Looking for Traces: Harris County Court House

Next, we headed to the county court house. A call I made earlier confirmed that the probate court kept marriage and probate records on site. I knew that there were probate proceeding following Isaiah Sr.'s death in 1861 and that there were likely to be some remaining records on file. However, I wasn't really prepared for the amount of records we found or their contents. 

We found numerous documents spread out across a dozen or so books detailing each step of the probate process of Isaiah Sr.'s estate. Isaiah Jr., my 4th great-grandfather, and his elder brother, Fleming, were listed by name in almost every one. Things got really interesting when we discovered a document dated 1829 asking for permission for Isaiah Sr. and his brother William, to sell property in Washington County they had inherited from their father, Cader. This was the first evidence I had ever seen or heard that named ancestors more than 7 generations back.

I also found a document closing out the division and sales of property included in the probate proceedings. It asks that all bills be paid in full with Confederate States Treasury notes by July 6, 1866. By that date the majority of Confederate forces had surrendered but the war wouldn't officially come to an end until President Johnson signed a proclamation a little over a month later.

Until reading this, I never would have considered the possibility of having blood relations that actually lived during this time and accepted the Confederate government as their own. This passage is written in such a matter of fact way, it seems as though at the time that it was written the survival of the Confederate States of America was taken for granted and the possibility that the South might lose the war was somewhat remote.

The more time I spent exploring these books, the more I appreciated their beauty as objects. I was mesmerized by the use of text. The precise penmanship, organization of objects and people into lists, and language of symbolic doodles enhanced their historic value. They became precious objects that I held and manipulated with reverence. Not only for their beauty and fragility, but also for the information they held.

The most fascinating document I came across was an inventory and appraisement of Isaiah Sr.'s estate. A seven-page detailed list of everything he owned that would be up for sale; land, mundane objects, tools, furniture, kitchen utensils, and people, including my 4th-great grandmother and her three children.

Looking for Traces: Harris County Library

Near the end of my first semester, I began referencing narratives concerning my 4th-great-grandmother, Charity Ann with a series of porcelain objects. Last semester, I began depicting those narratives more directly with Ode to Charity Ann. I've been particularly interested with her story because it is a narrative not only rich in oral tradition but, as I have discovered through months of research, also has extensive documentation. Her biography is a complicated one that connects my family with difficult subject matter such as slavery, the Civil War, interracial relationships, migration, poverty, feminism, and social class. 

In following the story of my family through time, from Charity Ann's life to my own, one can see connections between individual and historical narratives in the effects of slavery and its aftermath up through the fall of Jim Crow laws. For example, if you consider the jobs that women have held in each generation in my family there is a pattern that demonstrates changes in opportunities.

Recently, I traveled with my husband to Harris County, the location of the oldest official records that I can find documenting the existence of my ancestors. I recorded my own journey in photographs. 

I had three goals for this trip... 

1.  To pinpoint the location of Negro Heel. This district was listed as my family's home on the 1850 census which was oldest documentation I had uncovered. At some point, the name of the district was changed, making it difficult to determine exactly where inside the 473 sq. mile county my family resided. 

2.  To find a marriage record of Isaiah Sr. and Mahaley who were my slave-owning 5th great grandparents according to the 1850 and 1860 census records. 

3.  To uncover evidence of Mahaley's maiden name and family and/or Isaiah Sr.'s family.

Our first stop was to the Harris County Public Library which kept a county archive room that contained old maps, census records for 1830 and 1840, and a written history of the county. I searched the census records first and found 3 possible leads for Isaiah Sr. and Mahaley's household in the 1840 census. None of these leads are a perfect match: listing only the head of household by name, the use of an initial instead of the full first name, and inconsistencies in the number of children that should be in the household make it difficult to be certain. 

The photocopy of the 1830 census was in terrible condition. I could only find one person with the appropriate last name. The first name and number and ages of children did not seem to match what I was expected, so I doubt it was the family I was looking for. I did find one possible lead for Mahaley's family based on what is likely to be her maiden name, but it is far from the evidence I hoped to uncover.

The one remarkable discovery that we made at the library was to find a list of the 1850 census district names along with the Georgia Militia District numbers that they were changed to in subsequent census records. We used that information along with a older, yet detailed county district map to pinpoint exactly were Negro Heel was located. This map also contained roads and landmarks, such as churches and cemeteries. We didn't know it at the time but those landmark listings would become significant. 

Later on, we took a drive out to the area where Negro Heel would have been. There isn't much there; an old church, a few houses, and a lot of gravel roads through rural land. We stopped at Whitesville Methodist Church, one of the oldest in the county, hoping to find some evidence of my family in the neighboring cemetery. We were unsuccessful in that search.

Reflections: Photography, Part II: Original Images

There are several directions for my original images during the early part of this semester. The first series seeks to explore using photography as a means to reinforce the relationship between woman/man and nature in regards to place, home and its surroundings in particular. These images focus on the details of landscapes surrounding the homes in my family. Although starting with my grandmother's yard, this series also includes my mother's current home. I aim to expand this series to include my own home and those of my aunts.

The second series explores the connection between objects, labor, and identity. Building off of motif of the branching line as a metaphor for lineage, time, and a connection between nature and the body, I have been taking pictures of my mother's and grandmother's hands engaged in activities that they enjoy. I'm also interested in the story that particular images and objects reveal. For example, there is an image depicting my grandmother passing to me a mechanical egg beater that belonged to her mother.

The third series documents the journey to my ancestral home, examining the connection between place, identity, migration, loss and the traces left behind. In the coming days, I'll discuss this more in greater detail. For now I'll just say that these images illustrate my ongoing research into my family heritage and my attempt to answer questions, uncover information, and find my ancestral home.

My final goal for this semester concerning photography will be to consider printing methods and methods of installation to maximize effective storytelling. As I've previously learned, this is a problem that cannot be left unresolved until the end of the semester. I will have thoughtfully consider ways to solve this problem starting now.

Reflections - Photography, Part I: Archival Images

I'm off to a good start with my plan to re-introduce photography into my practice. Over the last several weeks, I've been using original photography and archival images in an attempt to craft narratives.

As mentioned in my residency summary, my goal is to consider what the image can provide that the object cannot. So, my intention is to use photography to provide a setting and add contextual information in regards to landscape and place. In some instances it also shows connection to place and its importance to family. 

I have been collecting and scanning archival images of my family's home and candid or posed portraits taken outdoors, focusing on the landscape surrounding that home. The majority of these images feature the house I grew up in, the home my grandparents had built in 1971, from its completion up until my infant son played in the backyard around 2004. There are also a few earlier images featuring homes my family lived in as early as the 1950s. Additionally, I've collected a few portraits taken indoors, that could be used to provide more insight into narratives concerning individuals and family structure. I'm not sure yet if I will use them.

In fact, I'm not sure exactly how any of these images will be used yet. I'm considering creating objects, similar to the landscape reliefs I made during 1st semester, that will have a collage of images for its surface.There is also potential for a wall collage, individual collage works, a wall installation of enlarged photos (similar to the type seen in natural history museums), foundations for paintings, and an artist book.

Mapping out the Semester - August

Grandma in her backyard (c. late '80s)

While in Georgia...

• Continue daily writing
• I haven't been drawing as much as I had originally intended so I plan to begin this exercise in the next week
• Continue adding daily entries into Commonplace/reflectionnaire book
• Complete recording sounds/narration/interviews in Georgia
• Complete 3 photograph series: hand portraits, homesteads, Harris County photo essay
• Compile archived/scanned photographs: family portraits, family and place
• Collect and scan archival documents
• census records
• birth/death/marriage certificates
• any documentation of family in Harris County
• Create at least 2 collages per week 

Once back home in Rhode Island...

• Start researching video/audio techniques
• Make clay sketches for gestural sculptures/consider mold-making
• Make 4 shell pieces
• Make 2 papier-mache sculptures
• Pulp and dye 1 batch of paper for casting per week
• Cast 1 set of collard leaves per week

Reflections - Leaves

There are a lot of issues to be addressed concerning the paper leaves. That being said, I feel as though this body of work was the most resolved from the previous semester. As a result of residency feedback, I realized that leaves do not need to be legible to be successful. My primary goal this semester is to make as many leaves as possible using dyed pulp with glimpses of legible text.

Resolving these issues has the potential to enhance the formal and conceptual qualities of the work...

Consider diversification of the look of the leaf because the idea of oneness is potentially reductive and problematic

Consider how collards are used, this information can be synthesized in order to create sculpture

Questions to explore through studio practice this semester...
How to push material to add meaning?

How to synthesize sensory experiences in a way that builds narrative?

How to realize this work as fully 3 dimensional?

How to use arrangement, text, and narration to tell a story?

How does display become content?

How to merge this work with my other narratives in a way that makes sense?
 

Specific tasks to address...

Try using new material (ex. money, books, cotton, rice)

Create new molds

Explore the possibility of additional species of leaf/fruit/veggie. (ex. Watermelon, black-eyed peas, okra)

Experiment with using text (faux labels) to convey meaning

Make use of the aesthetics of research

Include narration with this body of work

Continue exploring installation potential, think of installation as if I am curating an exhibition on leaves

Mapping out the Semester - July

The beginning of Grandma's backyard

I love lists and I'm very excited about going back to Georgia this summer to visit family and friends. This trip will also grant me the opportunity to conduct some research and start projects that have been on my mind since last fall. Here is a general outline of what I want to accomplish over the next few weeks.

• Create a studio plan for the semester
• Get into the habit of writing every day
• Start Commonplace/reflectionnaire book (add to it daily)
• Find source for new library cards
• Create at least 2 collages per week
• Make a list of sounds to record while in GA
• start recording
• Decide which plants to make molds of while in GA
• make molds
• Sketch ideas for 3d collard work
• Collect and scan archival images of my grandmother's backyard
• Begin new photo series
• establishing views and details of landscapes
• grandma's backyard
• mom's backyard
• ancestral home in Harris County
• hands of the women in my family at work and at rest
• landscape/self portraits