Two singular deaths occurred at Garner, NC, presenting a most striking coincidence. Two brothers, James and David CROCKER, died of pneumonia. They were between the ages of thirty-five and forty, and one died at 12 M, the other at 3. Both married sisters, and each leaves a wife and six children. Both were born on the 12th of the month, married on the 13th, and died on the 12th.
Source: Roanoke Beacon, 28 February 1890. Available online at digitalnc.org.
Recently, while browsing a photo collection from the Library of Congress, I came across the following photo two photos of Raeford Bryant Whitley, a businessman of Wendell; and one of the founders of the town.
What was funny about this was that this same day I’d been looking at the yearbook photo of his son Phillip Ray Whitley. Phillip graduated from the University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill in 1929.
I’ve added some brief information on the Whitley Family Tree to my database of NC Families.
Yearbook photos are a great way to capture details of your ancestors. I’ve been going through a number of the North Carolina yearbooks that have been added to the Internet Archive and sometimes I am particularly struck by a photo.
This weekend, while going through the yearbooks for Meredith College , I noticed that there were three girls, all from Halifax County, by the name of Kitchin. I was struck by the photo of one in particular before I even looked at the name – that of Musette Kitchin. Then, in the next couple of volumes for the college I found two more Kitchin girls. I wondered who they were?
These photos of the ladies are from the 1928, 1929, and 1930 yearbooks for Meredith College (then called Baptist Female University). Musette was a daughter of former Governor William Walton Kitchin. Hesta & Pauline were sisters, her first cousins; their father was William Walton’s brother, Claude Kitchin Sr.
In the process of researching them to reconstruct the tree and see how they were related, I learned that Hesta & Pauline’s mother is related to one of my family’s slaveowners – Kemp Plummer Battle (former president of UNC-Chapel Hill). Their mother Kate Mills Kitchin is a great- granddaughter of Catherine Ann Battle Wesley who was a sister to Kemp’s father, William Horn Battle. These types of connections are interesting to come across.
Yearbooks can help add great detail to your family tree. I wonder if Pauline’s family knows about her garnering the superlative for “Most Poised” ? You’ll find these yearbooks linked from the Education page.
