Family

Snaps, no. 121: the Sharpe sisters.

Sisters Annie Sharpe Batts (1911-1961), Sarah Sharpe Williams (1895-1985), Effie Sharpe Ruffin (1902-1980).

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In the 1900 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farmer James Sharp, 28; wife Bettie, 25; and children Sarah, 7, Minnie, 4, Lonnie, 2, and Yetta, 7 months.

In the 1910 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: on the Plank Road, farmer Jim Sharp, 38; wife Bettie, 35; and children Sarah, 15, Sunny, 13, Etta, 12, Mary, 10, Mahala, 9, Jimmie, 7, Della, 5, Bettie, 3, and Annie, 2.

In the 1920 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: on the Tarboro Road, farmer James Sharp, 47; wife Bettie, 40; and children Sonnie, 21, Effie, 18, Mahaly, 17, Jimmie, 15, Dolena, 14, Annie, 13, Bettie, 12, and Willie, 7.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user GeraldNelson31.

Build a family tree workbook.

Just as I input the last row in a 700-line spreadsheet cataloging the largest one of my funeral program collections, Cousin Dr. Portia Nicole shared this detailed guide f0r building a family tree workbook using Claude AI and obituaries. I’m a lot of things, but tech-savvy is not one, so I’m excited and intrigued about the possibilities for organizing and extracting data from the thousands of documents I’ve accumulated. Let me know how it works for you!

Keeping the Atkinson-Battle-Farmer stories alive.

Kudos to Samuel Joyner, who has published a volume detailing the “who, where, when” of more than seven generations of his Atkinson, Battle, and Farmer lines. These surnames that will be familiar to African-American Wilson County researchers. This 500+ page book is available via Amazon.com.

W.C.G.S.’ 2026 Black History Month program.

Tuesday evening, my father’s classmate L. Paul Sherrod Jr. will present and discuss family papers passed down from his great-grandparents Jack Sherrod (who served in the United States Colored Troops) and Cassie Exum Sherrod at a program sponsored by Wilson County Genealogical Society. I’ve had a sneak peek at some of the documents and am amazed by the family’s legacy!

Revolutionary love.

Slavery was not built for love.

Nonetheless, despite caprice and cruelty, love endured.

In 1866, when the State of North Carolina created a path for recognition of marriages made  before Emancipation, thousands of couples found their way to a justice of peace. The cohabitation register for Wilson County shows a column for the groom’s name and a column for the bride’s and a column that recorded the years they had been together.

Arch Daniel and Rena Daniel. 35 years.

Bob Rountree and Tempy Horne. 30 years.

Amos Taylor and Amy Barnes. 33 years.

Champion Simms and Deura Simms. 40 years.

Living miles apart, without bodily autonomy, under constant threat of sale and separation, disrespected and denigrated, these men and women chose to love — and whom to love. Today, we recognize these revolutionaries and honor their memory.

My great-great-grandparents, Willis Barnes and Cherry Battle, registered their six-year cohabitation in Wilson County in 1866.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2026!

We moved into 1401 Carolina Street just before my first birthday and left just before my tenth. I haven’t been inside this little brick house in nearly 50 years, but I can describe its every detail, inside and out. My deep connection to my community and its people was forged in those first ten years. Safe in the nest of my knowledge-seeking, passion-encouraging family, I flourished — a sensitive, inquisitive, observant child.

Today, Black Wide-Awake celebrates foundational love! Cheers to Beverly and Rederick Henderson and the East Wilson that made me!

Figuring this family tree thing out.

Lane Street Project has enriched my life in many ways, among them introduction to wonderful people I would not otherwise have gotten to know. Portia Newman is one. Though we are both graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and, it turns out, both among the unnumbered thousands of Adam T. Artis‘ descendants, more than two decades separate our paths through Wilson. Nonetheless, we share an unshakeable sense of family and place and a deep commitment to paying forward our gratitude for both. I was not surprised, then, to see this morning that Portia was giving us gifts on her birthday.

Here, in four parts and a dope video, are Portia Newman’s reflections on the importance of documenting family history and her plan for doing so. All of us can be, must be, preservationists. Save your stories.

And, here, listen to Portia’s grandfather, Donald Lee Woodard Sr. talk about his life in the Red Hill area near Stantonsburg. “You just got to live your life. By being 98*, I have seen a lot and been through a lot.” (Be sure to watch to the very end!)

Happy birthday, Portia!

Black History Month 2026.

February is generally business as usual for Black Wide-Awake, but this year is the 100th anniversary of Dr. Carter G. Woodson‘s Negro History Week, and folks are ripping down exhibits, so I’m going to go a little harder on the promotion, research, preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of Black history, culture, and genealogy of Wilson County, North Carolina. I encourage you to do the same for a place you love. I wish there were a B.W.A. equivalent for every county in these United States. Starting one may not be your path, but you can search out your local history organizations, your cemetery preservation groups, your musicians and poets and playwrights, and show them and their work some tangible love this month. Discover your community’s historic heroes and shout their names!

Norwood comes home for a visit.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 11 June 1927.

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  • Hazel Norwood

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 134 Pender Street, Heneretta Hill, 70, A.C.L. railroad matron; Celia W. Hill, 40, teacher; Cora A. Hill, 27, teacher; Hazell Hill, 16; Christina Hill, 19; Barlee Hill, 22, laborer; Rosa Hicks, 22; and Archer Martin, 14.

In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Norwood Hazel (c) tchr h 205 Pender

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Norwood Hazel (c) r 205 Pender

In the 1930 census of Durham, Durham County, N.C.: Hazel Norwood, 28, insurance company clerk.

On 5 September 1933, Hazel Norwood, 24, married Thomas Covington in Durham, North Carolina.

In the 1940 census of Durham, Durham County, N.C.: Hazel Coventon, 30, life insurance company clerk.

In the 1950 census of Durham, Durham County, N.C.: Hazel N. Covington, 47, life insurance company stenographer.

The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.), 27 March 1993.