Merry Christmas - 2012

Hello to all my readers. Hard to believe that it's been 6 months since I last posted to my blog. I'm hoping that after the holidays, I can really get back to my research and to posting.

In the meantime, I'm wishing all my loyal readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

An Activist in My Family

In my last post, I mentioned that I had met a new cousin. Well through Cousin Cornell, I learned about one of my more noted Everett Cousins, Sarah Everett Small, who was very active in the Civil Rights Movement in Williamston, Martin County, North Carolina. Cousin Sarah was the granddaughter of my Great Grand Uncle Frank Everett.

Cousin Sarah's story interested me so much that I wondered if I could unearth any information beyond that told to me by Cousin Cornell. I came across this YouTube video on the Civil Rights Movement in Williamston. Cousin Sarah is talked about at about the 17:00 mark and is also mentioned later in the video.



As mentioned in the video and also conveyed to me by Cousin Cornell, Sarah and her family would eventually move to and settle in the Boston, MA area. Cousin Sarah would go on to operate a halfway house that now bears her name.

The Power of Blogging Comes Through Again

I know, one of my goals for this year was to start back posting more on both of my blogs. I've had good intentions but so far this year, as I try to get back on top of other things that I let fall by the wayside, my family search has been put on the back burner.

While I still haven't done much research this year, I am proud to announce that for the first time on the paternal side of my family I've actually connected with other living relatives. And I owe it all to this blog.

My newly discovered third cousin once removed (daddy's second cousin) is a descendant of Great Grand Uncle, Frank Everett, Great Granddad Peter Everett's older brother.

Cousin Cornell is Great Grand Uncle Frank's grandson. He contacted me via e-mail after coming across Uncle Franks Death Certificate on Conversations with My Ancestors. It took us a few weeks to actually talk to each other as Cornell was traveling and I had a some what hectic schedule.

After we were finally able to talk, I finally begin to wrap my mind around some of the things he had told me via e-mail. The first of those being that one of my grandmother's first cousins was still living. Giving the fact that if my grandmother were still living, she would be 119, I was like how can this be. But cousin Cornell reminded me of something that I had discovered during my own research, that Uncle Frank had two marriages and thus two sets of children, generations apart. Grandma's First Cousin Cleo, Cousin Cornell's aunt, was born approximately 30 years after grandma.

While I've not had a chance to talk to Cousin Cleo, who remembers my great grandfather, she has already helped me by confirming that the man standing to the left of the casket in this photo was indeed my great grandfather, her uncle.

I look forward to talking to my newly discovered cousin more and hope to get a chance to talk to cousin Cleo personally. And if the stars align correctly, I just may get a chance to meet some of these cousins in September.

So, to all of my fellow geneabloggers, keep doing what you do. You just never know when, where or how family is going to pop up as a result of your blogging.

Sentimental Sunday

This coming Wednesday will mark the one year anniversary of your going home, the day I said my final good byes. And while I carry on, things just haven' been quite the same. Not that I don't continue to cry but as the days that marked the anniversary of your death and going home services rapidly approached, I found myself shedding many a tear, again.

There's so much I miss - our arguments, our discussions, WSSU football games, going to church together, listening to the Sunday School lessons for the following week on "The Light 106.9" out of Black Mountain, and I especially miss the time you stayed with me before going into assisted living.

I also think about the things we never accomplished like visiting The Billy Graham Library. We'll we did actually go. It was just too close to closing to go on a tour of the place and some how we never went back.

I'm often saddened when I think that your legacy, your branch of the tree, ends with me. I once heard that our descendants are our true legacy, and as I age, I truly believe that is the case. And crazy as it seems, I find myself still explaining to you why the search for the ancestors is so important to me.

Like I told you last year as you were taking your final breaths, you'll always be with me and you are.

I love you daddy and miss you.

Wordless Wednesday

The above picture was taken last year after the going home service for my dad. The gentleman on the left is my 2nd cousin and the only one of my Grand Aunt Goldie's descendants that I've officially met. The gentleman on the right is my 1st cousin.

This picture was taken by my 1st cousin L. Hall and a copy was forwarded to me.

Funeral Program Friday - Mary E. Jones Williams

Foster mother just doesn't seem like the appropriate term for the woman who raised my paternal grandfather and who may actually be my grand aunt, yet in her funeral program, that's how my grandmother described her.

The funeral program for Mrs. Mary E. Jones Williams is a part of two scrapbooks inherited from M. E. Jones, aunt of the owner of this blog.

Reflecting on the Past and Forging Ahead

Three years ago, when I returned to my research, I always felt like the ancestors were working as hard as they could and drawing me in 50 zillion directions. I remember commenting on it at the time and thinking it was like they knew time was of the essence. To a certain degree it frightened me because I was always wondering what they knew that I didn't.

But being connected to the ancestors as I am, I now realize that they knew that dad's life was drawing to a close and while they realized that dad could not or perhaps would not impart much information, they also realized that he was also one of their last links and I had to stay at to get as much as I could before it was gone.

And so beginning in 2009, thanks to the digital age coupled with the "archaic" ways, I finally started unearthing a few more bits and pieces of my paternal heritage. And while daddy never fully understood why this was a driving force in my life, he was always commenting how I knew more about his family than he did. And of course, dad's biggest contribution to this effort was his DNA, that the ancestors will forever be alive as a result of.

This past year has been a tough one, but as I stated on Georgia Black Crackers, I am finally feeling like the petals of a flower feeling the warmth of the spring sun and little by little the petals are opening back up and leading me to rejoin this game called life.

So, in addition to the 2012 goals mentioned on Georgia Black Crackers, I also hope to accomplish / complete the goals I set for myself in 2011 for the paternal side of my family. They are as follows:

1. A research trip to Martin County with 2nd cousin C. Curtis as my trusty assistant.
2. Finish scanning the pictures in the album I inherited from Aunt Martha and distribute them to my cousins.
3. Finish transcribing the newspaper articles from another Album I inherited from Aunt Martha.
4. Blog more!!