Objective Look at World War II by Len Deighton (1993)
Eagle Against the Sun, The American War with Japan by Ronald H. Spector (1985)
The Pacific War by John Costello (1981)

 Next the Storm Gathers....

Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Write us please about your items. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you.
 
Announcing also a "Seminar and Site" gathering October 18 and 19, 2013 in Fayette, Alabama for Hollimans and associated families whose ancestors are from that area. Space at the Rose House Inn is limited for the occasion due to a football weekend. For information, contact me at the above email. Hope to see some of you there. - GNH

Return to Irondale 2013, Part 4

by Glenn N. Holliman


An Oral History of Irondale, Alabama....

Left, Bishop Holliman, born in the Birmingham suburb of Irondale, Alabama in 1919, returned in late January 2013 for a talk with the Irondale Historical Society.  While there he sat for a two hour oral history interview with Dolores Hydock, a professional story teller, who lives only a block from where Bishop grew up 90 years earlier.

Dolores has made an audio CD of the interview which can be ordered at www.storypower.org.  Her web site and talents are fascinating.  If one is interested in Alabama culture, her work and other CDs are available at her site.

Below, Dolores and Denise Tew Wight, president of the Irondale Historical Society interview Bishop at the society' museum in Irondale.  Information on the Society can be found at www.irondalehistory.org.

Below, Bishop gives a hug to Delores,  a professional actress and Yale University graduate, after the session at the Irondale Historical Society. Denise Tew Wright, director of the Society, who kindly arranged the interview and talk, is on the far right. Denise is the driving force behind the preservation of the local history of the town.

Below, Bishop and Denise stand outside of the Historical Society building.  In the background, a modern building has replaced the old grocery store where Bishop worked as a clerk in the late 1930s. 

Below, the trains which traversed the town in Bishop's childhood, still move through the center of Irondale, a major switching yard for several railroad lines. This is the view from the Historical Society's back yard looking north.

My Father, who now lives in Indiana, is grateful for the opportunity to visit his childhood home and is appreciative that so many nieces and nephews took the time to attend his talk with James Pugh in Irondale in January 2013.  GNH

Have questions about Holliman family history and associated families? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you.

Announcing also a "Seminar and Site" gathering October 18 and 19, 2013 in Fayette, Alabama for Hollimans and associated families whose ancestors are from that area. Space at the Rose House Inn is limited for the occasion due to a football weekend. For information, contact me at the above email. Hope to see some of you there. - GNH

Return to Irondale 2013, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

Photographs of Family and Friends....

The January 2013 session of the Irondale Historical Society turned into a mini-family reunion for the Holliman family.  Below left to right both rows are: Glenn N. Holliman, Tommie Holliman Allen, Walley Allen, Jean Holliman, E.C. Herrin, Clayton Herrin, Elliot Herrin, Glenda Youngblood Norris (grand daughter of Cecil Rhodes Holliman), Mary Daly Herrin, Nancy and Charles Ferrell, Bishop Holliman, David Herrin and Brian Allen.

Below Bishop Holliman hugs Jean Bunt Trammel of Irondale, Alabama.  The Trammel's were neighbors of Bishop's when growing up in the 1930s on 3rd Avenue North.

Below, Walley and Tommie Holliman Allen, their son Brian and Jean Holliman.  Tommie and Jean are the daughters of Euhal and Edna Westbrook Holliman who raised their family at 2300 3rd Avenue North, Irondale from 1956 to Edna's passing in 1992.

Below -  "Her name is Daly Katherine Herrin. She was born December 28. 2012. We are calling her Daly." - reports the proud father, David Herrin standing in the blue shirt.  Holding the new grand daughter is Mary Daly Herrin.  Tommie and Walley Allen are in the back ground. 

Mary is the daughter of Robert W. and Vena Holliman Daly.  Mary grew up next door to the Holliman house at 2300 3rd Avenue North.  She and E.C. Herrin, a semi-retired lawyer, married in 1951 and raised their family of four children - Clayton, Linda, David and Suzanne -  in Irondale.  David and Clayton continue to make their homes in Irondale.

Have questions about Holliman family history and associated families? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

Since early 2010, I have been publishing research and stories on the broad spectrum of Holliman (Holyman) family history at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . For stories on my more immediate family since the early 20th Century, I have been posting articles since early 2011 at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .

Let's save the past for the future! If you have photographs, letters, memorabilia or research you wish to share, please contact me directly at glennhistory@gmail.com. Several of us have an on-going program of scanning and preserving Holyman and related family records. Don't just let family's genealogical work or photographs languish unread and deteriorating in an attic. Write us please and tell us of your items. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to scan, upload to the web (with your permission) and return the materials to you. - GNH