NOTE: I accepted the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge headed by fellow genealogy blogger Amy Johnson Crow. The idea behind this challenge is that you will receive email prompts, a word or phrase, every week, and you find something about your research or family history to write about. Click HERE to read my first 52 Ancestors blog post in 2019.
When I think about the oldest story in my family history, I always think about my 3X great grandfather, Robert Hatchett. He was born around 1796 in Fauquier County, Virginia to his mother Sally. He was enslaved by the Steptoe Pickett and later his son W. H. Pickett. The Pickett family migrated to Limestone County, Alabama in 1820 taking their enslaved people with them. Following Steptoe’s death in 1840 his son, W.H. Pickett migrated again this time to Jackson County, Arkansas along with his enslaved people including my 3X great grandfather, Robert Hatchett. Robert Hatchett and his wife, Amy, had three children: Harold (Hal) Hatchett, Peter Hatchett, and Peggie Margaret Hatchett.
Robert Hatchett is the first ancestor of mine that I researched after I was given the oral history of my family. All of my research up until this point I did by piecing together my family tree using death certificates and census reports. This side of my family has been having family reunions since the 1970s, and my Aunt Ninnie told me the story of those reunions and Robert Hatchett one weekend during a visit to her home in 2014. She even gave me a photo of his son, Peter Hatchett, that was taken in 1893.
I remember my Aunt Ninnie telling the story of Robert Hatchett with such emotion, almost like she knew him personally. Of course she didn’t, but she said she always had a connection to him and his story. I too feel a special connection to him. I think it is so powerful that I have been able to learn so much about his life despite the fact that he was enslaved most of his life and to have a photo of his son from 1893 still leaves me speechless.
This visit with my aunt, learning the oral history of my family, and seeing how much this story meant to her is what made me want to learn as much as possible about the lives of my family and not just their names with their birth and death dates. Although I had been researching for almost five years before this visit with my Aunt, this is when my family history journey began.
Click HERE to read about the restoration of that photo of my 2X great grandfather, Peter Hatchett
Journey Through the Generations 
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