It was meticulously wrapped up in cloth, deep, deep down in a treasure chest pushed closely to the wall. My great-aunt Rachel pulled it out carefully and unwrapped it for me: a family Bible containing the births, marriages and deaths of those who had all by now gone on. I had the sense that she had not pulled out the Bible for anyone recently - that it had sat un-inquired about, un-known to most of the family now. I wanted to quickly run through the pages, I was too excited to see what handwriting, what remainders, what clues to my family’s legacy I might find.

In the carefully recorded births section, my great-grandmother Rachel Bailey, daughter of Henry Bailey and Mary Frances Lawson recorded all of her children. They are listed in order and her careful cursive gives me insight into her person although she is deceased 19 years before I was born. Her only living child is my great-aunt Rachel, a woman of quick wit, strength, friendliness, skill, and an inherent sense of fun. She is a woman who has served as the center of this project in connecting me to the stories of those before me.

To be born to a big family often meant that there were more than one set of children, the older set and the younger set. From the first set, the oldest child of Joseph Smoot and Rachel Bailey, I see my great-aunt Mary recorded, born March 27, 1914 as Mary Henry Smoot, her middle name is a homage to her mother’s father, Henry Bailey Smoot.

I have searched far and wide for information about Henry Bailey. I know so little about him and he appears to have died young, but from his daughter Rachel’s choice to name her first-born child after him, it gives me insight to who we was as a father. I follow the line down, noting that some of the female children are given traditional male names, down to my direct line and grandmother, Lillian Marshall Smoot. Although, there are no known Marshalls in her family, it is clear from my two years of researching in Fauquier County that Marshall is a name of significance, repeated in location and through the historical society and often attributed the former Supreme Court Justice, John Marshall.

The Bible becomes a treasure trove for interpretation both poetic and historical. The poetry is in the recovery in being able to touch the cursive of my great-grandmother as she recorded the births of her 11 children. It is being able to see who was specifically treasured as children are named after forefathers and mothers. It is historical because it confirms the dates, the existence of those who I have never met. At first glance, it is another written record, factual, but upon deeper reflection it is a primary source document from the Black female gaze that is often absent from the written record in the early 20th century.