First posted on May 26, 2010
This is a tintype of Dock Allen, my great great grandfather. He was born into slavery about 1839 in Georgia and died 29 May 1909 in Montgomery, Alabama. It was in the dining room of my grandparents home in Detroit for as long as I can remember. Eliza was his wife. We had no picture of her.
In 1972 my husband and I relocated from Detroit to Atlanta. In 1973 our second daughter, Ife was born and my mother’s father, Mershell Graham, “Poppy” died. In 1974 his wife, Fannie Mae Turner Graham, “Nanny”, died. And I became interested in family history.
I asked my mother to send me any information she remembered, as far back as she could go. She sent me the paper on the left. She started with her mother and went back to Eliza’s mother.
2 Responses to The Search Begins
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Sandra Taliaferro says:
May 27, 2010 at 10:09 pmKristin,How great it must have been to get this information when you started your research. It’s more than many of us get when were start this genealogical journey. I’ll be following along as your family story unfolds.Sandra
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May 27, 2010 at 11:32 pm
It was! I didn’t realize how great at the time. It has survived moves to five states during the last 30+ years lots of my stuff did not.
Love his goatee!!
That is pretty much what I’m aiming for,
if I can stay away long enough from scissors and such…
🙂
HUGZ
Look forward to seeing you with such a goatee 😉
I love the handwritten note–with the arrows, things crossed out and then corrected, and the use of both pen and pencil. The note not only provides information about your ancestors, but it also tell a lot about your mother, and her desire to “get it right” and provide accurate information.
And sometimes the crossed out information is very helpful too and may turn out to be more right than the corrections, such as my great grandmother’s birthdate which was not 1871 but closer to 1868 as she turns up in the 1870 census as a 4 year old.