March 19 — Have you discovered a surprising fact about one of your female ancestors? What was it and how did you learn it? How did you feel when you found out?
I found out a few years ago that my Grandmother Helen Bunn Thompson lived in San Diego for a few years when her husband, (I’m forgetting his first name) Mr. Coleman served as a Buffalo Soldier in Camp Lockett in San Diego. The other thing I did not know, was that my grandmother wrote for the San Diego Black Paper in the late 1930’s. My cousin has a framed article that she wrote, and I am still waiting to get a copy.
Recently, I came across some letters to the Editor in the Los Angeles Black Paper on ProQuest. Here is a sample. I discovered that my grandmother was an activist in her community and she liked to give her opinions to the plight of her community.
This letter was published the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and four days before I was born in 1968.
Digging Roots: My Family History 