The Hunt for Herman
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 from the area but had no direct clues due to the elusiveness of his last name. Unexpectedly, I came across the answer last night.
Both of my parents and myself have taken DNA tests through Ancestry, which provided me with multiple tools to figure out the clues to completing branches of my family tree. When scouring DNA matches on my father's paternal side I came across a second cousin to him. His tree was relatively small but at least had names. On his maternal side, he had a grandmother named Zelma Cave. The surname Cave stood out to me since I had seen it in census records from Barnwell County and later Allendale.
When I went ahead and looked into Zelma further, I found her death certificate from 1952. It revealed her parents' names, Alonza Cave and Margaret Zelma Wilson, who was the informant. Following that trail I looked for censuses for Alonza and Margaret and finally there was a hit. On the 1900 census, they had a newborn baby, Herman. I was able to confirm that two more relatives were descended from the same lines of the Cave Family.
Herman was barely a few weeks old when he first appeared on the federal census. This was key to finding more information.
Herman Cave was born on April 10, 1900 in Kline, South Carolina to Alonza Cave and Margaret Wilson, the third of four children; Duease (1895-1972), Lily (1898-1966) and Zelma (1904-1952). Kline is a small rural village on the border of what's now Barnwell County and Allendale County, the population currently just under 150.
The circumstances of his meeting with Claudia are not known to me but Kline and Allendale are a mere 8 miles apart so them knowing each other was possibly just the result of proximity in a small rural community. Herman would've been 4 to 5 years older than Claudia, meaning he was around 20 when Chick was born and Claudia was about 14 or 15, which was unfortunately common at the time. I'm unsure if Claudia's family was approving of this relationship, however it's clear that they knew of Herman enough to pass down the information to Chick.
Chick was born in March of either 1919 or 1920 (most sources say the latter), and Claudia would die two years later of pregnancy complications. Herman, for reasons unknown, did not stay around and moved to Asheville, North Carolina.
In Asheville, Herman met and married Evie Brown who would be his spouse for the rest of his life. They would have four sons together. Prior to moving to Asheville, Herman worked on a farm with his family but according to the 1930 census, he worked as chauffeur and on the 1940 and 1950 censuses he was employed as an attendant at Oteen Veteran's Hospital.
There are more details of Herman's life I wish I had knowledge of. His life ended on yet another mysterious note. He died on January 20, 1964, aged 63. His cause of death is a nondescript "natural causes" and no other elaboration except for a note under "other significant conditions": "Psychosis- Etiology undetermined". I'm unsure if this was a purely hereditary condition. Or perhaps the result of being born and raised in the South during the early 20th century, a time where genocidal antiblack violence rippled across every corner of Black life under Jim Crow. Or maybe it could've resulted in being a caretaker for those who had been heavily affected by PTSD from military service. Until I'm able to contact relatives from the side of my family, I probably won't know for certain.
The years-long search for my great great grandfather Herman finally being resolved has definitely given me a new energy for genealogical research. A branch of my tree that I assumed would never be figured out has now been able to be traced back to 1795 to the birth of Candace Cave, my 5th great grandmother. I'll dedicate a separate post to the previous generations of the Cave lineage. As for now, I'm happy to say that a piece of a 106 year old puzzle has been found. When I do this research, I have to experience a lot of complex emotions. Dealing with the harsher realties and intricacies of my ancestors' lives is not an easy task. I can't even imagine the pain Chick experienced due to early death of his mother and the presumed death of his father. How difficult it was for Louise to see her daughter give birth at such a young age and then lose her life trying to birth another child. The questionable ethics of Herman having a child with a girl as young as Claudia. The many possible factors of what could've triggered his psychosis and the struggles of being a mentally ill Black person at a time when antiblackness and ableism were ubiquitous (to which they still are now). I take a lot of these thoughts and use them to contextualize my own life and understand the impacts it had on my family across time both socially and genetically. I'm glad to have the privilege to know the names of ancestors who were separated from each other.
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