Louisburg Road Trip — and a Birthday!

That's me, socially distanced, as I talked with the current occupants of the William R. King house, in Louisburg.

Today, I took a quick trip down to Louisburg, NC to check on my family's property. While there, I took my usual ride through the northern part of town, where most of the beautiful historic homes are. For the first time, I met the owner (not pictured) and current inhabitants of the KING family home, which was the original property of William R. King, the one-time enslaver of my great-grandmother, Precilla Shaw Yarborough. The house, which apparently has some paranormal activity going on, will be featured on an upcoming episode of the show, “Ghost Nation,” which airs on The Travel Channel. It turns out that the young lady pictured has been doing research on the King family, so we will be collaborating in the future! (To read about my great-grandmother's connection to the King family, click here.)

The next two pictures show my ancestral property, which was built by my grandfather, Calvin Yarborough, Jr. and his brother Samuel, back in 1911, and a side shot of St. Paul’s United Presbyterian Church, founded in the 1870s, just across the street. My great-grandfather, Calvin Yarborough, Sr., was one of the church’s founding trustees.

Though she died in 1977, this will forever and always be "my grandma's house" to me. :)

St. Paul's United Presbyterian Church, or, as it was previously known,
 "The Colored Presbyterian Church"

I was not really in the mood to take the almost 3-hour ride to Louisburg, today, but something was pulling and tugging at me to go. Once I started on my way, I realized what it was. Today would have been the 100th birthday of my sweet aunt, Susie Yarborough Hawkins, my father's sister. She was the last to live in the family home (shown above), until her death in 2013, at 93 years old.

Happy heavenly birthday, Aunt Sue!

Thanks for reading,
Renate

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Six Degrees of Separation - Maternal and Paternal Ancestors in Same Church: Who Knew?

Six Degrees of Separation
You know what they say about "six degrees of separation," right? According to Wikipedia.org, it's the idea that all people are six (or fewer) social connections away from one another.  Well, this belief has proven true, over and over again, in my research; and today's finding is no exception.

Family Origins
My father's family is mostly from Louisburg, Franklin County, NC. My mother's maternal side is originally from Littleton, NC (Halifax and Warren Counties at different times), but her line migrated to Norfolk, VA around the beginning of the 1900s. I have researched both sides, thoroughly, and that research is ongoing. Today, I was looking for information about one of my father's paternal aunts, Quinea/Queenie YARBOROUGH, and her husband, Rev. Joel W. KING. both of whom were originally from Louisburg. I'd discovered, some time ago, that Joel died in Norfolk, which intrigued me, so I was using my access to ProQuest's Historical Newspapers: Black Newspapers Collection to see if I could find mention of him (or Quinea) in the Norfolk Journal and Guide.

My initial search was a little frustrating, because most of the results were for another Rev. Joel King, the brother of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. However, once I added the middle initial, "W", and removed the "Rev." from my search, I ended up with one very eye-opening result. It was an article with the following headline: "Minister, Sister Will Receive Double Funeral." Whaaat? I went on to read the article and learned that it was, indeed, about the correct Joel King and that, sadly, he and his sister, who also lived in Norfolk, had passed just a day apart, both after "a long illness." The two were to be funeralized, together, on June 25, 1966, the same day this article ran.

So, what does this have to do with the "six degrees" rule? Keep reading to find out!

Jerusalem Baptist Church
Jerusalem Baptist Church, in Norfolk, VA, has been home to my mother's family since at least the 1930s. My grandmother, Mary Davis, began attending there, with her children sometime during that decade, and remained a faithful member until her death in 1986. My uncle, the late Howell Hill, Sr. was head of the Deacon Board (among other leadership roles) and was one of the church's most faithful and dedicated members for his entire life. Just last year, in May 2019, our family attended a beautiful recognition ceremony, held in his honor, at Jerusalem. My mother, though we lived across the bay, in Hampton, always maintained her connection to Jerusalem, and attended, from time to time, for special services. She also was invited to speak there on more than one occasion. All my life, I've known of my maternal family's tie to Jerusalem, and I remember, dearly, their pastor during my childhood years, Reverend T.M. Venable.

Here I am with my first cousins in May 2019, in the Fellowship Hall at Jerusalem. 

Our family showed up for  the service to honor my uncle, Howell Hill (seated center) for his lifetime of service at Jerusalem, in May 2019. Less than two weeks later, he went to heaven. 

What I didn't know about my family's connection to Jerusalem is that it also extended to my paternal side! Yes, in reading the article about the double funeral, I learned that my paternal ancestor, Quinea/Queenie YARBOROUGH King, along with her husband Joel, and his sister, Mrs. Louisiana Cooke, were all also members of Jerusalem, and thus, would have, without a doubt, known and interacted with my maternal family! This is amazing to me, and I can't help but wonder if any of my family members knew this!  After all, my mother and father met sometime around 1956-57. However, there is no evidence that my father ever attended services at Jerusalem with my mother, since she was living and working in Hampton by the time they met. They married in 1958 and my mom quickly joined my father in Bremerhaven, Germany, where he was stationed at the time. From there, they moved to Cleveland, OH and then to Hampton, VA, and I believe chances are slim that they would have "crossed the water" with their four children to go to church at Jerusalem.

Who Knew?
I have to believe that, although my parents didn't have their ceremony at Jerusalem, their union certainly would have been announced to the church. If Quinea and Joel were active church members, certainly their antennae would have been raised upon hearing that my mother married someone named YARBOROUGH, from Louisburg, and most assuredly she would have inquired of my grandmother about it, so I believe this connection must have been a known one, and just another of the many tidbits of information that no one ever bothered to share with me about our family. Quinea was, after all, my father's aunt. She was his (deceased) father's older sister. Oh, and not only did these two sides of my family share a church family, but they are also buried in the same cemetery - Calvary Cemetery, in Norfolk. The next time I go to visit my Norfolk ancestors' graves, I will definitely be visiting my native Louisburg family, also!

It's amazing to me, just to to think of this. Two parts of my very disjointed family, worshipping and serving in the same space at the same time - and no one, at least to my knowledge, seemed to have thought to mention this to me in all the interviews (inquisitions, really, lol) I conducted of my elder family members who might have known. It's another family history mystery, for me; but I'm so glad I uncovered it, today!

And the research continues....


Renate


Sources:

Wikipedia contributors. (2020, February 15). Six degrees of separation. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:56, March 10, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Six_degrees_of_separation&oldid=940887573

Minister, sister will receive double funeral. (1966, Jun 25). New Journal and Guide (1916-2003) Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.virginiamemory.com/docview/568893686?accountid=44788

More Questions Than Answers - My Grandfather's Social Security Application

Temporary Joy?
Today, I received a copy of the Social Security Application for my maternal grandfather, Daniel Webster Hill. I was so excited when I got the envelope from my mailbox, especially since I'd kind of forgotten I'd ordered this document. Daniel's life, as well as that of his mother and full siblings, has been challenging to document, either because of conflicting or absence of information.

1937 Social Security Application for Daniel Webster Hill

My hope, when I ordered this document was that it would provide conclusive data, so I was quite excited as I carefully tore open the envelope. Instead, its contents have led me to more questions as I try to uncover the true facts of my grandfather's life.

Dissecting the Document

Out of this entire document, only two items bore no concern; my grandfather's gender (male) and race (Negro). Everything else either provided confirmation of my research or conflicted with previous findings, thus inciting further questions that will need to be answered.

Name (Red):Thankfully, this document confirms my grandfather's full name: Daniel Webster HILL.

Address (Purple and Brown): This was the first issue on the document. The address given is not the address of the home in which my grandparents lived while they were together. Family lore has always been that my grandfather left (abandoned) the family when my mother was 4 and her brother was 7. That would have been sometime between September 10, 1938 and March 23, 1939. However, this application is dated February 25, 1937, which precedes that date range by over a year and a half, making my mother not even 3, yet, and her brother, only 5. The only thing I can think is that perhaps he came back after this date, before leaving for good.

BUT.... there's another thing these two items actually corroborate for me! My late uncle, Howell Hill, who I interviewed numerous times about his and my mother's family and ancestry, told me something I haven't forgotten. In describing what he recalls as a domestic abuse situation between Daniel and my grandmother, Mary, my uncle told me how when Daniel Hill first left them, he just moved into a room in the house next door, and they would see him watching them from an upstairs window. He expressed how afraid this made him, because Daniel Hill "was so mean". Well, I used google maps to look up the address on the SS application, and, lo and behold, 1301 W. 42(nd) St. is right next door (though across a small street) to my grandmother's house, 1273 W. 42nd Street.

In this current-day photo from Google Maps, the house on the left (1273) is the house my mother grew up in. The house on the right (1301) is the house Daniel Hill was living in at the time he filled out his Social Security application. Notice the upstairs side windows on this house, which directly face my grandmother's home, making my uncle's story seem quite likely to be true.

Employment (Yellow/Blue): In 1930, according to the Census, my grandfather was working as a Longshoreman at the Pier (usually meaning Lambert's Point). However, at the time of his SSA, he states that he's unemployed. Could this have been part of the issue that played into the problems he and my grandmother were (apparently) having? Also, Item 13 indicates that Daniel was registered as an employee with the W.P.A., something I wasn't aware of and will need to research further.

Age (Orange): Daniel Hill's true birth year has been an issue since I began researching him, many years ago. It seems that he began using this 1885 birth year around the time he married my grandmother. He was much older than she, so perhaps this was his way of smoothing that out. I really don't know. But, Daniel shows as a one-year-old in the household of his parents in 1880 and, in 1900, he is a boarder in the home of his mother and stepfather, enumerated as 20 years old with a birthdate given as March 1879. It's not until after his 1926 marriage to my grandmother that I first see him being referred to as a younger man -- with his age being enumerated in 1930 as 40, with whoever gave the information stating that he'd been 36 at the time of his first marriage. From this point on, any documents I've found on Daniel Hill give him this younger age.

1880 Census showing one-year-old Daniel W. in the household with his parents and sisters, in Tyrrell County NC. Birthplace is given as North Carolina for the entire family.

Place of Birth (White): I have seen Daniel's place of birth given as Virginia on other documents, but I'm confused about that, since I know the family (both his mother and father) were from North Carolina, and he is enumerated with them, at just one year old, in that state. However, I guess it is possible that his mother could have been in Virginia (for some reason) when he was born, though I really doubt it. He lists "Gilmerton, Norfolk Co., VA" as his birthplace on this application. This is, indeed, where his mother, Pinkey, later lived and ran a boarding house with his stepfather, and where, according to the newspaper announcement of her death, she was buried, but she doesn't appear there before 1900. Perhaps she was visiting a family member at the time of his birth, just as she was at the time of her death? This will require further research.

Death notice from Norfolk, VA Journal and Guide, announcing the death of Pinkie (Hill) Howell

Parents' Names (Green/Pink) - Daniel confirms his parent's names. but with exceptions. His father was known as "Henry" Hill, but his full name was actually Charles Henry Hill. (I think it's quite possible that Daniel may not have known that.) His mother, Pinkie's, maiden name has been another source of confusion. She'd been enslaved on Somerset Plantation, in Creswell, NC, which was owned by the COLLINS family. Her father was Mack TREDWELL, but sometime prior to Emancipation, her mother married a man named Peter KING. Pinkie has been recorded as using each of those surnames on different documents, so it's hard to know which (if either) was actually her "legal" maiden name. It does seem clear, though, that she considered Peter King to be her father figure and that seems to be what Daniel understood, also, according to this document.

Social Security Applications are typically very useful documents for genealogists; however, as this one shows, sometimes that usefulness can provide a mixture of evidence-types for the researcher: direct and indirect, consistent or conflicting, and, sometimes, negative or even absent. A careful researcher will study all of the information on a document, analyzing each item and following up with further research to work towards solving conflicts and/or filling in blanks. This SSA for my grandfather, Daniel W. Hill certainly is leaving me with more work to do, but I am up to and looking forward to the challenge!

Thanks for reading,

Renate

Sources:

 United States Social Security Application, Form SS-5, Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service: Daniel Webster Hill, February 25, 1937.

United States Federal Census, Year: 1880; Census Place: Scuppernong, Tyrrell, North Carolina; Roll: 983; Family History Film: 1254983; Page: 269D; Enumeration District: 134; Image: 0453.

New Journal and Guide (1916-2003); June 1, 1929; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Norfolk Journal and Guide, p. 4

Link to Google Maps:

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.8825692,-76.3056901,3a,75y,178.07h,100.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sARZsrxIrOU2ucti0xuZT-g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

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Finding Precilla - Uncovering the Life of My Formerly-Enslaved Great-Grandmother

I’ve been working to uncover the details of the life of my formerly-enslaved great-grandparents, Calvin and Precilla YARBOROUGH, since I "officially" began my research, in 1997. It took some time, but after numerous visits to courthouses, libraries, and the NC State Archives, I was finally able to first determine their status as formerly enslaved (2007), and then to piece together some of the data to create a timeline of Calvin's life. In the course of doing this work, I’ve been on the lookout for any information about the origins of, my great grandmother, Precilla, but it’s been tough to track her down, because I’ve never found any definitive records of her existence, before the 1866 Cohabitation Record, which is the document that confirmed for me that she and Calvin had, indeed, been enslaved.

Click here to read an earlier post about my search for Precilla.

Click here to view the timeline (created in 2009) for the life of my great-grandfather, Calvin YARBOROUGH, Sr.

Today, while doing some cleaning, I ran across an old legal pad filled with notes from a July 23, 2008 visit to the NC State Archives. It’s was fun to flip through the pages of the pad, reading my plan for the research trip, and recalling the celebratory moments when I was able to confirm, strike off, or add information to my growing body of research. (This was also when I found my great-grandfather’s last owner!)

Yep -- This is what my research used to look like!

Anyway, after I’d read all the way through the pages of the pad, I decided to go back and make some notations, just in case there was something I needed to review on my next visit to the Archives (which will be in three days!).  While reading this paragraph on the second page of the notepad, I had an “ah-ha” moment.

Several years ago, after I’d gathered a significant amount of information about Great-Grandpa Calvin’s former owners (and a little about whom I suspected Precilla’s to be), I noticed that perhaps my great-grandparents had purposefully left clues about their time of enslavement, in the names they chose for their children. (See notes about this on the timeline.) 

I’d long-since interpreted the middle name of their son, Henry King Yarborough, to be a clue that Priscilla was once owned by the prominent (wealthy) KING family of Franklin County, NC, but I hadn’t found any connection for his first name. (I did, however, note that there was a “Henry” in the lot of slaves that my grandfather was bestowed to his last owner with.) Well, today, I realized that in the paragraph, above, I’d noted that William Richmond KING owned a slave named “Priciller”, and I’d jotted this question to myself, back in 2008: “What year did W.R. King die?” Realizing that I’d never answered my own question, I set out, today, to do so.

Upon searching for William Richmond King (on ancestry.com), I found my answer, right away. He died on March 6, 1888, well after the Civil War and the end of slavery. Knowing that, I can surmise that, unless there was a reason for him to have sold Precilla, it’s probable that she remained with (or connected to in some way) the King family until emancipation.

I’d also posed another question in this section of my notes: “Did Joel King leave her (Precilla) to Sarah?  I think what I meant to ask was if William, Jr. ended up leaving Priscilla to (his sister) Sarah, but the point is, I was trying to figure out if my ancestor had eventually ended up belonging to Sarah.

But, who is Sarah, you might ask? Well, Sarah is Sarah Helen King, who married Robert John SHAW, thus making her Sarah Helen SHAW. 

And, why was I asking if perhaps Joel William had left (or given) my great-grandmother to this Sarah? Well, because if you take a look at what Priscilla named her first daughter – BOO-YAH! Sarah H. Yarborough. (I presume the H to be Helen.) 

Oh! And, what surname did Pricilla give to the clerk, in 1866, when she and Calvin went to register their cohabitation as man and wife? Precilla SHAW, that’s what!

Cohabitation Records, Franklin County, 1866: North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC

Sooooo…. long ago in the days before errr-thang was on the internet, I began to put these findings together, and I deduced that there was a high degree of likelihood that my great-grandmother, Precilla, had been owned by the KING family of Franklin County, and that perhaps she had somehow ended up with the daughter of that family, Sarah Helen King Shaw, at some point prior to emancipation. Even if Precilla was never actually owned by Mrs. Shaw, it’s possible to imagine that perhaps there was an admiration for this daughter of her owner, which led Precilla to want to honor her by naming her first daughter after her.

This very worn and scribbled upon page is from the front of the reunion booklet from the first-ever YARBOROUGH Family Reunion (descendants of Calvin and Precilla), held in 1993. This was where my interest in family history began. I do have a photo of an actual page in the family bible (shown) has all of these names written, but I can't find it at this time.

An additional finding which strengthens my hunch that Precilla must’ve been close to (or owned by) Sarah King is this: Sarah’s first child – a daughter- is named Josephine. Little Josephine and my great-grandmother, Precilla, were born within a year of each other (1838-1839), which makes me suspect that they must’ve grown up, adoring (?)playmates, which would make total sense of the fact that my great-grandmother named her fourth daughter, Josephine. 

This brings me back to today…

Since I know that Sarah Shaw’s daughter, Josephine, and my great-grandmother, Precilla, were close in age, and may have grown up together, I needed to see if the two girls lived in close enough proximity for that to be true. Well, I struck gold, again, as hit after hit continued to support my theories about Precilla’s pre-emancipation background.

As it turns out, Robert John Shaw (Sarah’s husband) died in June, 1847, leaving her a widow, with six children. Three years later, in the 1850 Census, we find Sarah and her children enumerated in the household just after her father's, with her five children, including Josephine (who is recorded as being 14, but according to all other records found, she should have been 11). And, right next door (most likely on the same property), is her brother, Dr. William R. King, who is shown on the 1850 Slave Census as being the owner of a 12 year old girl, who is (quite likely) Precilla. (Sarah, herself, owns 13 and 9 year old girls. This group of girls probably all worked and played together.)

This 1850 Census shows Sarah living next door to what looks like her brother, William, age 35. However, in the image, below, it appears to be her father, William, Sr. (age 65) in the same location.  Either way, Sarah is back home on her family's property, with her children.

Ancestry.com. 1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

If my thinking is on track (and I believe it is), this research gives a LOT of support to my theory that the Pricilla who was willed to William Richmond King, by his father, Joel King, in 1853 is my great-grandmother, Precilla Shaw Yarborough. What remains to be determined/explored/proven is why she ended up giving the SHAW surname on her cohabitation record, in 1866. However, since we know that the formerly-enslaved were allowed to use any surname they chose, my guess is that even if she was never owned by Sarah Shaw, my great-grandmother had a certain affection and respect for her, and because of that, she chose to give SHAW as her surname. This would, perhaps, further support what I was told by a descendant of the SHAW family, many years ago, when I first began to formulate these ideas. I’d reached out to this fellow researcher to see if he had anything that might lead me to my Precilla. He didn’t, but he did tell me that it was passed down in their family lore that "Sarah Shaw felt a lot of affection for her slaves, and they for her".  At that time, I wasn’t really trying to hear that, but now, it kind of makes sense that it may have been true, since it seems that my great-grandmother thought enough of Sarah and her daughter to name her own children after them.

Whew! I'm going to pause here, but I will be back with a Part II. My next steps will be to see if I can put Precilla and Calvin in proximity to one another in 1860 and/or the period just before that. I already have some documentation, showing a "Sylla" belonging to Calvin's last owner, but I'll need to find proof of some kind of transaction before and can know for sure that she's the right one.

So, for now.... That's all folks! 

Thanks for reading, and please share, widely, so that perhaps some of the Shaw and/or King descendants might see this, and come forth with more info!  And, if you have comments and/or suggestions as to how I might further explore this, please leave them below. Thanks!

Renate