Willliams Family Tree 2 for questions.docx

This, dear family, is the **[Book of the Generations of Abram Williams,]** born around 1820 on Pinkney Island, South Carolina, according to records shared with us by Cousin Peaches at the 61^st^ Annual Williams Family Reunion in Alton, IL. This information gathered from [www.ancesrey.com/familytree]...

This, dear family, is the **[Book of the Generations of Abram Williams,]** born around 1820 on Pinkney Island, South Carolina, according to records shared with us by Cousin Peaches at the 61^st^ Annual Williams Family Reunion in Alton, IL. This information gathered from [www.ancesrey.com/familytree](http://www.ancesrey.com/familytree) , shows Abram Williams died in Vans Mill, MS on February 2, 1876. He and Ary Williams (born around 1825) are the parent of Rance Williams (born 1843 and died May 1, 1916 in Vans Mill, MS). The process of "Gathering the Pieces" (Williams' Family Reunion 2001) continues **ABRAM WILLIAMS & ARY WILLIAMS** **(Born around 1820/1825 Pinkney Island, South Carolina)** **Abram and Ary Williams had one son** **RANCE WILLIAMS** **(Born 1843 Vans Mill, MS)** **THESE ARE THE** **DESCENDANTS and CHILDREN OF** **RANCE & LUCY KING WILLIAMS** **BEN WILLIAMS VIRGINIA WILLIAMS** **RANCE WILLIAMS, JR. WINNIE WILLIAMS** **BUCK WILLIAMS EMMA WILLIAMS** **DOC WILLIAMS EASTER WILLIAMS** **PATSY WILLIAMS RANSOM WILLIAMS** **SAM WILLIAMS SUDIE WILLIAMS** **LEOLA WILLIAMS ALICE WILLIAMS** **HOSEA WILLIAMS AMOS WILLIAMS** **[IDA WILLIAMS]\*** **[LINEAGE FROM]** **RANCE WILLIAMS & LUCY KING WILLIAMS** **To the host family** **[DAUGHTER]** **IDA WILLIAMS CAMPBELL (deceased)** **(Sellers Campbell, husband, (deceased)** **[GRANDSON & SIBLING]** **John Osborne Campbell (deceased)** **Janie Ford (Shegog) Campbell, wife (deceased)** **Albert Campbell Lucy Campbell Lacy** **Winnie Campbell Annie Campbell Kimble** **Willie Essie Campbell Spearman** **Leora Campbell Luster Audie Campbell Matthews** **[GREAT GRANDCHILDFREN]** **Verlie Campbell (deceased)** **Luther Vernell Campbell (deceased)** **Annyce Mariah Perkins Campbell, wife (deceased)** **[GREAT-GREAT GRANDCHILDREN]** **Ora Campbell Rushing (deceased) Leaner Campbell Rushing?** **William Lee Campbell (deceased) John Campbell (deceased)** **David Lee Campbell (deceased) Verlie Campbell, Jr (deceased)** **Frankie Lee Campbell Green (deceased) Wilbert Battle (deceased)** **Emily Jean Campbell Harris Alma Christine Campbell** **Luther Darnell Campbell (deceased) Jackie Lavon Campbell Lucas** **Wanda Joyce Campbell Stringer Monica Marcia Campbell Micou** **Annyce Ramona Campbell Butler Michael Raynard Campbell** **[GREAT-GREAT-GREAT GRANDCHILDREN]** **William Jeffrey Green Valerie Michelle Green** **Marcus Prescott Green Wilbert "Tubie" Battle, Jr.** **Jesse Varnell Harris Kwame Sekou Harris** **Nia Malaika Harris Christopher Woods (deceased)** **Sharon Woods Bruce Woods** **Anthony Woods William Hymon Lucas, III** **Jamila Nyota Lucas Lillie Nataki Lucas** **Nkeba Imani Stringer Bell Frederick Anthony Stringer, Jr.** **Nneka Mariama Stringer Bernard Akilah Verannyce Stringer Artis** **Ayodele Taiwo Micou Hall Ayanna Kehinde Micou Satcher** **Malik Jelani Micou Omari Jameel Campbell** **Zakia Helen Annyce Butler Chambliss Shani Melissa Butler Anderson** **Chevete Mims Khari Kenyatta Butler** **Ramona M. Butler Nadia Dale Colom** **LeShae Clifton Jamorrio Loggins** **Myon White Imre' Shaw** **Jarvis Smith Rena Campbell Rushing** **Jimmie Campbell Sally Rushing** **Annie Rushing Pearline Rushing** **Rosie Rushing Darnell Rushing** **Edward Boyd Charles Boyd** **Legora Boyd LaTosha Rushing** **Earline Rushing** **[GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT GRANDCHILDREN]** **Jennifer Green Brandon Green** **Mariah M. Green Willliam Bishop Green** **Serena Green Derrick Green** **Donald Khalid Hall Kendall Ahmad Hall** **Kamran Addai Hall Kaeleb Amare Hall** **Kenneth Akil Hall; Zaynah Anisa Satcher** **Raina Ari Satcher Josiah Mensah Satcher** **Malik Jelani Micou, II Madalyn Patricia Micou** **Marcelia Trinity Micou** **Praise God for the Generations of Williams' DNA. From ABRAM and ARY WILLIAMS and the unknown generations before them and to those yet to be born. TO GOD BE THE GLORY** **Williams' Family History** **Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides,** **Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.** **Out of the huts of history's shame I rise.** **Up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise.** **I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,** **Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.** **Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise.** **Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise.** **Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,** **I am the dream and the hope of the slave.** **I rise, I rise, I rise.** This excerpt from Maya Angelou's, poem, "Still I Rise", captures the essence of much of the African American Experience. It is a story of great pain and suffering, but it is also a story of triumph and victory. It is the story of a people with great gifts who made invaluable contributions to the world. It is also a story of people of great faith, for as Margaret Walker put it, "We have been believers, yielding substance to the world". It is the story of our ancestors, **\*Abram and Ary Williams** born at Pinkney Island, SC around 1820, the parents of **Rance Williams.** It is the story of **Rance and Lucy King Williams**, and their ancestors stolen from their homeland, Africa. Millions of African people were forcibly taken from Africa and brought to North and South America and other destinations and sold into slavery. The story of how they found the strength to keep fighting and pressing forward toward the goal of freedom in the face of overwhelming odds is one of the most compelling stories that can be told. Because they did not lose hope, we are here today; and because we are here today, we are afforded the privilege of "Gathering the Pieces" and telling their story. Almost 161 years ago, on the eve of the New Year to begin January 1, 1863, **Rance** and **Lucy Williams** were young adults, about 21 years of age. They had already lived their entire childhoods under the system of slavery recognized by the constitution, laws and customs of this country. As the new year approached, millions of people of African descent, who were also being held as slaves watched, prayed and waited for the coming of the New Year. The civil war was raging in the country and many African Americans had joined the union forces and were pressing hard to tie their cause of ending slavery to saving the union. Finally, what they had fought and prayed for happened, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that those being held in slavery in specified parts of the country, would be free as of January 1, 1863. Were our ancestors, Rance and Lucy Williams, Rance's parent Abram and Ary Williams, and other relatives among those watching and praying, and waiting to see what this change would mean? Based on historical records, it appears probable that they were. Here is what we know from the 1880 Federal Census and other historical records. Rance Williams and Lucy King Williams were born in about 1842 in Mississippi. Their parents were born in South Carolina. Both South Carolina and Mississippi were slave holding states. South Carolina and Mississippi were among those states that had attempted to secede from the union and were in open rebellion against the authorities of the United States of America. Although, news of the emancipation did not reach some slaves until June 1863, historical evidence indicates that slaves in Mississippi did receive the momentous news prior to January 1863. In 1880, **Rance** and **Lucy Williams** were living in Beat 5 of Yalobusha County, Mississippi. Living in their household were the following children and their ages: **Amos Williams Age 17** **Dock Williams Age 13** **Buck Williams Age 12** **Ida Williams Age 10** **Alice Williams Age 9** **Ransom Williams Age 7** **Ben Williams Age 4** **Leola Williams Age 1** Almost all of the Williams children were born at or near the end of slavery. However, They were to experience many of the same injustices that their parents had been burdened with. The hardships suffered by newly freed men and women, like **Rance** and **Lucy Williams** and their families are well documented by the Freedmen's Bureau. With the withdrawal of Federal troops from the south in 1876, a reign of terror by whites, aimed at retaking control of their former slaves, had been unleashed. **Rance** and **Lucy Williams**, their children, other family members and friends were left at the mercy of groups like the KKK as the system of white supremacy and white rule was reestablished. Fraud, intimidation and violence were common means to deprive our ancestors of the vote and the right to own land. Notwithstanding this very repressive and oppressive climate, **Rance** and **Lucy Williams** remained steadfast; bearing their burdens and rearing their children, as **Abram** and **Ary Williams** and all their ancestors had done before them. In 1900, **Rance Williams** was still living in Beat 5 of Yalobusha County, Mississippi, with his wife of 35 years, **Lucy Williams**. Their son **Ben**, then 20 and daughter **Patsy**, who was 14, were living with them. The other Williams Children had already left home by 1900 and had started their own families. **Amos** was living in Grenada in 1900 having married his wife **Eliza** in 1885. In 1910 **Amos** and his family were again living in Yalobusha County, but by 1930, he and his wife **Eliza** were living in Norvell, Crittenden County, Arkansas. In 1920, **Buck Williams** was also living in Arkansas. **Ida Williams**, the oldest daughter married Sellers Campbell in 1897 and was living in Vans Mill, Yalobusha County in 1920. The records indicate that they owned their home. Members of the extended family living in the house included: **Claude Williams Guy Williams Rose Davis** **John H. Williams Rosa Williams** **Nancy Williams Ary Williams\*** In 1920, **Lucy Williams** is listed as a widow and is living in Vans Mill with her oldest daughter **Ida** and her family. The other Williams children and their children have spread out into the Delta, residing in Tallahatchie County, Bolivar County, Tunica County; Memphis, Tennessee and cities like Norvell, Earle and Searcy, Arkansas; Cairo, Illinois and New Madrid and Wyatt, Missouri. By the 30's the migration is in full swing as the descendants of Rance and Lucy Williams joins thousands of other African Americans moving to Northern cities like St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Gary, Benton Harbor, Michigan, Columbus, Ohio and other points north in search of a better life for themselves and their children. In 1961, three members of the family: **Sam Williams, Elise Williams** and **Lulu Hudson** saw the need to bring the family together again and initiated the Williams Family reunion. In the spirit of our African ancestors, they sought to reach back and reconnect with the past to remind all the descendants of **Rance Williams** and **Lucy King Williams,** of who we are. In furtherance of their efforts, we have chosen the African concept of **Sankofa** which means to go back and reclaim one's past, or in other words, "**To return and Fetch It**". Because of this drive and call "to return and fetch it", at the July 2022 reunion we were given the names of **Rance Williams'** parent, **Abram** and **Ary Williams** were born around 1820/1825 at Pinkney Island, South Carolina. Further research about **Abram and Ary Williams**, their ancestors, when they were brought to America, how and when they came to Mississippi requires further research. We do know, however, that **Abram Williams** died in Vans Mill, MS on February 2, 1876; **Rance** and **Lucy Williams** were called home to join their ancestors in the early 1900's. Their children and grandchildren have also joined them, but in the gifts of song and poetry they gave us and the world, they cry out to us. **We've come a long way Lord; We've come a long way.** **We've come a long way Lord; We've come a long way.** **We've bared our burdens in the heat of the day,** **Knowing that the Lord would make a way.** **We've come a long way Lord; We've come a long way.** We will remember the names of our ancestors, and their courageous story; for it is a legacy of love, hope, perseverance and faith. We will pass this legacy on from generation to generation because our ancestors were more than Conquerors. They are the heroes who nurtured and sheltered us beneath their wings. Therefore, in the words of Maya Angelou: We pledge to bind ourselves to one another To embrace our lowliest, To keep company with our loneliest, To educate our illiterate, To feed our starving, To clothe our ragged. To do all good things, Knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters. In honor of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues; And in gratitude to the same God wo brought us out of hopeless desolation, We make this pledge.