ANNA PEOPLES

It is sad how individuals who come into one's lives can so easily slip into the shadows, remembered, but not always well or clearly, and they are lost to history, although they may and probably do impact other, especially their families, with deeper and longer-held memories. There will be some speculation here, and I don't know where to go for confirmation. There is hearsay evidence, and some of my siblings may remember stories from our parents, but I am not sure about reliability. Nevertheless, there was apparently a woman, Anna Peoples, who worked for my paternal grandparents, possibly in a maid/nanny capacity. My father spoke fondly of her, and also appreciatively for assistance she provided to my mother, definitely after my little sister Bobbie was born, and possibly earlier with my sister Beth. She was born in South Carolina in 1899 and by the 1940s was living in Trenton, New Jersey (possibly on Escher Street), where apparently she came in contact with my grandparents. She was likely part of the postwar (or maybe earlier) migrations of African Americans from the segregated South to better opportunities and freedoms in the North. It is also possible that they may have known her earlier, but I have no evidence of that. But amongst the pictures I recovered from my father's storage, were three featuring Anna, and I post them here. Hopefully someone in her family may see and enjoy them, as well as my family.

The first shows Anna holding the infant John Tidd, my uncle. Standing next to her, holding my father James, is his Aunt Lydia. The picture is from 1937, which makes my future dad about two years. Anna would have been about thirty-eight here.

Here Anna stands next to my grandmother Lillian. A little happier. Dad is on the shoulder.

Next is a picture of Anna holding my little sister Barbara in Charleston in August 1963. She would be days or weeks old in this picture, while Anna would have been around sixty-four.

This picture is of Anna with my sister Beth and myself. I seems somewhat heavily dressed for an August night, so I wonder if we had gone somewhere special.