Kemp, Sparrow and Greenwood Families of Norfolk, Virginia

“Kemp, Sparrow, and Greenwood Families of Norfolk, Virginia traces the history of an ‘African-American’ family that arose, after the Civil War, through the marriage of Benjamin Franklin Kemp and Mary Louisa (Dodie) Sparrow, from several very different strains: African slaves and Scots aristocrats through the Kemps;free people of color and native American Indians on the side of the Sparrows (the ancestors of Dodie’s mother); and German burghers in the Greenwood inheritance (from Dodie’s father). This history seeks to trace these three families to their earliest known origins, as well as present a narrative history of the nineteenth and twentieth century representatives down to the present time. Of immediate interest to those of the Kemp, Sparrow, Taylor, Vagner, Curdts, McGehee, Williams, Vanderbilt, Marlborough, and other related families (the name Greenwood died out of the family in 1944) as well as possible members of the lost lines of the Kemp and Sparrow families, it portrays a mixed race, or ‘mulatto’ African-American family in such a way as to provide clues to others of similar background as to how their own roots can be unearthed, despite scanty information…” Appendices include: Patrilinear Ancestors of Martin Greenwood, Patrilinear Descendants of Hen Lotz, The Children and Grandchildren of Martin and Margaret Greenwood, The Family of George Alexander and Adeline M. McGehee Smith, The Children and Grandchildren of William and Lydia (I) Kemp, and The Children and Grandchildren of Franklin and Mary (Sparrow) Kemp. Endnotes and a full-name index complete this work.