Writing my last post on DNA testing results made me realize that I hadn’t shared one of my most exciting finds on this blog! So here I am, fixing that.
I found a WPA Federal Writers’ Project interview with one of my ancestors' brothers!!!!!
Whew, okay. Honestly, I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I was to find what I am about to describe to you. It’s like hitting the jackpot, winning the lottery, finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But let me back up a step.
Way back in 2017, I was doing some research into the paternal side of my family. In particular, I was digging into the story of my 2x-great-grandfather, Rufus Littlejohn. I was tracking him across states, across families, and through the records of his siblings and parents. And, one day, I googled the name of his brother, Jilson Littlejohn…
What came up? A bunch of references to a Library of Congress resource for a “Jilson Littlejohn, Preacher”.
What was this resource? A 10-page long interview conducted with Jilson in November of 1939! It was part of a set of just under 3,000 life histories compiled by writers – including Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison – who interviewed men and women from across the country during the Great Depression. These writers were directly paid by the federal government, through the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration (later the Works Projects Administration), one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs to help impoverished and unemployed Americans survive the country’s economic freefall. (The WPA Slave Narratives were also produced by the Federal Writers' Project.)
In 1930, there were just over 123 million people counted by the US Census. In 1940, there were just over 132 million. And yet, somehow, of the tiny fraction of people interviewed by the Federal Writers Project for the American Life Histories – far less than 1% of the population – one of my family members was among them!
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| Page 1 of the typed manuscript of Jilson Littlejohn's life history, as recorded by WPA Federal Writers' Project interviewer Geneva Tonsill. |
Okay, but was I sure that this was my Jilson Littlejohn? Yes! Not only was the interview conducted at the house of my Jilson’s daughter and her husband in Atlanta, but things he describes in his life history – his birth location, his occupation, his daughter’s previous address, the size of his family, the name of his brother – it all lined up completely or almost perfectly with what I had already researched.
But there’s so much more information in those 10 pages! Details about his parents and even one of his grandmothers. Stories about his faith, about his children, his life as a child and young adult during slavery, his appearance and physical condition, and more. I’ll find more time to post about it and perhaps even include excerpts here, but you can find the entire transcribed interview on the Library of Congress website, if you want a head start: https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh000566/.
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