My Family History

By Lynelle
FEB 4, 2024

I am no expert, but I must say I am pretty damn good at research. A couple of years ago, I decided to dig into my family history (mom & dad’s side) by doing genealogy searching online. I consider myself an intelligent individual, so until I get to a point where I am at a standstill, I will continue to research on my own — for free.

Using the Ancestry database is fine, but cost money. You can call me cheap, but once I found the website FamilySearch you couldn’t tell me NOTHING! I have not found anything on Ancestry that was not already on FamilySearch.

I am thankful that I have family on both sides who have memories from their childhood so the oral histories I’ve heard helped me form the story in my head. I do not claim to have all the pieces to this puzzle, but I will show all of you what I have thus far.

My father’s name is Linwood — his father, name was Charlie Linwood, and his father’s name was Walter J. Suggs — my great-grandfather who will be the topic of my discussion for this newsletter.

Walter J. Suggs was born on May 5th, 1889. His mother’s name was Henretta Pridgen (also spelled in the Census as Henry Etta/Henrietta) . His father, Charles (also spelled in the Census as Chas) later married a woman named Niecy Taylor (also spelled Necy in the Census). I was confused at first because Walter was born before the marriage of Niecy. Niecy and Charles were married March 5th,1904. She was younger than him by a decade and had her own daughter named Alberta beforehand.

Walter’s mother was born give or take in 1866 — one year after the official Emancipation of slavery. According to North Carolina County Marriages, Henrietta and Charles were married January 26th, 1888 — do the math, she was pregnant with Walter! Henrietta also had a daughter named Minnie, who was born several years after Walter. I know Henrietta is their mother because she is listed as such on both of their death certificates.

Back to Walter, my parents had always told me that my dad came from a family of educators. This is important because in those days it was difficult on the black community to receive equal opportunities when it came to housing, schooling, and just daily life. Despite of all of the obstacles, my father’s family persevered and were able to receive a college education and decided to come back to their birthplace and teach those in their communities.

Until late last year I did not know what school Walter taught at nor did I even have any idea the college he went to. I kept typing his name in search engines in the Google, DigitalNC, and the Internet Archives databases. It took time, but I finally found the name of the school: Red Hill and I discovered he attended school at an Historically Black College/University (HBCU) in Charlotte, NC at what was then called, Biddle Institute/University.

According to my findings in NC Digital’s Yearbook, Biddle Institute has what they called ‘Catalogues’ beginning all the way back to the school year of 1867-1868!!
When typing in the search engine it shows that Walter began attending college during the school terms of 1909-1910. He was listed as part of the Junior class of Preparatory & Normal School.

In the 1915-1916 edition he is listed as a Senior under the School of Arts & Sciences.

Below is the graduation class of 1916, the second image is for graduated of the teachers training college. I am not sure if he is in the photo or not. In case he isn’t, I will say that I am using this picture of good looking black men as a representation of him. These men are his peers and I am sure he knew them well.

In the 1917-1918 edition he begins to be listed under a section of former students and I am guessing beside their name is their location of where they are during that time.

He is listed under the Class of 1916 and is said to be be in New York. I have no oral history or primary sources other than this to argue whether or not it is true. The next editions, from 1918-1923 school terms, he is listed as being in Philadelphia, PA. Of course there are a few holes in between where he isn’t listed. The last edition I see his name is in 1932; his location is still the same.

My next source is the Educational Publications of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina. From mid 1940s until 1957 he is listed as principal of the colored school, Red Hill.

There is another school where the name Walter Suggs is listed. I am not sure if that is him since the ‘J’ initial is missing, but it is in a different town, but same county. It’s a possibility it could be him because someone else is listed with the Red Hill school then.

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter.
As I was going back and getting my information and images for this, I think I found a few more leads!! That is the thing with genealogy searching, it seems as if you may never be done at times, but joy and fulfillment can be found once the pieces to the puzzle come together.

We will never find every piece of our ancestors’ lives, but we can surely come close. I am extremely proud of my history, the good, bad, and the ugly. It what makes us who we are today. I always remember this when I am in doubt: people before me worked with less and still came out as one of the best; so what is stopping me besides my own thinking?

Everyone has someone in their family who is the storyteller. Those of us who soak up the stories are the ones who are responsible for making sure the stories are told. Letting the world know that our people existed.
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Link to source: https://ourunderstandingofreality.substack.com/.../my...