Rootstech 2016 ● Oral History Recording.

Personal Oral History Interview 

at Rootstech 2016

Provided by Family Search Recording Booth. 

My True Roots - True!

With Love, from the bottom of my Heart

Oral History Recording on You Tube

My Personal Flash Drive from Family Search

Family Heirlooms ✿ Moms Hankies

Mom and her Hankies

When Mom passed away Tuesday, November 11th, 2008. 

We had to go through all her personal items. Mom had Southern Charm and all the attributes a Southern Lady has. This is just one of her many etiquettes she kept tradition with .... was Hankies.

She kept them in all her purses and a few coat pockets. A lady always keeps her hankies near by.

Mom had a special drawer in her extra bedroom where she kept dainty items of the day for any occasion in excess and easy access to for times in need.  These are some of those. 

When I think of hankies I think of the movies where Women kept them tucked in the sleeve of a dress, right above the wrist. Tears and Joy where held in hankies. Who came up with the idea if you dropped a hanky right before a guy you liked, it would get his attention?  I think I watched Gone with the Wind to much. 

Silly to think of that now.  

 There were quite a few packets of Lady Hankies. Some where very old and laying in display. I choose these to make a special memory. Already embroidered with flowers from the past.  I took them to a seamstress and had her embroider Moms name Tinnie and the year she passed, 2008. 

Moms Hankie

I gave them to some special ladies in my life. I saved the baby blue one for me. One of her favorite colors as well. I keep in my Bible right at the Book of Matthew which was her favorite Chapter. I do that just so I'm close to her presence everyday in my own special way.  Mom saved them and now I try to get use out of them. 

She saved them for a Special day, but every day is Special to me. 

 Mom called me "Sweet-Pea" and I thought the blue one represented Sweet Peas. 

I'm pretty sure that is not the name of the flower. If someone can tell me, please Leave me a NoTe or Comment. 

I'd just like to call them Sweet Peas. 

The purple one is for my Granddaughter I keep that in a safe place. Little girls love pink and purple. I think the seamtress did this so tenderly with the right font and stitch for colors to coordinate what was already on them. I think Mom would enjoy the special touch I put on them. 

I made this a Family Heirloom. 

Something New from Something Old. 

Thank You for letting me share one of many of my favorite Heirlooms. 

Thank You Mom for these intricate delicate Gifts! 

I enjoy sharing and caring for these. 

Stop by and Enjoy my Blog Sisters post on their 

Family Heirlooms

Jeanne Bryan Insalaco: Everyone has a Story to Tell 

Cathy Meder-Dempsey: Opening Doors in Brick Walls 

Vera Marie Badertscher: Ancestors In Aprons

Karen Beisfeld: Vorfahhrensucher

Schalene Jennings Dagutis: Tangled Roots and Trees

Jacqui Kirkman: Leaves on my Family Tree 

Kendra Schmidt: Trek Thru Time

Linda Stufflebean: Empty Branches on the Family Tree

11 Mothers of Ike Ivery. Where have you Gone ?

Kevin A. Williams, Artist.

"Worst Sight"

Kevin A. Williams, Artist.

11 Mothers of Ike Ivery.....

I Often excogitate and ponder.

Who the 11 Mothers of Granddaddy Ike Ivery were?


They the slave catchers were Thieves, Hunters, Robbers. These Men Stole. They Stole and Sold my 11 Mothers. 

They have Robbed me over and over again. Hundreds of years later they are still stealing from me. 

Now they are in Their Descendants records, personal papers, bibles. Records torn and snatched from pages. Records burned to the ground. Non existent. No where to be found. Lost. Gone. 

Every time I get a chance. I take back what belongs to me in the way of research. I take it from them. I snatch it. I grab back, what BELONGS to Me. The Rightful Owner. 



 Where have you Gone? What happened to You?

Stories like these always pulls me out of my recrudescence. So this is where you find me Today on a Sankofa Journey for understanding on what happened to these 11 Mothers of Ike Ivery?

Sometimes no matter how many pictures or documents or sources I have. I have to veer off the road less traveled to let my thoughts ponder a bit or I'll get restless. 

There's always something deep in my soul. I can't put my finger on it when I'm researching. I just know I have to go to these moments when they call to my heart.
These are moments when I don't have any sources, citations, or genealogical standards. 

This is where a "NoTe To MySelF " is rendered.....


 It's a constant friend for My True Roots and I.

Usually because of the time frame you can start as young as 15 to start rearing children. I put a 20 year gap in between Granddaddy's Ike's Maternal Line. 

As of now, I know Granddaddy Ike's Mother was named Minta Ivey/Ivery. She was born in 1834. I think her name is a derivative of Arminta. 

Being a Slave child. They probably downgraded her Proper name as they so often did as to make her hear and know her Value. Which was not of a Proper Lady, calling her Minta. She has been recorded on all documents as such. 



 She was lawfully married to my 3rd Great Granddaddy William Ivey/Ivery  on November the 5th, 1865. Pike County Courthouse. By the state of Alabama. Before that they were Slaves in Pike County, Alabama having their 1st child in 1850. 

William & Minty Ivey Marriage: November 4th, 1865.

According to the 1870 Census when she was 35. With 7 Children already born. Charles Ford her Son in Law is living with them. He is married to my Aunt Rosanna. Grandma Minta was 15 when she had her first child. A Daughter. 

Hopefully one day I'll be reunited with My Aunties Descendants. Along with her other Sister Isabelle.  That gives me hope to finding their DNA-Haplogroup which hopefully leads back to Africa and I'll be pleased.  On line 30 is one Milford McTyiere. I'm assuming until I find out, he might of been part of a dowry to Mrs. Caroline McTyiere who was married to William Ivey, a Slave Owner at the time in that small town.  I dont' find it odd or coincidental a former Slave with a last name of the Bishop in town living with my Ivey's. 

What is his relationship to us? I'm still seeking.

Line 21- 31 of 1870 Bullock County, Alabama. Minta Ivey/Ivery

Source Citation

Year: 1870; Census Place: Ridgely, Bullock, Alabama; Roll: M593_4; Page: 271B; Image: 545; Family History Library Film: 545503

My last find on Grandma Minta, is 1880. After that she is lost to me. I don't even have a death certificate. If she passed away in Alabama they didn't start recording deaths until 1908.

Slavery was started here a long time ago. 


This is where I start to go in a World of my own. Trying to wrap my head around 215 Years of History Lost to the Ages, Gone in the Wind. 246 Years of Enslavement.... Yes, you can go ahead and ponder on that for a minute.

I'm realizing that in 1619 according to History is when Slavery started here. I'm guessing about this is when the 1st Mother arrived here from Africa was born. This is as far as I can wrap my head around. 

I don't want to comprehend the Mother's before that. With 20 years apart for each Mother after her. Even tho I know realistically child rearing started much earlier in age. I just tried to put a respectable age on them. 1619-1814. These are the Years that those 11 Mothers are not found by me. 

Beginning in 1619, there are 11 Mothers missing....

Ending in 1814. I placed as the time when Grandma Minta's Mother was possibly born. 

11 Mothers Missing from my Genealogical Paper trail. 

11 Mothers unidentified in my DNA. 

African American History

I read this book a lot to keep me in a mind set, a frame of mind. For all that was going on in this Country, on what my Ancestors were facing. 

It's a Time Line of History that I use to try to place my Ancestors in. It's a great resource in time travel for what happened through time. All the complexities to our Country's History here in the United States as African Americans. 

This book contains stories they don't publish in books for school. History I wasn't taught till I became an adult and even younger it was told in bits and pieces from my Elders that wasn't in a formal setting. 

This is what keeps me up at night. What I try to find all during the day. 

When I am hurt, confused, overwhelmed and full of Pride as the Sun goes down in Africa.....

Africa   

I have visions of torture, whippings, crammed cockleshells, Mother's being thrown overboard. Mothers jumping in the sea on their own volition, rather than face the life that awaits them. 

Bodies being over thrown from sickness or some barbaric reasoning, babies being left alone. Bed warmers. Breeders. Whipped. Raped and Ruined. Scrambling for air and food and water.  Stench. Sweat, Blood & Tears. They could only go so far in their treatment. They were Value in a Monetary form. 

 Cruelty of Life that we will never be able to imagine. 

I cry for who These 11 Women of mine are? Where are they from in the 54 Countries of Africa? What Language do they Speak? What Traditions did they have that I carry on without a knowing? Just because it's in my Blood. How many tears where shed for them losing touch with the Homeland? What happened to them? 

It's a piece of my heart that is broken knowing that I may never found out. Somehow I have to come to a personal peace within my Soul, I may never live to see that day.

Maybe God is trying to tell me something?....

For now. I will keep searching, keep trying, asking, fighting, scrambling, researching, wondering, seeking, praying....For those; 11 Mothers of Mine. 

Jeremiah 1:15 says:  "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the Nations". 

Oh, 11 Mothers of Mine.....

God knew you first before You knew yourself. You are consecrated with much veneration!  

You are Speaking to the Nations through your Descendants. 

With Love, through Your Great Granddaughter, True.

11 Mothers of Ike Ivery

Threshold of Blogging, My 1st Post.

I've been thrown into the threshold of BLOGGING!
Much to my Chagrin and Encouragement from my Circle of Genning Friends.

Daddy & Me, 1977.

Today is the 3rd year my Daddy Mr. James E. Lewis, Sr. has been gone from this World. 

Born July 10, 1918. I find this befitting and a Honor to start my STORY on this date November 7, 2012. The Day he passed from this Life and went onto Glory. 

He started me with all this NOTE TAKING to Myself, for that I'll be grateful. I don't know who took this picture of me and Daddy but it sums up in so many words and feelings of what I ended up doing with a passion.  It turned out to be called Genealogy!

 It was the Summer of 1977. I was 9 years old. My Grandma Queen Miles from the Deep South of Alabama had passed away and Roots was on television, so all this had a profound effect on me. There was a whisper in my Soul that spoke to my heart that long ago time, that said to never forget! 

Since then it's been my mission to not.
To make some of the Elders in past oral history interviews comfortable around me, with my scribbled papers and pen I would call it "NOTE-TAKING"........ saying to them, Just making "NOTES TO MYSELF".


 "My Blog" is just a reflection of thoughts to MYSELF. They come to me in the twinkle of a eye, a stirred memory, in a startled moment, lots of things can touch my heart or jog my memory and I'll want to write the thought and "Make a Note to Myself" just for simple reflection later. If you see me with paper and pen don't be alarmed! So today is a SPECIAL Note to Myself for you All.

Thanks for Coming over to my Place and Hanging out a bit and taking this Sankofa Journey with Me as you get a Inside view of my thoughts turned to NOTES. I appreciate all your support and please leave a COMMENT or NOTE for me.