Tag: Surname Spence

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Research here I come…

Today, I officially started researching my family tree again. Thanks to Ancestry.com. They sent me the upgrade to my FTM 2008 for free. So now I have FTM 2009 on my laptop. This makes researching my family tree much easier.

Today, I’m researching Buena Spence. Buena is an ancestor that has an interesting story to tell. She did something that caused her mom to be called as a witness to her trial. Not only that, there is a possibility that she had children that did not belong to her husband. I know, I know. You’re saying that these family secrets should be left buried. Well, I DISAGREE!!! Everyone wants to know the true story, but few will ask those question.

Before my family reunion last year, an aunt of mine sent me obituaries for various family members. She sent me one for I. Joseph Williams. While researching him, I found no connection to my family. I called my aunt and she told me that he was her first cousin on her dad’s side. He was his sisters son. I had his birth certificate in hand and I told her that it didn’t make sense. His mother is listed as a non-Spence. She couldn’t tell me which sister because she didn’t know. I just thought that she was mistaken and put the obituary to the side.

Well, a few weeks before the reunion, I got a ‘wild hair’ and it was bugging me to find out who this person was. I talked to several other family members and they led me in the direction of I. Joseph’s daughter. I tracked her down and just asked her “How are you related to the Spence family?”.

She told me the most interesting story.

She said that the woman on his birth certificate was not his real mother but she was his step mother. She said that his real mother was married when he was conceived but the man she was married to wasn’t his father. As a matter of fact, he has another brother from this union. When his real mother died, the ‘government’ came in to take the boys (she had 2 sons with this outside man) and put them in orphanages, I think. At that point, the real father stepped up and claimed them to be his children. From that point on, he and his wife at the time raised the boys.

WOW…my aunt wasn’t crazy! It seems that Buena was the bit of a wild child and has a good story to tell.

So, next week when I go to Elizabeth City, I will be spending the day at the courthouse to find the court records from 1922. I’m extremely excited!!!

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Life has settled….

….a little. Life changes constantly whether you want it to or not. Since my last post, I have moved, maintaining our family database, started working on scanning pictures, maintaining the family website and generally keeping busy.

The life changing event is the move. Don’t really want to elaborate but, I believe everything happens for a reason.

Now that I seem to have a little more time on my hands, and the projects are well on their way, I can get back into my research. I took a few months off because I was feverishly trying to get our first family newsletter out (Cousin Connections) by the first of December. Mission accomplished! With the help of family members on input and editing, the newsletter went out and the feedback has been great! The next issue is scheduled for March 2009.

We also have an ISSN. For those of you who don’t know, an ISSN is a unique 8-digit number used to identify print or electronic periodical publications. The benefit of having this is, our newsletter will be available for generations to come.

I may have created enough buzz with the family that they have started looking for the cemetery off of Mill Pond road. Heard it thru the grapevine, that some family members have actually taken pictures of some headstones at other cemeteries. I’m excited and hope to see those soon.

Thanks to Wendy who tagged me. I didn’t get a chance to complete it, but I appreciate being tagged and that I was still thought of during my hiatus!!

I plan on taking a research trip in February (depending on the weather) to Elizabeth City. This will be my first one and I’m excited about doing hands on research. Maybe I can find the court records that put my 2nd great grandmother, Cora Spence, in jail.

I don’t want you to think that I disappeared. I’m still here and will be in genealogy mode full force come the beginning of the year.

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Hiatus

With writing a newsletter and the holidays coming up, I hadn’t had much time for research. I also hadn’t had that urge to focus on anyone particular for a while. Maybe my ancestors are busy too. I don’t feeling them guiding me towards an ancestor, but I do feel them guiding me towards unity.

See, with my family, we have had a separation for far to long. For reasons unknown to me, Spence-Lowry family has been a bit divided. This is my own opinion. My family may not agree, however it does appear that way. So, my quest has been to try to unite my family. The 2 sisters that married 2 brothers.

Usually our family reunion consists mostly of 1 sister and brother’s family. The Bessie and Ed side. However on the Rosa and Enoch side, very few come to the reunion. I can understand why. But, I’m not going to air that on here. But, what I want for the coming years is for both sides of the family to feel connected. I don’t want one side to feel more or less important than the other. There is a reason why we call it the Spence-Lowry family. Because it’s the 2 sisters that married the 2 brothers. We are strongly connected and we should remain that way.

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Changing my Surname

I have been debating with this issue for some time. My fiancé and I intend on getting married in the near future. However, I haven’t decided whether or not to take his last name.

I have lived with mine for 30 years. Why change it because of marriage? Granted I do like the nostalgia of it, however, I don’t want my path lost. I am a Spence and do I really want to change my name to someone else’s surname? What about mine? Is my surname so unimportant that I have to get rid of it? I don’t belong to him. Marriage is such a partnership but most of the time, women is expecting to take on his last name. Let me stop before I get on my feminist soap box.

I didn’t have the foresight of giving my children my surname when they were born. I wish I had. However, they do have an Ethiopian middle name that will be my families naming tradition.

Back to the subject.

What do you think? Should a woman change her name to her husbands upon marriage?

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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.**

View Larger Map

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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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Our Family Reunion

A continuation of the Wordless Wednesday.

If I had to guess, this was our 1979 family reunion. In this picture is my uncle when he was probably about 20 or so. Also, the thick little boy sitting on the end, that’s my cousin Jo-Jo (I think…lol) This picture has my aunts (red shirt and the blue shirt) and a uncle (see guy with come over?)
The blurry person is my Grand Uncle Clement! He’s the one that was born about 3 months before my dad. That means my grandmother and great grandmother were pregnant at the same time.
And..the cute one in this picture is ME of course. That’s my cousin Michelle holding me.


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Saga Continues

Another interesting thing I found about Alfred Ferebee is he and Nancy Spence had one child (that I know of) name Charlott Ferebee. I wasn’t even looking for her death certificate when I found it. But, here it is, Charlielottie Ferbee.

The interesting thing about the death certificate is the informant is W.M. Lowrey. This had to be my William Lowry! Not only was he the informant for Alfred Ferebee but for the daughter also?!?!

The puzzling thing is Alfred married Nancy Spence. However, she’s listed by the informant as Nancy Griffin. I will have to order the marriage certificate to be certain about the names. I found a death certificate for a Nancy Frisbee (common misspelling of Ferebee) that died in 1924. Her father is listed as C W Griffin and mother is Sarah Bouges. Everything seems to match, however, I’m not sure about the name.
Searching the marriage certificates for Nancy Griffin yielded a marriage for Nancy Griffin and Moses Spence. Perhaps, Moses died and Nancy remarried Alfred by 1902.

I found a Nancy Spence listed in the 1900 census, living alone and a widow. She’s listed as having given birth to 8 children but only 2 were living. Living next door was Caleb Griffin and his wife Sarah. Possibly the same C W Griffin listed on her death certificate. In their home is their grandson Ernest Spence. Maybe Nancy’s son.

By 1910, Nancy is married to Alfred and they have a 4 year old daughter named Charlott.

The next blog will be ‘AS PASQUOTANK TURNS’. You’ll see how we’re related to almost everyone (black person) in that county thru marriage or blood!.

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Could it be true???

I’ve had a hunch that this William and Ann Lowery on the 1880 census are related to me. I’ve said it before that I thought that William Barker listed in this census as a grandson is my 2nd great grandfather William Lowry. In addition, the 2 other grandsons, Issaac Boykin and Alfred Ferebee were half brothers to William Barker. I do know that William and Ann Lowery had a daughter named Martha Lowery. She later married James Howell. My thoughts were that she had 3 other children out of wedlock and left them with her parents when she married.

Thanks to Ancestry.com and their new upgrade of North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 that contains images of the actual death certificate, I’ve been able to connect some dots. I stumbled upon the death certificate for Alfred Ferebee. This is possibly the same Alfred Ferebee that was living with William and Ann Lowery in 1880. When I reviewed the death certificate, 3 things stood out to me as shocking.

  • The mothers name is listed as Martha Laury.
  • The informant is W.M. Laury. (Possibly my William Lowry)
  • He was murdered!!!

    My next step is to find out if there is an article in the newspaper for 23 Dec 1923 that may list Alfred in it and what could have happened. Also, I’ll be ordering the marriage certificate for Alfred Ferebee and Nancy Spence from 1902. Hopefully, it will show who their parents are. What if Nancy Spence is also in my family?!?!?!?!

    I’m just so excited that I could have found a half brother for my ancestor. Also, confirmed my suspicions about Martha Lowry and her children prior to marriage.

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    We is Cousins….

    “Hello Cousin! I’m searching for info on Rosa Spence/ Cora McCoy/ the Lowry’s too. I’m in Baltimore; email me so that we can work together.”

    That’s how I met my cousin, Tina, in November 2007. See, her grandmother, Rosa Lowry, is my great grandmothers, Bessie Lowry, sister and her grandfather, Enoch Spence, is my great grandfathers, Aaron Edward Spence, brother.

    Our family story has always been 2 sisters’s married 2 brothers we’re all double related. I always heard the story but never really knew it. I didn’t know Rosa’s side of the family, although we have the same side. But, I never knew her children, grandchildren etc….til now.

    When Tina contacted me, I was skeptical. She found me thru Ancestry.com. I thought no one else was researching my family tree. I would look at message boards and websites and everyone was researching other counties in NC. The rare post I would find researching African-American ancestry in Pasquotank would be for a different surname.

    Although our family has been in Pasquotank and Camden counties since at least 1870, I haven’t been able to find much, in my opinion, on our family. I’ve interviewed family members and none of them could ever tell me

    Her: Hey Cuz! Girl, tell me who you are (who’s your mom)… I didn’t know I had family in Florida! Did you go to the family reunion this year? I was there. My Mom is one of Rosa Spence’s daughters her name was Matlene (but she goes by Madeline) How do I see your family tree? Maybe you can help me, I’m looking for my father’s grandmother’s family and I’m hitting a brick wall — how do I get around that?

    Me: Hey. My dad is Spence. His mom is Spence. Her mom is Bessie Lowry. Her parents are William Lowry and Harriet Banks. Harriet’s parents are Caleb Banks and Henrietta. What’s your dads name and DOB? Also where was he born? Maybe I can find something. I missed the reunion. My grandma told me that the Spence family from South Mills came. I’m trying to compile a family tree for the next on. That’s how it all started. Now, we don’t do our research without each other. We’re always sharing ideas, theories and finds with each other.