Anderson's as Owners of Enslaved Lucinda and Her Parents

I touched off sort of a firestorm....  just as my DNA cousin....(I met a 2nd girl)...  he travelled to OKC with his wife for a funeral!!


Then I watched Book TV where in Annette Gordon-Reed talked of her latest book on Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson -- US President and their enslaved offspring @ Monticello, VA!

Suddenly -- my vision was expanded..... my vision has moved back two generations.  I'm now asking WHO --- AND WHERE ARE THE RECORDS OF JAMES A ANDERSON'S mom and dad... as well as their parents as plantation owners?? 

Really now... I might find that Lucinda had brothers and sisters.... and who and where was her mother serving as a concubine or nurse-maid/cook to the Senior Anderson owners!!!! 

Keys to the Past

I Know My Design... Now -- today

Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who risked her life to keep the Frank family hidden, is still alive in the Netherlands, they embark on a fund raiser to bring her to their class as a guest speaker. It is the emotional highlight of the film. Visibly moved by the courageous stories of this now elderly woman (played by actress Pat Carroll), the students instantly see her as a hero.
"I was not a hero," she says. "I was an ordinary person. All I did was do the right thing. But you are heroes everyday. You are turning on a light in a dark room


."Miep Gies: But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room




In my own small way...  I will turn on a small light in a dark room – today

   
Beverly  
April 2017  

What right and wrong with LONGEVITY?

Cousin birthdays for March.....

I picked up the phone.... and called my cousin TODAY.    A simple, often overlooked thing to do.  My husband, and seven year old Nick... and my cousin Bruce Fisher (age 65) share March 24th birthdays...

So belatedly.... the reason is because I'm looking forward to my older brother Orville... who has a March 29th upcoming birthday!  

Family Biography: Quote of the day

A favorite quote for today:
"You must do the things you think you cannot do"  Eleanor Roosevelt

Ancestral -- Hand written letters

Howard III said he wanted to share with me several handwritten letters from Big Mama!  Wow... she wrote him letters when he was a freshman-senior out at Langston University!! 1967-1971.  She'd put a dollar in the letter... never more than two dollars.  Big money at the time!

Howard doubted that Andrea or Val could appreciate significance of it... He would share such treasures with me.!!! YIPPPPPPPPEEEEEE

Never to be Found Great-Grandfather Jim Travis and Neeley - MS

My oldest brother told me about five stories....  I'm going to recount them briefly in order to fill in details a little later

Brother Cavers and possible kiss stolen question to 13 yr old boy.....sing a song come this far by faith...cry and preach at small church next door to big mama's house......   

about 12 years old, they were traveling to a small town and he looked out window and saw a sign COLORED only  mama would not explain to him... just looked away. 

3rd story about daddy often telling an extraordinary story of when he and some friends were driving a distance.... tired of fried chicken/salad in a bag. they wanted a lunch mean....pulled into a town and Dad walked into restuarnt and asked the owner.... for a colored menu.   Guy said SIR  we do not have separate menu... all of our customers are welcome to come in and sit and order..... Dad quite impressed at reverse tale of NON RACISM.  

4th story.... after I tole him we were going to Sweet Home in Chandler OK.... so he told me what Uncle DD said about the old cemetery for his (mydaddy's) grandfather and grandmother Jim and Nellie Travis... who lived as sharecroppers on the Watson plantation.  The old man/owner had allowed the many families who sharecropped to have a plot of land to bury their kin.   Likewise this was where Jim and Nellie were buried.   Time passed as our grandmother Mama Dooley and siblings moved to Lexington OK... that is where DD and daddy were raised.  DD told story that as the Old man died -- his son took over the land/farming and systematically plowed over the cemetery.. planted cotton.  My uncle DD cussed every time he told the story -- so inhumane -- we were just like dogs or no-life personhoods who were buried on HIS LAND.... so irrespective he plowed and grew cotton on the land.   There is not record of names..... so I have found out.... But can confirm the loss of place // identity destroyed -- no burial place.   Gosh a resting place is needed. 

But I think of Jim Travis as a godly man... trusting his soul to God's good keeping hand.   Knowing the evil lurking in the human heart of slaveholders in the deep southern state of Mississippi.....

Honoring Our Loved Ones

"You honor the life that has been given you by remembering and telling your stories." 

from Robin Moore's "Awakening the Hidden Storyteller"