Hello family! Praying that you are all well and staying safe. This month, instead of a particular spotlight, I want to talk a little bit about preserving history.
Family History
The picture at the top is of the Hickson sisters. As you can see, the picture quality is poor. That is because this is a scan of a piece of paper that my parents printed, probably for a family reunion. There are 5 pages like this and each page has six pictures all of the same quality. Pictures like these are very special because they captured snapshots of our families over the years. We need to make a point of gathering these picture and preserving them. Since these pictures were taken before the digital age, they are the only copies of our history.
Similar to the pictures are family documents. The birth, marriage and death certificates, the newspaper clippings. the diplomas and the funeral programs all document the lives of our family members and are our history. Like the pictures, there are documents like these in all of our homes. Some of these documents can help to find new information and to gather additional information that may not be captured any place else.
Researching our family history can be difficult at times because of the lack of information available. Our family roots are in South Carolina but most vital records (birth, marriage & death certificates) were not required until around 1911 or 1915. And even then there are no records for a most of our ancestors, mostly because the state did not really have a way to enforce the law since a lot of people in rural areas were born at home. When I look at the brothers and sisters, I see that there is a birth certificate for Aunt Winnie and a delayed birth certificate for Aunt Willie Mae. Other than that, I do not see any others in the online index for South Carolina for the rest of the other brothers and sisters. We have searched online, in the libraries, courthouses and the state archives and we are not finding a lot. I have also talked to two of the church secretaries and the pastor of Fairbranch and they do not have any of this information.
So where does that leave us? Asking for your help. I am sure that most of you (especially our seasoned cousins), have some family documents, funeral programs and pictures in our homes or maybe even have scanned then onto your computer or phone. We need to capture this information and document who are in these pictures before the memory fades.
I am asking for everyone’s help in this mission. Please gather those family pictures and family documents and I will help you to either capture them digitally or get you help to capture this information. You will keep the originals but we will have a digital copy of the information for the future. I am looking at simple methods to capture this info and I plan on taking some time in our next Family Get Together to show you how to do this.
Family Get Together
Speaking of the next Family Get Together, let’s plan on a Zoom call on Sunday September 26th from 3pm – 6pm eastern time. As always, in addition to saying hi, I am going to ask again that you bring any family pictures or documents that you have, including funeral programs, family reunion programs, family bibles, etc. We will also discuss how to capture this information digitally. I will send out the details soon and reminders so that we can get as many as possible to join.
Reaching Out to Those Who Are Not Online
I want to get some of this information to those family members that are not online. I know that there are plenty of family members that are not online that would love to see this information. I have a volunteer that will put together a newsletter that we can mail to those family members that are not online. I need help from all of you to get these newsletters in the mail!
I have been asked several of you in the past to gather information for your branch of the family, and I thank you all for your help in getting that information. I want to ask again for your help and the help of others to document other family members and to gather their contact info so that we can send the newsletter to them in the mail. To keep the costs down, those of you that are reading this will have access to a file online that you can print if you want or your can download it. I have already sent something to a few of you and I will send out more requests soon. Please help to gather this info so that we can share and learn more about this family.
September Birthdays
Family, here are the family birthdays and anniversaries for August. As always family, please share any family news with me and I will send it out. I should have everyone’s birthday and some anniversaries and they should be correct. If I am missing anyone or have incorrect info, please let me know.
September
| September 1 | Kendrick Holman Jr. (Deceased) | Aunt Kate’s son |
| September 2 | William Howard Knapper Jr. | Baby Lou’s son, Aunt Laura’s grandson |
| September 4 | Winifred Hickson (Deceased) | Aunt Winnie |
| September 6 | Randy Hickson | Thurman Jr’s son, Uncle Thurman’s grandson |
| September 7 | Cyrus Wesley Hickson Jr (Deceased) | Uncle Cyrus’ son |
| September 8 | Vershon “Candy” Clark | Ruth’s daughter, Aunt Mable’s granddaughter |
| September 8 | Charmaygne Simmons | Marjorie’s daughter, Aunt Willie Mae’s granddaughter |
| September 8 | Charles Brown Jr. (Deceased) | Aunt Ruth’s husband |
| September 9 | Eleanor Stallings Hatney | Aunt Laura’s daughter |
| September 12 | Seath Lee Johnson Jr. (Deceased) | Diane’s son, Aunt Becky’s grandson |
| September 14 | Brian Knapper | Billy’s son, Baby Lou’s grandson, Aunt Laura’s great-grandson |
| September 16 | Willie Marion Lewis (Deceased) | Tommie’s husband, Aunt Laura’s son-in-law |
| September 17 | Chantelle Pryor (Deceased) | Aunt Becky’s daughter |
| September 17 | Amaya Hickson | My daughter, Uncle Ike’s granddaughter |
| September 18 | Phebius Smith | Veleda’s son, Tommie’s grandson, Aunt Laura’s great-grandson |
| September 18 | Phillip Hickson Jr | Phillip’s son, Uncle Dan’s grandson |
| September 20 | Isaac Hickson IV | Ike’s son, Chuck’s grandson, Uncle Ike’s great-grandson |
| September 21 | Felicia Knapper | Baby Lou’s daughter, Aunt Laura’s granddaughter |
| September 22 | Ptoleminique Smith | Veleda’s daughter, Tommie’s granddaughter, Aunt Laura’s great-granddaughter |
| September 22 | Trent Hickson | Phillip’s son, Uncle Dan’s grandson |
| September 26 | Michael and Roselie Livingston (Anniversary) | Sandy’s son and daughter-in-law, Uncle Ike’s grandson and granddaughter-in-law |
| September 27 | Gloria Brown Lewis | Dennis’ wife, Tommie’s daughter-in-law, Aunt Laura’s granddaughter-in-law |
| September 28 | Yana Brown McLoyd | Wayne’s daughter, Jean’s granddaughter, Aunt Ruth’s great-granddaughter |
| September 29 | Talaya Hickson | Ike’s daughter, Chuck’s granddaughter, Uncle Ike’s great-granddaughter |
| September 30 | Kayla Frails | Eddie’s daughter, Betty Jean’s granddaughter, Uncle Ike’s great-granddaughter |
That’s it for this month. Take care of each other and please be safe!