A TREE PLANTED
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Plant life is the greenery of nature which symbolizes life. The energy force which motivates living upon this mundane plane."
My presentation of the tree which is the largest of plants, causes me to use the equation;of the elements which affect the roots of the tree, to bring about the togetherness of the whole tree, thus I am reaching down deep into research to find the roots of my family tree.
Just as the sap of the tree keeps getting lower and lower in the tree during the winter of our lives, so does the sap of our spiritual understanding deminish, as the coldness of our thinking causes us to spiritually die; and I know that it will take the rising of the sap in the spring, to bring forth new spiritual understanding and lead me to the right areas of life that will give me the answers that I need to link up to my ancestors.
I must now enter into the first portal of my family root connection, by starting with the closest relative that I am priviledged to have some information on; and that person is the procreator of my paternal existance, the grandfather of our Godfrey clan, whose name is John A. Godfrey (which in certain records and languages, the name James and John are interchangeable).
John A. Godfrey, according to the twelfth census of the United States Census, taken on 6 June 1900, was the 99th (9+9=18 and 1+8=9 a perfect #) dwelling (home) visited , to be enumerated as the 100th family visited for census records. He is listed as a black male who was born April 1840; in Dorchester county; Dorchester township, South Carolina.( However from information gathered by oral tradition, from my cousin Vivian (Major) Washington, our grandfather, John A. Godfrey was born in Haiti. When he arrived in America, is not known at this time.) John was in America (born, or brought) in South Carolina, during the time of slavery (county,state,parish,plantation or island)and some of the history which surrounded him at the age of ten years old, in 1850, Soujourner Truth first set out to testify against slavery and to sell her first book,"The Narrative" for Congress had just passed the "Fugitive Slave Bill." When John was twenty years old, in 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union in the same year on 20 December 1860 and he was 25 years of age at the end of the Civil War. Thus in 1865 when the Civil War ended John's occupation was a butcher.John married Azalie (Jenkins) Godfrey, who was born Azalie Jenkins (circa) December 1877. If John was married before,at present I am not aware of. however, it is recorded in the 1900 census of Dorchester, South Carolina, that John was 60 years of age in 1900 (the supervisor's district #1. enumeration district # 68, seet #5 and the census taker was James B. Fishburne, te family is listed on lines 52,53,54,and 55).and had been married to Azalee Jenkins for one year. It is also listed that John's father and mother were born in South Carolina (the township or plantation is unknown at present) but since John was born in 1840 it suggests that he and his parents were slaves. Since they were married in 1898 when Azalee was 22 years of age and had a daughter whose name was Thomasina Rishbur, who was born in 1897. John and Azalie were married (circa) 1898 and they were blessed to have a daughter whom they named Naomi Godfrey who was born December 1899 in Dorchester, South Carolina.
John and Azalie also had a stepdaughter (love child)whose name was Thomasina Rishbur; and she was born (circa) April 1897 in Dorchester, South Carolina, according to the 1900 census.
The next child Naomi Godfrey was born December 1899 in Dorchester, South Carolina.
The next child Marcella Godfrey was born(circa 1901 or)1902, in Berkley county; Lincolnvile township, South Carolina.
The next child Norman Godfrey was born 1 April 1904 in Berkley county; Lincolnville township, South Carolina.
Then came my father; Alvin Godfrey Sr., who was born 23 December 1908 in Berkley county; Lincolnville, South Carolina.
The next child, John Godfrey, was born(circa) 1910 in Berkley county; Lincolnville township, South Carolina.
James Brisbane, born in (South Carolina circa) 1873 and married Azalee (Jenkins)Godfrey who became Mrs. Brisbane in (circa 1914 or) 1915.
They had a son James Brisbane Jr., in (circa 1912-) 1915.
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