Isle of Wight County, Virginia: Revisiting Carrollton
Portsmouth, Virginia: The life and death of Rosebud Rudolph Douglass Aggrey (1882-1961)
Anyone who briefly reviews my blog knows I’m a longtime researcher of African American cemeteries throughout the South. Ever since 2007, cemeteries have remained some of the primary sources through which I’ve learned priceless bits of information, details that helped complete our family’s historical narrative often in ways no other sources can. So you’d think it’d be no surprise to me that one can still glean interesting details from years-old cemetery photos, yet this is exactly what happened during a recent routine newspaper dive for family history.
Richmond, Virginia: Honoring family, the Ortons and Youngs of Church Hill
One never knows where priceless bits of family history can be found. In 2012, we visited the household of the Parkers, paternal cousins, in Portsmouth, Virginia. They shared with us a great photo of my paternal grandmother, Lillian Vann Young Orton, who was born in 1927, Portsmouth, Virginia. She is featured in this photo, the infant in the center, surrounded by several of her siblings.
Suffolk, Virginia: Views of Oak Lawn Cemetery (est. 1885), August 9, 2019
Assisting grassroots efforts to preserve a historical, African American institution of Suffolk, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia: A Negro Funeral in Virginia
