Strange Family Folklore

My great grandfather, Jessee Strange, was born a slave and freed in his 20s. His 12 children were born free, and referred to as "The First Freeborn Generation." In this podcast series, I interview Jessee Strange's descendents in order to document our stories.

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Strange Family Folklore

Detangling the Family Tree

November 16, 2020 • Teresa Roberson • Episode 1

In this episode, I interviewed my mother who was born Velma Mae Strange, the youngest of 6 children born to Floyd B. Strange and Beatrice Adams Strange. My Grandfather Floyd, who Mom still affectionately refers to as "Daddy," was the 11th child of the First Freeborn Generation. Mom's mother was famously known as "Mama Bea," by all her grandchildren, such as me. But what's in a name? Mom attempts to clarify our ancestral family tree, which is full of duplicate names and intermarriages. See if you can keep it straight.

Teresa Roberson

My great grandfather, Jesse Strange, was born a slave and freed in his 20s. His 12 children were born free, and referred to as "The First Freeborn Generation." In this podcast series, I interview Jesse Strange's descendents in order to document our stories. This is Strange Family Folklore.

Teresa Roberson

Mom, you should know about your own mother. I asked you a question about Aunt Carrie, Mama Bea. They all have the same last name..

Velma Roberson

Maiden name. Okay. Aunt Carrie is a different set of Adams. And you say Aunt Sue, right?

Teresa Roberson

I think so. Let me get my notes.

Velma Roberson

Aunt Sue was mother's daddy' sister.

Teresa Roberson

Mother's daddy's... oh, her aunt!

Velma Roberson

Yes.

Teresa Roberson

Wait a minute, they married into the same family? So, they weren't too much older than, I mean...

Velma Roberson

See daddy's brother married Aunt Sue, but he was, I don't know how many years older, Uncle Charlie was than daddy. See Daddy's one of the younger sons.

Teresa Roberson

Right.

Velma Roberson

But Uncle Charlie, he only had one. Do you remember Corky?

Teresa Roberson

Yes.

Velma Roberson

Corky was Uncle Charlie's and Aunt Sue's grandson. So, Aunt Sue was mother's aunt. Grandpa Charles' sister. And Uncle Charlie was daddy's brother.

Teresa Roberson

Uncle Charlie was daddy's brother. Right.

Velma Roberson

But Uncle Charlie married Aunt Sue.

Teresa Roberson

Right. So, it was Aunt Carrie, Susie and Mama Bea all have...

Velma Roberson

Wait a minute.

Teresa Roberson

…the name "Adams."

Velma Roberson

Now you're talking about Aunt Carrie Strange, right?

Teresa Roberson

Mom, do you want me to get the book?

Velma Roberson

When you say "Carrie," Uncle Daniel's wife...see mother got a sister named "Carrie." That's why I'm asking.

Teresa Roberson

Mama, this is why I'm asking too! Who married... okay, let me get the book 'cause you are asking me questions. I'd never kept them apart. I could never keep them apart because our family's so big.

[I retrieve our family history book that one of my sisters and other members of The Strange Family Historical Society published called Reflections of a Proud Strange Family.]

All right, so when I'm looking at this it says Charles R. Strange married Susie Adams.

Velma Roberson

That's mother's aunt. Grandpa Charles Adams' sister.

Teresa Roberson

So, what I'm asking you is Aunt Carrie, who was Daniel's wife, was Mama Bea's aunt?

Velma Roberson

Okay, Aunt Carrie married into the family. She wasn't related to anybody that's related to us. She was related to Wayne.

[Wayne is my father, as in Karl Wayne Roberson.]

Teresa Roberson

I did not know that.

Velma Roberson

Yeah. And see that set of Adams, you know Jesse Davis Adams?

Teresa Roberson

Not really.

Velma Roberson

Wait a minute. You know Geneva? Stanley Adams?

Teresa Roberson

I know them by name, Mom.

Velma Roberson

Stanley married Betty Jean, which is our cousin. Well, Stanley's our cousin on daddy's side. Betty Jean's our cousin on mother's side.

Teresa Roberson

So, what you're telling me is that there are at least two families of Adams that weren't originally related to one another.

Velma Roberson

Correct.

Teresa Roberson

Okay. And Aunt Carrie, who married Daniel Strange was not related...

Velma Roberson

...related to us.

Teresa Roberson

But Mama Bea had a sister who was also named "Carrie."

Velma Roberson

Correct.

Teresa Roberson

See, I thought those were the same Carrie.

Velma Roberson

You remember Uncle Bruce Dallas?

Teresa Roberson

Yes.

Velma Roberson

His wife was Carrie.

Teresa Roberson

He was the one who wouldn't get electricity.

Velma Roberson

Correct.

Teresa Roberson

So, Aunt Carrie and Aunt Ida, who lived in the same house by the time I was aware of them, they're the ones who would sit by the fire and dip snuff and spit into the fireplace?

Velma Roberson

Correct.

Teresa Roberson

That's Mama Bea's sisters?

Velma Roberson

Correct.

Teresa Roberson

Did I ever meet Daniel's wife, Carrie?

Velma Roberson

Yes.

Teresa Roberson

I see that she died in '87. So, we were in the world at the same time, but I was 17 when she died.

Velma Roberson

But she lived in home house. Aunt Carrie Strange, Aunt Adam Strange, who married Uncle Daniel. Then mother's sister, Carrie, married Bruce Dallas. So, when you came along, she was living down Uncle Jug's.

'Cause Uncle Jug...They had a lot of money, but her husband was stingy and he did not want to have electric in his house. So, when the emergency squad went down and picked him up so many times they said, "Well, we're not going to take him back to his house because it is not..."

Teresa Roberson

Habitable.

Velma Roberson

Right. So, the doctor told Aunt Carrie, said, "We're gonna have to put him in the nursing home." So, Aunt Carrie told Uncle Jug. Uncle Jug said, "No, can bring him to my house." Then Uncle Jug had a room added on and a bathroom. Uncle Bruce was too stingy to get the modern conveniences, but to keep him out of the nursing home, Uncle Jug did that.

Teresa Roberson

So, the other question that I know you can answer, Mom, is on the same page Aunt Grace, who you call "Aunt Gracie," isn't listed in the family book as being married, but I thought she was married for about a month.

Velma Roberson

Yeah, she was married a while, but I don't even remember her married name because it didn't last long. She and Uncle Richard got married. But Uncle Richard I don't think he was married, but a week or so.

Teresa Roberson

Really? Wait a minute. Uncle Richard. That's Mama Bea's brother, right?

Velma Roberson

Uncle Richard is daddy's oldest brother by the woman that grandpa married first.

Teresa Roberson

So, John Richard Strange married Bessie Milner?

Velma Roberson

Right. And they had one child.

Teresa Roberson

Who they call “Flippin.” I'm reading it from the book, Mom.

Velma Roberson

Well see, I know it.

Teresa Roberson

I know you know it.

Velma Roberson

He was a handsome-looking guy.

Teresa Roberson

And it said that he was granted a divorce from Bessie, but you say that she was murdered. But that was after they divorced.

Velma Roberson

No, no, not Uncle Richard. I'm talking about grandpa's first wife. Grandpa Jesse's first wife.

Teresa Roberson

Okay.

Velma Roberson

I think her name was Lucille. His second wife was Lucy, daddy's mother, Lucy.

Teresa Roberson

Okay, so it said Grandpa Jesse married Annie Harrison and she was classified as a mulatta.

Velma Roberson

Oh, so her name was Annie? I thought they said "Lucy." Okay. I think they got married when she was about 16.

Teresa Roberson

Right and it says she proved to be unfaithful, so he divorced her and received custody. But mom, they say that he...

Velma Roberson

He divorced her?

Teresa Roberson

Yeah. Okay, look, it says Annie proved to be unfaithful. So, Grandpa Jesse divorced her on December 5, 1883, and received custody of their son who had been weaned from his mother. Records indicate that she died in 1885, from heart disease and they put heart disease in parentheses, or quotation marks. But back to Aunt Gracie. So, she was married for a minute.

Velma Roberson

Yeah. See, I never knew that Aunt Gracie was married. Everything happened I guess before, maybe before I was born, I don't know. But at any rate, long as I knew Aunt Gracie, she was not married.

Teresa Roberson

But what I'm saying is, somebody should look for the marriage license because there's no record in our family book that she was married. When I started writing down my question, I thought I remembered somebody saying that she was married and then couldn't stand her husband.

Velma Roberson

Aunt Gracie was always fussing.

Teresa Roberson

Well, you know what? She was a black woman living in America in a probably worse time than what we live in right now. So, I can't blame her for being angry.

Velma Roberson

Aunt Gracie was real feisty. Very feisty. But she was a nice woman. You know, she told daddy? See when you came along, we had steps in the basement there at mother and daddy's, but when I grew up, it was a ladder. You had to go down in the basement on a ladder. Gracie came there and she said, "Now look at this! Floyd why haven't you gotten steps to go down your basement?" "Well, Gracie, I haven't gotten around to it." "I tell you what I'm gonna do. I'ma come here, I'ma open this door, and close my eyes and go down these steps and hurt myself and I'ma sue you and give you the money to put the steps in." Daddy said, "Gracie, you don't have to do all that." "Well you better get some steps in here then." So, daddy finally put steps in.

Teresa Roberson

Oh, it was just a ladder before?

Velma Roberson

Yes, that's all ladder. Anytime you wanted to go in the basement, you had to go down this ladder. Or walk outside and go in the door from the outside.

Teresa Roberson

Do you know about the Coleman's? The side of the family that passed for white?

Velma Roberson

Was mmh, mmh, mmh. It wasn't "Coleman." I don't think. I can't even think of the name now.

Teresa Roberson

Well, I know you kept talking about the Dearings.

Velma Roberson

No, the Dearings not related to us. It's another set live up in DC. Swansons! Swansons.

Teresa Roberson

This is the first time I'm hearing that name.

Velma Roberson

Well, the Swansons were on grandma's side, on daddy's side. Mother's sister were Swansons.

Teresa Roberson

So, daddy's aunt?

Velma Roberson

Yeah. So, they moved. One may live in Danville, but they moved to DC. And they were, you know, they didn't deal with Grandma Lucy and them much because they had so many kids. And they like you don't have that many kids, you know. But when we started the family reunion, they started coming visiting. And there's still some living up in the DC area now.

Teresa Roberson

And they look white?

Velma Roberson

Yeah, they're real, real light. There were some Colemans too that were light.

Teresa Roberson

I didn't know how much you knew.

Velma Roberson

There was one Coleman that lived in I'd say Leaksville. Now you call all of it "Eden." There next to Perry & Spencer funeral home. I would go and stay with her some weekends like on a Friday night, maybe come back home Saturday or Sunday. Because I think she only had one child. And her daughter was up in Pennsylvania, you know, she was grown. So, she always wanted to get me to come stay there with her. You know, just to visit because her husband had died, which was daddy's uncle, I think. But she was very nice.

Teresa Roberson

I'm only going by the book and some of the things that I remember, but I get people confused.

Velma Roberson

Yeah, because there's so many duplicate names.

Teresa Roberson

Right, because I knew that Aunt Carrie Dallas was a different Aunt Carrie, but when I saw that so many, like three women, had the same maiden name first thing I'm thinking is, "Oh they all could have possibly been sisters." And what you're telling me is, none of them were sisters.

Velma Roberson

Right! One was mother's aunt and the other was mother's sister-in-law.

Teresa Roberson

Right.

[Well, there you have it. The good news is, The Strange Family Historical Society is coming out with a second edition of our family book. Best thing is, there won’t be a quiz.]

Transcribed by https://otter.ai