Tag: ancestry
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The Black Church and the Flowers Family (Part One)
This three part series will explore the Flowers’ religion and church affiliation beginning with Rachel’s maternal grandfather, Reverend Joseph J. “J.J.” Sawyer of North Carolina. If you are new to my blog, I encourage you to use this family tree as a helpful guide. It is too huge to recreate digitally, but I will try…
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The Mystery Behind the Flowers Family Photos
To learn more about the Flowers family check out my about page, previous posts, or the Flowers family website (which will be updated). Over the summer of 2013, I entered the doors of the Schomburg Center as a lost and slightly nervous researcher (I am such an introvert). I had just returned from Pittsburgh as…
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The Curious Case of Theodore Flowers
This past week has been full of much needed research. I spent much of my time searching through databases at Newspaper.com. It is a helpful tool when conducting genealogy; however, not for African American research. They have a limited number of black newspapers provided, which made me extremely upset, but hey it was a free trail.…
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The Men of the Flowers Family: Theodore Flowers (1903-1933)
Just a friendly reminder: Doing one’s family history is difficult work, yet conducting someone else’s family history is horrendous (rewarding, but horrendous). Also: Always save drafts periodically or you will find yourself writing the same post twice =( What I do all day, everyday This is the Flowers Family, well part of the Flowers family.…
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A New Find: The Death Record of Nancy J. Sawyer
A few months ago, Pennsylvania released the state’s death records from 1906 to 1963. I must have overlooked the death record of Rachel’s mother, Nancy Sawyer, in my initial research…#iamafailure. This is a relatively short post, I just wanted you to see what I discovered about Nancy. 1. Her middle name–Throughout the majority of my research, I never had…
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The Family Poet: Mrs. Geraldine Wilson
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture holds the largest archival holding of information regarding the Flowers family, particularly letters between Rachel and her niece, Geraldine, and documents and artifacts Geraldine collected throughout her lifetime. This includes her academic writings, personal collection of newspapers, personal writing, and even her poetry collection. The next few…
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Reintroducing the Flowers Family
If you are new to this blog, you might be wondering, Who are the Flowers?. Since 2012, I have been conducting research on this family’s history beginning with Rachel Helen Flowers, the first African American student to attend my alma mater. Uncovering her biography led to an even greater story of her family’s vast and…
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Slave Schedules, Take Three: Harry Flowers
What do we know about Harry? Well, he was born on February 23, 1845,at times I list his birth year as 1846 because of his Civil War enlistment record, but I need to start using the date from his death certificate completed by his daughter, Rachel, in 1928. For all other information, I use the 1880 United States Federal…
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The Journey in Uncovering Harry Flowers’ Early Life: The Llambias
When I enlisted and before that I lived here in St. Augustine. I was born and brought up here…I was a slave and belonged to Llambias There were four brothers and they all lived together and we all lived right in the yard with them and I did not belong to any particular one. They…
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History and Good Guessing: A Revisit of Harry Flowers’ Early Life in St. Augustine, Florida
Graduate school is coming along well. Today marks the end to my fourth week of classes. I amenrolled in three courses (one being online) this semester while working and hopefully securing an internship [crossing fingers] in the coming month. Sadly, I have placed research on the back burner at times in order to complete my weekly readings, essays,…
Diary of a Historian 