Good Things Come . . . .

I know I’ve been gone for a long time. But, sometimes you have to take a step back from things to get a better perspective. I couldn’t focus on genealogy like I wanted too. Things were getting hectic.

I’ve been planning my family reunion which has taken most of my time and energy away from genealogy. I’m alone in the planning..and we have a large family. This is also my first time doing it. But, my ears are always open to things I need to know.

As you may (or may not know) my family has been searching for a picture of my 2nd Great Grandmother, Harriet Ann Banks since my Great Grandmother’s passing in 1998. One of her daughters removed photos from the home in an effort to get copies made. But, in the process, the pictures were lost. This has caused a rift in the family between the siblings. I swear it seems like a conversation can’t go by with out mentioning of those photos and what happened to them.

Thru calling and asking around, I determined that there were 2 pictures of Harriet around. Her other daughter Rosa had a picture in her home. However she passed away in 1989 and that picture had gone missing as well. Rumors of whom it was given too and who may have it now is the only information I could get.

So, my dad called me a few weeks ago to let me know that a picture of Harriet was found. All this time it has been in a cousin’s home on her wall. Yes, we have all been looking for this picture for quite some time..and I guess no on thought to ask this cousin. I was more surprised that one of Rosa’s children didn’t have this picture. The person that had the picture was Rosa’s granddaughter.

I called her up and she told me that she no longer had the picture. . . my aunt had it. I quickly called my aunt and asked her to send me the actual picture..not a copy..the actual picture. (my family is good for making a copy of a picture..not a picture copy but a copy machine copy…not good!!!)

She quickly sent me the picture of Harriet. To my surprise, she does look a little Native American and a lot like my Great Grandmother Bessie. The features on her face and her expression look all too familiar.  Although, I never really believed the native american reference from family members before since most African Americans believe anyone with long hair had native american ancestry…I can see it now.  There may be some truth to those statements.

I intend on getting additional prints made of this photo and giving it to family groups of her descendents. There should be more than copies of this photo. Hopefully, it won’t get lost in future years.

Possible Slave Owners – Hinton

O.k. So, this morning, I’m following my friend’s advice and getting active on message boards.  I’m also, transcribing my horrible interview notes from my May 2009 interview with my 85 year old cousin on my Banks side of the family.  Lately, I’ve been so busy with work, that I haven’t even had a chance to think about genealogy let alone look anything up.  But, this morning, I was feeling productive. 

So, I pulled out the notes and remembered that she (85 yr old cousin) gave me the name of possible slave owners of my Banks line.  HINTON.  She said that’s what her father told her.  Her father being the brother of my 2nd great grandmother and the son of Caleb Banks.  So, she’s a 1st hand source. An amazing 1st hand source I should add. 

So, here I am on Ancestry.com remembering all the things I looked at before.  Such as on the 1870 census, living with Caleb Banks and his family, was a Matilda HINTON age 20.  She’s a black woman listed as a laborer.  I saw this before, but wasn’t sure what to make of it. 

Another thing that I mentally filed away, was the fact that a few of the death certificates for my family stated the Hinton Burial Ground.  Now, maybe there’s an answer.  Maybe the reason why it statest he Hinton Burial Ground on death certificates is due to the Hintons were the slave owner.  Maybe these slave owners designated a portion of their property to bury slaves. 

Also, 2 houses down, there is a George W. HINTON.  Going to the 1860 Slave Schedules, George HINTON owned 10 slaves, ranging in age from 4 to 45.  However, none of these ages match Caleb Banks or anyone else in his household…exactly.  But, we all know that the age of an ancestor gets changed over time.  So, I can’t exclude him as a possible slave owner for this reason.  Now, I have to research George Hinton to see what I can find. 

Two houses down from George Hinton on the 1870 census, there is an E.L. Hinton.  E.L. Hinton owned 26 slaves.  As a matter of fact, various HINTONS owned a total of 73 slaves in Pasquotank county in 1860.  So, it appears that I need to concentrate my research on the Hintons in NC.

The backtracking begins….

Another thing I have to do is find out how my ancestor, Caleb Banks, came to own the 39 acres of land above.  Upon his death, the land was divided among his children.  I wasn’t able to find a record of sale to Caleb Banks in the Pasquotank Register of Deeds office.  However, I was told that there should be one howing his ownership.

No joint researchers

I have been crazy busy lately at work which has left me not time to blog, let alone think about genealogy. I know right..so sad!

But, since starting my search 2 years ago, I have come across ZERO fellow researchers.  Granted, I’m researching 2 specific counties in NC (Pasquotank and Camden) and 4 surnames: Banks, McCoy, Lowry & Spence.  Still no one.  Not one descendant from these other lines are researching the tree…that I know of.  

Why is that? Why aren’t more people, mainly African Americans, researching their roots? Is this not important??

My interviewing skills SUCK!


On 2 sheets of paper, is an interview with an knowledgeable family member. She is the granddaughter of my 3rd great grandfather. To me, that blows my mind. Let me say it again, she is the granddaughter of my 3rd great grandfather, Caleb Banks. This is his land that was divided after his death among his children. I had the best time talking with her during my trip. The amount of knowledge she has is amazing! She’s 85 years old and you would think she’s 25+ years younger. She’s is sharp, vibrant and active. Compared to some of the other elders that I’ve talked to in the family, she is a young woman. However, she may be the oldest out of everyone!

But anywho, back to my sucky interview with her. My 2 pages of notes that I have are only legible my me. lol. The 2 pages started off professional enough. Several questions listed, space for me to write the answer and space to add more. Easy right? HA..not for me. Apparently, I write as scatterbrained as I think. I have notes every were on the paper. Sure, the questions were answered, but she gave so much more information during the interview, I didn’t have time to find an appropriate place to write it. So, I have words jotted here, and names jotted there. Of course, it only makes sense to me.

For example from my notes:

Laura Mae Lowry & Hazel Lowry first cousins but brought up together
John Banks owned land on 158
Henry was William Henry Banks.
Almond Banks Jr. owns family land

This is an example of my scatterbrained interview. I’m going to try and transcribe it into a legible interview that will make sense in the future. I need a better interview strategy.

Maybe next time, I’ll try a recorder instead.

Researching Humans…

I just completed the newsletter interview with my 80 year old 1st cousin 2 times removed. She is the grandchild of my 2nd great grandparents, William and Harriet Lowry.

My cuz, Tina, is usually responsible for this, but she tried on several occasions get it done. However, this cousin was not available when she called. So I told her I’d try. BINGO – she was available.

She gave me some insight in to who my 2nd great grandparents were as people. She said that William was a fun man. He played with all his grandchildren and she remembers him having a garden that she would play in. He was short ‘about 5’ somethin’ and dark skinned. Harriet was a ‘big fat light skinned’ woman. She was also somewhat taller than her husband. She had long hair down her back. She enjoyed when this cousin would come over and cook for her. She also said that they both were very nice people.

Now, this cousin was only about 8 or 9 when her grandparents passed. So imagine…cooking at that age.

It was nice getting to hear what type of people they were and it helps put more humanity to the names. Hearing for the umpteenth time that Harriet had long hair down her back (from someone that actually saw here), is something. In African American genealogy research, it is often assumed that if an ancestor was noted having long hair or long dark/black hair, they must be Native American. Of course, this is just and assumption and we all know…you should never ass-u-me.

Surnames I’m Researching

I know I’m late but I’m trying to catch up. But, a few weeks ago, other blogger began posting the surnames their researching. I believe Geneablogie was the first one (I got a Note from him on Facebook).

For those of you who don’t know, the surnames that I’m researching are listed on the right side. I try and tag my blogs with the surnames I’m writing about.

Pasquotank County, North Carolina

  • Spence
  • Lowry/Laurie/Lowery/Laury/Lowrey
  • Banks
  • Williams
  • Ferebee/Ferbee
  • Howell
  • McPherson

Camden County, North Carolina

  • McCoy
  • Spence (Want to see if the African-American Spence’s of Camden are related to the Pasquotank Spence’s)

OMG!!!!

Oh My Genealogy!!!!!!!!

Mechie once told me to “the Ancestors are assisting us” and George Geder always ends his posts and comments with “Guided by the Ancestors”. Unless you research your family tree, you won’t understand this. However, those of us who are can feel themselves being lead in a certain direction.

Yesterday, while going thru my spreadsheet of ancestors, I stopped at Martha Lowry (B: 1899, D: 1916). She was only 16 when she died and I had already looked at her death certificate. The cause of death was unknown and the informant was James Armstrong, not her parents, which I thought was odd. Martha is the sister of the 2 sisters that married 2 brothers. However, yesterday I looked at the death certificate again and noticed something that I didn’t see before.

Place of Burial: Mill Pond Ground.

How did I miss this earlier?!?!?!?!?!?! Could this be the Hinton Burial Ground that has been eluding me for the past year?!?!

I have asked SEVERAL family members that live in Pasquotank and no one knows about the Hinton Burial Ground. However, after speaking to my dad about this one day, he did mention about a burial ground down the street from my great grandmothers house (Mill Pond Road). The same street several of my relatives have lived for YEARS! So, in recent days, I have asked several family members about burial grounds on Mill Pond Road. Low and behold, several family members remember a burial ground off a dirt road about 1 mile down the street.

I got chill bumps yesterday when I spoke with one of my cousins about it and he confirmed. If this is the Hinton Burial Ground, it’s an important piece of our family. The parents of our Spence-Lowry connection are buried here. Typing this is giving me chills!!!!!

I got chill bumps this morning when I spoke with my Cuz Tina and told me what her father said. “My father said that there is a cemetery on Mill Pond road. It’s at the end of the road.”

The hairs on my arms stood up for at least 2 minutes. I just kept thinking this must be it!!!!!

My dad is going to Pasquotank this weekend for a funeral. I’ve asked him to see if he could find this burial ground and take a picture.

If it is still there, I intend to make it my mission to get this restored.

*Update- I went back and looked at other siblings of Martha Lowry an found a sister of that was buried at Mill Pond Burial Ground also.*

**Update again-I was clicking on the Pasquotank County NC Gen Web site and then clicked on the Pasquotank County Government link. Wouldn’t you know, the county is trying to identify these unknown cemeteries!! I think I found mine.**

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Now What?!?!

Now that my family reunion is over, I’m feeling a little lost on what I should do next. Of course I’m researching my family tree, but I had a project. It was to present the family tree at the reunion. Project completed. NOW WHAT?

I have several ideas in the works. Still working on the family website and trying to decide should I have one or convert it to the NING.com site. If I keep the website, I want to have pages for all branches of my tree (Spence, Lowry, Banks, McCoy). We’ll see what happens.

I plan on starting another project called “Millpond Project”.

I’ve been told for many years that everyone on this road is family. Now, I aim to prove it. After doing some quick research on a few different people on that road, I have been able to connect them back to my tree. In addition, since these are living family, I won’t be posting about them just their ancestors.

I am working on a mystery regarding a cousin. I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing him since he passed before I began this journey. He was the nephew of my great grandfather, Aaron Edward Spence. However, when I asked how. Of course, no one could tell me. Prior to the reunion, I was able to track his daughter down and ask her some questions about her father. It’s amazing what information you can find. More about this mystery on another blog.

The family network site is going well, and I like it much better than a Yahoo or Google group since it doesn’t have to be tied to having one type of e-mail address to use it. Thanks to Mechie for introducing it to me and thanks to my family who have signed on and invited more family to join!