Author: connielavon

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That Sinking Feeling

A couple of months ago I was researching my 5x great-grandfather and came across a Deed of Gift in the courthouse records in Rockingham County, North Carolina.[1] My ancestor, John Barnett, gave his nine grandchildren (including my 3x-great grandfather) a present on 6 March 1823. The Deed of Gift began innocently enough:

“To all people to whom these presents shall
come. _ I John Barnett of Rockingham
County & State of North Carolina send greetings
Know ye that I the said John Barnett for
and in consideration of the natural love
and affection which I have and bear unto
my beloved grand children, namely, James
Walker, John Walker, David Walker, William
Walker, Thomas Walker, Samuel Walker, Lucy
Walker, Martha Walker & Henry Walker, chil-
dren of my Daughter Ann who intermarried
with Adam Walker…”

John Barnett’s Deed of Gift, 6 March 1823

At this point, my genealogist brain said “excellent, I now have an original document with primary information directly linking Ann Barnett to her father, her husband, and all of her children in Rockingham County, North Carolina in 1823.” These generational links form the foundation of a well-documented family tree.

As I read on, the sinking feeling began as the gift was described:

“…one Negro Boy na-
mely Jacob 14 years old, one ditto name-
ly Charles eight years old, one Negro wo-
man Nancy twenty years old, one other
Negro Woman Dafney seventeen years old
one waggon & five pair of Giere [geese?] 1 Black Horse
8 years old, 1 Do [ditto] 15 years old, one Bay horse
9 years old 1 Sorrel Mare 12 or 15 years old
four feather Beds and furniture, one Sugar
chest, also seven hundred dollars,
with all the Increase of said property…”

John Barnett’s Deed of Gift, 6 March 1823, continued.

My ancestor gave Jacob, Charles, Nancy, and Dafney to his grandchildren as chattel. He also gave any of their children away as chattel. My ancestor destroyed the desires, dreams, and relationships of these four people by owning them and selling them. This gift took place prior to the Adam Walker family’s relocation to Perry County, Tennessee, and likely tore families apart. My ancestor’s actions are part of the multigenerational transmission of harm to African Americans. This harm, or historical trauma, carries a legacy of “beliefs, ideas, myths, prejudices, biases and behaviors that are disseminated and then inherited by and/or about differing groups.”[2] The aftermath of this legacy is the systematic and structural racism that persists in North America.

I have known for over thirty years that some of my ancestors were enslavers. I found my ancestors in the slave schedules of the 1850 and 1860 censuses with the lists of unnamed people they held in bondage. My mother discovered a scrap of paper in the Benton County, Tennessee, Historical Society records describing the sale of Mary Jane from one ancestor to another.[3] Although never far from my mind, this information had become far from my heart. John Barnett’s Deed of Gift brought it back into my heart.

My response to this knowledge has changed. Instead of logging it away in my genealogy program and citing the sources faithfully, I have begun the process of “Transforming Historical Harms” as recommended by Hooker and Czajkowski:

Facing History
Making Connections
Healing Wounds
Taking Action

I am finding my own way forward to face history, make connections, heal wounds, and take action. It is a small thing compared to the harm so many African Americans experienced and continue to experience. I share these early steps in my journey with the hope of encouraging you on your own.

In the past two years I have focused on learning about racism and the American history that I was not taught in school. This education will continue for the rest of my life. As a citizen of two countries (the United States and Canada), facing history is both a societal imperative and specific to my family. Reading and learning about systematic and structural racism led me to Coming to the Table (CTTT), a non-profit with a core of genealogical research dedicated to facing history and healing racial wounds created by slavery and its impact. I participate in the Linked Descendants group. With support from Coming to the Table, I became a Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience practitioner, and I am learning and practicing ways to address historical trauma. I’ve joined the U.S. Black Heritage Exchange program WikiTree project and wrote about that experience in a guest blog for Research Like a Pro. I am entering the records of enslavers and those that were enslaved into WikiTree in hopes of helping others discover their family history. As a citizen and a health care professional, I will continue to take action, speak out, donate time and resources, and be part of the long process of righting the historical harms written into history, like John Barnett’s Deed of Gift.

The story of Jacob, Charles, Nancy, and Dafney reminds all of us of the debt owed to the people who built the wealth of the North American continent. How can we individually and collectively face history, make connections, heal wounds, and take action? What’s next for you?

[1] Rockingham County, North Carolina, “Deed Book X,” pages 230-232, John Barnett to his grandchildren James  Walker, John Walker, David Walker, William Walker, Thomas Walker, Samuel Walker, Lucy Walker, Martha Walker and Henry Walker, Deed of Gift, 6 March 1823; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L98Q-3QYR : accessed 5 November 2021), FHL Film #007517701; citing North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh.

[2] David Anderson Hooker and Amy Potter Czajkowski, “Transforming Historical Harms,” Eastern Mennonite University (https://emu.edu/cjp/docs/transforming-historical-harms.pdf : accessed 13 February 2022), page 15.

[3] Benton County, Tennessee, “Deed Book F, Jan 1857-Apr 1860,” page 291-292, Thomas Walker  to H. Kee, Negro girl named Mary Jane, 6 August 1857; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS5H-9SYD-W and https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS5H-9SYN-C : accessed 21 November 2021); citing Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.

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Find a Grave Updates January 2022

Find a Grave can be a treasure trove for family historians. What started in 1995 to capture the data from one man’s hobby became the repository of information for 180 million memorials by 2020. The site has been owned by Ancestry.com since 2013.[1]

Find a Grave relies on volunteers who photograph cemetery markers or use other information and create memorials. A memorial with a photograph of the marker can provide valuable information for genealogists and can lead to original documents concerning the life of the individual.

Find a Grave announced important policy changes affecting the recently deceased and how the relationship between the subject of the memorial and the memorial manager are handled. As of 11 January 2022, all memorials for the recently deceased (defined as within the previous 3 months) will provide limited information. A new button allows relatives to quickly become the manager the memorial. The button will be visible for a year.

Another new feature is adding your relationship to memorials you manage. This information can be public or private. If you are a member of Find a Grave, click on your profile in the upper right of the website and choose “My Memorials.” This brings up a list of memorials you manage. Choose a memorial, then click on “Edit.” Scroll down to the bottom of the edit pane to the question “Are you a close relative?” When you click “Yes,” the dialogue box expands and you can indicate your relationship and privacy settings. If you’d like your relationship to remain private, unclick “Show relationship in source information.”

FindAGrave Relative Information

The transfer guidelines for memorials were also updated. Close relatives are defined and are given preference for managing the memorial. To request a transfer, click on “Suggest Edits” on the memorial, scroll down to “Suggest other corrections” and then write a message to the memorial manager, providing them with your relationship to the person. Remember, you do not need to be the manager to add photos or suggest edits to the page.

Thanks to FindAGrave for making these important changes.

[1] Wikipedia, “Find a Grave,” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Find_a_Grave : accessed 24 January 2022).

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Getting started with family history research

First, gather what you already know. This could include prior research by yourself or others, existing documents that you hold (marriages, birth certificates, cards, letters, newspaper clippings, family Bibles), and writing down what you and others know (paying attention to dates and places such as homes, schools, cemeteries, relocations).

As you gather information, collect details and note your sources. Genealogists use writing conventions, such as recording dates as 18 September 2019 (that way there is no confusion about which is the month and which is the year). Place names include as much detail as possible (such as Town, County, State) and are recorded as the place was named at the time of the event. For example, some of my ancestors lived in Thomaston, Maine which was in Lincoln County until 1860 when it became part of the newly-formed Knox County. So my ancestor Nathaniel Fales III was born 28 June 1785 in Thomaston, Lincoln County, Maine and died 24 Jan 1876 in Thomaston, Knox County, Maine. The Atlas of Historical Boundaries Project captures boundary changes for states and counties.

For each item of information, write down where you found it. The detail in the citation needs to be enough that anyone can locate that source. It could be “Floyd Workman, interview by Connie Davis, 2 September 2006, notes privately held by interviewer, [address for private use], Hope, British Columbia, 2022,” or “Cyrus Eaton, The History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, ME., 2 volumes, Hallowell: Masters, Smith, and Company, Printers, 1865, reprinted by Courier-Gazette, Inc., 1972, vol. 1, p. 26.” Citations usually appear as footnotes in genealogical writing so that they never become separated from the information they describe.

Citation in genealogy can be incredibly detailed, and the expert on citation is Elizabeth Shown Mills, author of Evidence Explained. Unless you are writing for publication, you won’t need to know all of the details of genealogical citation but do keep track of your sources! Genealogy software programs can capture this information for you. I use Reunion for Mac. All online genealogy websites can capture sources as well. Without being able to review the citations, it’s hard to evaluate the evidence.

What’s this about evidence? Family history may appear to have facts, such as where people were born and when, but each piece of information must be taken into consideration with other pieces of information. For example, on my grandparent’s marriage certificate my grandmother’s age is recorded as 20 and my grandfather’s age is recorded as 22.[1] Their birth certificates tell a different story. My grandmother was 20, as she was born on 24 October 1910 but my grandfather was 19.[2] My grandmother explained that she was embarrassed to be older than my grandfather so he lied about his age!

Second, be clear about your goal. What do you want to accomplish? If your goal is to build your family tree, consider that each of us have thirty-two 3x great-grandparents, and to build our tree back that far may require researching their siblings and many of our cousins. The best strategy is to start with yourself and work backwards. Fill in the details on key dates and places (birth, marriage, death). If you are interested in context and stories, research their education, occupations, military service, and relocations.

Write down a specific question you want to answer. It might be “Did my 6x great-grandfather Nathaniel Fales II born 25 October 1752 in Norwich, New London County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America, serve in the Revolutionary War?” or “When did my 2x great-grandfather, Samuel Dare, immigrate to the United States, eventually ending up in Deer Ridge, Lewis County,  Missouri, at the time of the 1860 census based on his stated birthplace of England?” A focused question will keep you on track and increase your chance of answering your question.

There are many websites that provide wonderful detail to guide you. One of the best is from the National Genealogical Society, How to Build a Family Tree.

Another great free source for all things family history is the FamilySearch Wiki.

[1] Fresno County, California, marriage certificate, Walton L. Davis-Edna L. Workman, 15 April 1931, George Brewster, Minister, Christian Church, Fresno.

[2] Missouri Department of Health, birth certificate, state file number 49675, (24 October 1910), Edna Leona Workman; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Jefferson; certified copy in researcher’s files.

California Department of Public Health, birth certificate, local registrar number 329, 15 June 1911, Walton Leslie Davis; Vital Statistics, Sacramento.

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What will you find here?

Welcome to my blog and thanks for spending your precious time here with me. This blog will share:

  • Musings about family history, identity, and resilience
  • Thoughts about the impact of family history on the present and future
  • Methods and tips about genetic genealogy and documentary genealogy research
  • New (or new-to-me) topics in genealogy
  • Discoveries from my own family history research

I study family history because it forms the foundation of who I am and how I think and act. An understanding of where I come from gives me strength and gives me pause. I have discovered inspiring stories and tragic ones. I have marvelled at the steps my ancestors took (literally) that led to my presence and wondered at their inhumanity. Curiosity and the quest for meaning shape my journey. And sometimes that meaning requires action. The action can be reporting on what I’ve discovered or taking steps to address historical wrongs.

Researching my family history keeps my brain agile. Learning new approaches to genetic genealogy challenges me. Working through the logic of conflicting evidence invites me to weigh sources and types of information and come to conclusions about what I’ve gathered. And in the end I know more about those who came before me and myself. And I have something to offer my grandchildren and those who may follow.

My goal is to uncover the past so that it can inform the present and lead to a better future.

Thanks for coming along!