Sibley Zydeco Festival at Ben's Corner Plantation, MS

For the third consecutive year, the Sibley Zydeco Festival has been held at Ben's Corner Plantation, MS. The Ben's Corner Plantation is the homestead of the Washington Family of Adams County, MS. Purchased originally by Scott Washington, his son Will purchased the land after his father's death. Will and Alice Washington raised their ten children on the farm. Today the farm is the site of the bi-annual Washington-Rounds Family Reunions and the Sibley Zydeco Festival.

Sibley Zydeco Fest 2011 at Ben's Corner Plantation, Mississippi this past weekend!

Call for Descendants: The Henyard Family of Mississipp and Mexico

Inspired by the traditional "Call for Papers", I've decided to create a monthly "Call for Descendants" column on the Family Griot blog. Each month a family surname that I have been able to research will be featured on the blog along with their family and the call to their descendants to respond or comment on the family.

The first family I will "Call for Descendants" is that of Thomas and Edward (Ned) Henyard and their sister Milly (Henyard) McFarland. All three siblings were born in Mexico and settled in Wilkinson County, Mississippi after the Civil War.

Thomas married Rosanna and had children Josephine, Daniel, Emily, Thomas Jr. Milly, Mary, William and George.

Edward (Ned) married Margaret and had children Henry, Jeff, Ned Jr., Stephen, Jim, Matilda, Lizzie, Mary and Abe Lincoln.

Milly maried Peter McFarland and had children Roxana, Albert, Julius, Thomas and Mary.


These descendants migrated to Louisiana, Illinois and many remained in Mississippi.

The Mercer Connection. . .

In a previous entry I briefly talked about Dr. William N. Mercer and his ownership of my great-great-great grandmother, Charity Rounds. I came across this information from an excerpt of the book "African American Historic Places" published by the National Register of Historic Places.
As I usually do, I started with a general search ofgoogle and Ancestry.com. One of my first significant finds was to learn that Mercer and his wife's family (Ellis-Farar) had donated their family papers to Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA. I immediately contacted the staff at the LSU Special Collections and arranged to recieve a copy of the slave lists from all the plantations in Mississippi owned by the Farar and Ellis families. I will be recieving copies of the listings from the Ormond, Laurel Hill, Natchez and Presleigh plantations, which cover southwestern Mississippi and Louisiana. I'm excited as to what I will find, whose names will be listed. Of course I'm looking for my relatives, Charity and possibly Charles Rounds.
More to come on this research. . .

Family Reunions 2009

The Summer of 2009 two of the Family Griot families will be hosting reuinons in the months of July and August.

3 - 5 July 2009
The Washington-Rounds Family of Adams County, Mississippi will be hosting their family reunion 3 - 5 July 2009 at the famiy homestead in Adams County, Mississippi. This year's reunion will be extra special as the family will be celebrating a wedding on the final day of the reunion. If you are affiliated with this family and would like to attend this reunion, e-mail vandersong@bellsouth.net for further information.

31 July - 2 August 2009
The Callins Family of Dallas & Autauga Counties, Alabama will be hosting a reunion in the bayou city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana from 31 July - 2 August 2009. For more information, deadlines and fees, visit www.easysite.com/callinsclayreunion.


Family Griot

Benjamin Thompson on the African American Civil War Memorial

I want to thank Khathu from Afrigeneas for sending me these pictures! This is the plaque bearing the name of my ancestor Benjamin Thompson who served in the 82nd and photos of the Civil War Memorial. Enjoy!

The Rounds Sisters Part I

The Rounds branch of my family has been an area of great interest for me in my genealogical research. The Rounds family of Adams county, Mississippi is my mother's grandmother's paternal line.

I was able to locate my oldest known ancestors to date, Charlie and Charity Rounds in the 1870 Federal Census. They are listed with their children and some grandchildren. The names are as follows: Charles Rounds, Charity Rounds, Andrew Rounds, Lucy Rounds, Goliah Rounds, Flora Rounds, Rose Rounds, Harrison Holmes, Minor Duncan and Joseph Rounds.

As any genealogist knows regardless of skill level, women are the hardest to track down in census records because of their change in surnames once they marry. I opted to take the challenge on of making a reasonable attempt to find my great-great-great aunts. Fortunately enough, I was able to find some information about my aunts by looking over census records in their county of origins.

I was able to locate my aunts by checking in their county and town of origins, comparing their birth years to make sure they were the same people, and seeing how far they lived from known male relatives. The tricky thing with the date is this, sometimes birth years were estimated on federal census records on some records they were very accurate. You have to use your best guess in order to figure out if it is that person or not. The clues are there, use your intuition.

I was able to find the follwing sisters and their families. They are listed below.

1880 Census:
Flora (Rounds) Shepherd b.1857 married Jeremiah Shepherd b. 1836
Children: James Shepherd & David Shepherd
I tied her to my great great great grandparents because of her father being born in Virginia like Charlie Rounds and her being neighbors to them as well.

Rose (Rounds) Hayes married Henry Hayes on 15 October 1881
Children: Charity Hayes/Hays and Henry Hayes/Hays Jr.
I tied her to my great great great grandmother by the name of her daughter and her proximity to the family homestead. Unfortunately, she was deceased by the 1900 census

I'm still searching for sister Lucy, I know she's in the census near by her brother Goliah. Hopefully, I can find her again. My fingers are crossed.

Benjamin Thompson WHERE ARE YOU???

Hannah Barnes-Thompson and eldest granddaughter Mary, early 1900's. Wife of Benjamin Thompson

Recently I've been working on tracking down my great-great grandparents Benjamin and Hannah Thompson. These are the relatives that I can go back the furtherest on my mother's paternal lineage. Oral history of our family tells of Benjamin Thompson who was 'captured over the seas' and brought to America and who also fought in the Civil War. I've used Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org extensively in an attempt to find any information about Benjamin Thompson before 1880. I didn't have much luck, just a census record here and there.

Today, I was querying online about Benjamin Thompson's Civil War records because I needed assistance with tracking him down in order to get additional information. A genealogical guru, A. Thomas, pointed me in the right direction. He referred me to a Civil War site maintained by the National Park Service. I was able to find not only my great great grandfather Benjamin Thompson, I also located vital information about the unit he fought in and where they were located.

Here is an excerpt on the 82nd Regiment US Colored Infantry which Benjamin Thompson was assigned to during the Civil War, from the National Park Service website:

82nd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry

Organized April 4, 1864, from 10th Corps de Afrique Infantry. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Corps de Afrique, Dept. of the Gulf, to July, 1864. Consolidated with 80th United States Colored Troops July 6, 1864, to form new 79th United States Colored Troops. Reorganized July, 1864, by consolidation of 97th and 99th United States Colored Troops. Attached to Pensacola, Fla., District of West Florida Dept. of the Gulf, to October, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, United States Colored Troops, Dept. of the Gulf, to October, 1864. 1st Brigade, District of West Florida, to January, 1865. 3rd Brigade, District of West Florida, to March, 1865. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, District of West Florida,, to May, 1865. Pensacola, Fla., District of West Florida and Dept. of Florida, to muster out.

SERVICE.- Duty at Port Hudson, La., till April 17, 1864. Moved to Fort Barrancas, Fla., and duty there till March, 1865. Expedition toward Pollard, Ala., July 21-25, 1864. Camp Gonzales, Fla., July 22. Near Pollard, Ala., July 23. Expedtion from Fort Barrancas August 15-19. Expedition to Marianna September 18-October 4. Euchee Anna Court House September 23. Marianna September 27. Expedition up Blackwater Bay October 25-28. Near Milton October 26. Expedition to Pollard, Ala., December 13-19. Mitchell's Creek December 15-16. Pine Barren Ford, December 17-18. March from Pensacola to Blakely, Ala., March 20-April 1, 1865. Siege of Fort Blakely April 1-9. Assault and capture of Fort Blakely April 9. Occupation of Mobile April 12. March to Montgomery April 13-25. Duty there till May. Moved to Mobile, thence to Barrancas, Fla., May 23. Expedition to Appalachicola May 31-June 6. Duty at Appalachicola and in District of Florida till September, 1866. Mustered out September 10, 1866.

What makes this extra special to me is that in 2007, while attending another family branch's reunion, my family and I were able to go to the African-American Civil War Memorial in the Shaw district of Washington D.C. Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to look for Benjamin Thompson on the plaque. However today I was also able to locate this tidbit of information:

African American Civil War Memorial
Displayed as: Benjamin Thompson
Plaque Number: C-89

So there it is... my great-great grandfather, Benjamin Thompson Civil War veteran. I still have many more unanswered questions about Benjamin Thompson. When was he actually born? How did he in fact come to America? Or was he born here? Where is he buried? (Some say in the Natchez Veteran's Cemetery on the Bluff, a rumor I will definitely have to confirm) Who was his enslaver?

When and if I get those answers, you will be the first to know!

Family Griot