Time Keeps on Slipping

It has been a while since blogging here. My research continues but it is slow. It has me somewhat discouraged so I don;t post.

In late August, early September I attended the 3rd International Black Genealogy Summit. The workshops were more geared toward beginners. I am now an intermediate researcher, not an expert yet so I'm eager to learn more. But it is becoming harder to find those avenues that are geared toward researchers like me.

Last week I finally made my way back to Mississippi. It was a long over due trip. I have been wanting to attend church services at Rocky Point Baptist Church in Summit so that I could ask if anyone remembered my family. The church has the cemetery where I found my gr-gr-grandmother's tombstone. I got dressed in my Sunday best and made my way to the church in the woods. No one was there. I was dumbfounded. I assumed the church would be open but found out that due to a dwindling, aging congregation, they now hold services every other Sunday. This Sunday was not the Sunday.

Not letting that deter me from my other quest, that of finding more tombstones of my family, I trudged my way up the road to the cemetery. I was met with the barking of a very large dog near by. It had been three years since my last visit during a sweltering summer. The heat was gone and so was my memory of where the tombstones stood. With no one to ask for help, I wandered around the cemetery, taking a few photos, looking for any familiar names. The barking dog discouraged me from staying too long and so I left, extremely discouraged. I hadn't found my ancestors, not even the ones I found before. Or so I thought.

My mission was a failure. Even worse, the photos I took years before had been lost during a external hard drive crash. The only ones I had were those posted to Facebook and ancestry.com.

Yesterday I looked at the recent photos trying to decipher the inscriptions by zooming in on the tombstones. One in particular was hard to read until it was zoomed to reveal that it was one I had photographed before. It belonged to my gr-grandfather's sister, Elizabeth. It had faded so much in three years, I hadn't recognized it. I thought someone had removed the tombstones. Did I just walk past them because they were so hard to read?

Too late I researched how to read faded tombstones. Armed with the discovery that thin aluminum foil can make inscriptions come back to life, I am now encouraged to go back. Taking the foil hand a better camera, I will return sooner rather than later this time. I am driven by the notion that my ancestors are fading away into nothingness. I have to do my best to stop that from happening.

Tombstone of Elizabeth Cotton wife of S.C.Ames, photo taken 2013

Same tombstone taken 2016

unreadable

best guess Lucy wife of James Love

Rocky Point Baptist Church, Summit, Mississippi

Longevity

Solomon Koonce was born a slave around 1826 and died in 1928.  Yesterday, his granddaughter Alma Koonce's funeral was held in St. Louis. That is not a typo. I found this astounding and remarkable.

Alma was the granddaughter of the oldest ancestor I can document on my maternal grandmother's side. Her father was Mose Koonce born in 1865 to Solomon and Amy, my great great great grandmother. Alma was 100 years old. I got to meet her and talk with her at the family reunions. She continued her grandfather's legacy of love for his family. She will be missed.

Dog Day Afternoons

It is sweltering outside but inside it is cool. This is the perfect time to do some armchair sleuthing. Wintertime is perfect too. Hey, if you are addicted to genealogy, like I am, any time is perfect.

Although I've been remiss in posting, I am continuously searching online. I hope to make a few road trips soon to follow up on my internet work.

Earlier I mentioned the find of a possible ancestor. There is little doubt in my mind that Josiah Pridgen fathered my great great grandmother Mary Jane Roberts. He keeps turning up in my DNA matches on ancestry.com. All I need is some kind of paper trail. That, however, may be difficult since we're talking about slavery records. Pridgen did not have a large farm and several farm hands. He only had one adult who I think was Judie Spence, my great great great grandmother, and her children. Still I will keep looking for a definable source.

I confess. I was paranoid when it came to having my DNA tested for genealogical purposes. And I still don't want to look to closely at the fact that my DNA is now on file. But it has been helpful. Is it disingenuous to wish that others, preferably my unidentified third cousins would take the ancestry.dna test too? I have only three close connections so far at this time and all three of them I knew of before they took the test. Then again, my uncle has two close matches but one has a tree that is private and the other has a tree with few names. No help, at all.

Yet, after learning of the surname Spence through DNA evidence and ancestral records, I am on the trail to find those elusive ancestors. The name Nathan Spence and Adaline DeLoach keeps coming up in my DNA matches. Hmmm. The game's afoot!

And one clue leads to another

I hate it when I look at trees on ancestry.com and they are incorrect because someone took one factoid and decided it was correct without checking. I confess I was guilty of this myself when I first started out rooting my tree. All the more reasons why I hate it now in others.

I am fairly certain that Josiah Pridgen is my 2xgreat grandmother's father. However, I still put the question mark on my tree. The DNA doesn't lie but there are so many ancestors out there after you pass the first great grandfather, I rather err on the side of caution.

Still, that clue has led me to another clue. On Mary Jane Roberts' sister's death certificate, it is stated that the sister was born in Cherokee, Alabama in 1866. This makes me more certain that Grandma Jane was also born in Cherokee and closer to being 100% certain  Pridgeon is the father. Even more exciting is that the informant included the maiden name of Jane's mother. It was "Spince." Eureka! I have a surname for Judie.

When I looked at Josiah Pridgen's family tree, I noticed he married Mary Lou Spence in 1842. Spence! On the 1850 slave schedule, Josiah owns one slave, a young girl around 12 years old. I think this was Judie, Jane's mother. It means she was born before the marriage took place likely on the Spence grounds

Unfortunately, the trail seems to end there. For now. I am just beginning to look for more. I'm sure something will turn up. That's what makes genealogy such a nerdy joy. The games afoot!

DNA Detective

I always feel guilty when I look at how long it has been since I posted here. Even though it's been a while, I am still researching, although not as obsessively as I have in the past. For example, I still check my ancestry dna matches every month.

So far most of my matches are distant but my maternal uncle who also took the test had a match that was close, a 3rd to 4th cousin. I checked out the match and looked at the 2x grandparents that my uncle may share with the match. One name stood out because of the location where this person lived. I had never heard this name before--Josiah Pridgen--but he died in Cherokee, Alabama.

My maternal 2xgrandmother Mary Jane Roberts Koonce was born in Alabama. The oral legend claimed that her father was white and her mother was native American-Cherokee. It also claimed that she and her mother came to Tennessee during the Trail of Tears.

That part about the Trail of Tears is wrong because she was born after that infamous trail.  But is it possible that the legend got twisted? Could she have actually lived in and/or be from Cherokee, Alabama?


I checked the 1860 slave schedule for Josiah and he had three slaves who matched my family's ages--
Julie, Jane and the oldest son Joseph--and they were all designated mulatto! Could Josiah be the missing link for the Roberts’ family?

I put it aside for a minute but today I checked my dna matches again. I searched Josiah Pridgen again. He was born in 1812 in North Carolina. His parents were Joel Pridgen and Elizabeth Richardson. In searching for Josiah, the name Zilly Pridgen and Reuben Bachelor were in the results. I searched my dna matches to see if Bachelor or Pridgen came up and hit pay dirt. Through deduction and dna matches, I am certain that Josiah Pridgen is my 3x great grandfather.

Add to that there is a resemblance between Josiah's son Milton and my grandmother Mary Jane especially around the noses.  Or is that just wishful thinking? Photos aside, according to the DNA, I am related to the Pridgen family.