Happy Juneteenth: Calling My Ancestors' Names

Do you (or did you) know your great-grandparents? We each have 8 biological great-grandparents; they are our parents' grandparents, and they existed whether we knew them or not. I never had the pleasure of meeting any of mine, but thanks to 31 years of genealogical research, I at least know and can call all of their names - and I can tell you a little something about each of them and their families of origin. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of any of my formerly enslaved ancestors, so I must only imagine what they looked like. However, my research has led me to many documents that allow me to tell parts of my ancestors' stories. This Cohabitation Record for my great-grandparents, Calvin and Precilla Yarborough, was one of the first I found that confirmed their status as persons who had been formerly enslaved.

On this special day - this JUNETEENTH* holiday - I pause to call the names of my known formerly enslaved direct ancestors who were alive to see freedom, in 1865. Three of those were my parents' grandparents, but they were deceased before my parents were born, so they never met them, either. ALL of these Ancestors were of an age to have known their status as enslaved and to have been already providing unpaid labor to their enslavers at the time of Emancipation. Many, as you'll see below, had lived long lives as chattel, and were blessed to live out their final years as free people. Again, these are only my direct ancestors, but of course they had siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins who shared their status as enslaved, and who may have been able to join the jubilee shout - "We'z FREE now!"

Great-Grandparents:

Calvin Yarborough - 25 years enslaved

Precilla (Shaw) Yarborough - 23 years enslaved

Pinky Tredwell- King Howell - 9 years enslaved

Great-Great-Grandparents:

Louis Neal - 50 years enslaved

Mary Neal - 55 years enslaved

Mack Tredwell - 52 years enslaved

Amy Littlejohn - 50 years enslaved

Lewis Davis -16 years enslaved

Dolly Ann Crutchfield -10 years enslaved

Asa (Asy) Brown - 22 years enslaved

Louvenia Ross Brown -10 years enslaved

Third-Great-Grandparents:

Elsy Littlejohn - 69 years enslaved

Everett Ross - 35 years enslaved

Minervia Dobbins - 35 years enslaved

Fourth-Great-Grandparents:

Essex Ross - 69 years enslaved

Chaney Ross Thornton - 70 years enslaved

------------------------------

 And, these are the known names of my direct ancestors, who were enslaved, but either didn't live to see "freedom" or whose death date is currently unknown. They are all my third-great-grandparents.

Peter Littlejohn (1782-1855) - husband of Elsy

Lewis - father of Lewis Davis

Lavinia - mother of Lewis Davis

It has become my life's work to research my ancestry and to share what I've learned with my family and with the larger community. I pay homage, every day, to my ancestors - those who were "free" before 1865 and those who were enslaved. Let no one tell you that you can't find your ancestors before 1865 - or before 1870, when formerly enslaved persons appear, by name, on Federal Census records. That's a LIE; and, every name you see above is proof of it! I knew nothing about my ancestry, before I started asking questions and doing the work, in 1993. If you're reading this, and you want to explore your own family history, let this post be incentive to you. There are more resources available to you than ever before, and you can get started with this research right from the comfort of your own home. YOU CAN DO IT! By Juneteenth 2025, you can be calling your own ancestors' names!

Thanks for reading - and happy Juneteenth!                                                                                        Renate

* "Juneteenth," officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, is a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States. The holiday's name is a portmanteau of the words "June" and "nineteenth," as it was on June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Grandger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, in Galveston, TX, following the end of the Civil War. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth)

#52Ancestors - Week 3 - Favorite Photo!

Well, so far so good. It's Week 3 and I'm still on track with the #52Ancestors Challenge! This week's prompt is "favorite photo." That's kind of a tough one, for me, because I have so many beloved photos! However, I've decided to narrow it down to two that always make me smile; and that, despite the fact that I don't have an actual personal memory of when they were taken, both photos hold a special and very endearing place in my heart. 

My Favorite Photos

Both of these photos were taken at the same location - at my grandmother's home in Louisburg, NC. It's my understanding that I lived there with my paternal grandmother, Anna Green, from sometime in my infancy, until I was a toddler - around two years old. If that's true, I'm guessing that perhaps the first photo, showing me with my brother, Arthur, may have been taken when my parents brought me to Louisburg, from Ohio; but, I really don't know. Arthur and I are on my grandmother's bed, where I always slept (with her) in later years, when I would spend part of my summers there. I remember that bed very well. (It was actually one of two in the room, because my Aunt Sue slept in there also, before she married and moved to New York.)

This is me (right) with my brother, Arthur, on our grandmother's bed in Louisburg. We were 17 months apart, and the best of friends. Sadly, Arthur died (of liver cancer) when he was 23 and I was 22. 

This second photo was also taken at the Louisburg house, but this time in the "front room," most certainly on one of our Sunday trips to Grandma's house, with all 6 of us (parents, 3 brothers, and me) packed into our blue and brown station wagon for what is now a 2 hour and 45 minute drive, but was most certainly closer to 4 hours in the 60s and 70s. I do have very vague memory of my maternal grandmother, Mary Thomas, traveling with us a time or two - and here I have photographic proof that it actually happened! Grandma Thomas lived just "across the water" from us, in Norfolk, and she eventually ended up moving in with us in the late 1970s.

My two grandmothers: On the left, my maternal grandmother, Mary Davis Thomas, who lived in Norfolk, VA (but was born in Warren County, NC). On the right, my paternal grandmother, Anna Beatrice Green Yarborough, who lived in Louisburg, Franklin County, NC. 

(Photo colorized on MyHeritage.com)

Family Time!

In an effort to get my family more involved in sharing our history, I've invited all of my kin to contribute, as they may desire, to the #52Ancestors posts. Many of my connected family lines don't know each other; and, I believe that this way of sharing our stories and photos could really benefit all of us. I do hope for more participation, but (for now) I am pleased  to introduce my second-cousin, Willa-Jo Greene, to my readers. Willa-Jo is the first relative to contribute to these posts, and I'm so excited and grateful! Willa-Jo is sharing this photo, taken in 2015 on the steps of her back deck, at the conclusion of her 50th birthday celebration. Willa-Jo describes this photo as follows: "This photo of my immediate family, 3 nieces, one nephew and three cousins was taken in September 2015 on the back steps of my house in Beltsville MD on the occasion of my 50th birthday."

In this photo:  Karen Greene Braithwaite, Diana T Bedden, Georgia M Braithwaite, Avanna D Davenport, Tiberius C Braithwaite, Natalia Sanders Parker, Willa-Jo M Greene, Ava D Greene, William Greene, Renate Yarborough Sanders, George R Greene, Jr.

I will add that the MRCA (most recent common ancestors) for all of us in the photo are our (William, Willa-Jo, Ava, George, Karen, and Renate) great-grandparents, John Wesley Green and Susan Georgiana Dunston. My daughter, Natalia, I descend from their daughter, Anna Beatrice Green; and, the rest of these siblings and first-cousins (and their children) descend from their son, William Lawrence Greene (who added an e to the end of his name). 

Thanks, Cousin Willa-Jo, for your contribution! Bravo!

(I have told my family members that they can still send photos after the post has been done, so more may be added after the original posting date.) 😊

Thanks for reading!

Renate

Permalink to this post: https://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2024/01/52ancestors-week-3-favorite-photo.html

52 Ancestors - Week 2 - Origins

 Last week (Week 2), I revised a post from 2011 for the theme "Origins." I realized, after that fact, that doing it the way I did would not result in that post showing up in order with my other responses to the 52 Ancestors prompts. Therefore, I'm inserting this post so that weeks will all be included and in order - and I'll know to do other reposts a different way!

So, to read my Week 2 post, of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, please click here. If you're one of the 500+ people who've already read it, as of this posting, I appreciate you!

Thanks!

Renate

#52Ancestors: Week 1 - "Family Lore"

 2024! Happy New Year!

I have not been a good blogger, but I'm hoping to recommit to this platform by participating (once again) in Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" blogging initiative! Thankfully, Amy gives participants grace - there is no pressure to post every single week. As a matter of fact, we are free to change it to 12 Ancestors in 12 Months - or whatever suits our lives and schedules. I love (and share) Amy's perspective that anything we do is more than we had before! 

The prompt for the first week is "Family Lore," also known as "oral history" or "oral tradition.
No matter what you call it, this is something that I don't have a lot of in my family - especially not in my immediate lines. What I've discovered, through the past 30 years of interviewing relatives, is that even where my family members did have stories, most of of them only contained that tiny "grain of truth" that we all know is usually there. My research has uncovered realities that don't match what has been passed down; and that hasn't made me very popular with some of my family members, most of whom were new to me - discovered as a result of my research and/or dna testing.

Here are just a few of the stories that have been fine-tuned by my work:

1. Oral history:  My second-great-grandmother, Anna Green, was at least 1/2 Native American. Her mother was "full-blooded Indian."

Truth: As uncovered by MtDNA testing done by a cousin who is a confirmed direct female descendant of Anna Green: The MtDNA is from Africa.

2. Oral History: There are three distinct, unrelated groups of black HILL families in Tyrrell County, NC. 

Truth: All of the black Hills in Tyrrell County, NC trace back to one couple, my third-great-grandparents, Charn/Charlton/Charnton/Charleston Hill and Grace/Gracy Bryant, free people of color, born in 1794 and 1800, respectively. The couple had at least 9 known children, from whom all of the resulting Hills in Tyrrell County descend.

3. Several of my GREEN ancestors moved to New York and were living/passing as white and all had white spouses. Another was said to have been doing the same in Florida.

Truth: Although these ancestors certainly looked white, most of the records I've found them in record them as black, mulatto, or Negro. Only one, my second-great-grand-uncle, William A. Green, had consistently ambiguous racial categories, and more often than not, was noted to be white. William was also the only one who actually married white.

               

              This is either Bettie or Ruby Green.

William Adam Green, who served 
in a black regiment during the
Spanish American War, but tried 
to obscure his race in New York.

By the way, the cousin in Florida married a black doctor, who worked in a black hospital, and they had a home in the historical black American Beach. 

4. Oral History: My mother's father abandoned their family before my mother turned four, and they never heard from him again.

Truth: Well, this one is kind of juicy, but I won't go into all the details on this post. My grandfather, Daniel W. Hill, did abandon my mom and their family before my mother turned four, but it turns out he rented a room in the boarding house next to theirs, at least for a while, because my mom's older brother recalled him sitting in an upstairs window "glaring" at them, all the time, and I have a 1937 document (SSA) giving that house as his address. However, he didn't stay there long. My mother lived her entire life believing that her father had just disappeared, never to be heard from, again. But the truth of the matter is that he got involved with another (also married) woman, impregnated her, and then died in June of 1940, one month before my mother's half-sister (who my mother never knew or knew about) was born. My mom was 6 years old at that time.

SS Application of my grandfather, Daniel Hill, showing him living next door to his family in 1937.

5. Oral history: This one is a little different, because the "family lore" actually evolves around the name my father's family has carried, since my great-grandfather, Calvin Yarborough, was emancipated in 1865. Whenever I questioned my late aunt, Susie Yarborough Hawkins, about our family history, she always told me that all she knew was that we "had some connection to the Neals" or that "we were supposed to be Neals." But that was all she would say. She couldn't explain the how or the why of it. 

The TRUTH, in this case, is that we were supposed to be (and are genetically) Neals.  My great-grandfather, Calvin, chose the surname of his last owner; but the rest of his family, from whom he'd been separated, took the name NEAL, which was the name of the family Calvin was born enslaved to. 

                    

If you have a Legacy Family Tree Webinars subscription, you can learn more about this here. 

Well, those are just a few examples of "family lore" that has been been shared with me and debunked, since I started doing this work. Remember that these stories will usually have some bit of truth in them, somewhere, but it's up to us - the researchers - to uncover the truth of each matter, as best we can, using all of the tools we have at our disposal to dig into the past. :)

Thanks for reading!

Renate

Permalink to this post: https://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2024/01/happy-new-year-i-have-not-been-good.html

Memory Monday - Granger Court East

This morning, I got a nice little Facebook memory on my friends and family account. This photo, which I estimate to have been taken when I was about 14 or 15, shows me (back corner right) with just a few of my neighborhood buddies (and a couple of young'uns), standing in front of the McBride home, on Micott Drive in Hampton, Virginia. Our neighborhood, "Granger Court East," was built in the early 60's as an extension of the historic Aberdeen Gardens neighborhood. Granger Court was marketed to attract black military families - retired or active duty - to its middle class arrangement of a variety of 3 and 4 bedroom single family homes.

Part of the "GCG" sometime in the early 70s. 
(Rest in peace, Shirelle and Karen.)

To say that Granger Court was filled with kids would be an understatement! Every household had children; and we spanned all the age groups. We were an all-black neighborhood, with working parents (always dad - and probably about 75% mom, too) and plenty of room to run, play, and explore. We didn't have any type of recreation services - not even a playground. We made our own fun playing kickball/baseball/football/dodgeball in the cul-de-sacs, hanging out and playing in the woods and at the "Big Hills,"* climbing/scooting/balancing over fallen trees and sewer pipes in the woods - to get to an adjacent neighborhood, riding bikes, playing hide-and-seek, swinging on clotheslines - and just doing whatever else we could do (or get into) that would keep us outside with our friends -- but only until the streetlights came on! (Of course, that rule loosened when we became teenagers. We hung on the neighborhood corners well into the night, then!)

New Journal and Guide (1916-2003); Nov 2, 1963

Somewhere along the way, a group of us started referring to ourselves as the GCG, or "Granger Court Gang," for short. I know that I was the one who came up with this, and it only caught on with a small group of my friends, but I remember thinking it would be cool to refer to ourselves in this way, especially when we ventured as a group into other neighborhoods, such as "L.A." (Lower Aberdeen) or "P.C." (Pine Chapel). And, every time I see this "tough" looking photo of some of us, I feel as though it personifies that moniker quite perfectly - quite probably being one of the only times a group of kids from Granger Court ever looked the part of a "gang."

Somewhere, I have a photo that shows our whole house; but, for now, here are my siblings and me standing in front of the house, sometime in the 60s.

Did you grow up in a neighborhood like Granger Court? Please share your memories in the comment section, below! :)

Thanks for reading!                                                                                                                              Renate

* The "Big Hills" were two HUGE mountains of dirt that we could climb, ride our bikes down, or slide down on pieces of cardboard. They were located behind the Darby's and the McBride's homes, off of Micott Drive, right next to one of our entryways to the The Woods and The Creek. :) We didn't know it, then, but I now realize that those "mountains" were the mounds of dirt that had created when the land was cleared to make our beloved neighborhood. Later, the Big Hills were removed, and more houses were built on the land on which they used to stand.

Permalink to this post: https://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2022/05/memory-monday-granger-court-east.html

"We Were Supposed to be Neals"

 

 Wow. What a weekend!

The first thing: Meeting my Neals

As many of my readers know, I've been researching my YARBOROUGH line for almost 25 years. The targeted ancestor for this line has been my great-grandfather, Calvin Yarborough, who was born in or around 1840 and died between 1910-1913. Calvin lived in Louisburg, North Carolina. He and my great-grandmother, Precilla, were both enslaved. Together, they had 11 (known) children. To read more about Calvin, click here.

For over 4 years, I have been giving a presentation called, "Finding Calvin: Following My Enslaved Ancestor Through Multiple Owners." In this talk, which is actually a case study, I demonstrate how I determined that Calvin was, indeed, enslaved and I share the process and methodology used to uncover his ties to four different enslavers. And, though I hadn't been able to find records leading me to Calvin's family of origin, which I was sure he'd been separated from, I had one tiny tidbit of family lore, shared with me by my father's sister, the only close Yarborough relative still living at the time I began this work. What my Aunt Sue told me was this: "We were supposed to be Neals, not Yarboroughs."

Susie Yarborough Hawkins
(1920-2013)

Since discovering my great-grandfather's four enslavers, I've continued the work of researching each of them, as well as their family members, looking for any information relevant to Calvin - anything that might lead me to the names of his parents and/or any siblings. Unfortunately, I came across no revealing records in which family relationships were noted. So, in the Spring of 2020, bored at home in isolation because of a global pandemic, I made the decision to plunge more deeply into working with some of my DNA matches to see if I might be able to figure out how we are connected. I'd been spending hours and hours in webinars and reading blog posts about strategies for working with DNA matches, so it was time to up my game and put some (more) of what I’d been learning into practice.

My first goal was to try to determine the family line of a set of matches that were matching each other but were not connecting to any known relatives of mine. The main reason for this was that these matches were on Ancestry DNA, where the fewest of my relatives had tested, being that I had obtained most of their samples before 2012, when Ancestry began implementing autosomal testing. Even for the couple of years after that, I still mostly used 23&Me and FTDNA for my testing needs, not knowing that Ancestry would become the “popular choice” and gain such a large database of testees so quickly. Because of this, though all of my lines are represented on at least two of the other main sites (to include MyHeritage and Gedmatch, which allow uploads from the other companies), I am not able to immediately identify all of my matches on Ancestry by using the Shared Matches feature on their site. And, since many of these matches have been unresponsive to messaging and/or unwilling to upload to other sites, I’ve been left with few other options but to do the work of researching their lines and building out trees for them, myself. And, so I began, in the Spring of 2020 – and in so doing, I began to see a common thread in the first few trees I successfully built out; each of these matches had a NEAL line!

Sanders, Renate Yarborough. “We Were Supposed to be NEALS: Reconstructing an Enslaved Family Using DNA,” Slide No. 31: Accessed 11/1/2021)

As you can see, I was able to work the trees of these five matches to three Neal ancestors, Wiley Perry, Lee Ernest, and Louis Napoleon Neal. Thanks to the one person who had a tree, I learned that the parents of all of these men were James NEAL and Angeline Jackson. With this revelation, and excited by what it may have meant, I fervently began reaching out to these matches – and also to many of the others for whom I’d not yet been able to fully build out a tree. Some responded, some didn’t. But, regardless, I was able to move forward because of the tree work I’d done and the research bounty that resulted from it. My initial thought, that perhaps James Neal was Calvin’s father, was quickly squashed when I learned that James was born in 1846 – six years after Calvin. Because of the range in the amount of DNA I was sharing with the 15-20 matches in this group (at that time), it became clear to me that James was more likely a sibling of Calvin’s. Realizing that, my next goal became to find out who James’ parents were – presuming that either one or both of them would be Calvin’s parents, too.

And so the work continued. I did find James’ parents – Lewis and Mary Neal – my presumed great-great-grandparents. I do suspect, though, that perhaps Mary was not Calvin’s mother, because records are confirming my long-held suspicion that Calvin was separated from his parents and most immediate family. I will write more about that in a future post. Nevertheless, until I find differently, I will count both Lewis and Mary as Calvin’s parents. I’ve also found several other children of Lewis and Mary Neal – the siblings (half or whole) that were all together with their parents with their enslaver, John Neal, Jr., son of Calvin’s first owner, Chloe Crudup Perry Neal, as evidenced by an 1862 inventory, found in John Neal, Jr.’s estate papers. As a result of this research, I’ve been able to connect with some of the descendants of Lewis and Mary Neal, and have been in conversation with one, in particular, my cousin Willard Neal, of Bear Creek, North Carolina. And, thanks to Cousin Willard, descendants of Lewis and Mary’s once separated offspring – Calvin and James – were together this past Friday, for the first time, meeting at the home of Willard’s sister, Jackie, in Pittsboro, NC. That’s right, folks, I met some of my Neal family, for the very first time! This loving reunion was made even more special because I was accompanied by my daughter, Natalia, and granddaughter, Teigan. In all, we represented 4 generations of the descendants of Lewis and Mary Neal! (And I am the furthest generation back of all of us!)

NEAL descendants - Reunited and it feels so good!
(Cousin Willard is standing front, right - with the plaid shirt.)

This is just a light summary of the work I did to recover Calvin's family. I tell the entire story, share my research process, and discuss my hypotheses and theories in my new presentation, “We Were Supposed to be NEALS; Reconstructing an Enslaved Family Using DNA,” which debuted this past weekend at the North Carolina Genealogical Society’s Fall Conference, in Raleigh. That brings me to…

… The second thing: My first in-person presentation, since February 2020, due to the Covid 19 Global Pandemic!

Here I am, about to speak, at the NCGS Fall Conference 2021.
Photo Credit: Connie Knox

Yes, the NCGS Fall Conference was a hybrid affair, with a cap of 50 people attending in person, joined by approximately 150 online. I was one of the in-person speakers and I have to give KUDOS to the NCGS team for a perfect setup – and for going over and beyond the requirements for social distancing. Every effort seems to have been made to make both the participants and the speakers comfortable with the situation. From the spaced out seating, adherence to the mask policies, and even the individually wrapped snacks on the refreshment table – everything was just right. I think this was about building trust in the organization to do the right thing and, in my opinion, they totally did. So, thank you to NCGS, an organization that I’m a proud member of, for helping me to take the first step towards and into “getting back out there” in-person, to speak.

View of the room from the podium. No one was anywhere near me.

Like I said at the outset, “What a weekend!” There is so much more to tell. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Renate

Permalink to this post: https://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2021/11/we-were-supposed-to-be-neals.html

MY Black History #2 - My Daddy, Arthur P. Yarborough

The majority of this post is going to be an update to a previous post, which was written on October 4, 2016, which was 19 years to the day that I'd lost my father. Please click on the links to read more about my dad, from previous posts I've written. Thanks!

Arthur P. Yarborough
June 21, 1924 - October 4, 1997

Introducing... Arthur P.

My father, Arthur Person Yarborough, was born June 24, 1924 to parents Anna Beatrice Green and Calvin Yarborough, Jr., in Louisburg, North Carolina. He was the couple's third (and last) child, together, and was named for his father's employer, Arthur Person. Arthur lost his father at the age of 4, to tuberculosis. He spent his early years in the Franklin County School System, but was sent to live with his uncle, during his teen years, and graduated from the Nash County Training School, in 1942.

Nash County Training School, Class of 1942
That's my dad at the top with the open-mouthed smile. :)

"Arthur P.," as he was usually referred to, married a hometown girl, Novella Alston, in 1947. They married in Florence, SC, which I believe must have been where my father was stationed at the time. Most of the details of this marriage are unknown to me, but I'm told that Novella deserted the marriage sometime after my dad adopted my brother, Henry, when they were in Okinawa, Japan. (Or, maybe it was right after they got back to the States.) They were formally divorced in 1958. Sometime in the mid-50's, when my father was in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, he met a beautiful young divorcee and single mother at the Officers' Club at Fort Story. They quickly fell in love and were soon married, after which Arthur's new bride left her teaching job and home in Virginia to join him in Bremerhaven, Germany. That young lady was my mother, Mary Anne Yarborough, who you can read about, here. Their (eventually tumultuous) marriage lasted 20 years and produced two children, to make a total of four little Yarboroughs. 

My dad with his two boys, Edgar and Henry, shortly after marrying my mom.

And then there were six...

23 Years Without My Dad
My father has been gone since October 4, 1997 - exactly 23 years, 4 months, and 6 days. I love and miss him, immensely. Before his death in 1997, I’d dibbled and dabbled a bit in genealogy, however, it was when faced with the task of writing my dad’s obituary that I realized how little I knew about him and his life “pre-Renate”, and I certainly didn’t know anything of his family history. And, so it was with his death, and the need to write his obituary, that I consider my real beginning as a genealogy researcher. I started my quest to learn as much as possible about my father , and subsequently my YARBOROUGH ancestry, which was soon followed by all of my other family lines.

That's me with my dad on his 65th birthday.

I Didn't Know...

There was so much I didn’t know about my father before I became a researcher. I didn’t know that about his distinguished military career – about all of the honors and recognitions he’d received, as he worked his way to the rank of Army Major, before he retired in 1964; nor was I aware of the racism he faced while on that journey. I didn’t know anything about the Montford Point Marines, or of the two-plus years my father spent as one of the first to integrate the US Marine Corps, at the beginning of his military service. I'm proud to have received the Congressional Gold Medal, on my father's behalf (posthumously), under the authority of President Barack Obama, in 2015.

Dad, the military man. Date unknown, but early in his career.

I don't know what's going on here, but what I do know is that everyone's attention is on my Daddy!

 I didn't know that, before he joined the military, my father spent a year as a student at NC A&T; nor did I know that he continued to complete college coursework while in the Army, excelling in all of his classes, and stopping just short of earning his degree. He also earned a certificate as an Army Surgical Technician!          

I think the pic on the left is Marines and I know the one on the right is Army. 
The bottom shows the medal again, with his Marine and Army dogtags.

I didn't know what a fantastic writer my father was, until I happened upon love letters he'd written to my mother before they were married, and editorials he'd written to an Ohio newspaper, when he was stationed outside of Cleveland (where I was born).                                               

I didn't know that my father had 2 half-sisters and a half-brother, all of whom were deceased before I was born, and that I had a first cousin, born the same year as my dad, who lived in the Bronx and just passed a few years ago. I didn’t know that my father played basketball in high school, and was the quarterback of his football team at Nash County Training School. I didn’t know that the reason my father had to move to Nash County to live with his uncle (the principal of Nash County Training School) was because he was acting up in school, and his mother (widowed since my dad was 4) needed some help with him!

That's my daddy - #10! Where are his kneepads?

These are just a few things I didn't know about my father, but my quest to learn more about him, led to my now 23+ year journey as a genealogist. So, on this day, I choose to remember my father, not with tears, but with a smile. Thank you, Daddy, for inspiring me to do this work. I only wish you were here so I could CELEBRATE all of your magnificent achievements with you, and so that I could ask you the questions I didn't know to ask, and hear some of the stories you probably didn't want to tell when you were here.

This is the house my dad where my dad grew up, in Louisburg, NC, known (affectionately) to me as "Grandma's House." The house, which is still in the family, was built by my grandfather, Calvin Yarborough, Jr. and his brother, Samuel Yarborough, in 1911. 

 

            

These are the only pictures I've ever seen of my father as a boy. To the left, you can partially see one of his first cousins, George R. Greene, whose family my dad lived with, during his teenaged years. To the right, there he is will all three of his cousins - George, John, and Rolland Greene. Because of my father living with them, their relationship with him was like a brother, not a cousin. They are all in heaven, now.

                   

            

My father absolutely loved being a "Grandpa."
Here, he's with my oldest daughter, Natasha, who was born on his 58th birthday!

He had at total of 8 grandchildren, and he loved them all; and he now has 5 great-grandchildren, and one on the way!

My dad LOVED family (just as I do). Though he never returned to Louisburg to live, he (we) always went back to visit his beloved family. Sadly, I don't seem to have any photos of my dad with his mother, but here is a photo of him with his siblings on one of his (many) visits home.

The Yarborough siblings - they were so close. 
Arthur, Susie, and Calvin III

This photo shows my dad on a visit to Louisburg, with some of his favorite family members. In front are my two daughters. L-R, his sister, Susie, my dad, me, his cousin, John Greene, John's wife, Nellie, my dad's first cousin, Geral Yarboro Sargent, and his brother, Calvin III.

My dad with his cousin Geral and an
unknown relative

Dad with my Aunt Ruby,
my Uncle George's wife

At the first of only two (ever) Yarborough Family Reunions 1993 in Baltimore.
Seated: Cousin Geral and Cousin Madie
Standing: My dad (Arthur), Cousin Ralph, and Uncle Calvin (my dad's brother)

   

I gave this shirt to my dad for Father's Day, one year, and he LOVED it. The pictures are of my two daughters. I think it said, "We love you, Grandpa!"

                                      

                   

I love and miss you, Daddy!

Thanks for reading!

Renate

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MY Black History! Mary Anne Hill Hoggard Yarborough

The month of February is recognized in the United States as "Black History Month." For me, every month is Black History Month, but, in alignment with the February theme, I've decided to share a little bit about my own family - my BLACK family - to be added to history's annals. When possible, I'll be using obituaries and/or other already-published media, because my time isn't what it needs to be for me to write all there is to say about each person, at this time.

I'll begin this venture by telling you about my mother, Mary Anne Hill Hoggard Yarborough. 

Age 10 - 1944

 

My mom was born in 1934 in Norfolk, Virginia, to parents Mary Davis and Daniel Webster Hill. She grew up in a still-established neighborhood, called Lambert's Point. Her father abandoned the family when she was four years old - never to return. She didn't know or remember him, at all, and she lived with the shadow of his abandonment, all her life. It wasn't until just a few years before she passed that I discovered, while researching my grandfather, that he'd actually died in 1940 - less than two years after he left his family. My mother had lived her entire life feeling that her father had simply never come back - never cared enough to contact them - when actually, he'd met his demise when she was just 6 years old. Although I have a photo that I believe might be of my grandfather, my mother had never seen a picture and had no memory of what her father even looked like, so she was unable to verify that it was or wasn't him.

 As a child, Mary Anne learned to play piano and became very accomplished, playing for several churches in the area, when she was just a young teen. My mom was very smart. She was an honor student at Booker T. Washington High School, from which she graduated in 1951, already a young mother and wife to her first husband, Edgar "Red" Hoggard.

Booker T. Washington 1951

My mom went on to further her education, first at the branch of Virginia State College which became Norfolk State, and then at Hampton Institute (now University), where she was a member of the band and the choir, and from which she matriculated with a degree in Education (with a minor in Music), in 1956. A young divorcee, she remained in Hampton to begin her teaching career, at her beloved Aberdeen Elementary School, but, during that time, met the military man (my dad) who would sweep her off her feet and get her to leave what she had started, to join him in Bremerhaven, Germany, as his new bride. My mother became Mrs. Arthur P. Yarborough.

Mom in Germany with sons, Henry and Edgar. 

My mom secured employment in a DoD school in Germany, while adjusting to being a new wife, as well as mother to her son, Edgar, and stepson (though we never used that term), Henry, who had been adopted by my father and his first wife. Her life as the wife of an Army officer, mother, teacher, and homemaker left never a dull moment!

Before leaving Germany, my parents welcomed a son - their first child together - Arthur, Jr. Soon thereafter, the family of five would return to the States, and settle in Cleveland, Ohio, where their next blessing would arrive. A GIRL! Just what they'd wanted the first time around - the German name was waiting for the baby's arrival. "Renate" was here!

                          

                              Mom with baby Arthur in Germany

                        

                            Mom with baby Renate in Ohio

Mom with Arthur and me on church steps

 In 1964, Mary Anne and her family returned to her beloved Hampton, Virginia - her "home by the sea," and set up residence in the historic Aberdeen section of the city - first in "East Aberdeen," on Jordan Drive, and then to the home they'd waited for, in the newly built Granger Court East. She was able to return to teaching at Aberdeen Elementary, the school where her teaching career had started. In 1971, after many years as a 6th grade teacher, Mary Anne, secured her Master's of Education degree, and was granted a position as Assistant Principal. She spent a few years in that role, before finally getting the principalship of Tucker Capps Elementary School - a magnet school program with a fundamental theme that she was able to design, implement, and secure as a model for schools locally and statewide. As they say, though, "all good things..." (you know the rest) - and as is custom in our local school systems, Mary Anne was eventually transferred to what would be her last school, Burbank Elementary. Though she was saddened to leave Tucker Capps - having led there for 10+ years - she took her brand of excellence to the new building, and retired from there in 1990, having left a positive impact. Throughout her profession, Mary Anne demonstrated (and demanded) excellence; and she was rewarded for it with many professional recognitions and accolades, often appearing in the local newspaper for her accomplishments.

Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia  - 23 Jul 1987

Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia) · 25 Feb 1993, Thu · Page 59

Mary Anne and Arthur built a good life together for their family of six, although the marriage was tumultuous, at times. Though their relationship became a struggle, they made a decision to stay together until the last child graduated from high school. So, in June 1979, just a few days after my graduation, the marriage was over. 

The Yarborough Family

Mary Anne was very involved in her community. She continued to keep her hand in education, after her retirement, by supervising student teachers at Christopher Newport University. She was deeply involved in her church - Queen Street Baptist - on the Board of Christian Education, as a Sunday School and Vacation Bible School Teacher, as head of the Educational Outreach Program, and as the much-loved Director and Pianist for the Millie Patrick Children's Choir. She also worked with the Boy Scouts and the Pastoral Search Committee. She was a member of the Delta Kappa Gamma International Sorority for Women Educators and she always maintained a supportive and loving relationship with the church of her youth, Jerusalem Baptist, in Norfolk.

This photo shows Mary Anne wearing her Delta Kappa Gamma pin.She was always known as a "sharp dresser," a trait her daughter, Renate, didn't inherit. (She was always perfectly "put together" - hair, makeup, and clothing were always on point! .

Mary Anne Yarborough fought a battle for the last years of her life with a movement disorder that was never fully diagnosed. It was first said to be Parkinson's Disease, but didn't follow the patterns, so that was ruled out, as was Lou Gehrig's and many other suggested disorders. Though she lost the ability to care for herself, and her voice weakened to where it was difficult to hear or understand her, Mary Anne remained lucid and clear of mind until just before her death. Early on Christmas morning, of 2013, after spending Christmas Eve with her daughter and granddaughters, God invited my mother to her heavenly home, and she joined Him as she was sleeping. Though her last years were not what she'd dreamed of or hoped for, I thank God for the years He gave my mother. I know that she is rejoicing in heaven with her mother, brother, and especially with her son, my brother, Arthur. May she rest in heavenly peace.

To read my mother's obituary, click here.

                                  Mary Anne (on right) with her brother, Howell (on left) and two unknown children.                                     They are standing in front of their house, in Norfolk.

Mary Anne with her mother (center) and grandmother (Minervia Davis)

Mary Anne in NYC in the 50s

Mary Anne with granddaughters, Natasha and Natalia

Mary Anne enjoying her favorite thing: a "Coke-a-Cola"

                 Siblings, Mary Anne, Howell, and Jane with

                     their mother, Mary Davis Hill Thomas

I love you, MOM! :)