Roots of Cypress: An Afro-Diasporic Familial Tapestry

Happy Mother's Day! Today I want to dedicate a post about the labor Black women have historically been tasked with as caretakers of both their own children and the children of their oppressors. This topic is somewhat sensitive but I feel like it's worth discussing and examining the lives of my maternal ancestors in relation to misogynoir and socioeconomic status. I will give a content warning for discussions of antiblackness, misognyoir, and sexual abuse.  It's well know and well documented that Black women were often domestic laborers who cared for the children of middle and upper class white families. My maternal ancestors were no exception. In fact one of the three pictures of my maternal great great grandmother Anna Beamon , is her with a child she cared for.  The picture is one of the saddest I have of a direct ancestor. Anna, who I know was a strong willed yet fun loving person, looks disaffected. Holding a small white child on her hip, her face in a scowl possibly fr...

My previous post focused on my great grandfather, William Henry Young, Sr . a.k.a. "Chick". This article will be dedicated to the identity of his father. In my nearly decade-long genealogical journey, I was under the impression that Chick's parents were lost to time since he was an orphan raised by his grandmother Louise Jackson (nee Moore, previously Young).  A few years ago, when my research went from casual to more intricate, I found a pair names of Chick's Social Security application that were attached his parents; Herman and Alfair . "Alfair" does reoccur on that side of my family as various relatives but eventually, his marriage revealed his mother's name as " Claudette " which aligned with Claudia Young who was the daughter of Louise and Jack Young . All of them were from Allendale, South Carolina where Chick was born.  However that left me with the question of what Herman's full name was and his whereabouts. I assumed he was fr...