Merging Blogs

Over a year ago I started my two blogs. "Finding Eliza" was for my maternal branch and "My Cleages and Reeds" for my paternal branch.  I thought it would be easier to post about the different branches on different blogs. As time passed, however, I found there were posts about my memories and life and I wondered which blog should I put those on? There were Christmas posts that would have complimented each other and then there were the posts about my husband's family, where to put them?  I wondered if it was possible to merge  my two blogs into one.  Today I found out that it is possible and so I've moved all the posts from "My Cleages and Reeds" into "Finding Eliza".  I won't take "My Cleages and Reeds" down, but from now on I will publish all my posts on "Finding Eliza".  I hope that all followers of "My Cleages and Reeds" who aren't already following me on "Finding Eliza" will follow me over there.

Dr. Albert B. Cleage and Miss Pearl D. Reed were married at noon Thursday...

My grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed, was born in Lebanon, Kentucky in 1886.  She the youngest of the seven children of Anna Allen Reed.  Pearl's father was Buford Averitt, a white physician.  By 1888 Pearl's oldest brother, George, had moved to Indianapolis Indiana to work at Van Camps cannery. The rest of the family soon followed. 

My grandfather Albert Buford Cleage, Sr was born in Louden, Tennessee in 1883.  He was the youngest of the five children of Louis and Celia (Rice) Cleage.  The family eventually moved to Athens Tennessee.  In 1906 he graduated from Knoxville College and moved to Indianapolis to attend Purdue University College of Medicine.  Three of his older siblings were already there.  He moved in with his brother Jacob and his wife Gertrude. His brother Henry also lived in the house.

Albert and Pearl met at church.  They both signed the petition to organize a United Presbyterian Church on April 30, 1907.   Pearl sang in the church choir and also at community and church events.  By the time I heard her sing she had a frail, old voice.  I wish I could have heard her back in her prime.  In 1907 Pearl was 21. Albert was 24.  

The courtship lasted for three years. Pearl's mother was against the relationship because she thought Albert was "too dark".  Of course this caused problems with them meeting and going anywhere together.  Many letters were exchanged and they met at church functions.  Their houses were about 2.3 miles apart.  It was a straight trolley ride down N. Illinois in those days. Today that would be a 23 minute ride by bus.  I imagine it took a bit longer by trolley in the early 1900s.  

As Albert neared the end of his course of study, his thoughts turned to where he would practice and to their marriage.  They set the date for October, 1910.  He graduated in June and as an intern was appointed to the City Hospital. On September 2 he received his Physicians License and on September 29, 1910 Albert and Pearl applied for a marriage license.  On October 2, 1910 they were married in a quiet ceremony at Pearl's house. The Indianapolis Star column "News of Colored Folk" contained this item, 

"In the presence of relatives and immediate friends of the two families Dr. Albert B. Cleage, Intern at the City Dispensary and Miss Pearl D. Reed, 2730 Kenwood Avenue were married at noon Thursday. The Rev. D.F. White of the Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church officiated.  Immediately after the ceremony Dr. and Mrs. Cleage left on their wedding tour, during which they will visit the Appalachian Exposition at Knoxville, Tenn., and points farther south."  The points farther south would have been his family's home in Athens, Tennessee.

Another piece News of Colored Folk, dated Oct. 2, 1910 said, "The Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church and Sunday school gave a linen shower Friday evening in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Albert Cleage at the home of Mr. and Mrs. R.A. Kelley 1917 Highland Place. Dr. and Mrs. Cleage have returned recently from their bridal trip to Knoxville, Tenn, and are at home at 913 Fayette street."

The add in the lower corner of the collage above has several pictures of women in traveling suits and big hats. The photograph of my grandmother over it shows her wearing a similar suit and hat, although not quite as flamboyant. Although this photograph was taken later in 1910 at a medical convention, I imagine this is the outfit she wore for her wedding tour. The little blue house is the one they came home to on Fayette street and the photo in the corner shows two women and my grandfather and my very happy looking grandmother at the medical convention later that year.

My grandparents ended up in Detroit where my grandfather practiced medicine and they raised their seven children.  They were together 46 years, until my grandfather's death in 1956. There are 9 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and 20 great great grandchildren.  We've spread out over the United States and Canada.

This is a Sepia Saturday offering and an entry in the Fall Marriages Genealogy Carnival.

Unknown Man on Unknown Road - Wordless Wednesday

The Ancestors' Geneameme

Inspired by Angela Y. Walton-Raji over at My Ancestor's Name, I finally did The Ancestor's Geneameme. It was started by Geniaus several days ago.
The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (color optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item 
Which of these apply to you?


The Ancestors' Geneameme
1.  Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents.
I can name 12.5.  Robert ALLEN, Clara HOSKINS, John AVERITT, Elizabeth Marshall TUCKER, Frank CLEAGE, Judy CLEAGE, ? RICE (He's the 1/2), Joseph JACKSON, PRISSA JACKSON, Joe TURNER, Emma JONES, Dock ALLEN, Eliza WILLIAMS.
2.  Can name over 50 direct ancestors. [yes]
3.   Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents [I have photos of two.]

Celia Rice Cleage & Jennie V. Allen Turner

4. Have an ancestor who was married more than three times.
One had 4 different partners but was not married to all of them.
5. Have an ancestor who was a bigamist [No.]
6. Met all four of my grandparents [Yes. I grew up in the same city with them and saw them often. Two lived until I was in my twenties and One lived until I was 35.]
7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents [Met one, Jennie Virginia Allen Turner. The others died before I was born.]
8. Named a child after an ancestor [All of my children have a family name and an African name.]
9. Bare an ancestor's given name/s [No but I do have my mother's maiden name as a middle name, as did several cousins.]
10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland [Yes]
11.  Have an ancestor from Asia [Well, 23 & me says I do]
12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe [Not that I'm aware of]
13.  Have an ancestor from Africa [Yes]
14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer [Yes]
15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings [Joe Turner owned a lot of land but I don't know how much.  Need to find those records.]
16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi [As far as I know, none before my father. The Grandparents did start some churches though.]
17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife [No. I used to want to be a midwife though.]
18.  Have an ancestor who was an author [None before my father and sister]
19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones [Emma Jones Turner]
20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng [No]
21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X [No]
22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z [No]
23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th December [My grandfather Mershell C. Graham did not know the day he was born and picked December 25.]
24.   Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day [Nobody in my tree was born January 1.]
25.   Have blue blood in your family lines [No royality]
26.   Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth [No]
27.   Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth[No]
28.   Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century [Yes] 
29.   Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier [No]
30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents [yes]
31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X [Yes]
32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university [Yes Grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr. & Great Grandfather Buford Averitt, both finished Medical School.

33.  Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offense [Great Grandfather Lewis Cleage spent time in jail for various minor offenses. Other non-direct ancestors spent time in prison.]
34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime [Great grandmother Jennie Allen Turner had her land stolen after her husband died. Not to mention those held in slavery for generations.]
35.  Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine [My blogs has\ve several. More to come.]
36.  Have published a family history online or in print [The blogs are sort of a serial history but I hope to do a more organized one, perhaps next year I will start]
37.  Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries [No, but if any are still standing would love to.]
38.  Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family [No]
39.  Have a  family bible from the 19th Century [Not a family Bible but I have a pocket New Testament that came to my grandfather, Mershell Graham through his brother Jacob who got it from his doctor who was gifted it by relatives in 1875.]

40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible [No]

The Illustrated News - Walk to Freedom

 When I saw that an illustrated weekly was the prompt for this week, I knew I had to post something about The Illustrated News.  The Illustrated News was published during the earlier 1960s by my father's family and family friends.  Two of his brothers, Henry and Hugh, started a printing business because the family was always looking for ways to be economically independent.  The main business was printing handbills for small grocery stores.   And they started several newspapers.  First they did The Metro but the one I remember best is The Illustrated News. It was printed on pink paper (that was what was left over after printing the handbills) and distributed to churches and barber shops around the inner city. Some people had subscriptions. My father wrote many of the lead articles. My Uncle Louis wrote Smoke Rings, which was always on the back page. Billy Smith took most of the photographs.

I just picked a random issue from June 24, 1963. The focus is on the Walk To Freedom which took place in support of the people in the south who were fighting for equality.  I was a high school junior at the time and I remember the crowds and crowds of people downtown for the march. It was very well organized and as the main march went up Woodward, to Cobo Hall, the side streets, filled with people who joined as the march went by. Estimates of the number went from 100,000 to 200,000.  It was an amazing feeling to be in a peaceful crowd, most dressed in their Sunday best, marching for FREEDOM NOW! At the end of the newsletter there are several photographs from the day of the march.  To see other illustrated blog posts for Sepia Saturday, click HERE.

 My father is in the second row, third from the right.

 My grandfather (poppy) has his finger by his nose, my uncle Hugh smiling with the glasses next to him and my maternal grandmother smiling with the hat on.  Older people who couldn't walk all that way in the huge crowd went in earlier and got good seats. I don't remember where I was sitting.

My father giving them hell about conditions in Detroit in 1963. The finally unplugged his mike to shut him up.

Gamma Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha - 1926 - Wordless Wednesday

My grandfather, Albert B. Cleage Sr is 5th from the left, top row. Dr. Ames, who I talked about here Births, Deaths,Doctors and Detroit - Part 2- The Doctors & Detroit in the 1920s is 7th from the left in the 3rd row down.

Gamma Lamda Chapter

Alpha Phi Alpha

Fraternity

Detroit, Mich 1926

Albert B. Cleage Jr. - Sepia Saturday

Today I have posted a page from a small photo album that featured a page for each member of my father's family, plus some family friends. The contact size photos were not very carefully pasted in and are not identified or dated. Judging by the ages of the people, I think they were taken about 1938. Which makes my father, Albert B. Cleage Jr (Also known as "Toddy" to family and friends), 27. The theme this week is a man sleeping while posing for a photograph.

"Toddy"  Albert B. Cleage Jr

To see another page from the album, click Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage
To see Sleeping (and other) Sepia Saturday offerings, click HERE.