In January 2017 I wrote a draft of a post entitled "Takin' a Rest". It was about the events of the year 2016. October of 2016 had been wonderful. I made a road trip to upstate New York that included a presentation of my vintage photos at Hartwick College, visiting cemeteries and finding the graves of Samuel & Elizabeth Jones, meeting with historians and librarians and spending time in Roscoe.In January 2017 I decided to take a rest. I was worn out from researching ancestry, and when you're focusing on American history and black people, the rolling hills, weathered barns and shacks, even antique shops kinda lose their quaint appeal. And not just in the south; in upstate New York I spotted more than one rebel flag. Trump supporters!
But I've continued to explore my mother's side of the family, particularly her father's branch - the Wheatley's. Turns out the Wheatley's were slaves in Kentucky. Husband and I made a road trip in 2018 to Chicago to visit my 98 year old uncle George Wheatley, with stops in towns along the route from Greenup KY, across the Ohio River into freedom, north to Westerville OH where the Hanby House Museum now stands. The Hanby family were abolitionists, their house a station on the Underground RR. At the museum they showed me a Declaration of Emancipation that was part of the plantation owner's will for Mary King. She is my 3rd great grandmother who was married to Harrison Wheatley! The Hanby house became somewhat ramshackled and was a boardinghouse owned by a black man for many years. According to records Henry Wheatley Sr. (son of Harrison and Mary) lived in that house for a time before settling in the town of Westerville.
