Ida Rene Bryant

Ida Rene Bryant, my great grandmother, was born in 1868 to Eley and Margaret (Cobb) Bryant in Southhampton County, Va.  Her siblings were Charles, Mary, William, and Gattie Jane, and a twin sister, Ariadne.  I have traced the Bryant and Cobb families back to around 1700 in Southhampton and Isle of Wight Counties.

It appears that Ida was married to a man named Williams, and was widowed before marrying William Butler. (She had an earlier marriage to Llewellyn Eley at age nineteen, possibly annulled). Ida Rene and William Butler (a train engineer) lived in Lynchburg for a time.  They had a live-in servant named Susan Austin according to the 1900 census.  Ida had three sons with William Butler:  Earl, William, and Rawley.  [Earl was 3 years old when they married; William Jr. died at age 19]. The story goes that Ida actually met George Abbott when he was only ten. Her brother William T. Bryant was married to George's sister Bonnie. Anyway, George was only 21 when he married Ida Rene; she was 35.  She and George had three daughters, Miriam, Jacqueline, and Audrey.  They also had a son, George Wright Abbott, Jr. who died in infancy.

Ida, center, with George (mustache) and daughters Miriam, Jacqueline, and Audrey.

George and Ida

Ida Rene

Ida and grandchildren, including my father,
John Beverly Zaun (front).

Ida's twin, Addie, married Blucher Fletcher and settled in the Blackwater area of what is now Virginia Beach.  Blucher was 20 years older than Addie and fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.  They had a son, Blucher "Bluke", and a daughter, Ruth, who was mentally disabled.  On an interesting note, Addie's and Ida's descendants who live in Virginia Beach today have crossed paths and connected with each other in various ways through business, community, and church.  The family resemblances are uncanny, especially with the redheads.

Addie and Blucher

Addie

Ida died in 1933 at age 65.  George lived another 26 years.  Near the end of his life, George Abbott "Gramps" told his daughters that their mother was "quite a woman."

*postscript:  my newfound cousin, Matt, who I met through Ancestry, is a descendant of Ida from her marriage to William Butler.  This kind of connection is part of what makes Ancestry research so rewarding!