Year to Date - 2016

It's hard to believe we are already well into the second month of 2016. I had meant to start out the year with some fresh goals and ideas for what I planned to do this year with regard to my research but I've been busy so far this year. Although, I've not been working on my research, per say, I've been busy with the activities of the African-American Heritage Ministry at the church that I attend.

Last weekend, we sponsored an event to kick off our Black History Month activities. Although there weren't many young people in attendance, one of the goals of our ministry is to help the younger generation know of the sacrifices of earlier generations. While everyone knows of the noted historical African-American firsts, etc., the goal of the event was to make the congregation aware of those notable firsts within our own congregation. We started out by having people fill out a survey. From there there were some members of the ministry  that called the respondents to get some answers to follow-up questions.

One of the people that I got to interview was Don Hudson, who now resides here in Charlotte, NC. In 1971, Mr. Hudson became the first African-American football coach at a predominately white university when he became the coach at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. You can read more about Mr. Hudson here.

Today, our ministry gave a Beginning Genealogy presentation.I was one of the presenters and this marked the first time I did a presentation to someone other than family. While I was up to the 11th hour working on my portion of the presentation, I had fun preparing and giving the presentation. I'm thinking perhaps this may have marked the beginning of my next chapter in my genealogy journey.

The ministry has more events planned for the remainder of the month such as a visit to The International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, NC. However, I'm not involved in any more activities until the end of the month where I'll be leading a viewing and discussion of the movie Selma.

So, as you can see, while I've not been busy with my own research and history, I have been busy with other genealogical and historical activities so far this year.

Hopefully, after I get through this some what hectic month, I can get back to working on my research.

So, until next time.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who's to Blame

Randy Seavers, Gena-Musings, has posted this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. The subject matter for this week is Who's to Blame.

Instructions are as follows:

Read Brenda Joyce Jerome's post Who or What Do You Blame? on the Western Kentucky Genealogy blog. She asks these questions:

• Can you identify person or event that started you on this search for family information?
• Did you pick up researching where a relative had left off?
• Did your interest stem from your child's school project on genealogy?
• If you have been researching many years, it may be hard to pinpoint one reason for this journey.

My response to the first question has to be my mother, who passed along all the stories handed down from my maternal grandmother, coupled with my own curiosity.

No, I did not pick up where a relative left off. There were the stories handed down but no one had actually started documenting our family history when I began in the late 1980s to look for my ancestors.

My interest steamed from my own curiosity about my ancestors and also the mini-series, Roots, which aired during my sophomore / junior year (1977) in high school and by Roots: The Next Generations, which aired during my senior year in high school (1979). However, I didn't really get started on actually attempting to research my family until the late 1980s. To this day I still remember the excitement of my first genealogical find, my grandfather's, Oscar Lucillous "LC" Hosch, WWI draft registration card and realizing that although he was reared in Walton County, GA, he was actually born in Jackson County, GA. Back then, I used snail mail to obtain a copy of granddad's registration card. With the exception of taking a 10 year break between 1999 and 2009, I've been researching ever since.

Thank you mom for instilling in me the desire to know our history because as you always told me Everybody has a right to know from whence they came.

And also, once again, thanking Cousin Nicholas, for motivating me to return to my research.

Family History Month 2010- Challenge #2

In honor of Family History month, Afrigeneas is conducting a series of Family History Challenges. My entry for Challenge #1 is posted on Conversations With my Ancestors as well as at Afrigeneas.


The instructions for Challenge #2 were as follows:
Since we're getting ready to enter a long holiday season, it seems a good time to remember holidays past.


How did your family celebrate special occasions and holidays? What are your favorite memories?

Interpret the theme any way you like. Write as long or short as you like. We encourage you to post photos to illustrate the story. Be creative!

Just a couple of rules:

1. Make our lives easier, please! Post your story as a response to this thread so we can keep track of the stories in each challenge.
2. Challenge #2 begins today, Oct 7th and ends at 11:59 pm on Oct 11th.

My entry was a few hours late. I had it written but fell asleep before getting it posted. What can I say? I was exhausted.

One of my fondest memories during my childhood days was the sort of mini reunion that my maternal granddad’s branch of the Hosch family held at Christmas each year. We typically gathered at one of the relative’s house, which most years seemed to be Aunt Lucille’s house.

Even though I saw some of my cousins on a daily basis (the bulk of my first cousins lived in my hometown), there was still something special about the descendants of my grandparents getting together at Christmas. After everyone arrived, the occasion always began with us singing Christmas Carols. Aunt Lucille, through the years, had acquired a large stash of FREE Christmas Carol songbooks from one of the local banks. So, my dad, the true musician in the group and who had married into this monstorous Hosch clan, would provide the instrumental accompaniment to our singing. On occasion, after I got older, the instrumental duties fell on my shoulders.

The above pictures, which are part of my mother’s personal collection, show dad at the piano, granddaddy and his children, grands, and great grands all gathered around, singing carols. (Granddaddy is sitting on the sofa next to the lamp.) If you look carefully, you can tell how thrilled all the kids were with the hymn and carol singing. :)

After the completion of the carol singing, we usually ate. Dinner was usually potluck, similar to the annual Hosch family reunion that was held back in those days but on a somewhat smaller scale. But before we ate, there was grace. Uncle Ed, Aunt Lucille’s husband who was also a minister, usually said grace. On the way to the Holiday Feast, Aunt Lucille would have us all speaking into her trusty microphone / cassette tape recorder. I remember we had to say our name, tell our place in the family, and then say something about the holidays or what ever else was on our minds. Just goes to show that daddy’s side of the family wasn’t the only side of my family that relied on tape recordings to communicate / document family events. (Reminds me, I will see auntie some time this week and should ask her if any of those old recordings are still in existence. By chance, maybe they haven’t met the same fate as other family recordings that are now special to me but no longer around.)

After we were through stuffing our faces, we gathered around the Christmas tree doing our usual family socializing until the gifts were handed out. After all the gifts were handed out, we lingered and socialized some more before we slowly started filing out to return to our individual homes. Looking back, it almost feels like that each one of us in our on way tried to make that day last as long as possible. It’s almost like we knew those times wouldn’t last forever and we were trying to make those gatherings last as long as we could.

Wordless Wednesday - The Mystery of the Shaking House

While putzing around on the internet the past few days, I came across this neat little article about my great Uncle Will Hosch, my maternal grandfather's brother, and some of my second cousins.

This article comes from the Cooleemee History Loom, No. 60, Fall, 2005 published by the Cooleemee Historical Association, P. O. Box 667, Old #14 Church Street, Cooleemee, NC 27014.

Family History Month - Challenge #3

One of my favorite genealogical webistes, Afrigeneas, is observing Family History Month by challenging us to remember various family activities during the the month of October. Both the blogging and non-blogging family researchers are really enjoying the challenges.

Today marks the end of CHALLENGE #3 and I've not written anything, yet. Yikes!

The instructions for the third challenge were as follows:

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, October 5 through 6 (yes! one extra day.), write and post a photo about either: 1. School days (at any age) or 2: Autumn / fall memories.

I decided to write about autumn / fall memories.

Next to Spring, Fall is my favorite time of the year. Two of my favorite things, football but especially HS football and the county fair took place during the fall months. I initially thought I would discuss both the football and county fair memories but have decided to just talk about the football ones. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did remembering them.

I'm really not sure how or when I ever got into football. Maybe it was the pride that the local black community exhibited over two of their own, Bobby Bell (Kansas City Chiefs 1963 - 1974) and Melvin Phillips (San Franciso 49ers 1966 - 1977) who I've never met because they were way older than me (about 20 years) or maybe it was that I was part tomboy but all I know is that by the time the Miami Dolphins had their perfect season, I had been bitten hard by this sport.

My earliest rememberances of being totally excited about football were Friday night football games with my dad. My dad was a teacher at the HS and sometimes had to work the games but often went even when he didn't have to. I would always tag along and my cousin Daryl, a year younger, would come, too. Back in those days Daryl and I were almost joined at the hip as you often didn't see one of us without the other.

The routine was the same each week there was a home game. Darryl and I would discuss who we were playing, what we were going to use as confetti, etc. until the excitement of Friday night arrived.  Even daddy's Friday night routine was the same. Daddy always got into the games free because he was a teacher but he was supposed to pay for me and Daryl. For lack of a better word, daddy was and is cheap. So every Friday night he was always saying to one of his fellow teachers who was working the gate "what about my little girl and nephew?" and he always received the usual nod of go ahead. To my knowledge, daddy never once paid for us to attend a game and this carried on through junior high. When I got to HS, I could get in free on my own because I was in band.

Once inside, Darryl and I always took our usual spot down on the front row while daddy went off to do whatever it is he was supposed to be doing. We jumped up and down and cheered furiously whenever our Golden Lions scored. There was always somebody throwing real confetti, which Daryl and I were always jealous of because we never had any but were always plotting how to get some. We knew better than to ask that someone buy this for us. So, every week we would create our own confetti by asking everyone around us if we could have their empty popcorn boxes. While we would tear the pieces of empty popcorn boxes as small as we could get them, it was never quite the same as having the real stuff but we still had fun tossing them into the air just the same. At the end of the game, there always seem to be a bit of a let down that all the excitement and fun had come to an end. But then we would get geared up and get going for another week.

Daryl and I rarely ever see each other now even though he's still in the hometown and I'm not to far away, and as I progressed through junior high and then HS, I was in the band and later became a majorette during marching season which created an entirely different set of Friday Night Football memeories. Yet, when that fall crispness hits the air, my mind always seems to drift back to those wonderful Friday nights spent in George Blanton Memorial stadium with my cousin Daryl, my dad, and our Shelby High Golden Lions.

George Blanton Memorial Stadium

Until Next Time!

October is Family History Month - me ca. 1967

Afrigeneas is celebrating Family History month. For the next two days, they are asking that you post a picture and / or write a narrative about yourself under the age of 18.

I have several pictures of myself  under the age of 18 and it was difficult deciding which picture to use for this post but I finally decided on this one

That's me in the middle just standing there. I think I was six years old at the time, and to the best of my knowledge, this was my very first recital after mom decided to enroll me in ballet and tap. Later, I would also take up jazz and participate in the annual dance workshop that my teacher, Mrs. Welch, did each year.

I know it doesn't seem like it in the picture but I really took to this and thoroughly enjoyed it and thrived on all of the genres that I was in. Sadly, for whatever reason, my mother decided that after six years, I had had my fill of the dances. I remember begging her to let me continue on and was so disappointed when she said no.

The Story of Two Aunts and One Man

Martha E. Jones and Genva C. Hosch Jackson

To date, I’ve not come across any true black sheep in my family. There are probably those that present and deceased family consider / considered black sheep but in the true sense of black sheep are not. As a result, I never have had anything to contribute to Black Sheep Sunday and even this is not about Black Sheep but the funny story of two aunts, my dad’s big sis, Martha, my mother’s baby sister, Geneva, and one man, Cleveland. I thought that Black Sheep Sunday was the perfect day to remember it.

Now I don’t think I was born when this story took place (if I was I don’t remember any of it) and to tell you the truth, I’m not even sure my parents were married at the time. So, it’s another story that was relayed to me by my mother and it’s one I laugh at every time my mother tells it because having known both aunts, I know all of this took place in exactly the manner as my mother tells it.

Until I find out differently, let’s just assume that my parents were married at the time this story takes place. My two aunts, Martha and Geneva, were both dating Cleveland at the same time. Now my mother knew they were both seeing the same man. Dad on the other hand didn’t. So, as time went by whenever Aunt Martha saw Cleveland’s mother, she would say there goes my mother-in-law, etc., etc., etc. Now momma could have told Aunt Martha that Cleveland was seeing someone else but mom never said a word. Momma, you know you were wrong for that.

I’m sure by now you can guess where this story is heading. Yes, it was soon announced that Aunt Geneva and Cleveland were getting married. Reportedly dad says to mom, “I didn’t know your sister was seeing Sister’s boyfriend.” Mom always thought it was more that Aunt Martha was seeing her sister’s boyfriend.

One day, after she and Cleveland were married Aunt Geneva, I imagine with her usual cackle, asked her hubby why he decided to marry her instead of Aunt Martha given the fact that Aunt Martha was a school teacher and all and she was just a country girl who longed for the action of the big city. Uncle Cleveland liked Aunt Martha but thought she was just a little too bossy.

Aunt Martha never married. She doted on her 6 nieces and nephews. She never forgot our birthdays. To a certain degree, she was the preserver of the bit of family history that I do have on the paternal side of my family. The older pictures that I have of my Jones, Ewell, and Everett ancestors were Aunt Martha’s. She’s the only person I personally know that has been back to the motherland, Africa. She did a couple of trips bringing goodies back each time. (I have some of her artifacts.) Aunt Martha died in 2000. I get constant reminders of her presence, whether it is looking after her house, which she left to my dad, rummaging through the pictures for something to post for Wordless Wednesday, or just staring at the masks and sculptures that she brought back from Africa that now have a place of honor in my own home.

Aunt Geneva, my cousin Leon (Aunt Geneva’s son) and Uncle Cleveland moved to Detroit. Aunt Geneva and Uncle Cleveland eventually added my cousin Maynard to their family. Aunt Geneva was always sending us packages from the big city. One of my favorite dolls and one of my favorite elementary school outfits came from Aunt Geneva. Aunt Geneva died in August 1995. My last remembrance of seeing Aunt Geneva is May of 1995 when she came to North Carolina to attend Uncle John’s funeral. She stayed with Aunt Marie. Aunt Marie didn’t have a microwave. Aunt Geneva upon realizing that Aunt Marie lacked this vital appliance declared in true Aunt Geneva fashion, “Awww Marie, everyone needs a microwave. When I get back to Detroit, I’m going to send you a microwave.” And she did.

So, there you have it, the story of two aunts and one man.

Until Next Time!

Newly Discovered Cousins

Feels like I've been so busy this past week, that I've not had a chance to really sit down and talk about my telephone conversation last week with my newly discovered cousins.

It's been exactly a week since the conversation with cousin Irene and her mother, cousin Eunice. I was excited but concerned at the same time. If you recall, on my post about Aunt Mattie's descendants, I had commented about how my mother felt she thought her cousins were passing and that it may have been a reason there was very little contact. I was really concerned that my new found cousins might take offense with the statement. Surprisingly, they didn't and even said that I was kind of right in making my statement.

Anyway, cousins Irene and Eunice, and mom and I had a wonderful conversation. I learned a lot about this branch of the tree, acquired another surname to search for Aunt Mattie in hopes that it will lead me back to great grandmother Fannie's line of the family and confirmed, again, that everyone seems to know Fannie by a different surname. The Ohio cousins have always known her as Grandmother Sanford.

Cousins Irene and Eunice were amazed at how much I had already figured out especially how I figured out, without a death certificate, the exact year / time frame that Aunt Mattie died.

Found out that cousin Evelyn (mom's first cousin, Eunice's aunt and Irene's great aunt) is still alive and well at the ripe young age of 99. Wish that I could actually meet her in person. I sent Irene an old picture of my grandmother and Evelyn, which she plans to take with her the next time that she sees Evelyn.

This week I must sit down and go back through all my notes from our conversation and organize them. Irene and I plan to keep in touch. We kept e-mailing each other all week.

I just had this feeling all week that the ancestors were smiling down on us.

Til next Time!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Ultimate Genealogy Goal (UGG)

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings posts a "fun, challenge, assignment, or such" each Saturday. Since I started blogging, this is the first time I have participated. So, here is this weeks challenge / post:

What is your UGG - your "Ultimate Genealogy Goal" for the genealogy research that you wish to leave to your heirs, descendants and the genealogy community?

My Ultimate Goal has always been to reconnect all the "lost" branches of my family tree even if it is just starting with my 2great-grandparents and all the lines that descended from them.

My secondary goal, which is a more recent occurrence, is to tell the family story. What's the point in doing all this if I keep it to myself. How will unknown or denied ancestors be allowed to take their rightful place if I don't give them a voice.


How long do you think you have have left to fulfill this ultimate goal?*

I'm in my late 40's, so I'm not sure. Based on the longevity of my maternal side, I would like to think that I have another 40 to 50 years but one never knows. I just hope that if I don't make my ultimate goal that I've at least made enough of a dent that it can be handed off to one of my younger cousins, who I'm am sure will have their own dreams of what the ultimate goal should be.

Are you prioritizing your time adequately in order to achieve this goal?

Not at all. I've many interest and get distracted easily. As long as I don't take another full blown 10 year break, I think I will at least make progress toward fulfilling my goals.

If not, what should you do to achieve the goal?

To achieve my goal, I would have to give up all my other interests (Interior Decorating, Natural Hair Care, Fashion). Also, work and as Randy mentioned, it would probably help if I could be in the same locale that my ancestors are from.

Will you do what you need to do?

I doubt it. Just like the old saying "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy," all genealogy and nothing else makes Mavis a dull girl.

So, I will continue to work on all my other interests, there will be times when one will be the main focus, currently it's genealogy, hair, and weight loss, and the others get relegated to the background but what makes me me and gives me life is the sum of all my interests. And that is as it should be.

Till Next Time!

No Tombstone Today

Since I still need to get out and take some tombstone pictures, I decided to take a mini break today from Tombstone Tuesday.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, over the course of the weekend I finally got around to thoroughly reading a packet of information that my second cousin, Roy Hosch, sent me back in 1998. The packet contains several obituaries. Several were of my granddad's first cousins, Etta, RJ and Early Hosch in Lawrenceville, GA. Since mom on several occasions has discussed Etta with me, I decided to check Zabasearch.com and Whitepages.com to see if Etta's descendants might still be living. It appears that her daughter Doris is still living. I also think I found one of Etta's granddaughters.

Last night I typed my letters (I know handwritten is more personal but.....) and today, I dropped them in the mail. I pray these are my cousins and also that they respond. I'm so excited about the prospect of reclaiming a lost line and wonder if descendants of my 2ggrandmother's other children are still living in the Gwinnet / Jackson County, GA area.

Etta's pedigree is Etta May Hosch → Augustus "Gus" Hosch → Matilda Hosch


Till Next Time?

Names the Same

Over the weekend, I started working on something I had been putting off for forever. To me it had always seemed like a monumental task but somehow, I felt like it just couldn't be put off any longer. I'm sure at this point you are probably wondering what this monumental task was.

This monumental task that I could no longer put off was the beginning stages of inputting my great uncle's, Will Hosch, descendants into my family tree. Big deal ,right? Wrong? My great uncle had 18 children. Yes, you read that right 18, all single births, and all by the same woman, his beloved wife, Maude Johnson Hosch.

As I began on this project, I was reminded of another maddening hurdle a lot of genealogist face, names the same.

This is just 2 of my HOSCH (granddad and uncle Will) lines but so far I have

2 Roy Edwards
6 Roys
6 Wills / Willies

and I haven't even inputted everyone, yet.

All the Willies are how the family reunion was started. Cousin Julius Hosch's wife, Janie, contacted my mother back in the early 60s and stated "with all these Willies in the family we need to have a family reunion." And that's how our family reunion started. Later, my grandmother's side of the family was included.

While having all these names the same can be maddening, it's also what makes my family my family. Strangely, it helps you to get to know your ancestors on a more personal level by focusing on the minute things that separate one Willie in your family/ancestry from another family member with the same surname named Willie.


Till Next Time!