In Black and White: Cross-Cultural Genealogy

This evening, as I was looking over a timeline that I had created for my husband's grandfather, Hezekiah Carter, I noticed that one of the witnesses at his first marriage was G.W. Cully. Since connecting with Yvette Porter Moore of Digging Roots: My Family History , my eye has become keen to any Cully connections in our family documents. Hezekiah Carter; Marriage Register, Volume 6, pp. 65-66; Craven County Register of Deeds, Craven County, NC. The marriage license was issued on October 20, 1896 to Hezekiah Carter, age 25, Colored, and to Stella Cannady, age 25, Colored. They were married on October 22, 1896 by the Rev. A.F. Mitchell in Township No. 6. Witnesses were M. F. [Omm], GW Cully, and CC Godett. GW Cully. The first thing I checked was the Census record on Ancestry.com. What I discovered was even more interesting than I had anticipated. George W. Cully's age was recorded as 5/12; however, the Census was recorded on August 20, 1870 and his month of birth is reco...

[NOTE: Abel Carter was my husband's 4th Great Grandfather. Special thank you to Michaud Robinson who found this document and notified me of its existence on FamilySearch: Craven County Estates 1740-1870; pp. 75-77. Previously I had believed that he had died abt. 1795. Here his Inventory is made in 1807.]                                          June 13 Day 1807 The Estate of Abel Carter Deceased the Count of Said one Case with bottles to Wm Dove JunR     1--17--6 11 pewter Spoons to John Fenner                0--7--6 one Case & one Vial to Richard Morris Junr 0--9--6 one hackle and mouse traps to John Fenner  0--2--6 two Slays and 1 Guears to Isaac Jesop         0--5--6 one Adds and howel to Jacob Dove      ...

A couple weeks ago I started inventorying the treasures I received following my Dad's death in 2004. As I unfolded the flaps, a green binder labeled  Photographs . . . dated between September 1955 and about 1962.  Courtesy of Hobbizine.com The next item came in a heavy cardboard tube, yellowed with age, with white,  metal caps on each end. Affixed to the tube was a Parcel Post label: From Registrar's Office, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. To: Mr. Richard A. Newton, 1960 North Road, Vestal, New York. FIRST CLASS. Affixed to the upper right hand corner was a forty-cent John Marshall stamp, postmarked: LEHIGH VALLEY, OCT 19 PM [unreadable] PA. Inside was my Dad's rolled-up Master's Degree and tassels, which he had never displayed. Wondering why Dad had received his Master's on October 9, 1966 while living in Vestal, NY, I called Mom for some insight.  Dad had taught at Pleasant Valley High School from 1961-1966, when we relocated to New York State . . . cl...

Our baby girl.  (Photos taken September 2008 on our last trip back to Northampton, MA.  Spring Grove Cemetery is in Florence, MA.)

For my birthday this year, one of the gifts I received was a T-shirt with the logo Family History Detective on the front. That says it all. Among my favorite detectives are Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, and Hercule Poirot. Each has a unique style for getting to the truth of a mystery; but they always  pursue the clues, and in the end expose the truth. Being a genealogist is a bit like being a detective. We search for clues...make inquiries...check sources...and follow the trail back to the place where it all began. If you're like me and you've been researching your family for some time, you've accumulated files and binders and notebooks galore! You may have worked on a particular aspect of your research in the early years, and now find that you must access and re-examine some of that information for a lead in your current explorations. Such was the case last night. Back in 2005 I received four reels of microfilm from the Library of Virginia on Inter-Library Loan. T...

In July of 2008 we attended the Prince Livingston Family Reunion in Wampee, Horry County, South Carolina (my husband's maternal family). During our down time we decided to take a drive through Little River where the plantation owner, Robert Livingston, had once lived.  We inquired at the Visitor Center, and learned that the Robert Livingston House had been preserved as an historical landmark. The brochure we received listed several different sites that interested us, but the Livingston House was our first destination.  We drove along Highway 17S and drove past the turn off for Lakeside Drive. At the next light we turned around and headed back down the highway until we came to the street. About two-thirds of the way down the road we saw a sign along the roadside: 19th Century Victorian Home for Sale. Was that the house? The number on the mail box was 4441. That's it! We got out of the car and looked around only to find that the owner was at home, and he was in the process...

Last Tuesday the blog featured the headstone of Martha Ann Carter Cully. This week's Tombstone Tuesday features Lucinda Francis Culley Carter . This headstone was from the collection of photographs by Harrison David Carter, taken at Piney Grove Cemetery in North Harlowe, Craven, NC in 2005. Lucinda F. (CULLEY) CARTER 15 Sept 1904 - 19 Dec 1979 Piney Grove Cemetery I wanted to find out how Martha Ann and Lucinda were related... Lucinda Culley was already in my database. She was the youngest child of  James H. and Lucinda (Dove) Culley, Joe B.'s little sister. . . or, Martha's aunt. I was able to locate a record for Martha Ann's Aunt Lucinda in the North Carolina Marriage Collection, 1741 - 2004, at Ancestry.com: Lucinda Culley (age 37)  married  Herbert Carter (age 21)  on 24 May 1943  in Harlowe, Carteret, North Car olina  That would place Lucinda's year of birth at about 1906. It was close. But, there were no official birth records kept in N...

When I researched my New England Ancestors, the inventories which followed the Last Will and Testament always intrigued me. One such inventory of Fearnot King of Westfield, Mass.begins: February 12: 1702/3. The Inventory of the Estate of Fearnot King Deceased Was Taken by us Whose Names are Under written. [Saml Root, Saml Taylor, Saml Fowler] The one and one-half page inventory consists of 59 line items, including the House valued at 15 pounds, 4 tracts of land valued at 49 pounds; one yoke of oxen, 3 cows, 3 heifers, one horse, a mare and colt, one mare more, 10 sheep and 5 swine with a combined value of 29 pounds 40 shillings; one gun and one sword valued at 3 pounds 2 shillings; 2 hats, one cloak and other apparel valued at 7 pounds 2 shillings; 3 saw mill saws valued at 6 pounds; and so on and so forth. . . For several days I had been thinking about which family treasure I should describe for today's blog post. And then, today, as I stood in the doorway to the walk-in clos...

 Charles Spencer Livingston Homeplace, circa 1943 Whiteville, Columbus, North Carolina This is the original home place. It burned down and was rebuilt years ago. Charles Spencer Livingston Homeplace in 2010

I had never realized how much participating in GeneaBlogger's Tombstone Tuesday would benefit my research in connecting family relations between those whom I've met at family reunions, and the generations which have predeceased us. This week I am examining the headstone of Martha Ann (Carter) Culley. I had received a CD of photos from my brother-in-law, Harrison David Carter, of the 2005 George Family Reunion which my husband and I were unable to attend. The last section of photos on the CD were labeled, "Headstone Pics from Piney Grove Cemetery." I checked my Family Tree Heritage database and discovered that Martha Ann Carter was the daughter of Malachi & and Emma Jennettie (Fisher) Carter. Malachi was my grandfather-in-law's younger brother; the family relationships look like this: Through communications with Yvette Porter Moore of Digging Roots: My Family History , I am led to believe that we are connected through our 2nd Cousin by marriage, Joseph...

While researching the descendants of Capt. John KING of Hartford, CT and Northampton, MA, I thoroughly appreciated the availability of Church history resources found at Forbes Library . At the link provided, you can search finding aids, including the Guide to Microfilm Resources at Forbes Library . A few highlights include the following, among many others: The Judd Manuscript (reel 15H) records marriages by Mr. Hooker; The First Church of Christ, Northampton (reels 22-23) includes Church records from the Old 1st Book (1661-1846) and 3rd Book (thru 1924), list of members. Original record books are kept in the Hampshire Room for Local History and Genealogy; First Baptist Church, Northampton, MA (reel 160) includes the Church clerk's records, Church covenant, constituent membership list, detailed meeting records, and a brief history of events leading up to the founding of the church (1826-1848); In addition to microfilmed and original manuscripts are bound, typewritten transcri...

When I first relocated from Southern New England to Western North Carolina, I spent every day I had off from work, and some nights after work when I got out early enough to take the bus into town, at  Pack Memorial Library on Haywood Street in Asheville. I treated each visit as though my last was not too far ahead... I believe this was due to the previous six months when I had to prepare to relocate from Northampton, MA to Asheville, NC. My KING ancestors' information would remain in the North unless I could immerse myself in their records and bring them along with me. And so I photocopied anything and everything that minutely corresponded to the history of Free Negroes in Craven County from the Colonial Period to the present. When I returned to the North Carolina Room one day, about three years into my research, the local history librarian said, "I thought you'd just about exhausted everything we had." Yes, I thought so too...but there's always some new conn...

While my family has traditionally memorialized our deceased loved ones through funeral cards, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion tradition in my husband's family is a much more complete Homegoing Service program. Photos and a complete obituary mark the contributions their lives made to us and others in the community.  Below is the Homegoing Service program for a double funeral. . . .sisters, who died a day apart. Hattie (CARTER) BECTON had been a founding member of the George Family Reunion Committee, and the first of my father-in-law's first cousins whom we met through correspondence, and then later met at the 2007 George Family Reunion. After that same reunion we were able to meet her sister, Mattie Genora CARTER, at her home. They were both very remarkable women.