Church Homecomings

Next weekend, I plan to attend a church homecoming at Antioch Baptist Church in Skippers, VA which is located in the county of Greensville. This will not be my first time attending this church because I have attended other homecomings as well as family funerals. Antioch is the church once attended by my paternal grandmother Hattie Moore Pair (1902-1956) and her maternal ancestors the Robinsons of Skippers, VA. Several living family members are still members of this church and I look forwarding to seeing them as well as meeting new family members.

Success in Attending Church Reunions
I have had much genealogical success with attending church reunions because it has enabled me to connect with living descendants of my ancestors as well as others who knew them.

Visiting Family Cemetery
Besides meeting family, I hope to also have time to visit the Robinson Family Cemetery which is adjacent to the church where several of my family members are buried including my paternal grandparents Matthew and Hattie Moore Pair and Robert and Mary Eliza Robinson Moore, who were the parents of my paternal grandmother.

Finding DNA Candidates
I also hope to find DNA candidates to test the 1) maternal and paternal ancestry of my great-great grandfather Joshua Robinson (abt. 1846-1935); and 2) maternal ancestry of Lucretia Providence Cook Greenway (abt. 1855-?)., who is believed to be a sister of my great-great grandmother, Ersie Jane Providence Robinson (abt. 1850-aft. 1900). Grandma Ersie’s maternal DNA has been tested twice; the results match the U6a1 Haplogroup, which is European.

DNA results from Grandpa Joshua’s maternal ancestry will provide more information into the heritage of his mother Maria Morgan Greenaway (abt. 1809-aft. 1900) and her mother, Lizzey Morgan, who was a slave freed in the will of Dr. James Greenway of Dinwiddie County, VA around 1795. As a result of her mother’s freedom by Dr. Greenway, Maria was born free in Virginia. At the time of Grandma Maria’s birth, if a mother was free, her children were born free. The status of the father did not matter according to this law.

Grandpa Joshua’s 1935 death certificate gives the name of his father as Moses Robinson. This is all I know about Grandpa Moses; therefore DNA results may give some clue as to his ethnicity. On several documents, Grandpa Joshua was listed as a “Mulatto.” Some of his grandchildren remember that he was very “light skinned’ in complexion. Therefore, it is possible that he had a European paternal ancestry.

If Grandma Ersie Jane Providence Robinson and Lucretia Providence Cook Greenway were sisters as was told to me by a granddaughter of Grandma Ersie, then the maternal DNA results should match. No written documentation has been found to indicate that these two women were sisters. They did, however, have the same maiden name, but Grandma Ersie’s marriage license does not name her parents. Lucretia’s marriage license names her parents as John and Eliza Providence.

The 9th Cousins

President Barack Obama, who was a Senator at the time of the interview, discusses being distantly related to former Vice president, Dick Cheney. President Obama and former Vice President Cheney are 9th cousins.

Wordless Wednesday - Covered Wagons

Easter Outfit Parade

Happy Easter to All!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the childhood photos of my oldest nephew, Tyrone. Here, he is wearing his Easter outfit with the yellow jacket, black bow tie and pants. He was so cute and I just love his smile. He was about three-years-old, therefore this photo was taken around Easter 1984.

Other Easter outfit photos in my family include photos of my mother and uncle, and some cousins.

WordPress.com - Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Blog

Lately, I have been exploring new blogging platforms in order to better understand the differences. The video tutorial below provided me with information on the features of WordPress. The video is 45 ½ minutes long, but is well worth watching for those who want to learn about the features of WordPress. When I first began blogging in 2008, I tried to set up a WordPress blog, however it was difficult, and I abandoned the set up. The video tutorial simplifies the set up process.

One of the features that I like in WordPress is having a choice in ways to place a link. I like my links to open in a new window and in Blogger, I have to insert the HTML code, which can be a tedious process. In WordPress, you are able to choose the new page as an option when inserting a link. I also like the calendar and search features in WordPress.

One thing I do not like in WordPress is having to make adjustments to the embedded code of a video such as YouTube. In Blogger, you simply copy the embed code in the HTML section of a blog posting. In WordPress, the embedded code has to be edited. I use a lot of YouTube videos, and if I switched to WordPress, I don’t want to have to edit the embed code every time I post a video.


WordPress.com - Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Blog

Wordless Wednesday - Kansas Original RV

The Excitement of Meeting Online Friends

In October 2007, I attended a genealogy conference in the Boston, MA area. I knew that my online friend Barbara lived in the area. She and I took a Family Tree Maker class in 2006 and since that time, our class has continued communicating through our website on MyFamily.com. Several members of our group have visited Boston and met with Barbara while in the area. It was quite exciting to see photos of their visits on our website.

The Sunday after the conference, Barbara and I met at the Burlington Mall for about an hour or so. It was great hearing her voice as opposed to just reading her postings. We took several pictures, but I only recently had them developed because I misplaced the disposable camera.

In October 2009, I plan to attend a genealogy conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Many of my new online genealogy friends will also be attending and I am looking forward to meeting them face to face and taking many pictures. The best thing of all will is being able to share these photos on my blog and other websites such as MyFamily.com and Facebook.

Welcome to New Blogger - African Roots Podcast

Please join me in welcoming my genealogy friend, Angela Walton-Raji to the blog world. Angela is an author, lecturer, and genealogy researcher and has recently created the blog podcast African Roots Podcast. She and I met through annual conferences of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society.

Welcome to the blog world, Angela!

Wordless Wednesday - VA Postcard #1