African American Veterans Monument -- Buffalo NY

On September 24, 2022, an unveiling and dedication ceremony was held for the African American Veterans Monument in Buffalo NY. The monument honors African Americans who served in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines and the Coast Guard in twelve U.S. wars from the Revolutionary War to the current war on terrorism. This is the first (and only) such monument in the United States.

The monument was designed by the late artist Jonathan Casey.  There are 12 black pillars: 10 feet tall and 3 feet wide placed in chronological order to represent the 12 U.S. wars with the spacing between pillars representing the times of peace between one war and the next. 

There are pavers on the ground engraved with a veteran's name on a metal plate the shape of dog tags. Pavers are still available for the public throughout the country to purchase to honor a military veteran. In lovingly memory I purchased a paver for my father, Willis B. Williams, who served in the Army during the Korean Conflict and one for my uncle, Arthur Brown, who was a Military Police Sargent in the Army during World War II.

Arthur Brown, cira 1947

           

Willis B. Williams, cira 1951

Thank you to all who served! 

Thank you to the African American Veterans Monument, Inc. for your vision!

Copyright © 2022 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.

1950 U.S. Census Anticipation

The 1950 U.S. census was released on April 1, 2022. There has been so much hype about its release, especially in the past month -- on the date of the release, there were even virtual parties during the "midnight hour". 

I wasn't excited about it at all, and I attended one webinar that left me so confused. But by the evening of April 1st, curiosity got the best of me, so I found myself taking a look at the Ancestry.com site and National Archives site. Both had prominent link assistance on their home pages for the 1950 census. To me, it seemed that Ancestry wasn't quite ready for the release (see image below). I found the National Archives site much easier to work with because I didn't have to figure out an enumeration district. There were other major sites that had assistance on their landing pages but since I was overwhelmed with all the hype, I just concentrated on the two sites I mentioned.

I already knew who I primarily wanted to find in the 1950 census: my parents, Willis B. Williams and Evelyn O. Brown; my maternal grandmother, Lucy Brown; my mother's siblings; my father's grandmother, Mary Lane Button; and my father's siblings.

I didn't like that I had to have an address to find the enumeration district (ED) on Ancestry. The whole point of my looking at the 1950 census was to find out where family lived.

Image from Ancestry.com on 1 April 2022 at 8:06pm

National Archives site

I liked that I could put in name, city/county, and state on the National Archives site. However, I didn't have much hope in finding m Brown family because it's such a common name.

MY MOTHER'S FAMILY

I was so happy that my maternal grandmother, Lucy Brown, and her children were the first "hit" when I did the search on Archives.com

1950 U.S. census, Buffalo, Erie County, NY, ED 65-124, sheet 15, household 111, lines 1-5 (Lucy Brown family); U.S. National Archives,_1950 Census_(https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

In the top image, my grandmother, Lucy Brown, 46, is listed as a widow, living at 586 William St., Buffalo, Erie, New York. Living with her are all her children -- daughter, Verlie, 25, a registered nurse, employed in private duty; son Arthur, 23, a presser at a tailor shop; daughter Vivian, 21, a college student; and daughter Evelyn (my mother), a waitress in a cafeteria. 

The second image is from the bottom of the census page. Sample #4 from the supplemental questions is my Auntie Vivian.

Maternal grandfather, Noah Brown and his sister, Ida Brown living in Cleveland Ohio was a surprise. I initially looked for Noah in Buffalo NY and then looked at Cleveland because that was his place of death in 1966. Interesting that Noah is listed as widowed (as is my grandmother in Buffalo NY). My happy surprise was finding my great-aunt Ida because I haven't been able to find much information on her as an adult.

1950 U.S. census, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH, ED 92-897, sheet 6, household 61, lines 17-18 (Noah Brown and sister Ida Brown); U.S. National Archives,_1950 Census_(https://1950census.archives.gov/search/). 

Also in the household is Jordan, *unknown*, number 19 with "SEE NOTE" which is at top of census form.

MY FATHER'S FAMILY

Richard L. Davenport and Anna M. Davenport raised my father, Willis B. Williams and his sister, Joan Williams, when their mother passed in 1941. Anna M. Davenport (Button) was one of his mother's sisters. In this record, my father isn't listed because he's in the Army from 1949-1951 during the Korean Conflict. However, his sister, Joan, age 19 is listed. They live at 209 Walnut Street in Buffalo NY.

1950 U.S. census, Buffalo, Erie County, NY, ED 65-150, sheet 1, household 7, lines 22-24 (Richard Davenport family); U.S. National Archives,_1950 Census_(https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

In 1950 my father's grandmother, Mary Button, was living in Detroit Michigan, with a daughter, Verna and son-in-law, Robert Bynum. Finding my great-grandmother was another guessing game because at the time of her death in 1955 she was living in Buffalo NY with her daughter and son-in-law, Anna M.  and Richard Davenport.

1950 U.S. census, Detroit, Wayne County, MI, ED 85-1072, sheet 3, household 18, lines 25-29 (Robert Bynum family); U.S. National Archives,_1950 Census_(https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

I am pleased with the family I have found. However, I did not find my father's siblings in Detroit, Michigan. Their surname is Burkett. I only got one hit on that name, followed by pages and pages with various name spellings. So finding them will be a search for another day.

Copyright © 2022 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.

My bachelor uncle -- Arthur Brown

One of the stories I was often told when I was growing up is that when I was a baby my Uncle Arthur would put my diapers in one pocket, my bottles in another pocket and take me when he visited his girlfriend.  I always loved hearing that but couldn't quite picture it --  my uncle was a BIG man, both in height and weight.  I just could not envision him holding, much less traveling with something as small as a baby.

When my Uncle Arthur made transition and I requested time off for his funeral and to be with family, my supervisor asked if he had had any children.  My immediate response was "Yes, me and my brothers."  One thing my brothers and I knew with certainty was that Uncle Arthur loved us.

I started this post on March 7, 2019 but put it aside, saving it as a draft.  My intention was to post it by March 23 which is Uncle Arthur's birth date.  In all of my family history posts I try to listen to the ancestors --  I firmly believe that they guide us.

As with each ancestor, I know that what I post isn't the whole story.  I was certain that Uncle Arthur never married and never had children.  After all, I grew up knowing him and if either were the case I would have known.  And so I noted in his records that he never married and had no descendants.  On Father's Day weekend 2019, I was happily proved wrong --  at least about his having no descendants.

I manage my mother's dna results on 23andMe -- my mother, Evelyn, is Uncle Arthur's baby sister.  On June 14th my mother's account received an invitation to connect from someone who is her niece!

I quickly responded.  My new-found first cousin and I established that she is the daughter of my Uncle Arthur, born while he was stationed in Germany during World War II. 

On February 21, 1946 Arthur Brown was enlisted into the U.S. Army, Quartermaster Corps. His enlistment was from February 21, 1946 to August 22, 1949. (Source: U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946)  

In 2015, I had requested his military records from the National Archives National Personnel Records Center and received the form letter that "The complete Official Military Personnel File for the veteran named above is not in our files. If the record were here on July 12, 1973, it would have been in the area that suffered the most damage in the fire on that date and may have been destroyed. The fire destroyed the major portion of records of Army personnel who separated from the service between 1912 through 1959 . . ."

"We have located a file created during our reconstruction attempts for the veteran named in your request." From that file I able to confirm that his unit was the 511th Military Police Platoon.  At some point he was stationed at the Heidelberg Military Post in Weddewarden Germany.  Unfortunately the file I received was both limited in information and the copies were of poor condition.

From the military scrapbook of Arthur Brown, circa 1947

This post took a slightly different turn, but it's okay --  actually more than okay.  Thank you, Uncle Arthur, for the belated family gift of your daughter!

African American Veterans Monument WNY

On November 9, 2018, I attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the African American Veterans Monument.  The memorial will be built in the Buffalo & Erie County Navel and Military Park with construction scheduled to begin in the spring of 2019.   It will be a tribute to all African American veterans who served in all military branches from the Revolutionary War to the present.  The monument will hold the distinction of being the first of its kind in the United States.

When the call went out to the community for opportunities to purchase an engraved commemorative brick in the memory of a loved one, I considered it an honor to be able to make two purchases.  One for my father, PFC Willis B. Williams (1929-2011), who served during the Korean Conflict.  The other for my uncle, Sargent Arthur Brown (1927-1986), who served during WWII. 

Renditions of the planned African American Veterans Memorial in Buffalo NY