James Solomon Scott: A Timeline

James Solomon Scott is the younger brother of my 2x Great-Grandmother, Scoatney (Scott) Cooper. His name has showed up a number of times on the blog, but mostly as he relates to other people – either as I was trying to figure out “The Case of the Second Masonia” or as I was beginning to learn about his brother, Sydney Borden Scott. He’s never had his time to shine! Well, creating a timeline for his life to lift him out of the shadows has been on my list for a while. Now, I’m making it happen. As usual, continue to expect more posts about him in the future, which will be linked as relevant to various points on the timeline below.

Signature from his WWI Draft Registration Card. Credit below.

Sydney Borden Scott: A Timeline

Sydney Borden Scott, or Borden, as he seems to have preferred being called, was the younger half-brother of my maternal 2x Great-Grandmother, Scoatney (Scott) Cooper. Because he left so many records behind, he has been an absolute joy to research, and if you’ve been following my blog for a while, or have seen my Facebook feed, you know I’ve written more than a few posts about him, exploring his life as a student, doctor, and post office employee. As usual, those posts are linked in their appropriate places on the timeline below, and as additional ones are written, I’ll drop them in as well.

Image Credit Below

 

Lula (Scott) Crew: A Timeline

Lula (Scott) Crew is the half-sister of my 2x Great-Grandmother, Scoatney (Scott) Cooper. They share a father, Solomon Scott, from two different moments in his life; Lula is nearly 20 years younger than Scoatney. The defining theme of her life seems to be education: seeking it for herself, encouraging it for her children, and supporting it for her community.

This post will be updated as I find and/or write more about her life.

 

Spelman students ca. 1897. Could Lula - who attended from 1897-1902 - be in this photo? *Citation below.

Census Sunday: Grandma Cleo Had Two Homes

It's been a while since I've done a Census Sunday post, but this one has been on my mind for a while. I started drafting it a year-and-a-half ago, when I realized that I was going through my first holiday season without a living grandmother - my Grandma Cleo, or Cleola (Johnson) Whaley-Ballour, passed away back in the summer of 2023. (As I'm typing this, I'm realizing that maybe I'm posting this now because the anniversary of her death is June 3rd). For whatever reason, I didn't post it back then, but it's such an interesting snapshot of a moment in her life, and also an example of why we need to look closely at Federal Census records, that I'm finally putting it up!

You see, she shows up in the 1950 Census not once, but twice.

Beuna Nell Crew: A Timeline

Beuna Nell Crew is my half first-cousin, three times removed. Her mother, Lula (Scott) Crew and my 2x-great-grandmother, Scoatney (Scott) Cooper, were half-sisters. Following in her mother's shoes, she devoted her life to education, teaching generations of Black students in Georgia's segregated schools between the 1930s and 1960s. Her legacy is well-remembered today, especially among her former students at Vocational Tech / Fairmont High School in Griffin, GA, where she spent the last 18 years of her teaching career.

Beuna Nell Crew, 1950-51 Fairmont H.S. Yearbook, Griffin, GA. Courtesy of Mike Kendall and the Griffin Spalding African American History Project.

 

Too Many Eliza Scruggses!

Back in January, I began a series of posts diving into my research on the question of who were the parents of Laura Ann (Scruggs) Evans, my 2x great-grandmother. I didn't get very far though - I was splitting my time between this project, work, and some other cool genealogy and research projects that I'll maybe write about at a later date. But I'm circling back today!

In one of my recent posts, I noted that I had a hypothesis: that Eliza Scruggs was Laura Ann’s mother. The only problem was, I didn’t really know who Eliza Scruggs was. Eliza and Laura Ann only show up together in one document that I’ve found so far, and that’s the 1900 Census. They were a household of 3, under the surname “Scriggs”: 

 

1900 U.S. Federal Census, Alabama, pop. sched., Precinct 8, Dooley, Montgomery County, ED 111, Sheet 3B, Lines 88-90, Eliza Scriggs and Family. National Archives and Records Administration, via FamilySearch.org.

New Books on My Shelf: February/March 2025, Part 2

 

About two months ago, I stumbled upon a podcast called The People’s Recorder, hosted by public historian, actor, and nephew of Alex Haley, Chris Haley. Through contemporary conversations and original audio from the thousands of interviews conducted by the Federal Writers Project during the Great Depression, the podcast takes deep dives into fascinating stories from regions and communities across the U.S. at a pivotal moment in the nation’s history. The first few episodes lit a spark in me – or perhaps re-lit, as I’ve definitely been fascinated by this era and its sources before, have even found a related interview of one of my family members! - and I headed (back) into the rabbit hole. And, of course, the deeper I went, the more money left my pockets, because, of course, I bought some books! Here’s what I got: