Another Genealogy Happy Dance Moment

On Tuesday night, February 3rd, I received a phone call which gave me another "Happy Dance" moment. It was a call as a result of a letter I wrote to a pastor requesting information on former members of his church. In my blog posting on Finding Church Trustees Through Newspapers and Other Sources, posted on October 1, 2008, I wrote the following about my research of the Trustees of Veanus Chapel House of Prayer, which was a church organized by and named for my great-great grandmother Luvenia Jeffress Bullock (1864-1951.)

"I plan to write the church regarding my research and ask for information on their history. I hope to also find people in this church who are either descendants of the Bynum, Booth, and Suitt families, or who would remember any of these individuals. I also hope to visit this church before the end of the year."

On October 13, 2008, I wrote a long letter to the current pastor of the church (Friendship House of Prayer) where Trustees Bynum, Booth, and Suitt were once members. In the opening paragraph, I stated the reason for my letter.

"I am interested in learning about the history of your church. The reason for my interest is that I discovered that my great-great grandmother, Luvenia Jeffress Bullock (1864-1951) was associated with former members of your church (Estora Bynum, Sarah Booth, and Georgia Suitt). These three individuals were named on deeds related to Veanus Chapel House of Prayer, which was a church established by my great-great grandmother Luvenia around the early 1930s. I have traced the existence of this church through the 1960s and the three individuals named above were named as Trustees on several of the deeds for Veanus Chapel."

The letter also included a brief history of the three locations of Veanus Chapel Church. Attached to the letter were a variety of documents which further explained the information I had uncovered. The attachments were:

• Photo of Grandma Ven and a lady (see photo above.) In my letter, I asked for an identification of this lady.
  


• Article from my “Find Your Folks” genealogy blog entitled ‘Finding Church Trustees Through Newspapers and Other Sources.”
  


• Land Deeds of property for Veanus Chapel House of Prayer Church from 1951, 1955, and 1966 where either Estora Bynum, Sarah Booth, and/or Georgia Suitt were named as Trustees.
  


• Brief Biography of Luvenia Jeffress Bullock (1864-1951) which I had written this for the Souvenir Journal of the 100th anniversary of Saints Delight Holy Church in Vance County, NC.
  

At the end of the letter, I asked the following three questions. Some answers (provided below in bold) were provided in the phone call that I received this past Tuesday night from a granddaughter of Trustee Estora Bynum and his wife Annie. The granddaughter (Renee) is also a great granddaughter of Trustee Sarah Booth, who was the mother of Annie Bynum.

1. Was Friendship House of Prayer formerly named Veanus Chapel House of Prayer? If so, when did the name change to Friendship House of Prayer? No, Friendship is not formerly Veanus Chapel. The former church name was Milgrove House of Prayer.
   


2. Is there a written copy of the history of Friendship House of Prayer? If so, how can I obtain a copy? No, there is no written copy of the history of Friendship and Renee did not know when the church started.
   


3. Are there members of your church who might remember any of the following? (Veanus Chapel House of Prayer Church, My great-great grandmother Luvenia Jeffress Bullock, or Estora Bynum, Sarah Booth, or Georgia Suitt) This question was answered with the call from the Renee, who had been given my packet by her pastor. She also said that she is the only one in her family who is still a member of this church where her grandparents and great grandmother once worshipped.
   

Another great bit of information learned from this phone conversation is the identification of the lady in the photo above standing to the right of Grandma Ven, who was identified as Georgia Suitt. Renee commented that Georgia Suitt was a pastor and minister of several churches. Some of my family members have said that Grandma Ven's church was pastored by a female minister. One cousin, who is now deceased, thought that the lady in the photo was Georgia Suitt, but she was not positive. Georgia Suitt's obituary is very short and does not mention that she was ever a pastor or minister.

Before ending the conversation, I got Renee's phone number and plan to call her later to ask more questions. Even though I had planned to visit the church last year, I did not make it there. I still plan to visit sometime this year. At least now, I know the name of at least one member. Although my specific questions were answered, there is still so much more to research about the Trustees of Veanus Chapel House of Prayer. I look forward to whatever new information I will uncover through my new contacts.

Finding Church Trustees Through Newspapers and Other Sources

My great-great grandmother Luvenia Jeffress Bullock (1864-1951), also known as "Holy Venia," established a church named Veanus Chapel House of Prayer in Vance County, NC around the early 1930s. Land deeds beginning in 1941 name various trustees of this church. Veanus Chapel continued many years after Grandma Luvenia’s death. I noticed some of the same names on the deeds related to the church from transactions in 1951, 1955 and 1966.

On April 11, 1951 trustees of Veanus Chapel named on the deed were Alfred Carroll, Alice Henderson, and Georgia Suitt. On September 28, 1955, trustees of Veanus Chapel named on a deed were Estora Bynum, Rev. J. C. Adams, and Georgia Suitt. On February 28, 1962, trustees of Venus Chapel House of Prayer named on a deed were Estora Bynum, Sarah Booth, and Georgia Suitt. I noticed that the 1962 deed of trust was notarized in Durham, NC, which is adjacent to Vance County, NC. This discovery led me to believe that Trustees Bynum, Booth, and Suitt probably lived in the city of Durham. These deeds were obtained from the Vance County, NC Register of Deeds office.

From there, I used Internet resources on Ancestry.com to trace some of the trustees of Veneaus Chapel House of Prayer (Estora Bynum, Georgia Suitt, and Sarah Booth). Using the clue obtained from the 1962 Deed of Trust, I did a name search for these three individuals and used Durham as the locality in the query.

I immediately discovered from this Internet search that I had wrongly assumed that Estora Bynum was a woman, based on the first name. This search revealed a male named Rev. Estora Andrew Bynum (1908-1996) who lived in Durham, NC. Records found on Rev. Bynum include his death records (social security index and death record), and the newspaper obituaries of his wife Annie and their son Fred. The Social Security death index and the North Carolina Death Collection, 1908-1996, (now 1908-2004), records also listed a Georgia Suitt (1896-1981) and a Sarah Booth (1895-1981) of Durham.

Even more exciting than the above findings was the locating of the online newspaper obituaries on Ancestry.com for Rev. Bynum’s wife Annie and their son Floyd. In the wife’s obituary, she is named as “Overseer Annie B. Bynum.” Overseer is a ministerial title used in some holiness churches to describe a person who is in charge of other churches in addition to the one they pastor. In many cases, the Church Overseer is the one who has established the various churches they oversee. Rev. Estora Bynum is named as the late husband of Overseer Annie B. Bynum. A further clue from the obituary is that Annie’s funeral was held at Friendship House of Prayer in Durham, NC in May 2005. The online obituary of the Bynum’s son Floyd, who died in New Jersey in 2004, names both parents individually with the title “Rev.” in front of each of their names.

Internet clues from the North Carolina Death Collection and the Social Security index also gave me death dates for the three trustees, which enabled me to obtain newspaper obituaries through the mail from the Durham, NC Public library of the Trustees Rev. Estora Bynum, Sarah Booth, and Georgia Suitt.

The obituaries of these trustees all indicate that they had a connection to Friendship House of Prayer Church in Durham, NC. Rev. Estora Bynum’s 1996 obituary indicates that he was pastor of this church.

Sarah Booth’s 1981 obituary indicates that “she helped establish several churches in the United Holy Church religion and worked with Friendship House of Prayer.” The obituary further states that she was “active in missionary work and established many prayer bands.” The obituary also gives kinship clues between the Trustees because it names Evangelist Annie B. Bynum as Sarah Booth’s daughter. That would make Sarah Booth, one of the trustees named on deeds of Veanus Chapel House of Prayer, the mother-in-law of Trustee Estora Bynum, who was also named on the deeds.

The 1981 obituary of the third Trustee named on the deeds, Georgia Suitt, is very brief, however, it does reveal that she was associated with Friendship House of Prayer and that her funeral was conducted by Rev. Estora Bynum.

Needless to say, I am thoroughly excited about these discoveries on three of the Trustees of my ancestor's church, Veanus Chapel House of Prayer. I suspect that Friendship House of Prayer may have been the former “Veanus House of Prayer.” I plan to write the church regarding my research and ask for information on their history. I hope to also find people in this church who are either descendants of the Bynum, Booth, and Suitt families, or who would remember any of these individuals. I also hope to visit this church before the end of the year.

Sources:

• Land Deed, Grantors: Annie McPhatter Plummer (widow), Maggie McPhatter Lucas (widow), Sallie Shaw Howard (widow), Victoria Shaw Walker (Divorced), Silas Shaw (single), Abraham Shaw (widower), J. T. McPhatter and wife, Elaine McPhatter Grantee: Alford Carroll, Alice Henderson, and Georgie Suitt, Trustees of Veanus Chapel House of Prayer, Vance County, NC Register of Deeds, Deed Book 291, Page 279-281, April 11, 1951.
• Land Deed, Grantors: B. H. Hicks and wife Emily S. Hicks and S. E. Jennette and wife Anne T. Jennette Grantee: Estora Bynum, Rev. J. C. Adams, and Georgia Suitt, Trustees of Veanus Chapel House of Prayer, Vance County, NC Register of Deeds, Deed Book 322, Page 561-562, September 28, 1955.
• Deed of Trust, Grantor: Mechanics and Farmers Bank Grantee: Estora Bynum, Sarah Booth, and Georgia Suitt, Trustees of Veanus Chapel House of Prayer, Vance County, NC Register of Deeds, Deed Book 381, Page 143-144, February 19, 1962.
• Obituary of Georgia Suitt, Durham Herald-Star Newspaper, October 16, 1981.
• Obituary of Floyd L. Bynum, Star-Ledger, New Jersey Online, Newark, NJ, July 10, 2004, http://www.ancestry.com/.
• Obituary of Overseer Annie B. Bynum, Durham Herald Star Newspaper, Durham, NC, May 26, 2005, http://www.ancestry.com/
• Obituary of Rev. Estora Bynum, Durham Herald Star Newspaper, Durham, NC, 1995.
• Obituary of Sarah Lipscomb Booth, Durham Herald Star Newspaper, Durham, NC, July 24, 1981.
• Obituary of Georgia Bass Suitt, Durham Herald Star Newspaper, Durham, NC, October 16, 1981.
• Social Security Death Index, http://www.ancestry.com/
• North Carolina Death Collection, 1908-1996, http://www.ancestry.com/

Written for the Carnival of Genealogy

Sacred Sunday

Holy Venia and Church Associate
(Left to right: my great-great grandmother Luvenia Jeffress Bullock "Holy Venia" standing beside a lady whose name has not been identified yet.) I believe that they are standing outside Veanus Chapel House of Prayer in the Nutbush area of Vance County, NC. Family and friends recall that the church was pastored by a woman, but do not remember her name.

The church began around the early 1930s.