I’m delighted and honored to announce that I’ve been invited to speak at the Willow Hill Heritage and Renaissance Center (WHHRC) on September 3rd, in Portal, GA, northwest of Savannah.
“Archival Silence: Closing Gaps in African American History in Bulloch County, GA” is day-long event, led by Dr. Alvin Jackson, historian, Board President and co-founder of WHHRC, in association with the Telfair Museum in Savannah.
Telfair Museums explore Savannah’s place in “our collective American past through art, history, and architecture,” including the historiography of the Owens-Thomas House, and the enslaved in Savannah, among other sites.
My own history is deeply intertwined with the WHHRC, as I’ve discovered in the last several years. The founders of Willow Hill include my 3rd great-grandparents Daniel Riggs and Audelia Parrish-Riggs, and 3rd great uncle Isaac Riggs, and aunt Harriet Lanier-Riggs. I will present on my journey to “close the archival gap” and discoveries that led me to discover my Riggs Parrish heritage, through archival research, oral history study, and DNA research.
Students of SE Georgia genealogy and history, won’t want to miss this event! It is free and open to the public.
Explore my Riggs journey:
The Riggs Family (part 1): New Kin
The Riggs Family (part 2): Harriet Riggs the Matriarch
The Riggs Family (part 3): Finding Fathers
The Riggs Family: Forced Labor During the Civil War
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Mr. Johnson, I somehow ran across you about two years ago and I have been fascinated by your story and your history. My ancestors are from Bulloch County, arriving from NC, via Screven County in the late 1700’s. My mothers family were Brannen’s, and although I do not think we were related to the Riggs, we knew part of the Riggs family very well. Arthur James Riggs was my father’s best man and we always called his mother Grandma Riggs. She was from Blue Bird Springs. Their home was in Jimps off of 301. I also moved to Fort Pierce 2 years ago from Georgia and today I was able to talk to Larry Lee, Jr who family is also from Bulloch County and have been instrumental in the restoration of the school and the creation of the museum. I have been so intrigued with the Willow Hill School and its restoration. I was excited to see that you will be there September 3. Unfortunately I cannot come but certainly hope too some day. My grandfathers home was between Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church and Portal. His name was Pleasant Burton Brannen, or Mr. PB, or Mr. Pleasant. He married Daisy Akins, who lived down the road from him. My mother Mary Nell Brannen was one of their 14 children, and the youngest and only surviving sibling Betty Sue will be 90 in October. Not sure exactly how, but I do think the Brannen’s were somehow related to the Donaldson’s. I will have to go back and check the research I did in the early 1970’s. Thank you for such a fascinating story. Robynn Holland.
Finally I’m beginning to understand the connection between Cook County/Berrien County GA and Bulloch County. Without the Parrish family, this town wouldn’t exist and neither would I. However, I know the history has been grossly whitewashed. I am working with a fellow historian trying to uncover the true lineage of the “maid” for the Henry J. Parrish family here in Adel. She lived with them for 25 years until Henry passed and then she went to another household where she stayed for another 30 years. The wife of the family passed and the man remarried. New wife didn’t like her and had her committed to the state hospital where she died within a month. Oddly, though just a “servant” and “black” “mulatto” and “white” (each census report says different) the central funeral home went to fetch her body and handled the services. Because of her ambiguous race no white church or black church would bury here but finally Longbridge did (white church), which is in Nashville in Berrien County. Her grave was far away from the others. The white marble slab is the same unique and high-priced stone that covers Henry Parrish’ grave at Woodlawn in Adel. I think they were siblings. What’s more, her fellow servant friend in an interview before she passed said Sallie was as white as me and that her family was the Parrishes because they always came in fancy cars to pick her up. Her obituary in 1955 was on the front page of our local paper, The Adel News. To have her obit on the front page is atypical from that time period here in South Georgia. So clearly she was well-known and beloved and according to her friend, many attended her funeral. Her mother was listed on census as Izetta Bell and was single and mulatto, and she had one brother, Thomas, a few years older; I’ve not been able to locate any info on them. I’m convinced that there is a connection to Bulloch County and Ansel. Well, clearly there is, but I mean something about Sallie and her family.