Blogging Equals Cousin Bait

Earlier this month, at my genealogy society’s annual Show & Tell (the Nashville Chapter of the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society), I chose to share a story of how a blog post I made resulted in great additional knowledge about a family member! In April 2017, I blogged a discovery I made about the wife of my 2nd-great uncle, Wright Lawhorn. His wife, Birdell (nee Davis) Lawhorn, was featured in the 1968 yearbook of Winston Salem State College – the whole yearbook was dedicated to her. That blog post ended up helping a historian in eastern North Carolina connect with me, as he had more information to share with me about Wright and how Wright saved a train from crashing in Havelock, North Carolina in July 1916; I blogged about that too. The historian was able to find me because of the aforementioned blog post, reached out, and provided me with details I did not yet know about the story of how Wright saved the train. I was thrilled for the contact and shared this story at my genealogy society as a testament to the power of blogging as you never know who will be looking for what you’re posting and then subsequently reach out to you.

Well, how fortuitous then that my blogging & posting information online resulted in another connection recently! Just a few days ago, I was contacted by a new cousin, with whom I share mutual ancestors in Allen Wimberly & Della Battle. Allen and Della are my 5th great-grandparents who were from Edgecombe County, North Carolina.

I am descended from their daughter, Mariah and my new cousin is descended from their son Richard. Allen and Della were enslaved by Kemp Plummer Battle and over the years I have learned a great deal about Kemp and the context of the environment in which my ancestors lived as enslaved persons on his plantations.

I am definitely appreciative that my cousin reached out to me and we can start to share more information about our families. Again – it pays to blog! Imagine all the cousins out there just waiting to find you!