Research Catalog

Title

Shivery family papers, 1865-1975.

Author

Shivery family.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963.

Description

3.6 lin. ft.

Subjects

• Families > Southern States
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
• Shivery family
• Southern States > History > 1865-1877
• Smith family
• Savannah (Ga.) > Religious life and customs
• Savannah (Ga.) > Social life and customs
• Bliesner family
• African American families
• Love letters
• African American women
• Scrapbooks
• African Americans > Societies, etc
• Smith, Melinda
• African Americans > Social life and customs
• Southern States > Genealogy

Genre/Form

• Scrapbooks.
• Love letters.

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Etchings transferred to Art and Artifacts Division.

Source (note)

• Shivery, Veoria

Biography (note)

• The Shiverys, Smiths, and Blazes were three branches of a southern African American family. Five generations of intra-family relationships are well documented in this collection. Charles and Emanuel Smith, from Apalachicola, Florida, were born during slavery. During the Reconstruction, they were respectively appointed postmaster and school instructor in the County of Franklin, Florida. Also born during slavery and trained as cooks since their childhood, the children of Charles Smith moved to Savannah after the Civil War, where they worked as seamen. Charles Smith, Jr. eventually became a ship steward on a coastal steamship line between Savannah and New York. Married to Josephine Blaze, he had three daughters: Melinda, Emily, and Lula. He died in 1914. Madeline Shivery (1877-1974) described her grandfather, George Richard Shivery, as a former slave who settled with his family in Gainesville, Florida, at the close of the war. He was both a minister and a prosperous merchant tailor. At the time of his death in 1891 or 1892, he had built a large house for his family, a church of his own, a hotel, and owned substantial amounts of land. Two of George Richard Shivery's sons, Cornelius and Alexander, had moved to Savannah and married two of the Blaze sisters, Melinda and Janet, respectively. The children of Cornelius Shivery were Madeline and George Smith (1880-1934). Madeline and her three cousins, Melinda, Lula, and Emily, grew up in Savannah and lived together in the same house for 70 years. They were dedicated school teachers and attended several universities, both in the South and the North. George Shivery graduated from the Meharry School of Dentistry in 1909. His son, George Shivery, Jr., a social worker and a painter, moved to New York, where he married Veoria Warmsley.

Processing Action (note)

• Surveyed
• Accessioned
• Cataloging updated

Call Number

Sc MG 257

Author

Shivery family.

Title

Shivery family papers, 1865-1975.

Summary

The Shivery Family papers document the life, history and relationships of the Smith, Shivery, and Blaze families in the South, from the Reconstruction to the present. The collection is divided into two family groups, the Smiths and the Shiverys. This collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, legal and financial documents, educational and professional papers, minutes of religious and civic organizations in Savannah, Georgia, and scrapbooks. Correspondence includes letters from W. E. B. Du Bois to members of the Shivery family and the love letters of Melinda Smith. Letters between family members, particularly the women in the Smith and Shivery families, chronicle African American middle class life.

Biography

The Shiverys, Smiths, and Blazes were three branches of a southern African American family. Five generations of intra-family relationships are well documented in this collection. Charles and Emanuel Smith, from Apalachicola, Florida, were born during slavery. During the Reconstruction, they were respectively appointed postmaster and school instructor in the County of Franklin, Florida. Also born during slavery and trained as cooks since their childhood, the children of Charles Smith moved to Savannah after the Civil War, where they worked as seamen. Charles Smith, Jr. eventually became a ship steward on a coastal steamship line between Savannah and New York. Married to Josephine Blaze, he had three daughters: Melinda, Emily, and Lula. He died in 1914. Madeline Shivery (1877-1974) described her grandfather, George Richard Shivery, as a former slave who settled with his family in Gainesville, Florida, at the close of the war. He was both a minister and a prosperous merchant tailor. At the time of his death in 1891 or 1892, he had built a large house for his family, a church of his own, a hotel, and owned substantial amounts of land. Two of George Richard Shivery's sons, Cornelius and Alexander, had moved to Savannah and married two of the Blaze sisters, Melinda and Janet, respectively. The children of Cornelius Shivery were Madeline and George Smith (1880-1934). Madeline and her three cousins, Melinda, Lula, and Emily, grew up in Savannah and lived together in the same house for 70 years. They were dedicated school teachers and attended several universities, both in the South and the North. George Shivery graduated from the Meharry School of Dentistry in 1909. His son, George Shivery, Jr., a social worker and a painter, moved to New York, where he married Veoria Warmsley.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Finding aid

Added Author

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 257