The last photograph I took of Mother Dear, on 6 June 2000, her 90th birthday. She passed away seven months later on 15 January 2001.
Rest in peace, Hattie Mae Henderson Ricks.
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Great-great-grandparent demographics.
Edward Cunningham Harrison and Mary Brown. Jasper Holmes and Matilda, whose maiden name is unknown. John Walker Colvert and Harriet Nicholson. Henry W. McNeely and Martha Margaret Miller. Green Taylor and Fereby Taylor. Willis Barnes and Cherry Battle. John William Aldridge and Louvicey Artis. Joseph Buckner Martin and Loudie Henderson.
These are my 16 great-great-grandparents.
Four were born in Virginia; the remainder in North Carolina. They were born between 1817 and 1874; most in the 1840s or ’50s. All died in the state in which they were born.
Of the 13 born in the antebellum era, 11 were enslaved. One was a free man of color. Two of the enslaved were children of their owner. All of the three born after the war were born to freeborn parents.
Fourteen were of varying degrees of African descent, classified as black or mulatto. Two were white.
Hat tip to Edie Lee Harris for the exercise.
Adam.
I count these Adam Artises:
Adam Toussaint Artis (1831-1919), the original. My great-great-great-grandfather.
Adam Toussaint Artis Jr. (1868-??), his son.
Adam Toussaint Artis III (1911-2000), son of Adam T. Artis’ son Walter S. Artis.
Adam Artis (1913-??), son of Adam Artis’ son Robert E. Artis. This Adam may have had a son, Adam Artis Jr.
Adam Huldah Artis (1920-1963), son of Adam Artis’ son William M. Artis.
Adam Freeman Artis (1943), grandson of Adam Artis’ son June Scott Artis.
Adam Scott Artis (1986), great-grandson of June S. Artis.
And, too:
John Adam Wilson (1868-1916), son of Adam Artis’ sister Zilpha Artis Wilson.
Adam Wilson (1923-??), son of Adam Artis’ nephew Willie Wilson.
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 1. Fresh start.
I tried the “52 Ancestors” challenge in 2014.
I failed.
I mean, I surely blogged about more than 52 relatives last year, but the constraints of the weekly format didn’t really work for me, and I faded out after posting four. This year’s challenge is a bit different. Each week is themed. As Amy Johnson Crow explained:
“The vast majority of people who responded the survey I did a few weeks ago said that they would like to continue with optional weekly themes. So, we’re going to give it a try. The weekly themes are strictly optional. They are meant to give you some ideas on who to focus on. (Isn’t choosing the week’s ancestor often the hardest part?!)
The themes are going to be general — one might even say “ambiguous.” I’m doing that on purpose. I’m hoping to inspire, rather than dictate.”
I’m picking up the gauntlet again, though I’m cheating a bit at the outset. The theme for the first week in January is “Fresh Start.” This is it.
You will find something.
“… there is a vast mass of things in the world, and the act of creation that cuts through them divides the things that might have happened from those that did. … I did and do believe, after all that I’ve seen and done, that if you project yourself into the mass of things, if you look for things, if you search, you will, by the very act of searching, make something happen that would not otherwise have happened, you will find something, even something small, something that will certainly be more than if you hadn’t gone looking in the first place, if you hadn’t asked your grandfather anything at all. … There are no miracles, no magical coincidences. There is only looking, and finally seeing, what was always there.”
and
“I told her that I, too, was interested in facts, of course, that we had started out on this long series of journeys because we wanted to find the facts. But I said that because of what we’d heard on our trips, I’d also become extremely interested in stories, in the way that the stories multiplied and gave birth to other stories, and that even if these stories weren’t true, they were interesting because of what they revealed about the people who told them. What they revealed about the people who told them, I said, was also part of the facts, the historical record.”
— Daniel Mendelsohn, Lost: The Search for Six of Six Million
——
Yesterday, New Year’s Eve, Scuffalong:Genealogy had its best day ever — more than 400 views. In no small way because of your support, I start 2015 renewed and reinvigorated in my quest to find and share my stories. Thank you.
Epiphany, no. 1.
Fairly early in the game, I noticed that in some feminine names, I’s that are now pronounced IH or EE were once pronounced EYE. For example, Cousin Nina Aldridge Hardy was NYE-na. Cousin Tilithia Brewington Godbold was Ta-LYE-thi-a. Cousin Beathina Henderson Hargrove was Be-THY-na. I also noticed — or so I thought — that sometimes the names Eliza and Louisa were interchanged in records and assumed that this was because “Louisa” was once pronounced “Lou-EYE-za,” which, maybe, could have been misheard as “Eliza.” Example: Louisa/Eliza Hagans Seaberry.
But then: today while looking at Louisa Seaberry’s entry in the 1850 census of Wayne County way enlarged, I noticed that … there was no loop in the first vowel. I looked up and down the page. The censustaker’s other O’s all featured a distinct loop. This, now that I was really looking at it, seemed to be an E. And the U rather like V. So, not Louisa, but LEVISA? But what about definite references in the 1870 census and deeds to “Eliza”? A mispronunciation? A middle name? In 1865, her daughter Frances Seaberry Artis named her twin daughters Louvicey … and Eliza. Were they both named after their grandmother? Frances’ daughter Georgianna Artis Reid also named a daughter Levicy. I’m onto something….
Scuffalong: Genealogy. 