Stories are to be told, not written. But by the time the Fifth Generation in West Tennessee grew to middle age the ``old Story Tellers'' were fading away. Mack Rob, Johnny Sauls, Ulrich Armstrong Watlington, Halbert Watlington, Wm. F. Watlington, Emma Mai Hammond, Mable Stephens and others made these stories live for us. Of course each generation creates some good tales of their own to add to the family heritage. The passing of time, the removal to other places and the scattering of the tribe makes writing necessary. Computer science and desktop publishing make writing and circulation more common also. Even the availability of paper--something that was not available until the 1880's in West Tennessee--helps.
We have not attempted detailed genealogy, biography or history, but we do want to re-tell some of our stories and thus enable another generation to retell the story to others. We have been saddened by the lack of written sources on the Watlingtons in Virginia, East Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Tennessee. We were even pleased to discover that George W. Watlington was fined for running a ``tippling house without a license'' in Knox Co.--good proof that he was there and was a lively one. Most of them were literate, but were neither affluent nor literary. The tragedy of the Civil War years and following were stories often repeated by the Fourth Generation but so far as we know, none of our kin of that epoch wrote down their stories. We wanted to conserve not only bits of their story, but write some of our experiences of the Great Depression and Social Revolution of the 1930's and 40's and of our participation in the World War II, 1939-45, and the Korean Conflict in 1950-51.
The genealogy of our families is faithfully presented though limited. We do hope that what we have done to include the Allied families through marriages will be instructive and encourage all to ``look to the rock from which you are hewn.'' We are a part of that which has been, is, and that which will be. A life without reflection and meditation on what has been will not likely find guidance for what is to be.
Beyond our Fifth Generation of our Watlington-Tabler lineage we
want others to pick up on their story. We believe it will be an even
better story than ours has been. The collection of data continues and
more detailed genealogical charts and family pages are available from
the author
.
We will attempt to make our genealogical materials available in local
Genealogical Societies and County Libraries. Let's keep in touch.