Stefanie King
Title
Stefanie King
Description
My interest in history stems from a deep, personal interest in my own family history. The stained glass window in the picture is one of eight in the sanctuary of my family church, Brown's Chapel Methodist Church, in Pittsboro, North Carolina. My family has attended and served this church since it was founded in 1846 and attended the church that it was created from for several years before that.
Alexander Thomas is my great-great-grandfather, and Thomas is my mother's maiden name. Every Sunday the members of the Thomas family who still live in the area attend Brown's Chapel and sit beside this window. Normally we take up the back two rows, but on the Sunday of the Thomas Family Reunion we take up much more room.
As a child I wondered why we always sat in the last two rows, and why my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents would always be worried that we may have to sit somewhere different if we were running late. I asked one Sunday when I was about five or six and learned that Alex Thomas was related to me. I began to take an interest in other things in the church related to members of my family: the Ruth Thomas Fellowship Hall, the clock donated in honor of my family, and members of my family who are buried in the cemetery dating back to before the Civil War.
I wanted to know how each of these people were related to me, where they had lived, what they had done for a living, and overall what their life had been like. I then began to wonder if other people's lives had been similar to that of my family members. Had my great-grandparents been rich or poor? Had all families lived the same kind of life as my family? All of this information mattered deeply to me but I wondered how, or if, it really mattered. What could be learned from this information that could be important to someone that was not a Thomas?
My parents began to foster my interest in history with books and patience when I wanted to read every single historical marker we ever passed. I began to pick up bits of information, and my passion for history grew. I have always been most interested in the history that I feel most directly relates to me, beginning with my family history, then Chatham County, then North Carolina, followed by the South, the United States, and countries my ancestors came from, but I believe that all history is important and wish there were time to study it all.
Alexander Thomas is my great-great-grandfather, and Thomas is my mother's maiden name. Every Sunday the members of the Thomas family who still live in the area attend Brown's Chapel and sit beside this window. Normally we take up the back two rows, but on the Sunday of the Thomas Family Reunion we take up much more room.
As a child I wondered why we always sat in the last two rows, and why my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents would always be worried that we may have to sit somewhere different if we were running late. I asked one Sunday when I was about five or six and learned that Alex Thomas was related to me. I began to take an interest in other things in the church related to members of my family: the Ruth Thomas Fellowship Hall, the clock donated in honor of my family, and members of my family who are buried in the cemetery dating back to before the Civil War.
I wanted to know how each of these people were related to me, where they had lived, what they had done for a living, and overall what their life had been like. I then began to wonder if other people's lives had been similar to that of my family members. Had my great-grandparents been rich or poor? Had all families lived the same kind of life as my family? All of this information mattered deeply to me but I wondered how, or if, it really mattered. What could be learned from this information that could be important to someone that was not a Thomas?
My parents began to foster my interest in history with books and patience when I wanted to read every single historical marker we ever passed. I began to pick up bits of information, and my passion for history grew. I have always been most interested in the history that I feel most directly relates to me, beginning with my family history, then Chatham County, then North Carolina, followed by the South, the United States, and countries my ancestors came from, but I believe that all history is important and wish there were time to study it all.
Creator
King, Stefanie
Date
2012-03-12
Type
Still Image
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Citation
King, Stefanie, Stefanie King, Civil War Era NC, accessed April 26, 2024, https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/679.