adelewasvictoria

[adelewasvictoria]

Cottage Hill

At the time of his death in 1854, Benjamin Davenport Hassell lived at his "city residence" in the Cottage Hill neighborhood of Montgomery, Alabama. When he died, his property was sold as part of the probate and a description was included in the probate records. Victoria, Sarah and Ann likely lived there at the time as well. The property was bounded by Caroline, Mildred and Root Streets (now Goldthwaite Street) and was sold to B.D. Hassell's grand nephew, Joseph Standing Gorham, who was listed as living there with his mother in the 1860 city directory. Part of that property is now owned by the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Memorial itself is next door.

[adelewasvictoria]

Manumission

When I started to dig into Benjamin D Hassell of Montgomery, Alabama, I found that someone had posted a partial transcription of his will, listing the same names that appeared in the 1860 census in New Haven. They were enslaved women and children that were to be manumitted, or set free, when he died. At the time, Alabama law dictated that freed slaves had to immediately leave the state, so the will went into the details of how the newly freed would be moved "to New York or to some state where slavery or involuntary servitude does not exist and where said negro slaves can enjoy freedom". The will also outlined amounts to be left for the care of the minor children, and for houses to be purchased for them. This led to guardianship records in New Haven, and a receipt for funds paid to Victoria Hassell upon her reaching the age of 21 - signed for by her husband, George Adams.

[adelewasvictoria]

New Haven

Adele had variously given Connecticut and Pennsylvania as her place of birth in the census. In tracing the information about the cousins that my grandmother listed in her notes, I learned that their grandfather was from Connecticut and that his father's name was Benjamin D Hassell. The only Benjamin D Hassell I was able to find records for was a single man in Montgomery, Alabama - but I had no known ancestry in the south, and this man had no known children. What I did find was a census record for New Haven, CT in 1860, which listed various "Hazzel"s. One of them had the same name as the cousins' grandfather. Another had the same name as the younger sister living with my great grandparents in the 1870 census. And another was named Victoria. All of them were listed as "Mulatto".

[adelewasvictoria]

From Victoria to Adele

My great grandmother's parents were George Adams and Adele V. Hassell. That was all I knew about them, initially. I discovered that I had a picture of George - an old photo of 4 men with my great grandmother's handwriting indicating "Daddy" on the back. I don't know which of the four men in the photo is George Adams, or who the other men might be. I also had a photocopy of George and Adele's marriage certificate, which listed her name as "Addie". And I had notes that my grandmother had written which listed the names of some of her Hassell cousins. When I started researching George and Adele I noticed that they both often gave conflicting information about their birth place and age from one census to the next. While I have unraveled much of Adele's story, I still have yet to find much more about George.

[adelewasvictoria]

Mothers

I had been planning to work on my family tree for years. I had grand plans of presenting my kids with their tree, completely filled in for generations, tracing their lineage to the Mayflower, colonial America, showing their place in American History and finding our European roots. When the pandemic hit, I had the time and opportunity to delve into this project. However, I was stumped at my maternal great grandparents. They were a dead end, both of them. I knew nothing about my grandmother's family besides her parents, and neither did anyone else. I discovered that finding the story of my grandmothers was the key to my identity that I had been searching for all along. As it turns out my maternal line leads directly back to Africa.

[adelewasvictoria]

Graves

I recently went to New York City to attend my daughter's graduation from NYU. On my way home, I stopped at Bayview New York Bay Cemetery to try to find the graves of my great great grandparents, George Adams and Adele V. Adams fka Victoria Hassell. While I found the location of their graves, there was no marker - just an empty space between another grave and the curb. The contrast with Victoria's (presumed) father's grave was striking - his large obelisk in the corner of what looked like was intended to be a family plot, with no other family in it. Both strikingly lonely.