Most people who’ve read this column in the past know that I love history. My younger son, Devon, and I spent a few hours this past weekend at a little theatre in Brookhaven watching “Late Blossom Blues: The Leo ‘Bud’ Welch Story” — a documentary of a Mississippi Delta blues singer and some of the history of the blues — and “Blood Country” — a historical western action-drama filmed in nearby Lawrence County. Both interesting enough that if you love good music, mystery, westerns and history, you’ll enjoy both these movies as much as we did.
Because I love history, I spent a bit of time today on the website of the Newton County Historical and Genealogical Soc-iety, NCHGS.org.
Another love of mine is free books, physical or electronic. On the NCHGS site is a free book entitled “Newton County Mississippi Marriage Records 1872-1952, Part 1-2.” Some of you fell asleep just reading the title, I know. But it sparked my curiosity.
I’ll go ahead and say here that the book is a copyrighted work by Dr. William Harold Graham and has limited permissions for its use, as any other copyrighted work.
Since my family has only been in the county since 1984, I thought it would be fun to see how many Campbells were listed in this 80-year span of Newton County marriages. The answer is about 30.
The earliest Campbell marriage was that of a Mr. S. P. Campbell to Miss Julia A. Drake on Feb. 25, 1873. So Campbells have infested … I mean, lived in … Newton County over 144 years, at least.
I decided to look for other names of family and friends. The earliest Sanders marriage I found was that of S.S. Sanders to Thomas J. Parker on Dec. 17, 1876. The earliest Swann was Kizzie Swann to M.C. McElroy, Aug. 30, 1881. The earliest Lewis was E.V. Lewis to Mr. J.C. McCraney, Dec. 27, 1875. The earliest Youngblood was Miss C. L., to R. L. McCrory on Jan. 14, 1894.
The earliest wedding listed in this record was James H. Gallaspy to Eliza McCormick Johnson, Oct. 16, 1872. The last were both on Nov. 10, 1880 — Thomas A. Baucum to Sallie Gary and Judge Leroy Cleaveland to Emma Jane Harris.
The publication includes the records of 18 books and the alphabetical listing goes from Abney to Zitterow.
I hope you’ve stuck with this so far, because it really does have a point. When people look at history, they often skip the lists of names because it’s tedious to read through, or boring or seemingly unimportant. They do the same to genealogical lists in the Bible. They don’t want to read the Bee Gees — The BeGats — Adam begat Seth who begat Enos who begat Kenan who begat Gat and Gat begat Be and Ben and whew.
Those names are there to let us know where someone came from, their record. You think lineage doesn’t matter? When was the last time here in the South that someone asked you, “Whose are you?” or “Who’s your momma?” or “What’s your daddy’s name?” Probably not that long ago. We identify people by whose they are.
My parents were insistent to their begotten that we remember who we were and whose we were — we bore their name and God’s, so we had better act like it.
There’s another reason, too — when your name is on a list you feel important to someone. The director of “Blood Country” put us on the list to get in as his guests to the movie because my wife and I had written some press on him and the movie as it was being filmed. I did some local legwork for an independently distributed movie a few years ago to get local theaters to show it and was rewarded with my name — among the many others across the country who did the same — listed in the movie credits on the DVD as a producer. If you blink at the wrong time, you’ll definitely miss it. But I loved the fact that I made the list. I felt important to the work.
But God’s list is much more important. Those lists should be a reminder that God knows our names. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
History is important, it is real and closer than you realize. Even a breath ago is now in the past. Don’t dwell on it but learn from it. And know that you are important enough that someone knows your name and will remember it. Better yet, God knows you and wants you to know him, too.
