I'm back...

...hopefully for good.

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything. But, I haven't abandoned the blog. I've been busy trying to manage a lot of tasks.

Anywho...last month on the 20th, I went to the Black Family History Day in Morrow GA. That was a 5 hour drive for me, but it was my first genealogy related trip since starting my research in 2007. I can't even begin to describe how much I enjoyed it! There were so many African American people that were knee deep into their research. Me, on the other hand, I'm only about toenail deep in comparison. It was at the NARA in Morrow, GA and they gave excellent presentations regarding resources to use when researching your ancestors. Many resources I didn't know about. Especially since I'm just getting started with my hands on research and doing less internet research. Also, I was able to meet Melvin J. Collier. Melvin is one of my friends on Facebook and I was extremely delighted when he instantly recognized me. He's the author of Mississippi to Africa, A Journey of Discovery and I got a copy of my book signed. One day, I could be worth some money ;)

I highly recommend this book researching their African American ancestors. Melvin shows you in his book how he traced his ancestors and the tools he used specifically to get the information. I'm half way thru the book and I'm jealous of the pictures he has of his ancestors!!! I'm only 2 years in, but I haven't turned up treasures that he has.

The following weekend, Feb 27th, I went to Elizabeth City, NC. My father, daughter and myself left Thursday morning for our 9 hour drive. I was excited on the way up. My plan was to spend all day Friday at the county clerks office researching my ancestor, Buenna Spence. Friday came and my dad dropped me off at the county clerks office. However, I made a rookie mistake. I didn't make sure they had the book I needed before I left. I did call and made sure that I could access their records and hours of operations. But, when I got there, the book I needed, 1922 court records, was sent out to archives. DARNIT!!! I didn't let myself get upset. I just got to know the other dusty records they had on hand. And they have a lot!!! This was my first time doing research in a courthouse and I just wanted to look at everything. I viewed wills from 1800. I was loving every bit of it. I didn't find anything about my ancestors because I was just 'looking'. I didn't know what I was looking for since my original mission was squashed. But, I made a decision that I'll go back for an entire week. That way, I'll have more time to do what I need to do.

The most important part of the trip was sitting and taking to my grandmother and grand uncle about stories they heard and people they know from around town. My grand uncle has a lot of stories because he would sit and listen to his mother when she told them about family. Not many of the other siblings, my grandmother included, listened to their mom when she talked about 'olden days'. But my uncle did. I need to get back there and sit with him and pick his brain.

Last but not least, I think I know exactly where the Millpond Burial Ground is. This is a picture of a spooky old house that I would need to past in order to get to the field where the cemetery allegedly is located..(that was a long sentence). I got was so excited to be able to see the house that's on the map in person! We also went to Gallop Cemetery on Blindman Road. Thursday and Friday in Elizabeth City were cold but dry days. However, Saturday, the day we went to look at cemeteries, it rained!! It was freezing! But, I had my tail outside taking pictures of headstones...in the cold and wet. Nothing but adrenaline was pushing me at that point. I've never been in a cemetery before, so I don't know proper cemetery etiquette when it comes to the dead. So, I just said, 'Sorry', if I stepped on any graves.

I didn't recognize any names on the headstones in my family tree. But I took pictures of all of them. My cuz, Tina, is researching her dad's side of the family and several of these names are in her tree. I plan on posting the pictures to Find A Grave once I get some time.

Research here I come...

Today, I officially started researching my family tree again. Thanks to Ancestry.com. They sent me the upgrade to my FTM 2008 for free. So now I have FTM 2009 on my laptop. This makes researching my family tree much easier.

Today, I'm researching Buena Spence. Buena is an ancestor that has an interesting story to tell. She did something that caused her mom to be called as a witness to her trial. Not only that, there is a possibility that she had children that did not belong to her husband. I know, I know. You're saying that these family secrets should be left buried. Well, I DISAGREE!!! Everyone wants to know the true story, but few will ask those question.

Before my family reunion last year, an aunt of mine sent me obituaries for various family members. She sent me one for I. Joseph Williams. While researching him, I found no connection to my family. I called my aunt and she told me that he was her first cousin on her dad's side. He was his sisters son. I had his birth certificate in hand and I told her that it didn't make sense. His mother is listed as a non-Spence. She couldn't tell me which sister because she didn't know. I just thought that she was mistaken and put the obituary to the side.

Well, a few weeks before the reunion, I got a 'wild hair' and it was bugging me to find out who this person was. I talked to several other family members and they led me in the direction of I. Joseph's daughter. I tracked her down and just asked her "How are you related to the Spence family?".

She told me the most interesting story.

She said that the woman on his birth certificate was not his real mother but she was his step mother. She said that his real mother was married when he was conceived but the man she was married to wasn't his father. As a matter of fact, he has another brother from this union. When his real mother died, the 'government' came in to take the boys (she had 2 sons with this outside man) and put them in orphanages, I think. At that point, the real father stepped up and claimed them to be his children. From that point on, he and his wife at the time raised the boys.

WOW...my aunt wasn't crazy! It seems that Buena was the bit of a wild child and has a good story to tell.

So, next week when I go to Elizabeth City, I will be spending the day at the courthouse to find the court records from 1922. I'm extremely excited!!!

Why we're clueless.

Talking to my dad yesterday, I realize that as a family, we’re clueless.  We don’t know who are relatives are, let alone our ancestors.  I put in a perspective he could understand. 

I told him that I know my grandmother’s siblings and their descendents.  But, he doesn’t know his grandparents siblings and/or descendents.  That is a generation of cousins he has no idea about.  That’s what makes us clueless. 

But, that’s one of the beautiful things about family.  Because we have the same blood running thru our veins, there is an instant connection to them as well as to the past.  There is similarity in lives that you can not forget.  Because they’re family, you’re always connected.   

I’ve spent the last several months trying to reconnect with those family members no one knows about.  I’ve called cousins as distant as possible with a simple “Hello, you don’t know me but you’re my cousin.  My great-grandmother was Bessie Spence.”  From there, they have welcomed my phone call.  It’s beautiful.   Bessie & Rosa Spence were the matriarchs of the family.  Everyone knows those names.  It’s like getting a VIP pass to someone life by saying you’re descendent from them. 

I truly believe my calling is to reconnect my family that has long gone distant.  Family rumors and disagreements cause some family members to stop reuniting.  Others no longer see the importance of keeping up with cousins. 

I always find it silly when some cousins are to scared or nervous to call other cousins.  I’ll call anyone.  Why be scared to talk to family?!?

But as we move forward, I hope that my efforts will show my family that regardless of anything, because we’re family, I love you.  I may not even know you. 

Organizing

I've been following DearMYRTLE's checklist on getting organized. If you need to get organized and don't know where to begin, this checklist is for you!!!

Part of the checklist was to get the items for your office that you wanted. I've always wanted a 2 drawer filing cabinet. Office Depot just happened to have this one on sale. It perfectly matches my desk (that my mom found at a thrift store for $20!!). It also subs as a nightstand for the other side of my bed.

I also started on the Family Search Indexing project and indexed 50 records. Trying to pay my genealogical dues in a way. It's very easy! If you're good at data entry, you'll be excellent at this.

Also, I will be attending the Black Family History Day in Morrow, GA. As this is my first genealogy related trip, I'm extremely excited. Also, I will be getting my copy of Mississippi to Africa signed by the author, Melvin J. Collier!!

The week after this trip, I'm taking another relatively short genealogy/family trip to Elizabeth City. I'll get there on Friday with just enough time to do some research at the county office!!! With only one day to do official research, I will have to make sure I write a to do list for myself so I don't forget anything. Any ideas?

Late Memes

I'm late as all get out with Memes. But it doesn't mean I'm any less appreciative about receiving them.

George Geder and Genealogy Traces honored me with the Proximidade Award. The Proximidade blog award details are as follows:

"These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!

Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I've added the award to my sidebar. As a recipient, I'm supposed to nominate 8 fellow bloggers. But, all my fellow bloggers have been nominated once or twice before..plus I'm late with this.

So, I'll say..THANK YOU!!!

Also, thank you to Msteri who tagged me for an award several months ago....sorry I didn't get a chance to work on it..

New Years Resolutions...

I had the beginning of a blog post started earlier at work. But my attempts to email it to myself at home, caused me to accidentally delete it...DARNIT!! So now, I'm going to make the attempt to recreate it off of memory...oh boy.

Every year I make the attempt to make a resolution I think I can stick too. This year is no different. However, I think this years resolutions will be achievable. Because, I know you're dying to know, I'll list them for you.

• Start taking the home study course from NGS. I want to start doing my genealogy research correctly to insure my information is accurate. Maybe one day, I'll become certified.
• Research Trips. I'm planning to take one in a few months to NC to take pictures of the cemetery on Mill Pond Road.
• Treat my genealogy and family unity projects as a career. A career being different than a job of course. Career is something you want to do. A job is what you do to get by.
  
• Get more into promoting my blog. I love the fact that I can do a search for 'Spence Lowry' on Google and Yahoo and my blog is the first to pop up.
  
• Get organized. (Thanks to Msteri for the link) My records are some of everywhere and I have no real organization. More like, 'I know where it is' organized.
• Post to my blog more constantly. The past few months I got caught up with doing a family reunion letter and creating a database for the family, that I let the genealogy slide a bit. I'm getting back on that horse soon!\
• Possibly graduate my blog to a Wordpress blog. I've noticed alot of people with wordpress blogs and I love what they can do with them. I have a domain name, I just need to look into it a little bit more.
  

Home related resolutions.

• Only buy the foods I really plan on cooking. So many times I end up with meat in the freezer that eventually gets thrown out due to freezer burn. From now on, I will cook everything before I buy new. I think I'll save more money that way.
  
• Get organized. Yeah...home is a tad unorganized....still on the philosophy of 'I know where it is'. I need to do better!
• Pay off bills.
  
• Eat healthy. Hopefully lose weight. But seriously eat healthier.
  
• um...that's about it.
  

I know I had more, but my memory sucks right now!!!

Life has settled….

….a little. Life changes constantly whether you want it to or not. Since my last post, I have moved, maintaining our family database, started working on scanning pictures, maintaining the family website and generally keeping busy.

The life changing event is the move. Don’t really want to elaborate but, I believe everything happens for a reason.

Now that I seem to have a little more time on my hands, and the projects are well on their way, I can get back into my research. I took a few months off because I was feverishly trying to get our first family newsletter out (Cousin Connections) by the first of December. Mission accomplished! With the help of family members on input and editing, the newsletter went out and the feedback has been great! The next issue is scheduled for March 2009.

We also have an ISSN. For those of you who don’t know, an ISSN is a unique 8-digit number used to identify print or electronic periodical publications. The benefit of having this is, our newsletter will be available for generations to come.

I may have created enough buzz with the family that they have started looking for the cemetery off of Mill Pond road. Heard it thru the grapevine, that some family members have actually taken pictures of some headstones at other cemeteries. I’m excited and hope to see those soon.

Thanks to Wendy who tagged me. I didn’t get a chance to complete it, but I appreciate being tagged and that I was still thought of during my hiatus!!

I plan on taking a research trip in February (depending on the weather) to Elizabeth City. This will be my first one and I'm excited about doing hands on research. Maybe I can find the court records that put my 2nd great grandmother, Cora Spence, in jail.

I don't want you to think that I disappeared. I'm still here and will be in genealogy mode full force come the beginning of the year.

Hiatus

With writing a newsletter and the holidays coming up, I hadn't had much time for research. I also hadn't had that urge to focus on anyone particular for a while. Maybe my ancestors are busy too. I don't feeling them guiding me towards an ancestor, but I do feel them guiding me towards unity.

See, with my family, we have had a separation for far to long. For reasons unknown to me, Spence-Lowry family has been a bit divided. This is my own opinion. My family may not agree, however it does appear that way. So, my quest has been to try to unite my family. The 2 sisters that married 2 brothers.

Usually our family reunion consists mostly of 1 sister and brother's family. The Bessie and Ed side. However on the Rosa and Enoch side, very few come to the reunion. I can understand why. But, I'm not going to air that on here. But, what I want for the coming years is for both sides of the family to feel connected. I don't want one side to feel more or less important than the other. There is a reason why we call it the Spence-Lowry family. Because it's the 2 sisters that married the 2 brothers. We are strongly connected and we should remain that way.

Contacting the Living

Since my family reunion, I haven’t done much genealogy research. With economic stresses in my life, my mind hadn’t been too focused on genealogy. However, it has been focused on family.

I started a family newsletter. The first one will be sent out in December 2008. I’ve requested an ISSN for the newsletter so the Library of Congress will keep each issue on record. I figure future generations will have something to look back on.

I have also been contacting the living. We have a large family but we barely know each other. More importantly, we barely see each other. There are cousins that I have never seen. Well, these past few weeks, I have been calling those family members. Of course, every phone call begins with “Hi, this is A. Spence, I’m the great granddaughter of Bessie” just so they know who I am.

I’m so glad that I have done this. In the beginning I truly thought that I was going to have resistance to the phone calls and questions. But, everyone that I called has been forthcoming with information. Not only that, they have been so giving with other ‘living’ family members #’s and addresses. Everyone seems to love the idea of uniting the family and hopefully in the coming years, well the most distant of cousins coming to the reunions.

But, I believe the happiest thing was finding out that I have a cousin in FL. All these years, thinking that my family and my uncle’s family were the only ones in FL, I learned that I have a 3rd cousin living about 4 hours from me. She doesn’t know me and I don’t know her but we talked for a while last night.

I'm still here!

Hello,

I haven't blogged in a while but I wanted to let you know that I'm still here. I've been a little stressed about my job lately due to the current market. My company was bought by another and I won't know the status of my position until December 1st.

So, with that, I haven't had the push to do research although I feel my ancestors invading my daily thoughts about it.

Anywho, just wanted to say HELLO and I'm still here.