Author: A.S. Williams

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OMG!!!!

Oh My Genealogy!!!!!!!!

Mechie once told me to “the Ancestors are assisting us” and George Geder always ends his posts and comments with “Guided by the Ancestors”. Unless you research your family tree, you won’t understand this. However, those of us who are can feel themselves being lead in a certain direction.

Yesterday, while going thru my spreadsheet of ancestors, I stopped at Martha Lowry (B: 1899, D: 1916). She was only 16 when she died and I had already looked at her death certificate. The cause of death was unknown and the informant was James Armstrong, not her parents, which I thought was odd. Martha is the sister of the 2 sisters that married 2 brothers. However, yesterday I looked at the death certificate again and noticed something that I didn’t see before.

Place of Burial: Mill Pond Ground.

How did I miss this earlier?!?!?!?!?!?! Could this be the Hinton Burial Ground that has been eluding me for the past year?!?!

I have asked SEVERAL family members that live in Pasquotank and no one knows about the Hinton Burial Ground. However, after speaking to my dad about this one day, he did mention about a burial ground down the street from my great grandmothers house (Mill Pond Road). The same street several of my relatives have lived for YEARS! So, in recent days, I have asked several family members about burial grounds on Mill Pond Road. Low and behold, several family members remember a burial ground off a dirt road about 1 mile down the street.

I got chill bumps yesterday when I spoke with one of my cousins about it and he confirmed. If this is the Hinton Burial Ground, it’s an important piece of our family. The parents of our Spence-Lowry connection are buried here. Typing this is giving me chills!!!!!

I got chill bumps this morning when I spoke with my Cuz Tina and told me what her father said. “My father said that there is a cemetery on Mill Pond road. It’s at the end of the road.”

The hairs on my arms stood up for at least 2 minutes. I just kept thinking this must be it!!!!!

My dad is going to Pasquotank this weekend for a funeral. I’ve asked him to see if he could find this burial ground and take a picture.

If it is still there, I intend to make it my mission to get this restored.

*Update- I went back and looked at other siblings of Martha Lowry an found a sister of that was buried at Mill Pond Burial Ground also.*

**Update again-I was clicking on the Pasquotank County NC Gen Web site and then clicked on the Pasquotank County Government link. Wouldn’t you know, the county is trying to identify these unknown cemeteries!! I think I found mine.**

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Now What?!?!

Now that my family reunion is over, I’m feeling a little lost on what I should do next. Of course I’m researching my family tree, but I had a project. It was to present the family tree at the reunion. Project completed. NOW WHAT?

I have several ideas in the works. Still working on the family website and trying to decide should I have one or convert it to the NING.com site. If I keep the website, I want to have pages for all branches of my tree (Spence, Lowry, Banks, McCoy). We’ll see what happens.

I plan on starting another project called “Millpond Project”.

I’ve been told for many years that everyone on this road is family. Now, I aim to prove it. After doing some quick research on a few different people on that road, I have been able to connect them back to my tree. In addition, since these are living family, I won’t be posting about them just their ancestors.

I am working on a mystery regarding a cousin. I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing him since he passed before I began this journey. He was the nephew of my great grandfather, Aaron Edward Spence. However, when I asked how. Of course, no one could tell me. Prior to the reunion, I was able to track his daughter down and ask her some questions about her father. It’s amazing what information you can find. More about this mystery on another blog.

The family network site is going well, and I like it much better than a Yahoo or Google group since it doesn’t have to be tied to having one type of e-mail address to use it. Thanks to Mechie for introducing it to me and thanks to my family who have signed on and invited more family to join!

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Recap

My family reunion was this past weekend (22-24) and we had a great time!

Friday night was the Meet & Greet. I got to see family I hadn’t seen in many years. BUT, I met my 2nd cousin 2 times removed (see the bottom of blog for figuring that out). His grandfather, Preston Banks, and my 3rd Great Grandmother, Harriet Banks, were siblings.

I had previously researched his grandfather’s family. So, when my uncle introduced us and explained who he was, I did what most genealogists would do. I started rattling off who he’s the son, grandson, great grandson of..on both sides of his tree. I think he was pretty impressed by the fact that not only did I know about his Banks side, but I knew about his mother’s Williams side as well.

On Saturday, my fiancé and I went around town. I got some things marked off my list. I visited the FRSNNC which I am a member of and met the President, Sharon Gable. It was a pleasure meeting her b/c I have e-mailed her often for assistance with my family research. Then we went by the library to pick up a copy of an article that the genalogist made for me. It cost me a whole $.10 to get. Then we went exploring.

I wanted to see if I could find my great grandmothers house. I was going off of memory and we just started driving. After a couple of wrong turns, we found it.

The beautiful thing about this is, alot of my family stays on this one road. So all we had to do is park the car and visit with more family.

Saturday night was amazing. Going to our banquets is like going to church. My uncles, The Spence Brothers, are gospel singers in Elizabeth City and they sing at many of the churches there. Every reunion, they sing and it makes you want to get out of your seat. We also had another gospel group come and sing. I don’t have the name of them but they were outstanding. When I get their name, I’ll update the post. When I say that the guy singing “Never would have made it” sounded EXACTLY like Marvin Sapp…that is no exaggeration.

My presentation of the family tree and our history went over well. I think it sparked a lot of interest in the rest of the family by seeing how much work I’ve done over the past year. My only regret is that more of Enoch and Rosa descendents weren’t in attendance. However, I employed my daughter to collect everyone’s address, phone # and e-mail address and she did an amazing job!

Sunday was our farewell cookout. I spent most of the time visiting with family, collecting more addresses for my database and taking pictures.

This weekend I took over 150 pictures. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to take a group photo. There was so much to do and so little time. Hopefully next year, that will be accomplished.

But I can say that I can’t wait to go back on a research trip! Especially since I’ve learned the city!

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Final Project Completed!


I just finished the poster that I’m doing for my family reunion. I almost felt like it was a school project that I better get an ‘A’ on!!

Hopefully my family will appreciate this and enjoy it. Better yet, they’ll open up and hand over some stories and photos.

One question though..Should I add something like ‘Completed by A. Spence’?

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DONATE TO AFRIGENEAS!

All I have to say is this: You have a Ancestry, Footnote, etc.com account that you’re paying $XX.XX per month for. However, if you are African American/black and have used the Afrigeneas website, you should donate. It is the most valuable place on cyberspace that black people have. To keep it going and keep connected with other researchers, we need to donate.

You can even have them link you on the sponsor’s page so that I will help promote your website/blog.

Afrigeneas will keep you connected with everything from Adoption to Writing. With the amount of visitors the site has, it doesn’t have nearly enough people donating. I just wanted to encourage anyone that was ‘thinking’ of doing so, to go ahead and do it.

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Annie Jones (McPherson)

This is Annie Jones. She is the daughter of William Henry McPherson (B: 1872) and Hattie E. (Bouges) McPherson (B: 1877, D: 23 May 1923). This article was in the family book my aunt made. It had no caption that indicated a connection to our Spence-Lowry family. Just that she was the sister of Zelna Hinton (McPherson).

The other day, I got one of those wonderful “I found your profile on Ancestry.com” e-mails. I love those! I don’t care if it’s about my family or the cousin’s husband’s sister’s family that is on my tree. I add everyone I find to my ancestry tree if I can connect them to someone. If a cousin got married, I add the husband and his family. You never know…this may lead to something.

And as it has, this has led someone finding additional piece of their family that they didn’t know existed (this article). The great thing is; she has the same pictures of William and Hattie McPherson that I do. Although mine are photo copies, it’s still great. That means there is a close connection between our families.

I posted this article for her. Here you go ‘cuz’.

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You could help….

Now, I’m not asking for much. Just a little cooperation on your part. *smile*

  • Your voice mail must say “You have reached the descendants of Aaron Spence, please leave a message”
  • Your e-mail signature should read “Our ancestors are African American”
  • You’re required to have a 3 generation family tree on hand at all times.
  • Know where your precious photos are and who they were given too.
  • Scan them (at 600 dpi) before you hand them over to anyone.
  • Do not put tape on the front of the photo…PLEASE.
  • Stop claiming fake cousins – it’s nice and all…but..very confusing.
  • Attend the family reunion.
  • Give out your #. We are not telemarketers..we’re family.
  • Everything is important, even that lil note you had from auntie such-n-such on the proper method of baking a pie.
  • When I say send all pictures, I really do mean all.
  • Tell me the whole story at once. No need to revisit with you 4 times and get 4 different versions.

That is all….for now….

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American Legacy

One day, in a search for ‘African American Magazine’, I came across American Legacy. I had never heard of this magazine before and loved that it was for us. Not about Lil Wayne or Puffy. But about the little known black people in history that made a difference. I loved it.

After going thru the site, they have a family reunion page for you to list your family reunion. Of course, I listed mine. However, if you scroll all the way to the bottom, there is a link for ‘Family Reunion Sample’.

What they do is offer a discount subscription for the attendees. I thought that was awesome. So, I sent an e-mail to the person. This was about 2 months ago.

Today, when I came home I had 6 boxes at my front door. In each of the 5 boxes contained 40 copies of their magazine.
In the last box, contained about 250 or so copies of an actual family tree with our names printed on it and 250 copies of family group sheets.

I am so happy about this!! Do you know how much printing this saved me?!?!?!?!

Thank you American Legacy.