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| Aline Turner's Bank Book Photo Courtesy: Lillian Bates |
Aline was a woman of some means. She had a bank account with Drexel State Bank of Chicago in 1917. In 1920, Aline was living in Chicago and she worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant. She was listed as a Mulatto. Aline was born circa 1880. The United States Federal Census in 1920 said that she didn't attend school, but she knew how to read and write.
When we study our own family history it can tell us so much about our ancestors and ourselves. Certainly, it can tell a lot about the lives our ancestors lived. Aline also had a bank account at Whitney Bank in 1955 and she managed to save a great percentage of her earnings. Aline purchased several lots in Ponchatoula, Louisiana.
Her mother Jane Williams lived in Ponchatoula as well. Jane's mother Mary Miller was born in Virginia and her father was born in South Carolina. Jane was married to Barnard Williams. According to the 1920 Jane was born abt 1843 in Louisiana. Jane worked as a laundress for a private family in Ponchatoula. 2019 will mark the sesquicentennial of Tangipahoa Parish. Tangipahoa Parish was founded in 1869. For the hundredth anniversary in 1969, we were in the middle of the Civil Right movement and for the most part, African Americans in Tangipahoa Parish didn't participate in the celebration. For this commemoration, I want to highlight the history of African Americans in this parish.
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| Aline William Turner |
The history of African Americans has been undocumented and many people including African American people do not know some of the accomplishments and struggles that African Americans faced in this parish. Often times people do not like to talk about things from the past, especially African American people. Some say things were so bad that they just wanted to put it out of their minds. This is why we have to look inside our own homes for documents, records, photographs, and other information that could be vital to our own family history.
I want to know more about Aline and how she became a woman of means in a time when women didn't have rights to do many things on their own. "How did she her mother Mary Miller come to Louisiana? Was she sold down south? Did she come with the slaveholders family? Was she a free woman of color?" There are so many unanswered questions about Aline. The people who could possibly answer these questions are now dead.
At this point, the only thing the family can do is preserve what they have in their processions. And hopefully, genealogy websites like Ancestry and Family Search can provide them with some information. They may find the names of her children, where they lived, her husband name, occupation, and what year they were born. Sometimes we just have to settle for that information if we can't find anything else. Due to slavery, finding information can be limited in most cases.
One thing for sure, the women in the family was very industrious. They were women who worked hard to have some financial independence. Aline daughters were just like her, I have come to learn a lot about her daughter Nellie. Every household sure talk about their family history and share it with others.
Several weeks ago Aline's great-great-granddaughter Lillian Bates met me in New Orleans to show me her collection. She wanted to leave the collection with me and I couldn't allow her to do that. I didn't want to take responsibility for this priceless collection and for the most part I didn't have the time to scan everything. I knew that it would take me a couple weeks due to my busy schedule. Well, the collection came back to me a second time, this time I didn't say no and I accepted it and made it a priority to scan it and mail it back to Lillian.
After carefully reading every single documents and piece of paper, I learned so much about the history of Lillian's family and found that her ancestors were trying to tell me something. They wanted me to share their story with everyone, especially their offsprings through my blog. They wanted to tell us that through the most challenging times, they were strong and resilient people. They were determined people, they helped build schools, they stood up doing the Civil Rights Movement and most importantly, they left a blueprint, if only we would follow.
