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...

After a long hiatus, I've decided to return to writing on here.  Today I want to write a brief article in honor of my great grandfather William Henry Young Sr. aka "Chick", whose 106th birthday is today. In this article I will be alternately referring to him as Chick and William Sr.  William "Chick" Young in his zoot suit, ca. early 1940s Chick was born on March 12, 1920 in the then newly formed Allendale, South Carolina. Some records such as his draft card and his marriage license indicate Orangeburg as his birthplace but genealogical research confirms Allendale as my family's origins. Allendale is a small town within in the county of the same name, located in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina. The county was formed in 1920 from the southern parts of Barnwell County and northern parts of Hampton County, making it the youngest county in the state. It is also the least populous and one of the poorest to this date.  Chick was orphaned at a yo...

Family histories can be very complex and shrouded in a lot of mystery and conflicting information. Some family origin stories are embellished or misheard or misremembered. Some are purposely rewritten for one reason or another. We know how common it is for people to falsely claim indigenous American heritage, this happened in my family as well; despite having apparently some kind of genetic relationship with indigenous Americans, I have no well documented evidence of any indigenous North American ancestry and if I do have any, it was likely through some of the free people of color that I descend from.  One of the most intriguing journeys I've been on with my genealogical research is my paternal grandmother's family, particularly her biological father's family. As discussed in previous post, my grandmother Victoria was the daughter of Lawrence Santos Jr , a man of Cape Verdean and allegedly Afro-Puerto Rican descent. When I began doing my genealogical research a few years ag...

This post was originally meant to be created little over a month ago but it's still topical given my previous post. The title of this article is Cape Verdean Creole for "Heritage of a Creole" and it's directly related to today's topic. Today I'll be writing about my great great grandfather Lourenço dos Santos, aka Lawrence Santos Sr. and my ongoing journey to understand him and my family history. Lourenço  dos Santos (Lawrence Santos Sr.), ca. 1930s There's a few things that we can attribute to Lourenço with certainty:  - he was born on the island of Fogo in Cabo Verde - he immigrated to the United States and married Myrtle Boston in 1923 and settled in Philadelphia - he died at some point in the mid to late 1940s. All other information is unconfirmed and I am actively in the process of researching. The information I provide in this post could be incorrect but it possibly aligns with my family history.  Some of the oral history I was relayed to...

Today in 1904, one of the most contentious members of my family tree was born. She would also be wedded on this day in 1923. That person is one of my paternal great great grandmothers, Myrtle Santos, nee Boston.  Myrtle Boston (1904-1977), ca 1940s                                    Myrtle's life is a classic example of the clash between family lore, documentation and genetic testing. What I know for certain that Myrtle was the mother of my paternal great grandfather, Lawrence Santos Jr . Everything else is contested. I'll start this post off with the lore I was given to by my relatives that I reconnected with. According to my aunt and cousins, my great grandfather described our family history as such: Myrtle Boston was an Afro-Puerto Rican either born in Santurce, Puerto Rico herself or her father originated from there. Her family somehow got to the US and assimilated into African-Amer...