THE NYEUSI PETUNIA

I am writing this blog for family and friends. I am my family’s historian, however this site will be more about me and growing up in the South, leaving the South, and returning to the South. The South is the southern part of the United States. Tennessee and Kentucky will be States with which I am familiar. The name of this blog references my African heritage and my American present. My mother loved petunias.

Note: In this blog, you will encounter facts, my observations, and my opinions.

New

Hello All!

Welcome to my Blog. This has been a long time in the making. I want to share memories of growing up and adulting as a Black female. As you know, it’s all about the journey. I was born in Kentucky in the fifties. So, I’ve been around awhile.

I think more people need to tell their stories. So many have been lost. Even in my own family. No one likes to talk about the times when they were afraid, but neither do they talk about the times when they weren’t afraid. I suppose if you weren’t afraid…you considered that a norm not worthy of conversation and, when you were afraid, one wanted to forget.

When my great-grandmother and her neice were in their nineties, they shared some stories with us. I remember my great-grandmother’s neice thumbing through a picture album and telling me and my sister who were in the pictures. I wrote down my memory of what they said, but, regrettably, it was too late to retrieve the pictures.

And, to be sure, I wasn’t really into genealogy then. It was only later when my aunt told the story that my great-grandmother had purchased land using the pension she received as a widow of a Union soldier and asked if I could verify the story that I began researching my family history. I looked for him off and on for over ten years. When I sarted my genealogical research, there was microfilm, microfiche, and paper records. Now, there is Ancestry.com. You know why I couldn’t find him? It’s all in the spelling of a name. My great-uncle had told me what his grandfather’s first name was. We knew what his last name was and how my cousins spelled their name. But, the last name was not one commonly seen. Therefore, in the documents dating to the 1800’s and 1900’s, I have seen many iterations of the name.

Warning: This blog will be stream of consciousness.

Anyway, I had decided not to renew my Ancestry.com account. But, I received an e-mail giving, I believe, thirty days usage for no charge. On a whim, I logged in and, on another whim, entered my great great-grandmother’s name. I had done this before and gotten no useful response. However, this time her name came up as a recipient of a pension…Civil War. Ancestry.com had, since my last query, uploaded the Civil War pension files. That’s how I found my great great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War. He had five children, one of whom was my great-grandmother. He died too young. He had some illness, but the records don’t say what. Just that the doctor had no treatment. I was surprised that he was attended by a doctor as this was in the 1880’s in Kentucky.

I don’t know if you know this…the Union Army was not supposed to recruit in Tennessee or Kentucky. Politics. Tennessee was under a military governor as it was the first southern state to fall and Kentucky did not secede. The no-recruitment policy in Kentucky was to maintain its status. That’s not to say that Kentuckians did not sympathize with the Confederacy. They did. However, it was not lucrative for Kentucky to secede. (It’s all about the money!)

My great-great grandfather was stationed in Nashville. He helped build Fort Negley and other fortifications in the Nashville area. The Union Army used the Black soldiers mainly to build fortifications and as support. Since my great great-granfather was not discharged until after the end of the war, he was probably armed and permitted to fight at some point.

You know what is interesting about my Kentucky ancestors? By the 1870 census, most of them owned land. Over the years, because of family dynamics, my family lost that land. But that’s another post.

Back to me, my formative years were spent in Tennessee…in the country. I shall never forget being the only Black student in a college sociology class and taking the Black IQ test. I failed it. I think I got one answer right. That test was geared toward the Urban Black of whom I had no knowlege or interaction. It was embarrassing, but I was very naive and shrugged it off. However, I did realize that all Black people could not be placed under one umbrella. It was the beginning of an enlightenment.

That’s all for today! I hope to post once or twice a week as the spirit moves me.

copyright 2023 DMM