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MetroCreativeToday, dozens of biscuit recipes are available with step-by-step instructions. However, none may match the taste from our childhood.

MetroCreativeToday, dozens of biscuit recipes are available with step-by-step instructions. However, none may match the taste from our childhood.

An 1892 article in the Clinch Valley (Va.) News indicated that my sixth great grandfather had 34 children and that he had lived to be 107 years old, outliving his three wives.

The third wife was just out of her teens, according to the same newspaper article, while he was 90 years young at the time of their marriage.

Because of his age, the newspaper article said, the county court clerk, who took care of the marriage license, offered to help him get back home. He had ridden his horse to the courthouse.

“No need,” he reportedly told the clerk, again according to the article, “I'm young yet; will live a long time.”

“Sure enough, he did,” the newspaper article pointed out.

I have a first cousin who aspires to be just like him and jokes that his blood must be strong in all of us because we can be traced back to him through two family lines.

You can figure with that many children, the number of descendants will be astronomical.

Also, in those days, houses were far between and the convenience of geography probably played a larger role in whom you might marry than we can imagine today.

Researching one's ancestry can be a very interesting, albeit time-consuming, hobby.

I've traced ancestors who were with Gen. George Washington at the surrender of British Gen. Charles Cornwallis in 1781, another at the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in 1865, others who were at Jamestown and Valley Forge. Among those ancestors were carpenters, farmers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, miners, moonshiners, those who held political office, and at least one who was involved in “rum running” via ship.

My family is distantly related to Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, on my dad's side and Mother Maybelle Carter and the Carter Family on my mom's side.

Both my grandfathers made moonshine, but I have no knowledge of them ever selling it (for the benefit of any revenuers reading this). Both were farmers, who raised large families and worked in the coal mines from time to time.

By all accounts a teetotaler, my grandmother reportedly made the best peach brandy in southwest Virginia. As I've said many times, she was also a gifted cook.

I have memories of Carter family members stopping by Mammaw and Pappaw's house to eat. Gathered on the front porch after dinner, they always played a few songs before leaving. I was too young at the time to know they were anyone other than “our cousins who had come to visit.”

I was not too young, however, to be completely entertained by their musical talents and fascinated by the autoharp. My grandfather would often hambone (make music by slapping parts of his body with his hands) or play the spoons with them.

If I had known then what I know now ... I would have paid much more attention to the stories they shared.

At any rate, anyone who stopped by Mammaw and Pappaw's house knew there would be plenty to eat and that it would be delicious.

Mammaw made biscuits from scratch for every meal – three times a day, every day.

She would pull her dented aluminum pan from the flour bin in her scuffed white cabinet with red trim, make a well in the middle of the flour, then add a fist full of lard, add a pinch of “sodie” (baking soda), a sprinkle of salt, and some buttermilk.

I would watch as her knotted, arthritic hands systematically mixed, squeezed, and kneaded those few ingredients there in the aluminum pan until a mound of dough was formed in the middle of that flour well.

One-by-one, she would then pinch off a small ball of dough, mold it into a flattened, rounded biscuit until the pan was filled.

The pan was then set aside as the rest of the meal was prepared. She baked the biscuits in a very hot oven, probably 450 degrees.

For many years, she baked them in a wood-burning oven without benefit of any temperature controls. Even when she reluctantly switched to an electric stove, no timer was ever set.

The biscuits were pulled from the oven when they were golden brown. She never measured anything, but those biscuits were absolute perfection every time.

Today, there are dozens of biscuit recipes available with step-by-step instructions. Some use butter (blended into the flour with a pastry blender instead of one's hands) or low-fat oil instead of lard. Some use whole milk as opposed to buttermilk.

I've even tried a couple of those recipes. I've also used biscuit mix to make biscuits. I've used frozen and canned biscuits. Some of them were pretty good. Nothing, however, has ever tasted as good to me as Mammaw's biscuits, mixed by her hands in that old aluminum pan.

As it turns out, that 1892 newspaper article was incorrect on every detail. Written 10 years after my sixth great grandfather's death, the article was all based on some exaggerated tales shared by a few townsfolk in a public place. The conversation was apparently overheard by or shared with somebody who worked at the newspaper.

My sixth great grandfather had only 16 children (yes, I know, but that's far fewer than the 34 credited to him in the article). With his first wife, he had 12 children; with the second, only four. He did survive both wives.

By the time they married, his third wife had also been widowed twice. She was not just out of her teens, but 38 years old at the time of their marriage. He was 92. A Bristol News headline summed it up pretty well: “Never Too Late – Marriage Extraordinary.”

Family stories indicate he often fondly shared how their marriage came to be. He told her he'd had a dream of taking a trip to a distant location and she replied that she would go with him. Thus, they were married. There was no mention of any trip.

Family histories also indicate she treated him well until he died at the age of 104 – not 107. Though she lived to be 96, she never married again and the two did not have any children.

However, my sixth great grandfather had many, many descendants through his 16 children. At the time of his 100th birthday celebration, he had 107 grandchildren, 443 great grandchildren, and 17 great great grandchildren. At the time of his death, estimates put the total at almost 700 descendants.

For those interested, there are many free genealogy websites where ancestors can be traced. Start with your grandparents and work back from there. I warn you, it can become addictive.

Who knows, you could also be one of the thousands of descendants of my sixth great grandfather.

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