Semi-Successful at Arlington National Cemetery

Memorial Ampitheater and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery. Photo Credit Below.

Last April, I had the opportunity to visit Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, VA to attend an event connected to one of my favorite aspects of my job: meeting members of Black descendant groups tied to the early history of our nation. In this case, I was heading down to attend a public ceremony at Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, commemorating the ongoing reconciliation work being done between descendants of the Lee family and descendants of the enslaved Black men, women, and children who labored for them at Arlington House. They have titled themselves the Arlington House Family Circle, and it is absolutely worth looking up what they have been up to.

Working Wednesday: When Our Ancestors Show Up in Unexpected Ways

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy, Jr. was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. What does this have to do with the blog theme I’m posting under today, Working Wednesday? 

A memorial to President Kennedy in the 1963-64 Yearbook of Fairmont H.S., Griffin, Georgia. Courtesy of Mike Kendall and the Griffin-Spalding African American History Project.

Well, across the nation, millions of students sat in their school classes, oblivious to what had happened until someone broke the news to them. And in a classroom at Fairmont High School in Griffin, Spalding County, Georgia, the person who broke the news was my maternal 2x Great-Grandmother Scoatney (Scott) Cooper's niece, Beuna Nell Crew.

Beuna Nell Crew in the 1963-64 Yearbook of Fairmont H.S., Griffin Georgia. Courtesy of Mike Kendall and the Griffin-Spalding African American History Project

How do we know that? Because in 2017, the Griffin African American Oral History Project interviewed siblings Cheryl Head Rashied and Raymond Head III. A recording of this interview and its transcript were placed online as part of a larger set of Oral History Collections held by the University of Georgia University Libraries.

Here’s what Ms. Rashied recalled:

“I think everything was all well in my world until maybe 1963, and that was the year that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And I can remember my biology teacher making that announcement to the class. And she came into the biology lab and said, "The President has been shot," and I thought this is the most terrible thing, how could the president of the United States be shot? And she was quite disturbed by this fact. And so I can remember quite distinctly walking home that day thinking that if this can happen, anything can happen, anything terrible. My world seemed to be changed in a sense. And maybe right about that time in 1963, we started to have this upheaval all across the country in terms of civil rights. But up until that time, my mother and my father -- I would say we were maybe sheltered from most of the woes of the world, and we had a happy childhood” [Time markers 00:04:00-00:09:00].

When the interviewer asked who the biology teacher was that Ms. Rashied had mentioned, she replied, “Ms. Crew…. Ms. Beula[sic] Crew, C-R-E-W. Yeah, she was the biology teacher.”

 *     *     *

What a powerful - and terrible and moving - memory to have. And how amazing that it 1) is connected to our ancestor, 2) was recorded and transcribed, and 3) has been made accessible to the public? I feel incredibly lucky to have come across it.

Photo Friday: Miss Crew, Master of Her Domain

Beuna Nell Crew, 1964-65 Fairmont H.S. Yearbook, Griffin, GA. Courtesy of Mike Kendall and the Griffin Spalding African American History Project.

Earlier this week I posted about my maternal relative Beuna Nell Crew, who taught at Fairmont High School in Griffin, Georgia for almost twenty years. Thanks to the Griffin-Spalding African American History Project Facebook page, its founder Mike Kendall, and his work digitizing Fairmont’s yearbooks and other school material from 1948-49 through at least 1970, I have access to (and permission to use, within reason) a treasure trove of pictures illustrating Beuna’s time at the school.*

Working Wednesday: Beuna Nell Crew at Fairmont High School

(This looks like a long one, but there are lots of photos!)

Beuna Nell Crew was the daughter of my 2x Great-Grandmother Scoatney (Scott) Cooper’s younger sister, Lula (Scott) Crew. She was a graduate of Spelman College, with a degree in Biology, and, like her mother – also a Spelman grad – she’d taken her education and decided to pour in back into her local communities as a teacher.

1959-60 Yearbook of Fairmont H.S., Griffin, GA. Courtesy of Mike Kendall and the Griffin-Spalding African American History Project Facebook page. (See Note Below.)

Mystery Monday: Seeking Philip and Susie Sheppard in the 1940 Census

This past summer, I poked around in my research related to the ancestry of my maternal grandfather, Louis Shepherd, as I prepped to see some of my family at an upcoming reunion. Louis’s father is currently a mystery to the family, but I’ve been learning more and more about his mother, Katherine Shepperd’s, people over the years. Still, it’s not voluminous, and there are lots of holes.

One such hole was a seemingly simple one, regarding Katherine’s paternal uncle, Phillip Sheppard, and his wife Susie (née Blackston/Blackson). I just wanted to find them listed in the 1940 U.S. Census. I had them in 1920 and 1930, and had recently found them in 1950. Why couldn’t I find them in 1940?

1920: Phillip and Susie Sheppard on Fennimore's Bridge Road in New Castle County, DE. 1920 Census. National Archives and Records Administration, via FamilySearch.org.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead, 2023-2024

Happy New Year, Everyone! We did it – we made it through 2023, whatever that took for each of us to do it. And here we are, at the bright shiny beginning of a new year, trying to imagine who we will be – and who we want to be – as we make our ways through it. 

Gerald G, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Today felt like a day to put some thoughts down about what I've accomplished genealogically in the past year, and what I'm looking forward to in 2024. Here goes!