I feel like I got a job. I commute to Woodbine, Georgia to the Lang Bryan Library/Archives daily. It's about like driving from my house to Gainesville. I go because it is chockablock full of stories of the ancestors.
I went to the cemetery in St Mary's first. That was last Monday morning. I had forgotten to wear October cemetery stomping clothes, so I got mosquito bit and sandals full of sand spurs and quite hot and sweaty. I did get some nice photos of Lang graves.
I had bought a little book on the history of St Mary's. It's one of those little sepia covered local histories that is mostly photos and costs $22. In this little book I got photos of the founders of the Lang Bryan library, my cousin Bebe Lang and Mary Givins Bryan. One look at Bebe suggested she might be my sister as well as my cousin. This was further confirmed in the cemetery where Bebe and Mary are buried side by side with matching headstones and a lovely little granite bench with Lang Bryan carved. It was a welcome spot for picking off sand spurs and having a moment with the sisters. Yesterday I got further confirmation of their sisterhood from the archivist in the library. Their portraits hang side by side in the library and she told me that they lived together in Atlanta where they worked to establish the Georgia Archives.
The Lang Bryan archive is based upon Bebe's collection, so it is Mecca for us Lang descendants. I spent Monday making copies of gggg grandaddy's letters to various governors and military leaders begging to be released from jail. Yesterday I met a woman researching her ancestor who had, with gggg grandaddy Richard fomented a rebellion against the Spanish in Florida. He had come to Florida from Savannah where he was about to be thrown in jail for debts, and the Spanish had given him land even before they started giving land grants to the other ancestors to encourage settlement of the area. So clearly, gggg Grandaddy Richard deserves some study.
What I mainly did Tuesday through Thursday was data enter all the descendants of gggg grandaddy Richard and his brother, Isaac who came to south Georgia with Richard. There was a family tree in a file. It was probably made in the 1990's-on computer. It was three 8.5 X 11 pages wide and 13 pages long. There are additional family trees done by computer in various ways. Yesterday I finished the big one and almost finished the second one which offered a few more names. I now have to go through my database and see if there are duplicates. These plantation families married each other, so I recognize last names from Middle Florida families on other branches of my tree. I may not get all the dots connected in my lifetime, but like cousin/sister Bebe I will certainly try.
I have wanted to go to the Lang Bryan collection for years now, but I was particularly bound for it this trip because of a request from a cousin on 23andMe. One of the lovely things about dna analysis is that it allows African Americans more leads to their ancestry when the paper trail ends-usually somewhere between 1860 and 1870. We all know that black people and white people in the south are related, but we don't always know how and there are so many barriers to finding out. So, when a cousin of color contacted me through 23andMe with two possible ancestors in common, I was thrilled. It may take awhile for her to gather specific dna evidence for which ancestor we have in common, but along the way we will collaborate on the paper trail.
The Lang Bryan Library is run by two lovely and very knowledgeable women. Judy Buchanan is the archivist and has been there 7 years. She has lived in St Mary's all of her adult life, so she knows everybody and his dog. She works with Johnett Allen who went to high school in Kingsland and has lived away for many years, but came back about a year ago. She has worked at the archives for 7 months. The archive itself is a small building and a small but powerful collection. It is situated in the tiny town of Woodbine, Georgia way back in the piney woods near the Satilla River. In my whole time at the archives there have never been more than 5 people there at a time.
One walks in and signs in and feels like a guest of honor in a southern home (though there is no iced tea). Judy knows the collection like an old friend, so you simply have to tell her your interest and files and books appear at your place on the table. If you say you are coming back tomorrow, they stay there at your place at the table waiting.
There is an amazing collection of resources for African American research-deeds, wills, anything that came through the courthouse and cemeteries. Yesterday Johnett was working on indexing a ledger of payments to road builders 1909. The names repeat those I was data entering in my tree, but we both know that those who worked on the roads were the former slaves of the people in my tree.
I have decided to take the day off from my research job and get some other things done. Also, it is Marcia and my 10th anniversary, so we will be celebrating. I'm thinking a piece of Ms Carolyn's coconut cake is in order. We were given some last week by the neighbors and we have been jonzin for it since our last bite.
I also had a lovely dinner with the Callahan Cousins on Tuesday night. Of particular interest was cousin Annalise who is almost one month old. I'm hoping we can get together again soon. I missed the opportunity to have a photo scanning party this trip, but by next year when I'm hoping and planning to get back, we will surely have one. There is nothing like sitting around a table with the cousins. We have a language of our own derived from our shared heritage. You don't have to 'splain much.
It's cooling off on the beach these October days. I had to wear my lightweight hoodie a couple of times on beach walks. For me it is perfect. Pretty much for Stella too but with one notable exception. She is confined to the leash these days as she had two behavioral infractions this past week. One took her fairly near the busy road, so she is leash bound for naughtiness and her own good. She has her adoring public on the north walk. One woman calls her by name. Since these admirers are headed home tomorrow Stella will either have to make new friends or go without. She is very adept at making new friends. Actually, it's time for the beach walk now.
KG
