Category Archives: Allen

Awards

Allen, Cleages, Eliza, Grahams, Investigations

In the past several months I have received several awards for my blogs. (I used to have two blogs, one for my maternal line and one for my paternal line.  I combined them awhile ago.)  I put off posting them because I am supposed to pass them on to 10 or 15 other bloggers and it seemed like almost everybody I follow already has received the awards, some multiple times.

Today I was determined to find ten bloggers to pass the awards on to and to be able to post my awards.  I spent several hours going from blog to blog and it started to be funny to me because I found that bloggers were receiving the Ancestor Approved Award just before I got there.  In one case two people passed on  the award right behind each other!  I don’t quite know how to handle this.  I have decided that I will fulfill the other requirements and not pass on the awards at this time.  If someone reading this has not yet received the Ancestor Approved Award, email me!  I’ve got to post so people will stop thinking I haven’t received the award and keep sending them to me!  So here goes…

Dionne Ford of Finding Josephine gave Finding Eliza two awards some months ago, The “Versatile Blogger Award” and “One Lovely Blog Award”.  I apologize for taking so long to respond. I have to list seven things about myself and link back to Finding Josephine.

1.  I can milk a goat.
2.  I swam across Lake Idlewild and back when I was in my 40’s.
3.  My third daughter, Ayanna, was born at home.
4.  I home schooled my four youngest children.
5.  I studied Spanish, French, Norweigian and Arabic with varying degrees of success.
6.  I recently began strength training with my sister.
7.  I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 29.

I received the Ancestor Approved Award at My Cleages and Reeds (Now combined with Finding Eliza.) from Nolichucky Roots,  Bill West of West in New England and Nancy at My Ancestors and Me   On Finding Eliza I received the Ancestor Approved Award from Nolichucky Roots and Missy of Fables and Endless Genealogies.  I must admit to fiddling around with the award in Photoshop and adding my own ancestors, photographs.

This award was created by Leslie Ann Ballou at Ancestors Live Here. Leslie asks that recipients list ten things they’ve learned about any of their ancestors that have surprised, humbled, or enlightened them and pass the award on to ten other bloggers who are doing their ancestors proud.  Here are my ten things. I’ve linked to those I blogged about.

1.  I was enlightened to learn that the story my mother told about Eliza was true but not exactly in the way she told it.  Eliza’s story is here. There are 3 parts to the story and a chart.
2.  I was surprised to find that Annie Belle and her brass band ended up in Detroit after living in Florida and Tennessee.
3.  I was saddened to learn that my great grandmother’s sister, Willie Allen Tulane had lost two of her three children in infancy.
4.  I was enlightened and humbled to find that my great great grandfather Dock Allen tried to escape slavery by running and so met my great great grandmother Eliza and gained his freedom.
5.  I was moved to tears when I found my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s father with his parents and siblings in the 1870 census and was able to take the family back a generation.
6.  I was thrilled to receive copies of records from the Cleage plantation where my ancestors were slaves.
7.  I was surprised when I found my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage had a singing double.
8.  I was enlightened but frustrated to trace Jacob Graham’s little Bible to it’s first owners and to find his death certificate but I was still unable to connect Jacob with my grandfather Mershell Graham.
9.  I was ecstatic to find photographs of my first cousin once removed,  Naomi Tulane Vincent and her husband using Google.
10.  I was overjoyed when I was contacted by my husband’s cousin who took us back a generation or two on this mother’s side and shared photographs, stories, places… whoo hooo!

Victor and Willie Lee (Allen) Tulane

Allen, sepia saturday,
Willie Lee and Victor Tulane on the front porch of their house on Union Street in Montgomery.

 

Willie Lee and Victor Tulane on the front porch of their house on Union Street in Montgomery.

“Naomi sent this to me – Aunt Willie and Uncle Victor.  She – beautiful and he -wonderful!!” in my grandmother Fannie’s writing.

Your “Papa’s mouth looks like Roosevelt He was going to say something when Dr. took it.”  I assume in Aunt Willie’s writing.

“Naomi sent it to me.  Aunt Willie and Uncle Victory (?) 1920?”  again in my grandmother’s handwriting.

  on the side it says in my mother’s handwriting ”
Willie was Grandmother Turner’s older sister.”

Click for more Sepia Saturday posts click.

Victor and Willie Lee Tulane and children

Allen, Photographs,

Victor and Willie Lee (Allen) Tulane are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.  Two of their children who died in early childhood are buried next to them.  My daughter Ife and I visited the cemetery in 2009.  It was on a Sunday and we didn’t expect anyone would be there to help us find the graves but the sexton was there and he was very helpful.  We also found Dock and Eliza (Williams) Allen are also buried there, in the older part of the cemetery.  One day I will post those photos and tell the whole story.

More About Annabell’s Family

Allen, Investigations, Mystery

I spent yesterday looking for information on this family to go with the photographs and a few random remarks from my cousin Margaret about them.  Here is what I found.  Annabel was born in 1882, the second of the six children of Edward and Mary (Allen) McCall.  Her mother was a fine seamstress, sewing privately and her father was turn-key at the Montgomery jail.

Annabel married earlier than her other siblings to a man by the last name of Martin.  They had one son in 1908 who they named Jefferson.  Unfortunately Mr. Martin soon died.  In 1910 she married his brother Edward Martin, a widower who brought his two young sons to the marriage, Edward, 3 and Estil, 2.  Edward was fifteen years older then Annebel.  He was a tailor who owned his own home and was his own boss.  Annabel was working for the United States Gov. at the post office in Nashville, TN.

They had five more children together. Young Anna was born in Alabama in 1913.  Edward, Thelma and Caruso were born in  Muhlenberg County, Kentucky in Jan. 1915, March 1916 and October 1920.  Geneva was born in between Edward and Thelma, although there is barely enough space for her to fit in.  I did not find A birth record for her in Kentucky.

In 1920 we find the family in White City, Florida.  Not only is Edward going by Edwin but they have added an “s” to Martin and claim all of their parents were no longer born in Tennessee and Kentucky (him) or Alabama (her) they were born in Italy.  They are also listed as white instead of mulatto as they had been previously.  Edward is still tailoring from his owned home.  Annabel is not working outside the home although with 7 children under 13 she’s working plenty inside it.  The census was taken in January and Caruso was not born until October, back in Kentucky.  Edward #3 is now listed as born in Aabama,  Geneva in Louisiana and Thelma in Arkansas.  Either one of the children got creative with the ennumerator, they were on the lam or they were passing and covering their tracks.

“Annabel- her family + us”

The photograph taken above is from my grandmother Fannie’s album.  She wrote on the top “Annabel her family + us”.  Annabel and my grandmother were first cousins.  My aunt Mary V. is the little girl standing apart looking at the camera.  She was born in 1920.  My grandmother is holding Mershell, born in 1921 on her lap.  My mother was born in Feb. 1923 so I would put the year at 1922.  That must be Caruso leaning on his mother Annabel’s knee.  The little girls are probably Geneva and Thelma.  That is my grandfather Mershell Graham leaning so cool in the back.

In 1930 Annabell and her family were still in Detroit.  The two oldest boys are no longer at home.  They would have been 22 and 23.  The rest of the children are living at home.  Annabel works as a seamstress at a store.  The three oldest children are  delivery people at a fur store.  I think this would be Annis Furs which used to be in Detroit right behind Hudson’s.  My great grandmother and her daughter Daisy were worked there for many years.  The Martin family is back in the Negro race.

Wordless Wednesday – their own marching band

Naomi’s father, Victor Tulane – Obituary

Allen,

Victor H. Tulane Dead

 Montgomery, Ala., Jan, 16.

Victor H. Tulane, a leader of his Race here for many years, died at his home, 430 S. Union St., at the age of 57.  His rise to affluence, through his own industry and native shrewdness, was little short of remarkable.  Prior to his death he owned a mercantile business and operated a real estate agency of considerable scope.

Tulane first came to Montgomery when he was 15 years, old having walked here from Wetumpka, where he was born.  His first job was porter in a saloon, but later he opened a store at the corner of High and Ripley Sts. which he operated for about thirty years.  He later rented his store and entered the real estate business, and before his death had accumulated a comfortable estate.

For many years Tulane served on the board of trustees of the Tuskegee Institute.  He was also chairman of the board of trustees of the Hale infirmary.  He was widely known for his generosity and willingness to serve in charitable movement.  He was actively connected with the community chest and was one of the first to donate toward the Y.M.C.A. building for white (sic.) persons.

Surviving are his widow, Willie L. Tulane of Montgomery, and his daughter, Naomie Tulane Vincent, New York city.  Funeral arrangements will be announced later by the Loveless Undertaking company.

_______________

Transcribed from The Chicago Defender Jan 17, 1931 via ProQuest Historical Newspapers online database.

More about this branch of the family to come.  Victor’s wife, Willie Lee Allen Tulane, was one of Eliza’s daughters.

A Family Photograph – 1891

Allen, Turner
This photograph was taken in Montgomery during 1892 while the family was in mourning. Jennie holds two year old Daisy while four year old Fannie stands beside her.

Howard Turner and Jennie Virginia Allen were married in June of 1887.  Howard’s father, Joe Turner gave them land to farm in Lowndes County, Alabama. Joe wanted the land to stay in the family forever. By 1892 Joe and Howard were arguing constantly about Howard and Jennie’s desire to sell the land and move to Montgomery. The day of the fateful bar-b-que the arguments had been particularly violent. Jennie was in Montgomery visiting her parents , with their two young daughters, when word came that Howard had been shot dead at the bar-b-que.

Jennie moved back to her parent’s house with her children, Fannie and Daisy. She took the title to the land to a lawyer and asked him to make sure all was in order so she could sell. When she returned the lawyer told her that the title was not clear and she didn’t own the land. Jennie believed that her father-in-law had paid the lawyer to get the land back for himself. She cut ties with the Turners and went to work as a seamstress, the trade her mother Eliza had taught all six of her daughters.

Many years later, when Fannie was grown, she ran into one of her Turner cousins. She asked the cousin about what her mother believed – that Joe Turner had his son killed to keep the land. It wasn’t true. The lawyer had stolen the land for himself. They didn’t know who killed Howard.

Fannie was my maternal grandmother. Howard and Jennie were my great grandparents. Joe Turner was my great great grandfather. I didn’t know his or wife’s name, nor any of Howard’s siblings names until I found them in the 1870 and 1880 census in Lowndes County, Alabama when I began to do online research in the 1990s. Joe and Emma Turner lived on the farm with their children, Lydia b. 1862, Howard b. 1863, Fanny b. 1864, Joe b. 1867, Anna b. 1869, Alonza b. 1873.

Labor Day – Part 2 (Maternal side)

Allen, Eliza, Grahams

After working on the collage I uploaded yesterday for Labor Day, I kept thinking about the work that family members had done over the generations.  Here is a chart showing 7 generations of workers from my great-great-great-grandmother to my children.  My direct line is highlighted in yellow.  The women with children combined whatever else they did with cooking, cleaning, washing clothes and raising the children.  The first generations started their work life as slaves in Alabama.

7 generations of my maternal line and the work they did.

I made the chart using Microsoft Word.  That resulted in a very crowded chart.  I then imported it into Photoshop where I cut and pasted and moved things around and added the highlights.  I later thought I should have added places of birth and death, but I didn’t. Next time.  The paternal side chart is available HERE.