Blog 76 - Researcher Uses the Internet to Find Vernon Herron

Blog 76

Researcher Uses the Internet

To Find Vernon Herron

In Search of Her Roots

(A Journey in Genealogical Research)

By

Vernon M. Herron

Genealogy is the study of the origin and descent of family life. It is the identification of one’s beginning (ancestors); one’s present status (relationship to relatives); and one’s destiny, (the projection of self-fulfillment through the study of family history). Such was the plight of Felicia Thornton Moseley, a 39 year old researcher who “left no stone unturned” to find her maternal ancestor (dead relative), Sally-Sallie-or Sarah Herron. (“Sally” or” Sallie” seems to have been a nickname for “Sarah,” a tradition of the slave and the post slave period.) Felicia had a desire to know her maternal ancestor and the roots of her beginnings.

Felicia Thornton Moseley

Felicia is a native of Bronx, NY where she was born nearly 40 years ago as the daughter of Constance Faye Banks-Thornton, but relocated to Concord, (Cabarrus County) NC in 1998. Much work has been done tracing her paternal history of Ned Hearon of Choctaw County, Mississippi. From the 1910 census, much has been learned of Felicia’s great-great-great-great grandfather. She knows of his wife, their 15 children and their offspring.

Felicia Thornton Moseley

But the challenge was to find and trace her maternal origin. According to the census record, Felicia knew that Ned Hearon, (pronounced Herron) married Sallie Herron c1873 who was born c1854 to Richard and Minerva Herron in Mecklenburg County, NC. When Sallie married Ned, she officially became Sallie Herron Hearon. (Double pronunciation)



Ned and Sallie Hearon

Journey in Retrospect

The 1870 census shows Sallie as the 6th child of Richard and Minerva’s 13 children. The record also shows that Richard and Minerva constituted the first known structured Herron family of African descent in the Piedmont region of the Tar Heel State (NC) in 1870. Now, the question is: where does one turn to find what research has been done on the life and times of Richard and Minerva Herron? Felicia began to search for living Herron relatives in the Charlotte, NC area. Browsing and surfing the Internet, Felicia found that Vernon Herron had made a presentation to the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum, (TMBF) on “How the Richard Herron Family and Johnson C. Smith University are Related”(Blog 20). Computer surfing focused on seeking contact with the TMBF and Vernon Herron. Felicia e-mailed Mr. Steve Johnston the following:

“I am a descendant of Dr. Vernon Herron’s relative, Sallie Herron-Hearon. Sallie was the daughter of Richard and Minerva Herron...I would love to meet Dr. Herron and learn more about the Herron side of my family. Please give him my address and ask him to contact me.”

Steve Johnston, media specialist for TMBF responded to Felicia and proper contact was made. Comparing of notes shows Felecia to be related to Richard and Minerva through the lineage of their sixth child Sally, while Vernon is related to Richard and Minerva through the lineage of their seventh child Lawrence. Thus Felicia and Vernon are cousins.

“I shall always be grateful to the World-Wide web,” said Felicia. “It is a blessing. It has allowed me to meet relatives on social and ancestry websites that I did not know existed, living in [the] Charlotte Mecklenburg [area], the birth place of my roots.”

“All of this information will enhance our first Hearon-Herron reunion scheduled for May 25-27, 2012 in Chicago, IL.” said Felicia.