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From: "Lucy Bellville" <>
Subject: Re: [BLACK-L] My reason for starting Genealogy
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 07:28:20 -0500


For Mike Pruit:

What a great story! I know just how you feel. My elusive Black is Thomas,
b. Abt.1730 and died WFT Est. 1756-1821. His son, Col. Thomas Black, b.
1752, York Co., PA (near Gettysburg). He died Sept. 9, 1821, Dillsburg, PA.
He married Martha Bracken in 1782. She was the daughter ofThomas Bracken.
She was born Feb. 23, 1762 in Dillsburg.

Col. Thomas, according to family tradition and some documentation, served
under George Washington. He was supposedly one of G. W.'s aides, relaying
his commands while crossing the Delaware. I have a great story about leaving
a note on a tombstone which lead to cousins in Crawford Co., OH and
ultimately, to a picture of Col. Thomas. If anyone is interested, I will be
happy to share it with the list.

Happy hunting.

Lucy Mossburg Bellville
Toledo, OH

-----Original Message-----
From: <>
To: <>
Date: Sunday, October 25, 1998 12:30 PM
Subject: [BLACK-L] My reason for starting Genealogy

>I started back in 1990 after my father, Stanley Dee Pruitt who had
researched
>some 30 years, made a discovery that would expand his research in the Black
>Family that he knew little about. His grand mother, Martha Elizabeth Black
,
>had married his grand pa, Robert James Pruitt. Grandma Martha would keep
all
>of her children, 14 of them, together and care for them and her grand
>children. My dad remembers that Grandma Pruitt was part Cherokee Indian and
>would perform special medicines to her grandchildren. Grandma Martha
Pruitt's
>father was Granderson Deroyceton Black who was born in Washington,
Hempstead
>Co., Arkansas on Oct 5, 1830.
>
>Granderson was the second born of James Black. The first was William
Jefferson
>born in 1829. Sarah Jane Black was the next born in 1832 and then
>Thomas Colbert Black born in 1834 and last was Syndiham James Black born in
>1835. James Black was born about 1800 in either New Jersey or Penn. and had
>married Ann B. Shaw, daughter of William Shaw of Hawkins Co, Tenn.
>
>My dad had called me on the telephone one night about 9:30 and told me that
he
>had made a remarkable discovery in that he found where his grandma Martha
>Black Pruitt granddad was from and wanted me to come over so he could
share
>this discovery. Well I was preparing for bed and I had asked him if he had
>lost his mind and he stated "No" but to come on over. Well I had always
minded
>my dad, well maybe most of the time, and travelled to his home. He then
shared
>that he found James Black in a little town named Washington in Hempstead
Co.,
>Ark. , just to the northeast of Hope, Ark.
>
>He stated he found where James Black was a blacksmith and worked in a shop
>owned by William Shaw. James fell in love with William Shaws daughter, Ann,
>and they finally got married in 1828 without the approvel of her father.
Well
>they had the five children and life for them was good. James built his own
>blacksmith shop and he was very good in his making of knives. In fact he
was
>so good that word spread through out all the Southwest that James made very
>good knives and they were durable and would hold up towards the elements of
>fighting and hunting for meat.
>
>Then around the year of 1830 a gentleman rode into town and asked James to
>build him a knife for him and he would return later to pick it up. Several
>months passed and the man would return and bought the knife and the man was
>none other that Colonial James Bowie, who would become famous with his
knife
>and later died at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas in 1836.
>
>Well word got around that James Black made a knife for Bowie and when folks
>would order a knife they would order a Bowie knife.
>
>In 1835 James wife, Ann, died and it nearly killed James since she was the
>apple in his life. James now had five kids to raise. Well as the story goes
>his father-in-law almost kills him one day and James lost his eyesight and
his
>livelihood. James travels east to find a doctor to cure him and comes back
to
>Washington only to find his father-in-law had left with his children and he
>never saw them again. James lives to be 72 years old and dies in Old
>Washington.
>
>William Shaw took his grandchilden to Cherokee Co.,Texas and raised them.
>
>When I heard this story it motivated me to Family Research and ever since I
>have been trying to find my past. I took Dad in 1991 to Old Wasington, Ark.
at
>a family reunion where he got to see where his family lived and worked and
>meet all of his newly found cousins. He was sure excited that trip.
>
>I lost dad last Feb. 12, 1998 and now I am carrying on what he started some
>30+ years ago. There are good days and bad days. Sometimes I can't wait to
>research more and then other days I get burnt out on research. When I find
>another cousin I get excited and now I write this little story of how I got
>started. Is there a cousin out there that I have not met yet, only time
will
>tell.
>I sure wish I could find James Black father and mother or even a brother or
>sister.
>
>Mike.........
>
>

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