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!

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!

This past Sunday, we had our 5th online family get together and as always, we had a great time. It was great to talk with everyone and share a few stories. It was really nice to meet Maria, Faith & LaQuail (Michelle’s daughters, Ruth’s granddaughters, Aunt Mabel’s great-granddaughters) and Maria’s children. I am sure that their heads are spinning from meeting us and hearing all of the names. Ladies, I will have a family tree for you soon!

On the call, we discussed future plans including a newsletter and an online family reunion! Yes, an online reunion. I think that this will be a lot easier to plan since we don’t have to worry about a hotel and travel, but I will still need some help. We will still have to put together a program, agenda, speakers and we will need some technical help for some family members that have never used Zoom. I think that we can target some time in the spring (after football season) on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Who’s ready? If you can help, please fill out the form below and it will send me an email with your response. You can also leave a general comment in the comment section at the bottom of the page.

I can help!

Just a reminder family to join us this Sunday for the family get together! I hope that we can have a higher participation this time! We can talk, laugh, tell stories and have a good time. Read on for the details!

The Format

We will still have an opportunity for family members to get on the video chat and see people that we may not have seen for a while or meet family members for the first time. But this time, I would also like for all of us to share some stories and information. So bring your stories about the family and please grab any funeral programs, pictures, family reunion programs and family bibles that you have. I would like to gather additional information and those items are great resources. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Meeting Info

Just to make it a little easier for family members, I am asking that you change your last name on the screen so that people can understand where you are in your branch of the family tree. Please use a format similar to what I use for the birthdays:
First Name: Your first name
Last name: Your Last Name (your parent that is a Hickson descendant, your grandparent that is a Hickson descendant).

Mine would look like this:
First Name: Darryl
Last Name: Hickson (Ike’s son, John Wesley’s grandson)

Please remember to change your name back after the meeting. I have had some friends who forgot to change their name after a virtual happy hour and had to explain what was going on in a meeting at work later.

If you are new to Zoom, click a link below to get some help:

Joining a Meeting
Joining & Configuring Audio & Video
How To Change Your Name In Zoom

Who’s invited: Anyone in the family that wants to join
When: Sunday, November 15, 2020 from 4-6 pm Eastern
Click this link to download the Zoom app and join: Join the meeting
If you have the Zoom App, you can use this info:

Meeting ID: 920 0489 8060
Password: 794160

Note: Please do not post this link in a public place or share it with anyone outside of the family.

Let me know in the comments below if you plan on attending.

It’s November family!

I pray that you are all doing well and staying safe. It’s election day and I pray that we have the right outcome and that we can all come together as a nation and begin to heal. No matter what they outcome, please be careful out there over the next few weeks and pray that there is no civil unrest. And as always, wear your masks and social distance to avoid this plague. Thanksgiving will be very different for us this year.

This month’s birthday spotlight is for Aunt Willie Mae, who would have been 104 years old this month! I loved going to her house when we went to Augusta. When we would get there I would go sit with Uncle Willie and we would compare “cracking” knuckles and Aunt Willie Mae would always have something sweet for my dad. I would play in the back yard, crunching on the pecans from the tree and eat as many as I could (LOL). I told Jennifer and Charmaygne that it wasn’t until a few years ago that I could eat pecans again. In addition to the ones that I ate while I was there, she would send my parents a box of them from time to time. Great memories!

Family Get Together

It’s time for us to get together again virtually! I asked for feedback about when to have the next call but I only received one response, for Friday evening at 7pm. I realized the other day that it would be 4 pm on the West Coast and we would probably lose most of them. So for right now, let’s leave it at 4 pm on Sundays and we will see who pops in to say hi. Let’s make our next family get together next Sunday, November 15th at 4pm! I will send another invite with Zoom connection info as a reminder.

November Birthdays and Anniversaries

I think that I have most of the birthdays for the family but if I have missed a birthday, please send me a note. The same goes for anniversaries, please send them to me and I will include them in the announcements. Let’s begin to celebrate the birthdays and anniversaries this month. No milestone birthdays for the month and there are no anniversaries that I have. Happy Birthday to all!

That’s it for now, stay safe family! Love you all!

I pray that you are all doing well and staying safe. The temperatures are starting to fall in the northeast so we know that fall is here. Praying that all of the family in California are safe from the wildfires and that we are all wearing our masks and social distancing to avoid this plague.

This month’s birthday spotlight is for James Stallings Jr. (AKA Junior/AKA Junior Stallings). He is Aunt Laura’s son and one of our senior family members.

Family Get Together

I said before that I want to change the time of the family get together starting this month so that it does not conflict with football. I am looking for feedback from the family for a new time slot, at least through February. Please take 1 minute to fill out the survey:

October Birthdays and Anniversaries

I think that I have most of the birthdays for the family but if I have missed a birthday, please send me a note. The same goes for anniversaries, please send them to me and I will include them in the announcements. Let begin to celebrate the birthdays and anniversaries this month. We have a milestone birthday this month, we want to wish a very happy 16th birthday to Charlisa’s son Landon! We have one anniversary this month, congratulations to Shanette and Emmitt! Happy Birthday and Anniversary to all!

That’s it for now, watch out for an announcement for the next family get together!

In case you missed it, we had our 4th Family Get Together today and it was great! It was wonderful to see some family members pass through to say hi and others to hang out the whole 2 hours!

I realized a little to late that I had scheduled the call during the NFL Opening weekend AND during an NBA playoff game! So, I think that for the next few sessions will be moved to Friday or Saturday. Maybe we will do them around 7 pm? So, let’s try another poll to see when people think that they can make it:

While we were on the call, Cyrus shared views of Uncle Cyrus’ family bible and some of Uncle Cyrus’ sermon notes! It was amazing to see, thank you for sharing Cyrus. If anyone else has family bibles, documents, pictures or anything else that you would like to share please let me know. I will gladly help you to digitize them and share them for the family to see.

Just a reminder family to join us this Sunday for the family get together! We can talk, laugh, tell stories and have a good time. Read on for the details!

This time I want to change things up a little. We will still have an opportunity for family members to get on the video chat and see people that we may not have seen for a while or meet family members for the first time. But this time, I would also like for all of us to share some stories and information. So bring your stories about the family and please grab any funeral programs, pictures, family reunion programs and family bibles that you have. I would like to gather additional information and those items are great resources. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Meeting Info

Just to make it a little easier for family members, I am asking that you change your last name on the screen so that people can understand where you are in your branch of the family tree. Please use a format similar to what I use for the birthdays:
First Name: Your first name
Last name: Your Last Name (your parent that is a Hickson descendant, your grandparent that is a Hickson descendant).

Mine would look like this:
First Name: Darryl
Last Name: Hickson (Ike’s son, John Wesley’s grandson)

Please remember to change your name back after the meeting. I have had some friends who forgot to change their name after a virtual happy hour and had to explain what was going on in a meeting at work later.

If you are new to Zoom, click a link below to get some help:

Joining a Meeting
Joining & Configuring Audio & Video
How To Change Your Name In Zoom

Who’s invited: Anyone in the family that wants to join
When: Sunday, September 13, 2020 from 3-5 pm Eastern
Click this link to join: Join the meeting
Meeting ID: 924 5046 3988
Password: 600479

Note: Please do not post this link in a public place or share it with anyone outside of the family.

Let me know in the comments below if you plan on attending.

Happy September family!

I pray that you are all doing well and staying safe. I can’t believe that the summer is almost over. Time for back to school and all that it brings during a pandemic.

I thought that I would do something different this month with the headline picture. I want to put the picture of a family member who’s birthday is that month at the top. Starting off this month with Chantelle, who was taken from us too soon. I still have a hard time believing that she is gone.

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

Thank you all for sharing your family pictures on the site, it is great to see the pictures and videos grow. Please make sure that you label who is in the pictures when you post them. It makes it a lot easier on family members who don’t know everyone to put a name with the face! If you don’t have the link, contact me and I will send it to you. I don’t want to post the link here just yet.

September Birthdays and Anniversaries

There are a lot of birthday’s for the month of September! Yana is celebrating a milestone birthday but since we don’t tell ladies ages, I will keep it to myself! Happy Birthday and Anniversary to all!

Family Get Together #4

Just a reminder family that we are going to have our 4th online get together in 2 weeks! I asked in the last update if people preferred a different day and/or time so that we could get more participation. I only heard from a few people and most wanted to keep it Sunday afternoon but there was some interest in moving it. I am open to either. If you didn’t have a chance to to vote, please click here (ICYMI: Hickson Family Update #3) and register your vote. Please do so by Thursday, September 10th. During the next get together I would like to take a little time to go over some of the family history and to hear from all of you. Let’s learn more information about the family and hear some stories! Come join us and call 2-3 family members and have them join as well.

One last thing

If you have not reviewed the email that I sent on July 20th asking you to verify/update the family information that I have for you, I would ask that you go back and verify that all of the info that I have for you is correct.

That’s all I have for now family. Please be safe, wear a mask and practice social distancing!

Hey Family! We had another family get together this past Sunday and it was a great time. It was great to get together, catch up, have some great discussions and laughs. And yes, that is Charlie Brown on the call.

I did hear back that some did not see the email in time and I had a few more say that they were busy and could not make it. I really want to find a sweet spot where more of the family can join. I choose Sunday afternoons eastern time because I thought that it would be a good fit, but I am not opposed to moving it around to find a better fit. Please take 1 minute to fill out the feedback below. Just add your name, your email address and your vote!

It’s almost that time again family. Time for us to get together and chat, tell stories and have a good time. Read on for the details!

Just like the other times, there is no formal agenda, just an opportunity for family members to get on a video chat and see people that we may not have seen for a while or meet family members for the first time.

Just to make it a little easier for family members, I am asking that you change your last name on the screen so that people can understand where you are in your branch of the family tree. Please use a format similar to what I use for the birthdays:
First Name: Your first name
Last name: Your Last Name (your parent that is a Hickson descendant, your grandparent that is a Hickson descendant).

Mine would look like this:
First Name: Darryl
Last Name: Hickson (Ike’s son, John Wesley’s grandson)

Please remember to change your name back after the meeting. I have had some friends who forgot to change their name after a virtual happy hour and had to explain what was going on in a meeting at work later.

If you are new to Zoom, click a link below to get some help:

Joining a Meeting
Joining & Configuring Audio & Video
How To Change You Name In Zoom

Who’s invited: Anyone in the family that wants to join
When: Sunday, August 16, 2020 from 3-5 pm Eastern
Where: 
Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/94884929408?pwd=cGNlQ1RKMTRCRjFyeXlwQTZlZXVmZz09
Meeting ID: 939 2862 5278
Password: 227562

Note: Please do not post this link in a public place or share it with anyone outside of the family.

Let me know in the comments below if you plan on attending.