Amy and David McKinstry's Ancestors

Pictures of Tyra and Cora Mills

This is my favorite picture of my grandparents.   Yes, Grandpa loved cats.

May 1951.  This gives a good view of the front of their house.

This is Tyra Mills with his two little grandsons.   Left is Wayne McKinstry (me) and right is Duane Mills. Ain't we cute.

This is Tyra and Cora Mills' 50th anniversary celebration.   It was held at Robert and June McKinstry's house.   I (Wayne McKinstry) vaguely remember this occasion. The Rusians had just launched Sputnik and there was a lot of discussion about that.

Tyra and Cora were not always old.  (Which is the way it always seemed to me.)   I do have some pictures of them when they were young.
	Tyra in 1906, age 24
Cora Wilson Mills.   This photograph is undated.

George Marvin Mills

Marvin, Reba, June Ages 1, 8, and 3

June and Reba Mills

Wayne McKinstry (l) with Cousins Duane Mills, Brenda Byars, Phyllis. Front row Merritt Mills

Mills family, undated but it has to be in the early 1950's. From back left:  Clair Byars, Cora Mills, Mildred Mills Marvin's wife, Vernon Byars, Marvin Mills Front row:  Tyra Mills, Duane Mills, Phyllis, Francis Byars Vernon's wife. People should stand with their spouse, don't you think.

My Grandparents (From Wayne's Storyworth) My Grandparents were old at the time I was born. (These are my Mother’s Mom and Dad.) They lived about an hour and a half away from where we lived, East of Mt. Vernon, IL. We would often visit on Sunday afternoons. Their house did not have an indoor bathroom. The “running water” was a hand-powered pump at the kitchen sink, like the picture below. They did have electricity but the light bulbs were so dim that you had to look up to the ceiling to see if it was on. No, they weren't poor. They were extremely frugal. They had lived through the Depression, managing to keep their farm during a time when other farms were being foreclosed. That will make you very careful with your money! I remember playing in Grandpa’s barn when I was a kid. Sometimes cousins were there as well. At the back of the cow pasture was an old log cabin that they had lived in when they were first married. My Grandparents, living in a log cabin! They were almost pioneers, I suppose. They had a good-sized garden and a grapevine. The grapevine made a nice little place to hide on a warm summer day. My Mother’s brother and sister, Uncle Marvin and Aunt Reba lived nearby and I would usually see them when we visited. My cousin Duane was close in age to me and I played with him quite a bit. Grandpa died in 1965, when I was a freshman in high school. This was the first time I had a close relative pass away. Grandma passed away in 1974, when I was in grad school. I remember them fondly.