Motivation Monday - September 2014 Goals

Since my father died in 2011, I've really struggled to get back to the research and the blogging. In the past 3+ years, I've declared on several occasions that I was ready to get back to the research / blogging only to disappear, again. I won't make any promises that this time will be different but I do find myself doing things that hopefully mean I'm finally finding my way back.

So, once again, I find myself writing a list of monthly goals to get me started. Since my research trip to my paternal ancestors home county is coming up next week (no I'm not ready), I'm thinking I'll get a few of these goals accomplished and hopefully before the trip. So here goes

Blogging

1. Write a minimum of 2 posts for the month of September. I hope to be able to do more than that but I'm also trying to be a bit realistic also.

Organization

1. Most of the goals in this area are the same as those found on Georgia Black Crackers. The only additional goal is before the research trip to make sure the information I have for paternal grandmother's side of the family is organized and properly cited.

Research

1. Make a list of the goals I hope to accomplish during my research trip and what records I plan to view in an attempt to reach the goal. Goal Date: September 6, 2014

2013 AAHGS Conference - Saturday, October 12, 2013

Another fun-filled, jam packed day here at the AAHGS conference.

I begin the day by working in a bit of much needed exercise.

After having a filling lunch of salmon on orzo, it was off to session II, Unlocking Our Southern Mosaic: Examining a Family's Life Near It's Slavery Origins, by Dwight Fryer. Mr. Fryer's work as a minister was evident in the way he told the story of his family's origins in Grand Junction, TN.

I have to be honest, when Mr. Fryer began his presentation, I thought he was referring to Grand Junction, CO, a locale where I resided for a few years during my adult life. It was a little confusing at first, because his description of Grand Junction of course wasn't matching up with the Grand Junction I knew. After realizing there was another Grand Junction, the presentation began to make sense.

Wonderful points of interest from Mr. Fryer's presentation include:

• A Union Army Contraband Camp was formed in Grand Junction, TN.
• Western Tennessee, where Grand Junction is located, had the same culture and politics as Mississippi. In fact, Mr. Fryer referred to it as Tennessipi.

For the next session (III), I attended Understanding African American Genealogical Patterns as Remnants of Slave Culture: Demographics, Family Dynamics and Religious Practices. The presenters were Rev. Dr. Richard Gardiner and Ceteria Richey.

Ceteria, realized like many African-American families that she knew more about her mother's side of the family that she did her father's side of the family. She also realized that her mother's family was a strongly matriarchal family.

Using the principles of Cognitive Therapy, Ceteria tries to understands the whys of her family? Cognitive Therapy seeks the patient overcome difficulties by  identifying and changing dysfunctional thinking, behavior, and emotional responses. These principles can be applied to society as a whole.

The roots of the matrifocal society in the African-American community finds it's roots in slavery. During slavery, African-American women's value was their womb. Slavery was perpetuated because the status of any children born into slavery was through the mother. When women were sold it was always due to her potential increase to the owner. Women and their young children were often sold together.

Mean while, men were often used as studs, in other words, humans were breed like cattle and horses. Often if the men and women refused each other, they might be whipped.

In my younger days, I use to argue against this notion, that 100+ years removed from slavery that the effects of slavery were still manifest. But, as I've gotten older and looked through the more mature eyes, it seems that families that came through slavery intact do not seem to have as many of the problems as those who were ripped apart.

For the final session of the day, I attended Shelly Murphy's (aka familytreegirl on Twitter) Hitting the Genealogy Brick Walls & Challenges: The Search for Information about Joseph Brand Davis.

Shelly hates using the term Brick Walls because she believes there are no such thing as Brick Walls only Challenges. 

Highlights from Shelly's presentation are as follows:

• All research should focus on asking questions
• Know what laws were in place during a particular time frame.
• Records generate other records

The day was wrapped up with dinner, a little entertainment by two young local talents, and the awards ceremony. Sandwiched between the entertainment and the awards presentation, we listened to the keynote speaker, Thomas Cain talk about the Nashville connection to the music industry. Can you say Little Richard.

And with that it's a wrap folks as my time here at the 2013 AAHGS conference comes to a close. Mom and I will be heading home in the AM. I've had a wonderful time meeting new people, finally meeting those I've known online for a few years now, and just being able to get away for a few days.

Hopefully, this is finally the beginning of me returning to the research and blogging. I hear the ancestors telling me to get back with it. 

Finding Your Ancestors in the NC Archives – Part III

On Saturday, September 24, 2011, I attended the one-day workshop / lecture series entitled, Finding Your Ancestors in the NC Archives. The Friends of the Archives sponsored the workshop. As mentioned in the previous two posts in this series, it had been some time since The Friends had sponsored a workshop.

After the wonderful lecture entitled Tar Heels in the Family Tree? A Genealogical Introduction to North Carolina Records, we broke for lunch. As many opted for the box lunch, which could be purchased during the registration process, it provided an opportunity for attendees to mingle and discuss their research with fellow researchers.

Lunch passed quickly and it was soon time for the third presentation, Get Excited about Your Pre-1870 N.C. African American Research: the N.C. Archives Can Put Great Resources at Your Fingertips!, given by Diane Richard. Diane is the owner and operator of Mosaic Research and Project Management. As indicated in her handout and on her website, Mosiac specializes in Genealogy, Family History and History projects that make extensive use of on-the-ground research, web resources, and more. Although she herself is not African American, Diane has a special interest in African American research and has done work in this area in 70 of the 100 NC counties.

Diane began by reminding us to do our homework before arriving at the Archives. In doing the preliminary work, don’t forget to look at the community in which your ancestors lived.

That out of the way, Diane then took us, virtually, through the various floors and sections of The Archives and discussed materials and records that were available. As Diane provided a lot of information, I will only highlight a few of the materials and records she discussed.

North Carolina Marriage Registers and Licenses are often a gold mine of genealogical information and typically include the names of the parents, if known, and whether they are still living, etc. Diane pointed out that if you have ancestors that were from border counties, be sure to look in the neighboring state for marriage records even if other family members were married in North Carolina.

Slaves were often sold instead of bequeathed. These transactions, if recorded, would be found in the Bills of Sale. Bills of Sale can be found in the Deed Indexes. Sometimes Bills of Sale are in the “Loose Collection” of the county records. 

American Slavery Petition, which can be found on the University of North Carolina at Greensboro website, is a database of slavery petitions. Petitions represent disagreements that developed over the division of slaves. Once a North Carolina petition is located in the database, it can be viewed at the North Carolina Archives.

In wrapping up her segment, Diane pointed out that we should not let record categories stop us as many records can be located under categories that we may want to dismiss.

This concludes my series on the workshop, Finding your Ancestors in the NC Archives. For those with North Carolina roots, I hope that it was beneficial.

By the way, now that I’ve attended the workshop, I’m trying to plan a trip to the NC Archives to get some on the ground research done.

Follow Friday

Viewing and Reading Inspired by the Ancestors

Several months ago, Dionne Ford, Finding Josephine, mentioned how her journey to trace her family history had broadened her reading tastes.

I agree with her. (Friends and coworkers are always picking at me about the books I read.) For me, in addition to broadening the scope of my reading, it’s also broadening the scope of my viewing pleasure.

The documentary Family Name has been out for a while, but I only recently come across it and decided to purchase it.

Similar to Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball, Family Name documents the journey of a young man, Macky Alston, in exploring his family’s slave owning past. The documentary was the winner of the 1997 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS September 15, 1998. I acquired a copy of the film through Half.com. It can also be purchased via Amazon.

One of the things that drew me to this documentary film was is its ties to North Carolina. Whether book or film, if it documents slave ancestry in North Carolina, I gravitate toward it. I think it is how I make up for the lack of stories on the paternal side of my family.

In the documentary, this seemed to be a spiritual journey as well as a genealogical journey for Macky Alston. Ironically, in the credits at the end of the documentary, it is revealed that Macky really isn’t an Alston at all, since his 3rd great grandfather was illegitimate.

Madness Monday – Slave Owners

The Hunt Continues

I think I’ve determined why there was no clustering of African-American Ewell families around a former Ewell slave owner on the 1870 and 1880 censuses. He was dead and his son, who also owned slaves, had moved on.

Last week, I looked at the 1860 slave schedules but forgot to check the 1850 slave schedule as well as the regular censuses for 1850 and 1860. So, going back and examining these documents, here is what I discovered.

1. J M Ewell is Jesse M. Ewell.

2. The enumeration for Jesse M. Ewell on the 1860 census is as follows:

• The enumeration for Jesse Ewell, age 63, contains a J. L. Ewell, male, age 29. I would venture to say that J. L. Ewell is Jesse’s son. J. L. Ewell is married. Could it be that Jesse gave his son some of his slaves as a wedding present?

3. The 1850 census shows a Joshua Euell, age 19, in the household of Jesse Euell. This points toward J. L. Ewell being Joshua Ewell.

4. Where as the 1860 slave schedule shows Joshua, then 29, and Jesse being the owners of the slaves, the 1850 slave schedule shows Jesse Euell owning 19 slaves and a Randol Euell, who lives next door, owing 6 slaves.

• As Randol is 28, I believe he may also be one of Jesse’s children. But what happened to Randol and his family between 1850 and 1860? Did he die? And if so did his brother inherit his slaves?

The Carolina Ewells

Remember that wonderful website, Ewell Family Genealogy and Historical Society, I came across about a moth ago. I decided now was as good a time as any to poke around on it some more and low and behold, I found some of the history of Jesse Ewell’s family, which dates back into the 1700s in my North Carolina research area. You know, that was just too easy.

So here is a brief synopsis of this family. Jesse Ewell was born in neighboring Pitt County in 1798. His father was James Ewell, b 1750 in Pitt County. Jesse had five children, Randall, Jesse James, Joshua Lawrence, Parthenia Olivia and Lillitha.

Randall Ewell was alive in 1855 but has not been able to be traced beyond that. To date, no further information is available on Randall.

Jesse M. Ewell died in 1869. Although his death occurred after emancipation, I still plan to check any available probate records. Maybe he had his will drawn prior to the end of slavery and never changed it. I can hope can’t I?

Joshua Lawrence Ewell died in 1905. It appears that perhaps after the Civil War, Joshua never returned to the life of a farmer. In 1880, he was Clerk of Court and at the time of his death, he was the Justice of the Peace in Williamston, NC and this appears to be what he is best known for. Surely there is more?

My gut tells me that I’ve found my slave owning family but I tread lightly as things may not appear as they seem to be. So, where do I go from here?

• Obtain a copy of Jesse M. Ewell’s probate records.

• Tax Records, if available?

• Deeds? – So wishing that the Register of Deeds was open on the weekend as I would just hop in my car and drive to the eastern part of my home state.

• Other suggestions gladly accepted.



To Be Continued

Madness Monday – Looking for Ewell Slave Owners

What They Say

They say you shouldn’t try to find more than one slave owner at the same time. They say you should follow one line through to completion. They say. Who is this they? And why do I have to follow what They say?

Conventional Thought - Not

There is nothing conventional about African-American Genealogy. I should follow the rules THEY hand out, but both my ancestors and I say screw it. So it’s that attitude that says, yes, I will follow both my Ewell ancestors and my Pierce Ancestor,  Georgia Black Crackers at the same time into slavery.

They don’t realize that my Georgia Ancestors and my North Carolina Ancestors seem to feed off of each other. By researching in two different states, I get ideas from one to facilitate the research of the other and vice versa.

Slam Dunk – I don’t think so

As I’ve matured in my genealogical research, I’ve learned that there is often no rhyme or reason in trying to determine the last slave owner. I learned early on, through reading Black Southerners 1619 – 1869 by John B. Boles that what history had always taught us, that former slaves always took the last owners name, simply was not true. Sometimes, a family’s surname is a clue, especially if former slaves were within a given family throughout slavery, but often times the surname is not a clue at all. Could this possibly be the case with my Ewell ancestors?

1870

In 1870, in Martin County, NC, there were all of 27 people with the surname Ewell. My family accounts for 18.5% of those Ewells. The majority of the Ewells are Black. However, there is no cluster of Black Ewells around a White Ewell. In fact, the Black Ewells are not even clustered around each other. And interestingly enough, it rather seems to be that way with the Black families of Martin County regardless of surname.

Although there is no clustering, the possibility still exists that my Ewell family might have been owned by a Ewell, so I will still check the 1860 slave schedule for slave owners with the last name Ewell.

More so than with my maternal Pierce ancestors, I canvassed the neighborhood looking for someone with enough wealth that may point toward them being a former slave owner. By doing this, I’ve come up with 13 candidates. These candidates will be evaluated in future posts.

Might My Ewell Ancestors Have Been Free?

I first check the 1860 census to determine if there were any free persons of color with the Ewell Surname. In 1860, there are very few White Ewells in Martin County or North Carolina for that matter and no Black Ewells are enumerated.

Ewell Slave Owners

The 1860 slave schedule for Martin County, North Carolina, indicates there were two slave owners with the surname Ewell.

Comparing their slaves against Grandpa Isaac and Grandma Penny’s 1870 enumeration and assuming that both of my 2nd great grandparents were owned by the same person, neither listing provides a good match. J. M. Ewell’s slave holdings show a female that could possibly be Grandma Penny but no male that might be Grandpa Isaac. J. L.’s Ewell’s holdings are just the opposite.

I do wonder if these two Ewell owners might be related. Could it be possible that one owned Grandpa Isaac and the other owned Grandma Penny? Should I do further exploration with these two Ewells, first, or should I finish my evaluation of the other candidates?

To be Continued