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I’m pleased to announce a new solo art show of my photography from the project. It opens Tuesday, 5 June 2012, in Summerville, Georgia at the Summerville Library. I will be presenting a lecture that night at 6pm as part of the show. For those who can’t make it in the evening I am also presenting a lecture the day before at 2pm at the LaFayette-Walker Public Library. This marks the first outing for my art work in my native state (and first show under the name Jordan M. Scoggins).

I hope you will come out to say hello and check out my work.

Today is the 147th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Earlier this year I explored . Today I’m not looking at Lincoln directly but, rather, at a few photos related to him.

The first and last shots above are from the collection of my��grandmother, Dot Holcomb Scoggins. Taken in 1951 during a family road trip, it’s interesting to see shots of Washington, D.C. over half a century ago.��They were taken from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial looking across the Reflecting Pool towards the Washington Monument. The first photo also shows my grandfather, Harold Scoggins.

For good measure I have also included one of my own photos from Oct 2011. I visited the National World War II Memorial which stands at the opposite end of the reflecting pool from the Lincoln memorial. This memorial, of course, did not exist in the 1951 photos as it was not constructed until 2004. You can see the Lincoln Memorial in the background on the left hand side of the image. Harold was a Military Policeman in the 66th Infantry Division (also known as the Black Panthers) during the war so this memorial serves in memory of him along with the countless other men who fought in that conflict.

Watch for more old photos as well as more of my own photography in upcoming posts on Jordan’s Journey. As always, you can subscribe via or .

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

–George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905

US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 �� 1952)

Today I’m going to try something a little different here on Jordan’s Journey. Rather than write about , interesting , or even tell you about my (like last week)�� I’m going to explore a bit of the memoir side of this project. Certainly the Jordan’s Journey book has elements of memoir weaved in throughout the text. In the book, though, those very personal elements always serve the overall genealogical story. Here on the blog there’s room to branch out a bit.

I’ve talked a little before about about . This urban versus rural dichotomy is constantly evident for me. I lived in rural Georgia for the first 18 years of my life. My life and experience there is an inseparable part of my identity (even though for many years I wanted nothing more than to escape any association with it–but that’s a whole other story unto itself). I’ve been in New York for 14 years now. I call it my home just as much as that idyllic valley where I was raised.

My foot is firmly in both of these worlds. New York nurtures me in ways that, as an artist, a rural community simply cannot. And, likewise, the Georgia countryside nourishes in me a certain sense of self that is hard to find in New York. Yet I stand there in the middle, a union of opposites, and this allows me to stay centered and still. I can’t imagine having one without the other.

The more I delve into historical research, the more I see that I am not the first to go through this experience. Today while researching at the New York Public Library I ran across a short article from 1875–almost 140 years ago–from the Atlanta Constitution. It tells of a native who had moved off to the city and returned home for a visit:

John is a native of Dirt Town Valley, in Chattooga county, and withal a gay and festive buck. Having for some time breathed the air of the city and basked in fortunes smiles, John determined to pay a visit to the scenes of his boyhood. Now be it known that John dresses well. His clothes fit nicely and with his graceful equipose; his linen is matchless in its snowy whiteness and marbleized smoothness. John determined to astonish the natives and he did. His tout ensemble was superb; the fragance of Hoyt’s German lingered around this jovinian curls and imperial. Now some of the boys of Dirt Town Valley thought they knew a thing or two because they had been to New York once and to Rome several times.

They gathered in knots around John upon his arrival, and gazed with rapture upon him. One said: “John, what did such a coat as that set you back.��

John replied with nonchalant air–”well it is a cheap affair. I think it cost me a trifle–some $75.��

“Gosh-darn-it-all�� the crowd would exclaim “its dirt cheap!�� while their eyes would dilate to the size of a saucer and their months would gape open.

“John, what did you pay for such pants?�� was the next query.

“Well, they are only ordinary ones. They cost only $25.��

“Them’s fine shirts, John. How much did they cost?��

“Well, boys, I didn’t expect to stay more’n a day or so and only brought along three dozen. I paid $36 a dozen for them. Nice, ain’t they!��

And he was catechised in this manner throughout. John believed he had created a “sensation�� and he had. Next morning as he passed down the street he could hear the boys shouting across the street to one another. “Say, Bill, I only brought down three dozen shirts and am only going to stay a day or two. I want to borrow a couple of dozen to make out a change.��

John returned to the city much improved in physical vigor but he did not tell his city friends of this Idyl of Dirt Town Valley.

Ok, sure, John does seem a little full of himself. Likewise the Dirt Towners seem a little unrefined. It’s the exaggerations here that make the story so compelling. As I read it through, the words roll off my tongue like poetry. It’s a perfect illustration of city versus country, refined versus rural�� whether 1875, 1975, or today.

It comforts me to know that my experience is not unique. I know where John’s coming from. City people and country people just think differently. The day to day experiences of these two milieus are at such opposite ends of the spectrum that of course, given an encounter, they’re going to clash. It’s not that either realm is better or worse than the other�� they’re just different. Each party would do well to step back, understand their differences, and cultivate a little respect for the other. I’ve seen both sides of the story. Both worlds have their positives and negatives. And I refuse to align myself with one over the other. If I’m a city dweller so too am I a country man. Both of these exist inside me. I know without a doubt that all people are one, no matter our external differences. This is what my journey into the past teaches over and over.

Rest assured I have learned my lesson from dear John. When I return to Georgia I won’t bring along three doezen shirts. Just a dozen–a few more at the most–will do the job nicely (I prefer to travel light anyway). And will I return to the city with physical vigor? Maybe�� so long as mom doesn’t feed me too much!

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SOURCES

“A Dirt Town Valley Idyll.�� The Atlanta Constitution (1869-1875). 12 MAr 1875: 3. . ProQuest. Accessed 6 Apr 2012.

Genealogists spend hours of research digging through old books and wrinkled papers. There are so many sources out there, from library books, courthouse records, to the box of papers stuffed away in your aunt’s attic. Your range of research material can be as varied as the family tree is sprawling. Because of that it helps to learn about resources fellow researchers have consulted, to hear their insights, and to learn why any particular source may (or may not) be useful to you. This post is the beginning of a series about sources I have consulted at some point during my research.

The Rambo family is unique in my tree in that, as far as I know, I am related to anyone with the surname Rambo. The Ramboo family is rooted in Sweden where, at the time, there were no surnames. You were identified simply as the son or daughter of your father, i.e., Peter Gunnarson literally translates to Peter, son of Gunnar. When my ancestor Peter came to the New World he adopted the name Rambo and therefore all descendants with that name can be traced back to Peter. You can read a general overview of the early Rambo generations in Jordan’s Journey�� but if you want to explore them even deeper, be sure to take a look at The Rambo Family Tree by Beverly Nelson Rambo. Beverly’s tome is an extremely well documented work on many far reaching branches of Rambo descendants.

I first looked at Beverly’s book in the of the New York Public Library. It’s an intimidating text made all the more confusing to read because the Rambos used so many of the same names over�� and over�� and over. This is no fault of the text itself, of course, and ultimately the work is rewarding and an absolutely essential reference for anyone interested in the Rambo family. Just be prepared to tackle your share of headaches as you sort out the inter-generational who’s who.

Beverly published the book in 1986 and, unfortunately, died a few years later in 1990. Ron Beatty has continued Beverly’s valuable work. He published a second edition of the book and is working on a third. Be sure to check for more information.

My specific connection to the Rambo family is through my great grandmother, Ida Mae Rambo. She married Lawrence Chapman Scoggins. Read about Ida and her line of ancestry back to the original Rambo, Peter Gunnarson, in the . If you have any connection to the Rambo family, The Rambo Family Tree is the gold standard on the family and you should seek it out as soon as possible.��If you are��interested��in the Rambo family, drop a comment to get in touch and we’ll compare research notes!

In more general news, coming soon look for the start of another ongoing series here at Jordan’s Journey more specific to northwest Georgia’s Armuchee and Dirt Town valley regions.��Don’t miss a word and subscribe today via����or��. If you enjoyed this post, pass it along to someone else who might be interested (and leave a comment here too–I’m always happy to hear from you.).

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SOURCES

Rambo, Beverly Nelson. The Rambo Family Tree: Descendants of Peter Gunnarson Rambo, 1611-1986. Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen Pub. Co, 1986. Print. .

Rambo, Beverly Nelson and Ronald S. Beatty. The Rambo Family Tree. Web. Accessed at , 1 Apr 2012. .

Way back before Jordan’s Journey came out I was doing all kinds of work not only writing, photographing, and designing the book but also figuring out how this website was going to work, what I wanted to do for the book trailer, and of course the research itself. As an artist, most everything I do has some purpose or meaning behind it. This sense of aesthetic plays an important role in what sets Jordan’s Journey apart from any other genealogy book I’ve ever seen.

The has its roots back in early 2011. It started with the poem that became the script for the trailer. And after that I just let it sit for a while. Creative ideas need time to incubate. By the time I visited the homeland in September 2011 things were ready to hatch. I filmed the principal photography for the trailer early one morning on the family farm. Editing didn’t happen for at least a few weeks but by the time I did start the work, I pretty much had it all laid out in my head�� down to the music I wanted to use!

The music is from the album and contains field recordings of the Alabama Sacred Harp Convention made by Alan Lomax in 1959. is one of my favorite types of music.

I first encountered Sacred Harp in its proper form while studying music in New York City. When Professor Andrew Tomasello first dropped the needle and introduced us to the genre, it must have sounded completely foreign to my NYC-bred classmates. But for me it sounded instantly familiar and evoked images of my childhood. Though I did not grow up with Sacred Harp music proper, the music of the East Armuchee Baptist Church of my childhood was certainly influenced by this unique American style. We even used a shape note hymnal. I’ve always kept a copy of that Christian Praise hymnal and showed it to my music professor one day. He was intrigued by this artifact of southern musical culture. For me, connecting that emotional part of my past to my new academic interests was the icing on the cake�� as if fate had led me to New York in the first place. This is only one example of how creating Jordan’s Journey would not have been possible without moving away and studying art in the big city!

I unveiled the trailer on 1 January 2012 when I opened up the Jordan’s Journey web site. Undoubtedly one of the first viewers, my mother wrote me, “What is that music? Is it a Cherokee chant?�� I replied and told her about Sacred Harp. Later she wrote again, “Is it fa-so-la singing? I remember my Grannie talking about singing that way.��

I had uncovered a bit of family and local history here without even realizing it. Through studying Sacred Harp I had known instinctively “my people�� came from that tradition. But I had never heard mention of it in the family. And here Jordan’s Journey helped my mother remember this long-forgotten detail about her Grannie. When I told mom about how Sacred Harp was performed with the singers moving their hand up and down to keep the time she exclaimed, “That’s what Grannie used to do! I never understood why she moved her hand like that.��

“It’s part of the Sacred Harp tradition, Mom. It’s how they kept time. She was singing Sacred Harp for you.��

Mom had never heard it called Sacred Harp before. They always called it fa-so-la singing. When we went to visit Grandmother not long after that Mom asked her, “Dot, do you remember your mom ever talking about fa-so-la singing?��

Grandmother shook her head and said, “No, I don’t believe I do.�� The tone of her voice indicated that she thought she should have known and was disappointed she didn’t. “No, I’ve never heard of that.��

“It’s also called Sacred Harp singing,�� I added.

“Oh yes!�� Grandmother exclaimed. “I remember mama talking about Sacred Harp singings. Oh yes!��

I smiled, realizing just how spot on my trailer actually was. Not only did the Sacred Harp music have , I had inadvertently unearthed some long forgotten memories about my ancestors. That little country church where I grew up indeed did sing songs that sounded an awful lot like Sacred Harp�� because that’s exactly what the generations before them had sung. Counted out with every measure, singing loud for the sake and joy of singing. No expectations�� just pure music.

And that’s exactly how it should be.

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The above photo (click to enlarge) is of the 4th edition of The Sacred Harp hymnal. It’s from the collection of Armuchee Valley resident Delores Jackson Grigsby and originally belonged to her grandfather (1867-1929). Many thanks to Delores for helping me along this journey.

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This week I am proud to bring you the first video for Jordan’s Journey since the original . This video is about Suttle’s Mill in the area known as Green Bush in the of Walker County Georgia. This is a very short film, a quickly digestable experiment to get things started, if you will. You’d be amazed at the amount of work that goes into creating something so brief. Ah�� the things we do for !

A special thanks goes out to for working with me on this project. He provided the beautiful score cues. You can look forward to more original scoring from Michael in future Jordan’s Journey videos. I know I am!

The photo of Suttle’s Mill, taken in about the 1940′s, was contributed by Kim Hendren. Ken digitized the image from the collection of Frank Shaw of Davis Crossroads, Georgia. Both Kim and Frank are descendents of the .

The photo of the Puryear & Hunt general store is from the collection of Evelyn Morgan Shahan, generously shared by her daughter . This particular photo seems to be somewhat widepread in collections of Armuchee Valley families as I have encountered at least two others who have antique copies of the image. It’s a wonderful shot and I am grateful it has survived the generations.

To learn more about Green Bush be sure to read��. If you have any photos or other information to share, please leave a comment and get in touch.

This is my sister devouring human body parts just moments after she was turned into a zombie�� oh no, wait�� that was the b-grade horror movie I watched last night. Why did it seem so real?

Anyway, this is in fact my sister on her 5th birthday rather engrossed in licking the icing off the doll cake topper. The cake was made by our Grandmother ( when he was growing up).

So, happy birthday, sis! Hope you’re having a good one. Remember to relax, breathe, and (zombie or not) try not to eat your cake topper. I love you.

Today is the day we all look for a bit of Irish in ourselves. We wear green, go out to eat, and throw back a pint (or 10, perhaps, if you’re really Irish). I personally like to spin some Cranberries, Sinéad O’Connor, and U2. Historically, of course, these celebrations are rooted in Christian tradition and that asepct of the holiday is observed today as well.

But, geneaogically speaking, I’ve got Irish in me every day of the year! My Irish ancestry comes into play in the Love and Keown lines of my lineage. Just this week I got back my test results and this confirmed my Irish (and British Isles in general) pedigree. My DNA is made up of 67% British Isles and 33% Central European ethnicities. This aligns pretty perfectly with what I already knew from my research. (It also suggests I do not have Native American ancestors as told in stories passed down by my grandfather–that will be a topic for a future post.)

As for those strands of Irish DNA��

My ancestor (1744-1816) is said to have been born in County Down, Ulster, Ireland. This information is taken from shared member trees on Ancestry.com. I have not yet been able to verify/document this detail. The records I do have for James place him in South Carolina in 1779 and again in 1783 (Jackson). His son (1783-1822) also lived in South Carolina and died there in 1822 (Young). His wife, (1788-1883), survived him by many years and migrated to the area of Walker County, Georgia along with several of her children. I do not know much about Elizabeth’s life a this point but it seems clear she is one of the strong of whom I have many scattered throughout the tree.

The Loves came over from Ireland a little later than the Keowns and are in fact the most recent��immigrants��of all my lines. (1778-1880) is the patriarch in this line along with his wife (1795-1880). Like the Keowns, I have no records of John or Elizabeth’s life in Ireland. However, the 1850 and 1870 US censuses do show the Emerald Isle as both John and Elizabeth’s place of birth (Ancestry.com, 1850 & 1870). The memory of an Irish identity is better preserved in this line. Mary Ann Lowe wrote that “[her] grandfather, George Washington Love, son of McCarter Love, remembered going to visit John and Elizabeth and hearing them speak in [Irish] Gaelic when they didn’t want the children to understand them�� (Lowe 1).

The above photos are of John and Elizabeth (click to enlarge). The original tintypes were digitized and shared via Ancestry.com by Love descendant Nita Henry. Thank you, Nita!

I look forward to delving into more research about both the Loves and Keowns and their Irish roots. If you know anything about these lines, particularly if you can help document facts about the immigrant generations, please get in touch.

Today I remember my Irish ancestors and raise a glass in their honor. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

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SOURCES

Ancestry.com. . Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Web.

John Love family: Year: 1850; Census Place: Subdivision 33, Gilmer, Georgia; Roll: M432_70; Page: 439B; Image: 411.

Ancestry.com. . Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Web.

John Love family: Year: 1870; Census Place: District 12, Whitfield, Georgia; Roll: M593_183; Page: 146A; Image: 296; Family History Library Film: 545682.

Jackson, Ron V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp.. . Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999. Web.

Lowe, Mary Ann. Some Descendants of John and Elizabeth Love of Ireland. Self-published, 1996. Print.

Young, Willie Pauline. Abstracts of Old Ninety-Six and Abbeville District Wills and Bonds as on file in the Abbeville, South Carolina, Courthouse. Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1977. Print. .

The response to Jordan’s Journey has been extremely positive (just check out some of the and see for yourself). Furthermore I’ve been contacted by a handful of people who have found me because of the press, this blog, or my social media updates. The connections are fascinating! For this synergy I am grateful.

Today I want to fill you in on some of the background behind this project. It started out as something for myself, tracing the family tree and documenting the lines. It quickly expanded into something for my family as I started to realize the extent of unique bits of information that were at best a fading memory and in some cases completely forgotten. Before long my work grew beyond the direct family lines to the broader of northwest Georgia. Eventually my understanding of the project broadened beyond just Georgia. I took trips to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and even Arkansas to dig up information and document the story with photography (and there are still places I’ve yet to travel). And of course even here at home in New York City, the was a key research component. With all these rich layers of detail, Jordan’s Journey is many different things and is more than what it at first appears.

Viewing family and local history through the lens of art is particularly important for me–and something I have not seen addressed by other artists/genealogists. It’s a way to explore the past in a much more meaningful way. Readers of this blog, especially those who haven’t seen the , may not understand the extent to which this is a work of art for which genealogy is the foundation. That’s ok by me. Each reader/viewer brings her own unique interpretation to the table. The ability of this work to speak to many different people on many different levels is part of what makes it so appealing to me. Genealogy and history are not black and white. Neither is art.

So, the next time you look at or read something from Jordan’s Journey think about it through the lens of art. Observe formal characteristics such as composition and layout, even literary elements such as symbolism and language. Or don’t. It can be enjoyed any way you choose. But when you consider these details, that trip into the past becomes much more than an invitation into history. It’s an invitation to explore the inward depths of artistic expression. And that’s a journey that, if you choose to embark upon it, will take you further than any other.

Coming soon on this blog I will write about a specific instance of how creative expression influenced my genealogical research. Don’t miss a beat and subscribe today via or . If you enjoyed this post, pass it along to someone else who might be interested (and leave a comment here too).

One of my major family lines is the . My maternal grandmother was Mary Evelyn Pope. Mary was a fourth generation resident of . However, the earlier Pope generations–going back to Colonial times–are subject to dispute. Two different lineages have been identified by genealogists over the years. So far no documentation has emerged to support one lineage over the other so therefore I did not go into details for either line in the . This post will explore some of the connections in the theory laid forth by John David Humphries in his book .

Humphries’s theory describes the colonial Pope line as follows:

Nathaniel [I] (b.1603) > Nathaniel [II] (b.1640)> Nathaniel [III, alias Bridges] (b.1660) > John (b.1692)

This lineage contains several interesting connections, the first of which allies this particular Pope line with the most American colonial figure of all. Nathaniel [I] and Lucy Pope’s oldest daughter was Anne Pope. Anne married Col. John Washington and would become the great-grandmother of George Washington, first president of the United States (Humphries).

Another connection comes through Anne’s brother Nathaniel Pope (b.1640). Nathaniel married Mary Sisson. Mary was the sister of Daniel Sisson, interpreter for the Indians (Humphries).

The third interesting point comes into play with the great grandchildren of Nathaniel [I] and Lucy. Two of Nathaneil and Lucy’s sons are Nathaniel [II] and Thomas. Nathaniel [II] had a grandson named John while Thomas had a grandaughter named Elizabeth. These great grandchildren of Nathaniel [I] and Lucy, John and Elizabeth, are second cousins. But they were also husband and wife!

Click the graphic above to see an illustration of these relationships.

These sorts of connections are always fascinating–even if I can’t be 100% sure that my Pope family descends from this line. Exploring the various theories makes for an interesting way to spend some time. You can read more about the Pope line in the Jordan’s Journey book.

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UPDATE: The original graphic on this post contained an error. It showed that Lawrence Washington died in 1690 (4 years before his son was born)! When creating the chart I made an error. Lawrence was married in 1690, had his son Augustine in 1694, and died in 1698. The graphic has been corrected. (Many thanks to Brian Centrone for bringing this to my attention.)

SOURCES

Humphries, John D. Georgia Descendants of Nathaniel Pope of Virginia, John Humphries of South Carolina, and Allen Gay of North Carolina. Atlanta, GA: J.D. Humphries, 1934. Print. See .

Guthrey, William M. Genealogical Chart of the Known Descendants of Micajah Pope 1808-1867: With an Outline of His American Ancestors, 1634-1844. Collinsville, OK: 1972. Print. See .