Scraps of paper I - Stories from the Family Tree

I have a file drawer full of scraps of paper, an accumulation of pages, notes, cards, and letters; bits and pieces that have been collected over the years. Most came from my mother during her decades of patient genealogical research; Barb added many more items as she began the quest of documenting her family tree, and I contributed many more items before research became primarily on-line and computer captured.

These scraps of paper have birth dates, and children's names, letters from Aunt Maude about Uncle Henry's bursitis and other family lore written on them, and as I have often pointed out, this is what makes the difference between "just the facts" and the stories from the Tree.

One of these scraps of paper states that "One of the members of the Black family (Barb's line) named his children Jet, Coal, Right and Very." Seriously? Jet Black? Coal Black? Right Black? Very Black? Lacking evidence, I was pretty sure that this was an urban (family) legend. Oh, sure, there was Samuel Cole Black, a great uncle, but he went by Sam, so one really shouldn't count him.

And then, following a lead from yet another scrap of paper, last week I found them. Well, sort of.

Barb's second great grandfather, William Homer Black had 2 wives and 14 children - 7 boys and 7 girls. One of those boys - John Russell Black - was the one with the sense of humor (or maybe it was his wife, Mary Jane Perkins) and they ended up naming 4 of their 8 children Jettie, Coal, Right and Very.

OK, Jettie Nora is not quite the same as "Jet," but you know, just know that "Jet" was her nickname.  She married a man named William Pink Lawson, and is there any doubt what his nickname was? From all indications, "Jet" and "Pinky" had no oddly named children, living quiet lives in Lamb County Texas for more than 50 years.

And I'm totally speculating that Charlie C. Black's middle initial stands for Coal. He has a brother named Erastus C. Black, but I found a death certificate that states in his case the "C" stands for Columbus (actually. the certificate says "Cloumbus, but we will go with the more common spelling). And I'm not going to comment further about "Rastus" Black.

So the C. might stand for Cole - as mentioned, Russell had a brother with the middle name of Cole - or the C. in this instance might have been written "Coal" what with the inventive spelling and all of that era. And Charlie "Coal" begins the string of somewhat unusual names. His little brother is named Joe Wright. "Right," get it?

Okay, I'm reaching here, I admit, but I think Russell and Mary Jane were just getting warmed up, because their last child was really and truly named "Very" Black. No middle initials, no variant spelling. Just VERY. And here's the proof.

Very is buried, along with his wife Ollie (!) in the Littlefield Cemetery in Lamb County Texas, and the family legend has in fact, an element of truth.

I love this stuff!