2020 December – Hickson Family Update

It’s finally December family!

I pray that you are all doing well and staying safe. Hopefully we are seeing some light at the end of this tunnel with vaccine approvals and a new administration coming in next month. While I am happy that this year is almost over and change is coming, I am saddened that we lost two family members last week. Life is very precious and we have to cherish our loved ones.

This month’s birthday spotlight is for Aunt Ruth Brown. Growing up, I felt closer to Aunt Ruth because I got to see her a lot more since she lived here in Philly. It was always nice to see her an Uncle HB and I can still see their apartment like I was just there yesterday. Oh how I wish that I asked her more questions and had her tell me more stories! I did have the opportunity to interview her, Aunt Willie Mae and Uncle Thurman at the 1999 reunion and get a lot of information but I know that there is so much more that I could have learned. I also can’t believe that none of us got her recipe for that peach cobbler!

Why do I do this?

I have been asked a lot a questions over the years about our family genealogy. Why do you do family research? Why do you gather family information? Why do you ask for information? What is the end result? I will be honest, I ask myself these questions a lot. Especially when it seems that very few family members are interested in the family history and even fewer are interested in communicating and sharing information.

I have been working with Kim (Vicky’s daughter, Betty Jean’s granddaughter, Uncle Leroy’s great-granddaughter) to gather family information. I can’t speak for Kim on this, but I am sure that she will agree. I do it because we are a family and knowing your family history is important. If it is just for curiosity, medical history or just knowing your roots; I believe that knowing your history is empowering and satisfying. Because the Hickson family roots (like lots of other black families in America) are rooted in slavery, it think that it is incredibly important that we gather whatever information that we can, whenever we can. Gathering family information, no matter how small, can help to piece together information that was lost because there were no written records and the oral stories were not passed from generation to generation. Without those sources, we have to piece together information from marriage certificates, death certificates, funeral programs, newspapers, etc. It is not easy so any additional documents that we gather helps to complete the story.

How many of you knew that none of the 14 (yes, 14!) brothers and sisters (Kate, Cora, Cyrus, etc) had birth certificates? Aunt Willie Mae has a delayed birth certificate but we have not found one for any of the others, including my dad. Most have death certificates but we do not have them all. Who knew that there were two sets of twins? Who knew that John Wesley (the father of the brothers and sisters) was one of 14 or 15 siblings? There is a lot of information that is known and a lot that is unknown. That is why we have been on this quest for so long and why I ask for funeral programs, wedding programs, family bible information, pictures. We are just asking for help that may save hours to months of research.

I will get off of my soap-box now, but I hope that you all have a better understanding of the reason why I do this.

December Birthdays and Anniversaries

Let’s begin to celebrate the birthdays and anniversaries this month. No milestone birthdays or anniversaries for the month. Happy Birthday to all and and Happy Anniversary Eddie and Emily!

December 3rd	Diane Johnson	Aunt Becky’s daughter
December 3rd	James Stallings III	James’ son, Aunt Laura’s grandson
December 7th	Trawick L. Lewis (Deceased)	Teddy’s son, Tommie’s grandson, Aunt Laura’s great-grandson
December 9th	Ruth Brown (Deceased)	Aunt Ruth
December 16th	Kamana Atkinson-Beaird	Kaiti (Wendy) ’s daughter, Sati (Michelle)’s granddaughter, Aunt Winnie’s great-granddaughter
December 16th	Troi McClure	Ingrid’s daughter, LeJeune’s granddaughter, Uncle Cyrus’ great-granddaughter
December 18th	Kimberly McKee	Debbie’s daughter, Uncle Ike’s granddaughter
December 22nd	Betty Jean Frails	Uncle Ike’s daughter
December 22nd	Edward and Emily Livingston (Anniversary)	Sandy’s son and daughter-in-law, Uncle Ike’s grandson and granddaughter-in-law
December 25th	Sharon Brown	Wayne’s wife, Jean’s daughter-in-law, Aunt Ruth’s granddaughter-in-law
December 26th	Mark Simmons	Charmayne’s son, Marjorie’s grandson, Aunt Willie Mae’s great-grandson
December 26th	Shanequa Watts	Brigette’s daughter, Betty Jean’s granddaughter, Uncle Leroy’s great-granddaughter
December 29th	Larenzo Hickson	Phillip’s son, Uncle Dan’s grandson

As always, if I have missed a birthday or anniversary, please send me a note. That’s it for now, stay safe family! Love you all!