Aug/Sept. 2002
Skater of the Month

SHEILA SINGLETON

Singleton Family Historian

Do you know who your great,great,great-grandfather was? Do you know who his mother was? Do your children know "where they came from?" If they asked you, would you be able to tell them? It is a sad but true fact that many Black Americans have little if any idea where they came from, what their ancestral lineage is, who they are descended from or even why it is important to know such things.    But for Sheila Singleton, these types of questions have been important to her since she was a little girl and they are still important to her today in her role as Historian of the Kansas City Branch of the Singleton family. "I DON'T KNOW" ANSWERS As a young girl she began asking questions about her ancestors but was disappointed and unsatisfied with the number of "I don't know" answers she received. She felt her relatives were old enough to know something of their history and was disturbed that more information about her ancestors was not known and available to her family. This continued to puzzle her even after she became an adult. "As I got older, it still bothered me because I wanted my son to know where he came from....I think if [children] nowadays knew where they came from they would not be doing as much as they are doing now, they would appreciate life a lot more," she said. Thus the base was laid on which she built her work of researching her family lineage. She began two years ago by going to the Myfamily.com website and posting inquiries under her great grandfather's name. Exactly one year later she received an email response from Alice Wriley which contained many names Sheila had heard over the years. It turned out that the two were cousins and it was from Alice that Sheila learned the name of her great, great, great grandfather's mother - Narcissus Singleton, who was a "tall, stately Indian woman." NARCISSUS Sheila believes the name Narcissus means "a beautiful black flower" and she learned that her great, great, great, great-grandmother had 16 children, came from South Carolina but was brought by slave masters to Alabama where she connected with the Singletons. The family believes the father of Narcissus' children was a slave owner named Singleton because all her offspring looked Caucasian in appearance. They have not found records of what plantation their ancestor may have been on but what they have discovered indicates she was not enslaved very long. "We are thinking she did not stay a slave long because back then it was unheard of, but she had 1100 acres of land and her and her children operated saw mills. When we went down [to Alabama] we found the land is still within the Singleton family and they have their houses on the property...everyone around there is related," Sheila said. The unique name Narcissus was the main key that connected Sheila to another cousin - Kimberly Spraggins-Evans of Illinois who also had listings on the Internet under the name. Once Sheila saw that name she knew she had found another member of her family. In her research she found another cousin by the name of Melvin Bulkley, of Maryland, who brought much information to his other cousins. The four have been in contact ever since their discovery of each other and have also located other relatives thru sites like Afrigeneas.com (African American Genealogy Buddies). RELATIVES ALL OVER Sheila estimates that so far approximately 450 Singleton family members have been identified and that is just one branch that came from her great grandparents, Quincy and Molly Singleton. Another branch, the Stewarts of Mississippi, have just as many known family members, one of whom had 20 children of his own. Those children had children who had children who had children up until today and they compose a large portion of the Stewart branch. Sheila's relatives are found all over, in states like Kansas, Missouri, Florida, Washington, Michigan, Delaware, New Jersey, California, Nevada, Mississippi, Alabama, Maryland and the list goes on. Knowing this helps keep her humble when it comes to meeting strangers because she realizes that "you never know who you are kin to so you always need to treat people nice and walk in a Godly fashion." Some find Sheila's fascination with researching her lineage odd but genealogy excites her and satisfies her life long desire to know where she came from. At times she is moved to tears when speaking about her family and things she has discovered about them. She is working on a book that will tell the Singleton family history and will include many photos from her collection of more than 300 pictures. Her cousin Alice puts a book together at least once a year and she is a big inspiration to Sheila in her desire to leave a book for the younger generations of her family. She also has a website where relatives can go and study their family tree, read family history and communicate with each other. WHERE TO BEGIN Sheila never took genealogy courses, she just "jumped in feet first" and began researching. She encourages those who wish to trace their roots to talk with and listen to their living relatives. "Remember what your aunts, great aunts, and grandparents talk about....listen and pay attention because they are giving you their history," she said. She recalls interviewing and recording a number of her relatives and eventually transcribing and writing everything down for transfer to her site on the Internet. There are a number of online resources available for aspiring genealogists, Afrigeneas.com is highly recommended by Sheila. Other sites require that you know your relatives' Social Security Number from which you will be able to pull information on their date and time of death, name, address and what county or state they lived in. Sheila and her cousins were able to trace their lineage back to the early 1800's but found that if you go further than that information is limited. "Sometimes [the census] shows the names but most of them were slaves so they were just a number, or black male or female, good or bad teeth, marks on their body. It is amazing how they described them like they were pieces of property," she said. Another important thing to do is to go through the family photo album and date all photos and write the names of the person(s) pictured because even though you may know today who the picture is of and when and where it was taken, 30-40 years down the line the memory may not be able to recall those same details.  So to make sure history is not lost it is important to identify pictures while facts are fresh in the mind. Tracing her family roots is the one hobby that rivals Sheila's passion for roller skating. In fact, she uses her travels to national skate events as opportunities to meet her relatives and has even found one who used to skate as a youth at New Jersey's Millennium Skate Center. In her travels last year to events in New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago and Tennessee, she was also able to meet more members of her extended family. SKATING Sheila has been skating for 32 years starting when she taught herself at the age of eight. What she likes most about it is meeting people from different states, seeing a variety of skating styles and the overall "camaraderie." She notes that non-skaters just do not understand what to them must appear to be an unhealthy obsession but to skaters is just "love" for the sport. She has been a member of Skatemasters USA since 1999 but has known most of the members for 15-20 years. MOST INSPIRATIONAL FIGURE "My mother, even though she passed 4 ½ years ago. She always believed in me and that whatever I wanted to do I could do it. I talked with her about doing research way back when and she said when you are ready you will know. It is sweet and sour because she is not here to see the hard work I did even though it is on my father's side of the family...Even though I had help from my other cousins, it is paying off now." FAVORITE QUOTE "Let go and let God." Things you can't worry about you let it go and put it in His hands. HOBBIES Genealogy, reading, bowling, listening to music PERSONAL Age: 40 Christian Divorced One son, Arman One identical twin sister, Shelly  (Interesting fact: there are 14 known sets of twins in the Singleton family, dating back to the 1850's)  3 other sisters and 2 brothers Line of work:  Insurance CONTACT INFO Contact Sheila Sheila is always searching for:  Narcissus Singleton, Mack Singleton, Peter Singleton, John Quincy Singleton OTHER SURNAMES: Spraggins, Stewart, Wilkins, Martin, Cockrell, Pollard Roller Skating Today applauds Ms. Singleton and her cousins on the work they have done in tracing their family's roots. Continued success to you all!

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