Danner – Unknown Child
Dear Barry,
I have a photo of a Black child about the age of 2 or less being held by my mother in about 1935 or so. That child is pictured in front of a ramshackled house that was said to have been a house of either a slave or decendant of a slave.
The picture was taken in Gibson County, Tennessee after my mother married my father. Dad’s dad was Aylmer Bright (A.B.) Danner who was born in either Gibson or Madison County TN. Mom and dad married in 1933. So the picture has to have been taken after that year. Mother was pregnant with my brother quickly after they married so in the picture she is flat bellied. My brother was born in March of 1934.
A. B. worked for the railroad and was sent to Southern Illinois in about the year 1918 from Milan or Jackson TN. As a result A.B. and his family got free passage on the trains and mom and dad traveled down from IL to Milan on a trip whenever this photo was taken. Since the photo has historical significance to an African American family somewhere, I’d like to try and find out what family he is from.
Mother told me that the baby was called “Joe Henry”, but it occurs to me that this is so typical a name that white people would say the name was that the name may not connect to the child. Yet that’s the only name I have to go on. Mom also said that the house in the background was on the “Della Ing plantation”, but Barry, I don’t know who Della Ing is nor can I find her in a census from 1930. My mother was about as non-prejudiced toward Blacks as Abe Lincoln himself, so I’m certain that she thought the name to be legit. I’ve heard my dad talk about his cousin Della Ing, so I know she did exist somewhere.
Anyway, I’m enclosing the pic of my mom and this Black baby. The pic is of course a copy of the original that I took with a digital camera.
Can you give me any suggestions as to how I might handle this photo to make an identification?
I’ve sent it to Melvin Collier who researched the Danner slaves in hopes of finding an answer there and I thought too about you since you are the Gibson County coordinator at TNGenWeb/Gibson
Thanks,
Bill Danner
macdann@hotmail.com
Dear Mr. Danner,
My great grandmother was Elizabeth Danner who married
William C. Robertson of lived in or near Milan, Community
of Cade, 3 miles north of Milan.
Are we connected?
Nita Davidson
NitaDavidson@msn.com
Well Ms Nita I’d say that we definitely are indeed connected through your great grandmother. MY great grandfather was Dr. Leonidas Getzen Danner who lived in Milan and Leonidas’s grand uncle was Levi Stokes Getzen Danner who was the father of your Elizabeth Danner Robertson. I’ll be in touch via your email. Thank you for responding here and thanks too to Barry Reeves for making our communications happen.