Record Bearers

Black women are often the family historians. I have learned this especially with the tradition of  taking, receiving and archiving photographs in black families. When I asked my husband this morning if he wanted me to track his genealogy as well, he replied, “I am not really one for history.” I never thought I was either. My penchant for “History” usually dates back to 1979, both the year of my birth and the birth of commercial hip-hop (though I am a “soul” child at heart). However, this morning I have been doing some digging, and . . . well, I may just fill out my census form after all.

On I found my great, great, great-grandmother, Pleasant McFatter. She was, as of the 1900 Census, a 62-year-old resident of Spring Hill Township, NC. She had 12 children, including my great, great-grandmother, Mary McFatter, who was herself a single-parent of 6. Pleasant was a washwoman and Mary a day-laborer (Though they had both been out of work for 2-3 of the last six months.) Neither woman could read nor write. The widowed Pleasant rented her home, where her daughter and four grandchildren resided, including Henry, my great-grandfather.

I have never, until today, known this history, or any history of my paternal side, back any further then my great-grandfather’s generation, and even his name was unknown to me. My great-grandmother Lou, who my father knew well, was Henry’s wife. Once she told my father that she fled from North Carolina to New York after having murdered my great-grandfather because he was abusive to her. I did find Henry McFatter’s death record and he died at the curiously young age of 29, though no record of the cause of death was noted.

Part “fact” and part “legend” these histories become the makeup of who we are, though they are often so distant and silenced in the present . . .


11 thoughts on “Record Bearers

  1. Ummm, in a word: awesome. This is amazing! How long did it take you to find this information? Now that you’ve been bitten by the genealogy bug, how much more digging will you do? And why has this encouraged you to fill your census form; do you want your great, great grand-children to be able to learn something about you?


    1. Thanks ORJ. The beauty of this Internet resource is that it took less than one hour. The records are there and easily navigated, for some “parts” of my family anyway. For instance, my other grandfather was a supposedly a stowaway on a boat from Barbados to NY. I though I found his record under Immigration Docs, but he apparently falsified his name when he reached the U.S. and if legend is correct he was not an authorized passenger at all. Also, if the last name of my ancestors was more common, like Fisher (my mom’s side) or Randall (my husband’s/kid’s family) it would have been much more difficult.

      I want to fill out my census so that we go on the record, exactly!


    1. I was yes, and it is still sitting on the organ in our front hallway where it has been for ?3 mos?! I’ll get to it though now. I want to be on the record!


  2. Tanji: A Blog is awfully close to being a book on 125th St. Watch out, I don’t want to break my promise.


    1. 🙂 You think she would mind now? Because if I can confirm the story it will have to go into my book I am writing 🙂


  3. I find it amazing that you can trace this information so far back. I may decide to delve in my past soon.\Mom


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