Tag: family history
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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.…
-
From Mother to Daughter: “What Do I Tell My Children Who Are Black?”
History helps us to understand who we are and how deep our roots have grown. It teaches us that we are a people with a glorious past that had its beginning in the dark corners of African civilizations centuries ago and spread to the lighted civilizations of today. In the following pages you will discover…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Slave Schedules, Take Two
I confronted my first slave schedule during my early stages of my research and it was a tough document to go through. Link The above image is from the United States 1850 Slave Schedule in Calhoun County, Florida. Featured is slave owner William H. Flower. I doubt Mr. Flowers was the owner of Harry Flowers;…
-
The Secret Life of Ernestine Hagins
There are times in my research when I venture away from the Flowers family, yet this time I did not have to venture out too far. Ernestine Hagins (or Earnestine) was the wife of Chauncey Flowers, Rachel’s eldest brother. This post is dedicated to her and the Hagins family. Ernestine I. Hagins entered the Flowers…
Diary of a Historian 