Tombstone Tuesday

Picture obtained via photo request at FindaGrave.

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.

Tombstone Tuesday

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

Tombstone Tuesday

It’s hard to believe that until two weeks ago, I had only been to my paternal grandparents’ grave twice. The first time was when my grandmother was interred and the second time was when Aunt Martha was interred.


Unlike the maternal side of my family, when I was growing up, my paternal side never pushed visiting the gravesite of my grandparents and uncle, which now also includes my aunt. Through the years, for as often as we were back in dad’s and the aunt’s and uncle’s hometown, I don’t ever remember anyone saying, let’s go by the gravesite, and while I’ve always wanted to go by the old home site, I don’t ever remember requesting a visit to the cemetery.

Lately though, I’ve felt a need almost a beckoning if you will to go visit the gravesite of my paternal grandparents, aunt, and uncle. So, on Friday, March 16th, having a gorgeous afternoon free, I decided to make the little over an hour drive, from work, to Winston-Salem, NC for a long overdue visit.

I had located the address of the cemetery before I left and plugged it into my trusty GPS unit. While enroute, I called my cousin Valerie, who lives in the Triad area of NC, hoping that she would meet me at the cemetery because even though I had a picture of the tombstone in my mind, I had no clue where in the cemetery the gravesite was located. But Valerie and Cousin Denise, her daughter, both had other plans for the day. After I hung up, I realized that I had forgotten to ask Valerie exactly where in the cemetery our grandparents’ graves were located. As she was in a hurry to get to her destination, I didn’t call back.

Arriving into town, I got off at the exist that usually takes us to dad’s and the aunt’s and uncle’s alma mater, Winston-Salem State, but instead of heading to the left as I’ve done on so many previous trips, I turned right. Before long, I arrived at Walkertown Road, the street the cemetery is located on. I made a right onto Walkertown and was at the cemetery in little or no time. This amazed me as through the years, I had always imagined that Evergreen cemetery, where my grandparents, aunt and uncle are interred, was way out. Why didn’t we ever visit seeing how close it was to the alma mater?

As I turned into the cemetery, I stopped at the front gate and took a picture. If the words gorgeous and beautiful could be used to describe a cemetery, Evergreen, definitely fits the bill. From this point on, it was truly my Ancestors’ guidance that lead me to their graves as I wasn’t seeing any tombstones that matched that picture in my head and of course there were lots of Joneses. I had made almost a complete circle through the cemetery when suddenly I decided to pull over and get out. I parked right beside a Jones family plot that I knew wasn’t it but checked anyway. I then proceeded on to the last row of graves in this section and started walking when suddenly I stopped and looked to my right. Yes, it was their graves. How amazing was that?

I took pictures of the headstone and footstones, and I talked to them, telling them I was sorry that I hadn’t been before now. I promised my grandmother that next time I would bring flowers since I knew how much they had meant to her.

Prior to leaving Winston-Salem, I of course went by the lot one more time where the old ancestral home once stood because no visit is quite complete until I do that.

As I made the journey back home, I would venture by the gravesite of other relatives, those being on my maternal side, and which I will discuss on a future post at Georgia Black Crackers.

Uncle Thomas Langston Jones

As you can see, my grandparents stressed education and were so proud of the accomplishments of their first born, whom preceded them in death, that they had his degrees awarded engraved on his tombstone.

Aunt Martha Jones

Grandparents

All pictures are from the personal collection of the owner of this blog.

Tombstone Tuesday

Graves of

Toussaint L'Ouverture Jones, my uncle, and his wife, Aunt Lil

I think I can count on one hand the visits Uncle Toot made back to NC during my lifetime. You see, when he and Aunt Lil got married, there was some type of falling out between he and granddad and granddad told Uncle Toot never to bring that woman in his house, again. While I don't know if this is the reason Uncle Toot and Aunt Lil moved to TN, I think this probably played a big part in their decision to get away from the family. On occasion Uncle Toot would come for a visit but I don't ever remember seeing Aunt Lil until I was l in my mid 20s.

Through the years, I've often tried to find out exactly what happened between Uncle Toot, Aunt Lil and granddad, but those darn aunts, uncles, and even dad were and are a tight lipped bunch on this one. I suspect we nieces and nephews will never know since all the major players in this family secret are gone. I did hear that when granddad was on his death bed, he told grandmom to tell Aunt Lil to forgive him.

Whatever the battle was, it's over now. So, may you both rest in peace.

Until Next Time!