Cousin Onra and her brother, Johnnie D. Henderson, 1940s.
Wishing my first cousin twice removed, Onra Henderson Camp Dillard, the happiest 98th birthday!
Cousin Onra and I at her home in Washington, D.C., 2016.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Black History Month, part 1.
So grateful for the opportunity to speak about free people of color in Goldsboro, North Carolina, last night. Wayne County, you really showed up, and I appreciate that. I am descended from several free families from the Eureka and Dudley areas, and they led me both to my interests in genealogy and local history.
1 January 2018.
Some genealogical resolutions — or, at least, aspirations — for the coming year:
- Back up all files regularly.
- Organize and rename, if helpful, all files.
- Focus on making sense of my cluster of West Virginia Boone matches.
- Revisit each of my DNAnigmas to resolve and/or update.
- Create spreadsheets to compare and track my Henderson, Aldridge, Artis, Harrison and Colvert matches.
- Visit Westover and Charles City County.
- Visit the Virginia State Library.
Heinous charge.
Wilson Mirror, 6 November 1889.
Algie Vaughan’s stepdaughter was Sarah Ward, who was about 15 in 1889. Sarah’s mother Mittie Ward had two children before she married Vaughan in 1879, Sarah and Joseph H. Ward. This terrible incident may explain why Mittie reverted to her maiden name.
From A to izzard; or, the bedrock bottom of Republicanism.
Remarks at a mass meeting of the “straight out” Republicans, including those of my great-great-grandfather John W. Aldridge: 
Goldsboro Daily Argus, 26 September 1894.
6? Is that possible?
Thanks for all your support!
[Update, 8/24/2016: Errr. No, it’s not possible. The other Scuffalong, my neglected Tumblr account, is six years old. Scuffalong:Genealogy is not quite 3.]
1976? Or 2000?
When Effie Mae Smith was born in Goldsboro on 6 October 1905 (or perhaps 1904), the state of North Carolina did not require birth certificates. Years later, however, she found she needed one, applied, and her so-called “delayed” certificate was filed with the Wayne County register of deeds.
On 16 November 1921, Effie May Smith married Frank W. Stanfield in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their marriage license clearly names her parents, Isham Smith and Nancy Henderson Smith Diggs.
Frank was a World War I veteran. He died in 1935 and is buried in a Cypress Hill National Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Beside his stone is one that reads: EFFIE M., HIS WIFE Oct 6 1904 Dec 27 1978. This certainly appears to be Effie Mae Smith Stanfield.
Further, the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) lists Effie M. Stanfield, Social Security number xxx-xx-8462, born 10/6/1905, died 12/27/1976, last address in Brooklyn, zip code.
However.
There’s this: a Social Security application — Effie Mae Bridges (applied in 1952 as Effie Mae Smith), xxx-xx-9518, born 10/6/1904 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, to Isaam Smith and Nancy Henderson, died 2/15/2000. And it’s backed up by a SSDI entry for Effie M. Bridges, same birth and death dates, last address in Brooklyn 11233. What is going on here? Identity theft? If not, who in the world is buried next to Frank Stanfield???
Photo courtesy of www.findagrave.com.
Cousin Nancy’s descendants, found.
While I was away in Mauritius, I received a thrilling message in my Ancestry mailbox. “I am still recovering from the shock of finding info on Nancy Smith,” it began. The amazement was mutual. “Wow,” I responded. “God bless the Internet.” The writer’s partner is the son of Bessie Lee Smith, daughter of Nancy Henderson Smith of Goldsboro, North Carolina. She promises to provide what additional information she can about this branch of my Hendersons, whose descendants have long proved elusive. I’m looking forward to the collaboration. My grandmother spoke often of her Smith cousins; how I wish she could have lived long enough to learn what had become of them.
John J. Holt (4 December 1923-9 March 2016).
My father’s first cousin John Holt, the oldest male in all our extended Henderson clan, has passed away.
I have written of him here and here. Rest in peace.
My grandmother and her nephew John, Greensboro, early 1980s.
Handsome John, 1940s.
Scuffalong: Genealogy. 