Wordless Wednesday

Frank Everett

Abt 1860 - 20 Sep 1938

This is one of the many Frank Everetts among the ancestors on the paternal side of my family. This particular Frank is my Great Grand Uncle and was my Great Grandfather, Peter T. Everett's, older brother.

The picture was obtained from cousin Cornell Slade, my 2nd cousin 1X removed, who is the grandson of Frank. Cornell had emailed me this picture several years ago but it got buried down in my emails. I didn't discover it until recently when I was trying to clean out some of my emails.

#A - Z Challenge 2017 - I

Thanks to my friend Renate, Into the Light, I'm trying to participate in the 2017 A-Z Challenge, which can be found at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/.

The Letter I is for Iola Everett Jones, my paternal grandmother. This post was originally posted in 2010 as part of the 2nd edition of the Carnival of African American Genealogy - Grandma's Hand.

Grandmomma Jones

Iola Luvenia Everett Jones

Late 1960s

From the personal collection of the owner of this blog

This is my second post for the second edition of the Carnival of African-American Genealogy. As mentioned in my post about my maternal grandmother, this carnival has been a tough one for me. As previously noted, it’s not that I never knew my grandmothers but that I really didn’t get an opportunity to know them.

I was a bit older, 8 to be exact, when my paternal grandmother died. While I had her a bit longer, as fate would have it, father time had mentally taken her away from me a few years before. Even so, while no single moment sticks out for me the way the last visit with my maternal grandmother does, I know that my paternal grandmother and I had our special moments.

For the first few years of my life, Grandmomma Jones stayed in Winston-Salem, NC, where she and granddaddy settled after leaving their home county in the eastern part of the state. While I always seemed to get sick off the fumes that seeped through the floor of daddy’s old Ford, I always enjoyed and looked forward to the trips to my grandmother’s house. However, I must admit that the house itself always seem to terrify me. I always had a problem with basements, so the cellar of the Big House was especially terrifying.

From what I know about my grandmother, she was a resourceful and strong woman who like Jesus fed the masses with very little. Unlike my maternal grandparents who farmed, my paternal grandparents were more city folks. However, that doesn’t mean they struggled any less. In fact, it seems like they may have struggled more. Grandmomma’s small garden provided just enough for her to feed her family. Grandmomma Jones could make practically anything from greens and squash and that’s how she and her family survived.

Grandmomma Jones endured the death of her first born who drowned while away at grad school and her youngest who only lived a few short months. She also survived having cancer in not one but both breast, which was totally unheard of at that time, the survival that is.

Grandmom was definitely proud to be a grandmother and was proud of her grandkids. My mother tells the story of one summer, when most of Grandmomma Jones’ grandkids had descended on her. My cousin Valerie and I were still babies and I think my cousin Lafrieda was there and maybe even cousins Jay and Claudius. We were all outside, and grandmom was holding me. One of her neighbors came by asking where all these babies came from and Grandmom proudly proclaimed these are my grandbabies.

Eventually Grandmomma Jones’ health started to fail. Around this time, her daughter, Aunt Martha, who lived in my hometown, decided to build a house and have grandmom move in with her. So, the last years of her life were spent in my hometown. Given the fact Aunt Martha’s house was < 2 miles from our house, for awhile I had the double pleasure of having both of my grandmother’s near. Even though at this point in time there was little interaction due to her health, I still enjoyed spending time with grandmom and always went bounding into Aunt Martha’s house with a hey grandma and plopping down beside her for a awhile.

Grandmomma Jones departed this world on April 5, 1969. It occurred over Easter break while Cousin Valerie and Aunt Emmanuline were visiting. Grandmom stumbled, lost her balance, and struck her head. Eerily, Aunt Martha’s death, which occurred almost exactly 31 years later, happened in the same manner.

As with my maternal grandmother, I wish we had had more time but I will always be grateful for the time that we did have together. I still feel the pride that she exuded in having me / us as her grandkids and would like to think that if she were here that she would be proud of the work that I’ve done on her ancestral line.

Walking Among the Ancestors - My 2014 Research Trip

Yes, it's almost been a year since I took the long overdue trip to the ancestral home county and with this post, I'm finally talking about it to someone else besides my family.

You would think that as long as I've been researching and as long as I've lived in North Carolina (most of my life) that I would have made a trip to the ancestral home county eons ago. But through the years I've learned that the ancestors call you back to the research and where you need to be on their time frame, not necessarily yours. And I'm glad I was finally able to heed the call to head to Eastern North Carolina.

In reflecting back on my trip, it was probably best that I waited all these years, because while I didn't really learn a lot of new details on the paternal side of my family, I probably wouldn't have gotten to visit the ancestral cemetery, see land that my great grandfather owned and that still remains in the hands of my Grand Aunt Goldie's descendants. I owe those discoveries to my second cousin Clifford Curtis, Grand Aunt Goldie Everett Johnson Hyman Benton's grandson, who accompanied me on this trip. In turn, I was able to enlighten him about some of our ancestors.

So, let's begin. After work, on Thursday, Sept. 11th, I made the trek to my cousin's house in Raleigh. We would get up early the next morning to begin our journey to Martin County, NC.

We first ventured to the county seat, Williamston, where we went by the courthouse and the Martin County Library.

I didn't find any new information at either place. Most of the records that I was looking for had been sent to the state archives and there were no copies on site. I spent the majority of my time trying to educate cousin Clifford about our heritage and also trying to obtaining clearer copies of documents I had downloaded online.

After leaving Williamston, we stopped in Everetts, the ancestral town.

For me, this was the highlight of the entire trip.

First cousin Clifford took me by the family property, which was owned by our great grandfather and which Cousin Clifford's line of the family still owns.

Clifford said that our old family home was just on the other side of those trees to the left in the second picture. None of the direct descendants of my great grandfather, Peter T. Everett, have lived here in over 40 years, so Clifford and his brothers rent the land out. It is currently planted in soybeans.

It was kind of surreal standing in that grove between the fields of soybeans and feeling the presence of the ancestors all around me.

Clifford then took me a little further down Goldie Road, named after his Grandmother, where we decided to get out and do an up close and personal inspection of the cotton. Note: this land is not our family's land.

After we finished our off road adventure viewing the family land, we stopped by this little cemetery, where Clifford said is grandmother, grandfather, and uncle were buried. Little did I know I was about to discover the final resting place of a few other ancestors, too.

Sadly, I still have no clue as to the name of this cemetery. I thought it was named Everetts but when ever I made a request on Find-a-Grave for photos, I was always told that there wasn't a marker and yet, I found all but one of the requests I've made through the years.

First there is Grand Aunt Goldie, my grandmother's big sister, and Cousin Clifford's grandmother.

Cousin Clifford's grandfather and Aunt Goldie's first husband, Rev J. Henry Johnson.

Right next to Rev. Johnson, was my Great Grandmother. The discovery of my Great Grandmother's grave brought me great joy as I didn't even have a clue where she might be interred as that part of her death certificate wasn't completed. The other weird thing about Grandmomma Edith's death certificate is that the state has a copy of it (I got my copy through Ancestry) but the county doesn't have a copy of it.

And right beside Great Grandmother was Great Granddad's second wife Della, who died 7 years after Great Grandmother. I imagine that had to be hard on Great Granddad, losing not one but 2 wives in less than 10 years, all while raising your grandchildren and working your own business. Great Granddad was a merchant (he owned a store) at this point in his life.

Other relatives buried in this cemetery were Cousin James Henry "Buddy" Johnson, who was cousin Clifford's uncle.

Rev. William Alonzo Everett, Clifford's and my 1st cousin 2x removed.

But there was one grave missing that would have made this journey complete, that of my Great Grandfather. Cousin Clifford and I scoured every inch of that cemetery looking for him and we had these stickies all over our clothes to prove it.

But Peter T. Everett is either not interred in this cemetery or if he is there he doesn't have a stone. There is one other possibility, too, the grave might be damaged.

There was this grave, beside Aunt Goldie's that for some reason my gut tells me it's my great grandfathers but it's cracked and caving in and there's very little left of the inscription on it to be able to make out anything.

All in all though, it was a wonderful trip, and I thank Cousin Clifford for going along with me and being my guide.

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All of the pictures in this post are a part of the personal collection of the owner of this blog.

Wordless Wednesday

Wow, it's almost been a year since I went to the ancestral home county (Martin County, NC) and I've still not posted about my research trip. So, today begins the discussion of the trip.

Goldie Road is named aver my Grand Aunt, Goldie Everett Johnson Hyman Benton. The small NC Town in which Goldie Rd is located is Everetts, NC. The name Everett is also my paternal grandmother's maiden name.

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This picture is part of the personal collection of the owner of this blog.

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.

The Everett 1870 Brick Wall - Part III - 1870 Census (X2) vs. 1880 census

Previous post in this series are Everett Brick Wall Part I and Everett Brick Wall Part II. 

The next step in the journey of finding and confirming my Everett ancestors was to find documentation / evidence prior to the 1880 census to indicate that the Frank Hargit and Peter Hargit enumerated in the household of John and Vicy Ann Hargit in 1880 were actually Great Grand Uncle Frank Everett and Great Grandpa Peter Everett.

So, I turned to the 1870 census. For whatever reason, I initially was unable to find my ancestors listed on the 1870 census via Ancestry.com, so I turned to FamilySearch.org. Of late, I’ve obtained many more leads and information using Family Search than I have from Ancestry and depending on the information I’m seeking I prefer it to Ancestry. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Family Search is free.

Okay, back to my findings. The 1870 census as listed on Family Search provides the following enumeration:

Everette, Frank, living in Williamston Township, Martin, NC, Age 72, Male, Black, Farm Hand (Dwelling 530, Family 545)

·        Venus, Age 70, Female, Black, Keeping House

·        Frank Jr., Age 23, Male, Black, Farm Hand

·        Mariah, Age 20, Female, Black, Keeps House

·        Nicy A, Age 25, Female, Black, Farm Hand

·        Frank, Age 12, Male, Black, Farm Hand

·        Peter, Age 4, Male, Black

·        Lurenee, Age 2, Female, Black

·        Wiley, Age 1, Male, Black

Frank Jr. and everyone that follows him are listed as Family 546. This enumeration was performed on 1 Sept. 1870.

Comparing Nicy Ann, Frank, and Peter Everette to Vicy Ann, Frank, and Peter Hargit / Hargett in the 1880 household of John Hargit / Hargett (refer to previous post) provides strong circumstantial evidence that these are the same persons.

The discovery of my great grandfather, 2^nd great grandmother and great grand uncle on the 1870 census lead to what appears to be the peeling back of another layer of my family. Based on the ages of the household members, 3 generations of Frank Everetts, etc., it appears that Frank and Venus Everett(e) are my 3^rd great grandparents and Frank Everett, Jr. is more than likely their son and Grandma Vicy Ann’s brother.

I would later find Frank Everett, Jr. death certificate on Ancestry, which indicates his parents as Frank and Venus Everett. I’m still hoping for similar evidence for grandma Vicy Ann.

I’m sure you are wondering about the X2 for the 1870 census. Well after finding that initial grouping on Family Search, I eventually found a second 1870 census listing for my Everett ancestors.

The second listing is actually the first as far as chronological order. It was done on 26 Aug, 1870.  This enumeration is as follows

Everette, Frank Jr. living in Williamston Township, Martin, NC, Age 22, Male, Black, Farm Hand (Dwelling 350, Family 364)

·        Mariah, Age 19, Female, Black, Keeps House

·        Wiley, Age 1, Male, Black

·        Frank, Sr., Age 77, Male, Black, Farm Hand

·        Venus, Age 53, Female, Black, Farm Hand

·        Vessy, Age 28, Female, Black, Farm Hand

·        Frank, Age 10, Male, Black, At House

·        Peter, Age 4, Male, Black

·        Lorena, Age 2, Female, Black

Frank, Sr. and everyone that follows him are listed as Family 365.

The first thing I noticed between the two enumerations was the order of names was different and Venus’ age was drastically different, but otherwise, clearly this was the same 1870 family. My family was enumerated not once but twice.

By the way, back in the early 1990’s, during the early days of my research, I had written down the enumeration in which Frank Everette Jr. is listed first. I did something similar with the research on my maternal side but unlike my maternal side, I didn’t know much if anything about any of the collateral relatives on my paternal side. Therefore, there was no gut feeling when I recorded this family way back when but I think deep down, I must have known this had to be them.

Following my Everett / Hargett ancestors has been fun and exciting in getting back to the proverbial 1870 brick wall. I’ve discovered quite a few collateral line along the way, which I hope to pursue further but the time has come to stop procrastinating and attack that 1870 wall with al I’ve got and knock out a few brick or at least chip a few of them. I’m sure the journey from here on will be both exciting and frustrating. 

The Everett 1870 Brick Wall - Part II - Death Certificates and Census Records

This is the second in my ongoing series to explain how I got back to the 1870 Brick Wall on my Everett line, my paternal grandmother's, Iola Everett Jones, paternal line.

1880 Census


In my last post, I concluded with my great grandparents' marriage license / certificate, which indicated that my great grandfather's mother was Vicy Ann Hargett. Therefore, I decided to check the 1880 census for Martin County, NC and came across the following enumeration:

John Hargit living in Cross Roads Township, Martin, NC, Black, Male, Age 50, Farm Laborer

• Vicy, Black, Female, Age 30, Wife, Keeping House
• Frank, Black, Male, Age 20, Son, Farm Laborer
• Peter, Black, Male, Age 14, Son, Farm Laborer
• William, Black, Male, Age 8, Son
• Loronna, Black, Female, Age 6, Daughter
• Joel, Black, Male, Age 3, Son
• Harrett E, Black, Female, Age 1, Daughter

I felt I was on the right path when i came across this enumeration. However, I would need further evidence to prove that the Peter enumerated in the Harget household was my great-grandfather. As you will soon see this enumeration totally debunks the theory that you can always assume that the children are the husbands, although not necessarily the wives, unless otherwise indicated.

Great Grand Uncle Frank Everett's Death Certificate

Back in September of 2010, trying to find something to post for Tombstone Tuesday led me to discovering Great Grand Uncle Frank Everett's Death Certificate, which I came across by doing searches on grandma Vicy Ann Hargett. On Frank Everett's Death Certificate, Vicy Ann Hargett, is listed as the his mother.

Back to the 1880 Census

After finding Uncle Frank Everett's death certificate, I went back to the 1880 census. The Frank Hargit enumerated in the 1880 census in the household of John Hargit is the appropriate age to be Uncle Frank. I had initially assumed that Frank was John Hargit's child, Peter was my great grandfather, and the rest of the children were grandma Vicy Ann's and John Hargit's children together. But all indications are now pointing toward both Frank and Peter being Grandma Vicy Ann's children but not John Hargit's children, but I need further evidence to support my theory.

To Be Continued

The Everett 1870 Brick Wall - Part I

In 2010, one of my goals was to bring down the 1870 Brick Wall for my Ewell Ancestors, my paternal grandmother's maternal line. Try as I might, none of the paths I ventured down trying to find the last slave owner of my Ewell Ancestors panned out. So, this year, I've decided to change gears and explore my grandmother's paternal side. Hopefully, I will be more successful following my Everett line.

Before I actually delve into looking for that elusive last slave owner, I should talk about how I arrived at the 1870 impasse of my Everett ancestors. Over the past two years, I've divulged bits and pieces of the journey in researching my Everett Ancestors but don't think I've painted the complete picture. I will break the journey back to 1870 into several post so as not to be too long. Please note that some of this may be reiterations of previous posts.

Great Grandpa Peter Everett

Peter T. "PT" Everett is my great grandfather, Grandmomma Jones' father. I've previously written about Grandpa Peter's death certificate, which listed his parents as Henry Everett and Vica Ann Everett and stated that Grandpa Peter was born in Pitt County, NC.

John Ewell was the informant and is probably one of my grandmother's relatives on her mother's side. I've yet to purse the connection John Ewell may have to my grandmother but hope to one day determine what if any connection there is as I continue to try to track down other descendants.

The death certificate find steered me in the wrong direction initially as I looked in Pitt County, North Carolina for my great grandfather as well as my 2nd great grandparents and was not coming across any documentation to indicate that they were there. That being said, research in Pitt County may still prove to be beneficial since it neighbors Martin County, North Carolina, which is the ancestral home county.

Starting to Put the Pieces Together

In 2010, I requested and received a copy of my great grandparents' marriage license, which I thought I had requested in my early research days.

Their marriage certificate would prove to be launching pad for me finally following my Everett line back to 1870.

While the given names of Grandpa Peter's parents on his death certificate were correct, my great grandparent's marriage license indicate that my 2nd great grandfather's name was Henry Cherry and that my 2nd great grandmother's name was Vicy Ann Hargett and she was still living when my great grandparents married in 1887.

As noted in my previous post on the Hargett surname, this find confirmed the Hargett surname within our family that Aunt Martha had told me about. So, finally, documentation to support the oral history of my family. Further research would prove that the Hargett surname was not my great grandmother's maiden name.

To be continued

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The copy of Peter T. Everett's death certificate was obtained via Ancestry.com. The copy of the marriage certificate for my great grandparents was obtained from the Martin County, North Carolina Register of Deeds.

Surname Saturday - Everett

One of the joys that I experienced during 2010 on my paternal line was finally being able to confirm a 2nd great grandmother on my Everett line. In the process, I also unearthed, by all indications to date, my 3rd great grandparents.


Putting more of the pieces together on my Everett line began when I obtained a copy of my great grandparents’ marriage certificate. Without it, coming across my great grand uncle’s death certificate, and rereading a letter that my aunt had sent me years ago, I would have never arrived at a family I wrote down some 20 years was indeed my ancestors.

I still need to do a series on how I put the pieces together but for this Surname Saturday, I will just introduce more of my Everett line.

My Everett Lineage is as follows:

1. Me

2. Dad

3. Iola Luvenia Everett Jones, born abt May 1895 in the Crossroads section of Everetts, Martin County, NC; died 5 Apr 1969 in Shelby, Cleveland County, NC. Internment Evergreen Cemetery, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, NC

4. Peter T. Everett, born abt. 1863 in Martin County, NC, most likely the Cross Roads area; died 27 Jan 1931 in Cross Roads, Martin, NC; possibly interred in Everetts Cemetery, Everetts, Martin, NC

5. Vicy Ann Everett, born abt. 1845 in North Carolina. Internment and date of death are unknown. The additional information leads me to belive that my 2nd great grandmother's first name is Vicy and not Vica has previously posted. Grandma Vicy Ann married John Hargett between 1870 and 1880 and had more children.

6. Frank Everett, born abt. 1798 in North Carolina. Date of Death – unknown. Internment – unknown.

Venus Everett, born abt. 1800 in North Carolina. Date of Death – unknown. Internment – unknown

Tombstone Tuesday - One Thing Leads to Another

In an effort to catch up on some of my goals for the month of September, I once again found myself going back and forth between Ancestry and FindAGrave in hopes of finding  a tombstone of one of my paternal Ancestors or Relatives to post for Tombstone Tuesday. (Yes, I was working toward achieving my blogging goals for the month.)

Instead, what I found was tons better, a Great Grand Uncle's, Frank Everett, death certificate, Great Granddad Peter Everett's brother. While I had clues all around pointing to his existence, I hadn't put it all together before this morning. Of course, as usually is the case, I wasn't even looking for this this AM when I came across it. In fact, I wasn't even searching for Everetts this morning. I was looking for Hargetts, great granddad's mother, hoping that she had lived long enough to have a death certificate to record her death.

I don't know why I never came across my Great Grand Uncle's death certificate before now. I feel like I've searched the Everett surname plenty of times since discovering great great grandma Vica Ann. Either I never made the connection because I was so focused on other information or it simple didn't surface based on the search criteria I was using at the time. But I think the real reason is I came across this today is simply they, the Ancestors, finally figured it was time to reveal this to me. Today, when I did a search for death certificates, Uncle Frank's death certificate was the first to come up and silly me was still thinking why did that come up I was searching for Hargett. Thankfully, I didn't dismiss it.

Below is Great Grand Uncle Frank Everett's death certificate:

• The first thing I noticed is that on Uncle Frank's death certificate, the surname is spelled Everetts and not Everett. I'm not sure which way Uncle Frank spelled it but based on other information I had come across, I believe his line spelled the surname the same as our line, without the "S." Given that there is a town in Martin County, NC by the name of Everetts, it would be easy for the recorder of the information to mistakenly to add a "S."
• Uncle Frank died on 20 Sept. 1938 from lobar pneumonia.
• His occupation was farming.
• Uncle Frank's wife, Christina, was the informant for Uncle Franks death certificate.
• She provided that he was 75 at the time of death, which means he would have bee born about 1863. Most of the data that I've found on my great granddad indicates he was born abt 1863, also. So is Uncle Frank great granddad's older brother? Younger? Twin?
• Uncle Frank is interred in Williamston, NC. As a side note, what's with the bulk of my paternal ancestors' death certificates not listing an actual cemetery for their final resting place.
• But the most important piece of genealogical information provided on Uncle Frank's death certificate is that his wife gave his mother's name as Vicy Ann Hargett. Uncle Frank's wife did not know who his father was. My great grandparent's marriage license provides Great Great Grandmom's name as Vicy Ann Hargett. 

Finding Uncle Frank's death certificate led me to some other interesting finds including possible confirmation of a family from the 1870 census that I wrote down almost 20 years ago as possibly my family.

I hope to write about the rest of this early morning saga in the very near future but need to do a tad more legwork, but as of this moment, let me just say that I have possibly peeled back another layer of my Everett line as a result.

So, thank you Uncle Frank and the rest of my ancesters. I couldn't have done it without you.

Tombstone Tuesday - Everetts Cemetery

Everetts Cemetery

Everetts North Carolina

In this cemetery, in an unmarked grave, lies my 2nd cousin once removed (my daddy's first cousin), James Henry "Buddy" Johnson, Jr. (1911 - 1971). Cousin Buddy is my Grand Aunt Goldie Everett Johnson Hyman's son. Cousin Buddy never married and was a farmer.

I imagine that I probably met cousin Buddy when he came to my grandmother's funeral but I don't remember anything about him. I was 8 at the time and don't remember a lot about my grandmother's funeral other than it was a whirlwind of events. I remember there being two funerals, one in my hometown where grandmom spent her later years, and one in Winston-Salem, NC, where grandmom resided most of her adult life. I only know Cousin Buddy attended one of the two, maybe both, because my mother, who has a better rememberance of events on daddy's family than daddy does, remembers him being there.

Picture of Everetts Cemetery obtained via FindaGrave.

Grand Aunt Goldie Everett

Seems like life has taken over the past 1 ½ months, and I’ve not spent the time on my research that I would like to.

A couple of week ago I mentioned on Georgia Black Crackers that I had happenings on the paternal side of my research, also. However, I never got around to posting about what was happening on my paternal side.

First, let me provide the background information. My paternal grandmother had one sister, Aunt Goldie. After returning to my research efforts, I’ve often wondered what became of my Grand Aunt. I knew of her children and grandchildren but through the years, there’s not been much contact with them and whenever I asked dad about her I got the usual “I don’t know.”

Based on the 1920 and 1930 Federal Census records, I determined that Great Granddad, Peter Everett, ended up rearing his oldest daughter’s children, cousins Etherlyn “Hun” Johnson Curtis and James Henry “Buddy” Johnson, which probably explains why great granddad remarried after great grandmom died. With great granddad rearing his grandchildren and not being able to locate Aunt Goldie anywhere after the 1910 census, I just assumed that she and her husband J. Henry Johnson had both died sometime between the 1910 and 1920. What other explanation could there be for Grandpa Everett ending up with his grandkids. However, that wasn’t enough for me as I longed to know more about my grandmother’s big sister.

What else? I also knew that Aunt Goldie’s youngest grandson, Cousin Clifford (my second cousin), was residing here in my home state. Of Aunt Goldie’s remaining descendants, Cousin Clifford is pretty much the only one we’ve had contact with, but after dad had to move into Assisted Living, we lost touch with him. So, my first step in trying to learn more about my Grand Aunt was to try to locate and get in touch with Cousin Clifford. Earlier this year, through Google, et al, I found an address and wrote but never heard anything. As weeks passed, I always meant to follow-up but never did and eventually let the whole matter drop.

Well, while I was on vacation last month, Cousin Clifford called. When I got in touch with him, he explained that he had received my letter but accidentally shredded it before he had a chance to call. He had to do a bit of detective work of his own to figure out how to get in touch with me. So, after we got caught up on how everyone was doing, we got down to discussing Aunt Goldie.

Cousin Clifford explained that since he was the youngest of his siblings, he didn’t remember a lot about his grandmother. He told me he was six when she died. He remembered that she had married several times and that she died around 1956. He also confirmed that his mother and uncle were reared by our great grandfather. Cousin Clifford also suggested that I talk to his brother who’s be working on the family research, also, but best of all, Cousin Clifford said whenever I venture to our ancestral home in Martin County, NC that he would like to go too.

Well, since reconnecting with Cousin Clifford, I’ve actually been able to find a few more bits and pieces of Aunt Goldie’s life as a young adult. Thanks to the Pilot Family Search I’ve located information on Aunt Goldie’s marriage to both her first husband, James Henry Johnson, Cousin Clifford’s granddad, and her second husband, James J. Hyman. I tell you it’s almost like Aunt Goldie was waiting for Cousin Clifford and I to reconnect before allowing me to find out about this snippet of her life. Could this be the start of uniting the two branches of descendants of my great grandparents? I’m hopeful.

You see, between my maternal side and paternal side, my paternal side is much smaller (26 grandkids vs. 6 grandkids) and scattered. Just in my grandmother’s branch of the tree, we, her descendants, are in California, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, and Cancun, Mexico. Growing up, I always wondered why there weren’t the tons of relatives, the big family reunions, etc. on my paternal side like on my maternal side.

There are also a lot of “old” genealogical lessons to be learned from all of this.

1. Be careful when making assumptions – things aren’t always what they appear (Aunt Goldie was very much alive during the time period I thought she was dead.)
2. Always follow up on any correspondence. If I had have done this, Cousin Clifford and I could have been in contact so much sooner.
3. Persistence pays off – Keep at it. Don’t be deterred! (Cousin Clifford was determined to reconnect even after I had dropped the ball.)

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

The Time Capsule

It's Saturday night and you know what that means, it's time for the next assignment from Randy Seavers, Genea-Musings.

Tonight's assignment:

1. 
   
   Go to the dMarie Time Capsule Website
2. 
   
   Select a date in your family history that you want to know about. You might pick a birth date or wedding date of your parents or grandparents.
3. 
   
   Enter the date into the search form, and select the news, songs, toys, books and other things that you want to feature.
4. 
   
   Share the date, why you picked it, and the results of your Time Capsule study on your own blog, in a comment to this post, or in a comment or post on Facebook.

I chose September 14, 1887, my paternal great grandparents (Peter T. Everett and Edith Ewell) marriage date.

The top News Headlines for this week were:

• 
  
  Sept. 5 - Gas lamp at Theater Royal in Exeter catches fire killing about 200
• 
  
  Sep 15 - Phila celebrates 100th anniversary of US Constitution
• 
  
  Sep 26 - Emile Berliner patents the Gramophone
• 
  
  Sep 28 - Gele River (Huang Ho) in China floods, kills about 1.5 million
• 
  
  Sep 30 - Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure "The Five Orange Pips" (BG)
• 
  
  Sep 30 - Volunteer (US) beats Thistle (Scotland) in 8th America's Cup

The President of the United States was Grover Cleveland. There was no Vice President, (Thomas Hendricks died November 25, 1885.)

People Born on that this date include:

• 
  
  1887 - Karl Taylor Compton physicist/atomic bomb scientist
• 1887 - Stanley "Midnight Assassin" Ketchel HW boxing champ (1908-10)

Hot new toys were Parcheesi, Snakes and Ladders, and Cap Guns.

A loaf of bread was $0.02, milk was $0.17 / gal, a house was $5,600, and average income was $580 / yr.

Some of the hits were:

• A Night on Bald Mountain
• Minuet in G
• Away in the Manger
• If You Love Me Darling...
• La Cinquantaine
• Comrades
• Slavonic Dances
• Pictures at an Exhibition

Surname Saturday

Hargett

My Aunt Martha indicated in a letter to me, dated 2 July 1991, that we had cousins with the surname Hargett and that the then owners of the Hargett funeral home in Greensboro, NC were our distant cousins. Well, this is one of those so-and –so is our cousin type things that I’m beginning to possibly validate.


Based on information that I have to date, my Hargett Ancestry is as follows:

1. Mavis Jones

2. Earl Jones

3. Iola Everett, born May 1893 in Cross Roads, Martin, NC; died 05 April 1969 in Shelby, Cleveland, NC; interred in Evergreen Cemetery, Winston-Salem, Forsyth, NC

4. Peter Everett, born abt. 1863 in Martin County, NC, most likely the Cross Roads area; died 27 Jan 1931 in Cross Roads, Martin, NC; possibly interred in Everetts Cemetery, Everetts, Martin, NC.

5. Vica Ann Hargett, born abt. 1850 in North Carolina, possibly Pitt County; date of death and interment unknown

While I’ve been at this awhile, for whatever reason, it wasn’t until this year, that I requested a copy of my great grandparents’, Peter Everett and Edith Ewell, marriage license. On the marriage license granddaddy Peter’s parents are listed as Vica Ann Hargett, living, and what appears to be Henry Cherry (name difficult to make out), deceased.

There is a great deal more work to be done of this line, and sometime in the future I will begin more research on it but from my quick assessment of census records, I believe that

1. My 2nd great grandmother Vica Ann was an Everett when granpa Peter was born.
2. She later married John Hargett and had several more children.

Once again, this shows that you have to continually look back and go through your notes for missed items or from a different perspective. I think the reasons I had never requested my great-grandparents marriage license is that 1) when I initially begin my research, I had wrongly assumed that it was so far back in time that there wouldn’t be a record of my great grandparents marriage or 2) even though I keep somewhat decent records of my correspondence to various places, I might have thought I had already requested and was told there wasn't a record. Either way, I’m glad I realized that I had never asked as the find puts me back one more generation and more or less confirms the information on great granddad’s death certificate.

Carnival of African-American Genealogy, 2nd edition - Grandma’s Hand

Grandmomma Jones

Iola Luvenia Everett Jones

Late 1960s

From the personal collection of the owner of this blog

This is my second post for the second edition of the Carnival of African-American Genealogy. As mentioned in my post about my maternal grandmother, this carnival has been a tough one for me. As previously noted, it’s not that I never knew my grandmothers but that I really didn’t get an opportunity to know them.

I was a bit older, 8 to be exact, when my paternal grandmother died. While I had her a bit longer, as fate would have it, father time had mentally taken her away from me a few years before. Even so, while no single moment sticks out for me the way the last visit with my maternal grandmother does, I know that my paternal grandmother and I had our special moments.

For the first few years of my life, Grandmomma Jones stayed in Winston-Salem, NC, where she and granddaddy settled after leaving their home county in the eastern part of the state. While I always seemed to get sick off the fumes that seeped through the floor of daddy’s old Ford, I always enjoyed and looked forward to the trips to my grandmother’s house. However, I must admit that the house itself always seem to terrify me. I always had a problem with basements, so the cellar of the Big House was especially terrifying.

From what I know about my grandmother, she was a resourceful and strong woman who like Jesus fed the masses with very little. Unlike my maternal grandparents who farmed, my paternal grandparents were more city folks. However, that doesn’t mean they struggled any less. In fact, it seems like they may have struggled more. Grandmomma’s small garden provided just enough for her to feed her family. Grandmomma Jones could make practically anything from greens and squash and that’s how she and her family survived.

Grandmomma Jones endured the death of her first born who drowned while away at grad school and her youngest who only lived a few short months. She also survived having cancer in not one but both breast, which was totally unheard of at that time, the survival that is.

Grandmom was definitely proud to be a grandmother and was proud of her grandkids. My mother tells the story of one summer, when most of Grandmomma Jones’ grandkids had descended on her. My cousin Valerie and I were still babies and I think my cousin Lafrieda was there and maybe even cousins Jay and Claudius. We were all outside, and grandmom was holding me. One of her neighbors came by asking where all these babies came from and Grandmom proudly proclaimed these are my grandbabies.

Eventually Grandmomma Jones’ health started to fail. Around this time, her daughter, Aunt Martha, who lived in my hometown, decided to build a house and have grandmom move in with her. So, the last years of her life were spent in my hometown. Given the fact Aunt Martha’s house was < 2 miles from our house, for awhile I had the double pleasure of having both of my grandmother’s near. Even though at this point in time there was little interaction due to her health, I still enjoyed spending time with grandmom and always went bounding into Aunt Martha’s house with a hey grandma and plopping down beside her for a awhile.

Grandmomma Jones departed this world on April 5, 1969. It occurred over Easter break while Cousin Valerie and Aunt Emmanuline were visiting. Grandmom stumbled, lost her balance, and struck her head. Eerily, Aunt Martha’s death, which occurred almost exactly 31 years later, happened in the same manner.

As with my maternal grandmother, I wish we had had more time but I will always be grateful for the time that we did have together. I still feel the pride that she exuded in having me / us as her grandkids and would like to think that if she were here that she would be proud of the work that I’ve done on her ancestral line.

Thoughtful Thursday - Watch Night Service

Watch Night Service

There was a time when I dreaded New Year’s Eve because it meant being drug to church one more time. Don’t get me wrong, I love church and my faith has gotten me through many a difficult times but to be there on New Year’s Eve, uggh!


As a child mom, who was Baptist and who more times than not I went to church with, loaded granddad and me in the car and headed to church. Even in my adult years, mom and / or dad could often guilt me into going with them, especially mom with her “There’s no other place I would rather be to bring in the new year.” Last year, I finally understood what she meant as for the first time in my life I was at Watch Night Service because that is where I wanted and needed to be.


Before moving to Colorado for awhile, I always thought Watch Night Service was something everyone did but during my adult life, I’ve learned that Watch Night service is truly an African-American tradition and perhaps only observed in the southern states.


The tradition of bringing in the year in church appears to have it’s origins in the Moravian community, but the significance in the African-American community can be traced back to December 31, 1862, “Freedom’s Eve.” President Abraham Lincoln in his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, dated September 22, 1862, had indicated that the slaves would be freed on January 1, 1863.


So with new found vigor both in my research and the reflections on the history of our celebration, tonight when I go to Watch Night Service, I know I’ll think and wonder about them, my ancestors, as I’m already doing now, and about the thoughts that raced through their minds as they anticipated freedom. I’ll think about my 3rd great grandmother, Eliza Stovall, at the age of abt. 50, possibly with her children and grand children by her side, giving praise that she lived long enough to see this day.


So, in remembrance of all my known direct line and collateral ancestors that endured slavery, roll call:


Direct Line of known enslaved ancestors


 Paternal Ancestors


Issac Ewell – 2nd great grandfather, 1840 – unk
(date of death bwt 1870 and 1880)
Pennie Ewell – 2nd great grandmother, 1840 – unk


Maternal Ancestors


Eliza Stoval – 3rd great grandmother, abt. 1810 – unk
(date of death bwt. 1880 and 1900)
Wyatt Rome – 2nd great grandfather, 1840 – unk
(date of death after 1910)
Alice Rome – 2nd great grandmother, 1836 – unk
(date of death bwt. 1900 and 1910)
Matilda Hosch – 2nd great grandmother, 1840 – unk
Monroe Barto Hosch – great grandfather, 1862 – unk
(date of death bwt 1890 and 1900)
Jasper Pierce – 2nd great grandfather 1850 - unk
Jane Pierce – 2nd great grandmother, 1844 – unk

Wordless Wenesday - My Great Grandparents

Edith and Peter Everett