Kenneth Dixon Genealogy

06/12/2024

New Entry: Bilali Mohammed

Bilali Mohammed, an enslaved African who lived openly as a Muslim on Sapelo Island, has been a subject of scholarly and popular interest since the nineteenth century. His experience is reflected in the “Bilali Document,” a brief manuscript he wrote concerning Islamic regulations.

Learn more: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/bilali-mohammed/

📷: UGA Libraries

01/29/2024

The tools of the trade! I've decided on a temporary pricing system for gravestone cleaning until I can come up with something more defined. Please reach out if you have any questions about the services I offer.

• $10 per gravestone for a "spray and wait" cleaning, which includes one coat of D/2 Biological Solution and nothing else. It will not produce immediate results, but it requires less product and will lighten gradually over the course of a few months, and will continue after that. A good economical option for those with patience. 😉
• $20 per gravestone for a full cleaning. This involves spraying a coat of D/2, scrubbing with a natural bristle brush (involves elbow grease!), rinsing it completely, and spraying another coat of D/2. This will more than likely produce a noticeable, immediate effect and will lighten faster than "spray and wait."
• The cost of gas for the drive there and back will be calculated using GasBuddy or some other similar website.
• $15 for before and post-cleaning photos. Photos for all gravestones cleaned are included in that price, it is not per gravestone.
• $30 for before, post-cleaning, and 3-month progress photos, with additional costs for gas for a second trip. This is not per gravestone, but includes all that were cleaned. All photos are taken with a Nikon D5600 and will be 6000 x 4000 in resolution. I recommend this option for those who wish to see that the gravestones in question are preserved through a high resolution photographic record.
• LiDAR scans of gravestones will be available for commission sometime in the future!!

01/29/2024

❄️ A vintage photo from February 1951 of SNOW at the Oldest House in St. Augustine, Florida!

According to stories in The St. Augustine Record, it snowed 2 inches, blanketing landmarks in the nation’s oldest city! See photos and read more here: https://www.staugustine.com/story/news/history/2021/01/31/st-augustine-residents-mesmerized-snow-enjoy-brief-winter-wonderland-1951/4330819001/

📸: St. Augustine Historical Society archives

#1951

10/11/2023

"Wednesday Night Mar. 30th, 1898

There is no improvement in my general feelings. How long will it last, my martyrdom? I am kept too busy these days to think much - so many chickens, pigs, goslings, and dogs to feed. I am very tired tonight. I have been ironing all day. Bro. Walter has been planting corn all the week and last week Bro. Bird has been off surveying. Frank and Nellie are both near me snoozing faithfully. I often say that my pets are all that can understand me and sympathize with me. I have been looking for Sis. M— to come, but she stays. How sweetly bloomed the gay green [blank] birk[?] These words flash into my mind when I think of my last happy day."

— excerpt from the journal of Ophelia "Ophie" Ruth Smith Mingledorff

09/26/2023

09/22/2023

09/20/2023

There's no better day than today to give the gift of family history to future generations. Why did you start your research?

09/20/2023

Here is some beautiful art to enjoy! These are by the artist and naturalist John Abbot (1751-ca. 1840), a Londoner by birth who spent 64 years in Georgia drawing all manner of insects, plants, and birds. He spent his last years living on the plantation of his friend William E. McElveen (1812-1880) in Bulloch County, Georgia, and was buried in the McElveen family cemetery. Descendants of the McElveens and their connected families treasure their connection to him to this day. This is a good example of how genealogy can introduce you to other interesting subjects, such as art and natural history.

Source: "The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia, Vol. I," by James Edward Smith and John Abbot, 1797. Courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, held and sponsored by the Peter H. Raven Library, Missouri Botanical Garden, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/201.

09/13/2023

St Mathew’s (Formerly St Stephens), located at 1401 Martin Luther King Blvd, was organized in 1855 by a group of Nine free colored people in William Claghorn’s bakery at the corner of Perry Lane and Habersham Street.
Reverend J Robert Love, who was Rector of St Stephen’s Episcopal Church, would leave in 1872 to found the St Augustine Episcopal Church in Yamacraw.
In 1892, Reverend Richard Bright, who was the First Negro Episcopal priest the be ordained in the state of Georgia, would become Rector.
St. Stephen’s would maintain until 1943, when it merged with St. Augustine Episcopal Church located on what was called West Broad Street… upon merging, they changed the name to St. Mathews Episcopal Church.
The current church was built in 1948. And in 1980, the new Rector Charles L Hoskins had thirteen new Stained Glass windows installed that serve to Memorialize all of the Black Parishes throughout the state of Georgia.



-St. Mathew’s archive collection
Via Out of Yamacraw and Beyond: Discovering Black Savannah

09/12/2023

May 11, 1952 “The Visitor”, Savannahs first Negro Owned Steamboat made its maiden voyage.
Under the command of Skipper, Sam Stevens, the Visitor, a 125-passenger excursion boat, sails towards Daufuskie Island.

The Visitor, a sleek, trim vessel, was purchased by Dr. And Mrs. S M McDew Jr., Dr. And Mrs H M Collier Jr., and Mr. and Mrs. Sam Stevens.

The Visitor is the first such boat ever owned by Savannah Negroes.



-Savannah tribune

09/11/2023

Please forgive me for my posts becoming irregular. I've been feeling tired, and I haven't been able to focus as well as I normally can. In times like these, I look to others for strength. This story concerns two sons of my ancestor Adam Poole Vandiver (1789-1876), who lived at the base of Tallulah Falls in Habersham County, Georgia. It distressed me when I first read their story, as it must have caused great pain to the family. The younger brother can be identified by his death entry in the Vandiver family bible: "Deaths–Matthew W. Vandivere Departed This Life May 14th 1843 - By the Bite of a Snake." In the account of the story, told by Charles Lanman in "Letters from the Allegheny Mountains," which he published in 1843, the older, unnamed brother carried Matthew about two miles to their home in an attempt to get him help. He did all that he could to save his brother, which must have required a Herculean amount of inner strength. Unfortunately, I know of no source which identifies his name. I hope he had a happy and fulfilling life.

"Since I have introduced the above youthful Vandever to my readers, I will record a single one of his deeds, which ought to give him a fortune, or at least an education. The incident occurred when he was in his twelfth year. He and a younger brother had been gathering berries on a mountain side, and were distant from home about two miles. While carelessly tramping down the weeds and bushes, the younger boy was bitten by a rattlesnake on the calf of his leg. In a few moments, after the unhappy child fell to the ground in great pain, and the pair were of course in great tribulation. The elder boy, having succeeded in killing the rattlesnake, conceived the idea, as the only alternative, of carrying his little brother home upon his back. And this deed did the noble fellow accomplish. For two long miles did he carry his heavy burden, over rocks and down the water-courses, and in an hour after he had reached his father’s cabin the younger child was dead; and the heroic boy was in a state of insensibility from the fatigue and heat which he had experienced. He recovered, however, and is now apparently in the enjoyment of good health, though when I fixed my admiring eyes upon him, it seemed to me that he was far from being strong, and it was evident that a shadow rested upon his brow."

Sources: "Letters from the Alleghany Mountains," by Charles Lanman, 1849. https://books.google.com/books?id=HCYUAAAAYAAJ

"The Vandiver Family Bible," by cousin Jenn T. H.

Engraving of "Tallulah Falls" by Thomas Addison Richards, engraved by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, & Smilie, 1854. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tallulah_Falls_7151.jpg

09/08/2023

09/05/2023

09/04/2023

09/01/2023

Few places encapsulate stories of our shared cultural landscape like burial grounds. Some are well-established, even destinations for generations of families and visitors. Others, especially those historically serving black communities,

08/30/2023

The system of chattel enslavement governed every single aspect of an enslaved person's life, including the physical locations that they were allowed to inhabit at any given time. Laws and levels of punishment were specifically designated for "going at large." Read about how Richmond City Commonwealth Causes reveal this history in today's The UncommonWealth.

https://uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com/blog/2023/08/30/the-crime-of-going-at-large/

08/29/2023

I've been trying to learn more about my Quaker ancestors so that I may really understand them, their history, and their motivations. With that comes the need to learn about general Quaker history, in the South and elsewhere, and their religious beliefs, such as a commitment to nonviolence, and that everyone has an "Inner Light," or connection with God, to name a few. They also had enough character and compassion mixed with a healthy dose of obstinacy that they deliberately befriended and helped those who were also in the crosshairs of the Anglos and their weaponized government. Henry White, mentioned below, was one of my Quaker ancestors. He apparently earned the respect of Native Americans because of the respect and love he showed them. I never knew that there was something known about his personal history. Now I need to order this book and more to see what else I can learn. 👀🧐🕯️

Pictured below is Henry's original 1670 will, which he signed with a mark.

"Quakers not only practiced pacifism in ways that infuriated their white neighbors, they also actively cultivated positive relations with those whom others feared and despised. Henry White, one of the earliest English settlers to Pasquotank, was a Quaker whose 'Christian conduct and loving behavior towards the Indians' earned him 'great esteem and respect from them.' Nathan Newby, a Quaker Blacksmith, mended Indians' guns while discussing with them the 'Sentiments they have about Heaven and heavenly Things.' White, Newby, and others held fast to the idea that all people could experience divine inner light. That Quakers would rather converse with Indians than fight them had already raised the ire of some. That Newby willingly mended Indian guns when he would not take up arms against their owners only added to the existing resentment against Friends. Male Quakers seemed to abrogate their responsibilities as colonial men when they refused to defend their families as non-Quakers believed effective heads of households must."

Source: Suspect Relations: S*x, Race, and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina by Kirsten Fischer, p. 47. Courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/wight-henry-albemarle-county/813580.

08/29/2023

Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the Georgia land lottery, how it worked, and how it was used as part of a case showing that Thomas Beverly Royston was the son of John Royston.…