Do You Know Your People?
Left to Right: Kierra (3 years old) Sierra (7 years old), sitting on the couching looking through their parent’s wedding album, undated
They say if you want to find out what you're supposed to be doing for the rest of your life, go find a childhood photograph. Here's me at age 6 or 7 looking through my parent's wedding album. Look familiar?
When I started Build Your Archive I wanted to share with you what I learned. What I didn't know that it would turn into me building six archives across my people, my family.
You see, I am the Daughter of Swarita and Gary King Jr. Swarita is the Daughter of Walter Stephens Jr. and Ethelyn Willis Stephens. Gary is the Son of Gary King Sr. and Vickey King Williams.
Ethelyn is the daughter of John Dover Willis and Eugene Houston. Walter Stephens Jr. is the son of Walter Stephens Sr. and Lottie Mae Houston.
Vickey is the Daughter of Emmit Battle and Annet Battle. And I don't know the accurate information for Gary King Sr. because he passed before I was born.
And that's as far as I can go without help from my Grandmothers.
But with the photographs that I have been coming across, the captions on their backs and scribbles on their sides I have already learned so much more.
The real question is, "Do you know your people?"
This residency helped me make time to sit with the photographs, scan them in and write down questions that I can go back to ask. Even though I'm going a bit out of order of how I showed you all in the challenge earlier this year, this is what makes most sense for me and my now. ( which is all that really matters )
So when I say, "Build Your Archive" It's really a reminder to myself of the responsibility that I have taken up to fill in the holes of my family history. And if you happen to pick up the same responsibility for your family, I welcome you along for the ride (again).
In the new year now that I know where a lot of these photographs are, who's in them and what family they belong to, I can finally get to sharing the memories and weaving the stories that they hold inside, with you. I am most excited to see the intersection of where the families met, how they got to know each other and where they ended up in the world.
You can take a peak into each of the families archives here.
