Surnames in project: DAVIS, HICKMAN, ROGERS, QUINN, ALEXANDER, LATHAN, LAMPKIN, LUNNINGHAM, McCRACKEN, HEMPHILL, BARRON, FRAZIER, HUDSON, WRAGG, EDWARDS, JOHNS, CHILDERS/CHILDRESS, BARDWELL, ARCHIE, BABER, BANKS, BEVILLES, HARRIS, JACKSON, MURRAY, SPIVA, THOMAS, YARBROUGH, HAMM, EILAND, GLENN and HEAD
Again, welcome to this website. I hope that you have been able to find some time to look around and explore! Hopefully you have found something (or connected with someone) who can help you along in your research!
I would like to share with you an exciting new project that is currently being undertaken. It all started out with a story from my grandmother, Daisy Ree. She had always told me that old Liberty Hill was previously called the Davis Cemetery and was used by the plantation owner's family and his slaves. Later it was named Liberty Hill Methodist Church. It was later abandoned and turned into a cow pasture in the 1940s. I never thought much about it. I always had assumed that there would be no way to find out anything on these ancestors of mine from Sturgis. Imagine my surprise one day as I surfed the Internet and found a posting, over a year old from a lady who talked about a Liberty Cemetery and the Davis family! I had goosebumps reading her post and seeing someone else telling the same story I had been told as a child. To make a long story short, this gracious and kind lady ended up being a descendant of the owner of the Davis Plantation, Thomas Davis. We soon collaborated on our work and have dug up information on Thomas and his family from Abbeville, SC to his death in Sturgis in 1866 and beyond. She has also managed to make some contacts with some of her other long lost cousins in the Davis Family, scattered around the US! How thrilling.
I soon got to work tracing the slave families, and soon found they connected with many other families. The story of the Davis' cannot be told without the other families who were as much a part of the family as the Davis' (see above)! I soon had to set up a family database and scanning software to catalog every scrap of information and photo. We now have 2000+ of our ancestors and living relatives recorded! The records weave an interesting and historically significant tale that I think needs to be told, hence the idea for this project.
Come join us and be a part of it! Many of our relatives have already joined in! We are looking for any pre-1940 photos, documents, letters..anything that you think would be interesting! We'd also like for you to share your stories of what Sturgis was like when you were young. All these items will be compiled into a book, detailing the lives of our ancestors, the history of each individual founding family...where they came from, how they got here, detailed history of the area, their slaveowning families..everything that made our ancestors who they were and made us who we are! It is important to preserve this legacy for our children and for those who come after us. Not only did our ancestors survive but they thrived and even with all the hardships, they really made something of their lives...let's not forget that....let's not forget them!
Once this "Families of Sturgis" is completed, copies will be made available to all those who have an interest and contributed. In the interest of privacy also, all data on living relatives will not be printed (other than their names). I am always looking for feedback and ideas, so feel free to email me. Again, thanks for your visit and hope to hear from you soon!
