There's More Leaves on the Tree
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"There's More Leaves on the Tree: An American Family in Black and White" is a strikingly interesting book about the Bilberrys and their extended families of Union, Parish, Louisiana. Charles Lee Bilberry, the author, writes about his 14 year quest for finding out who his great grandfather Frank Bilberry mother and father were. After several years of futile efforts he finally received a breakthrough in his research. He discovered that his great grandfather was fathered by a white Bilberry that was a former slave owner. He revealed that the slave owner fathered several other mulatto children with other slave and former slave women as well. He also discovered that his great grandfather's mother was a former slave that lived with her parents near the Bilberry plantation after she was emancipated. The author used primary documents such as marriage license, land purchases, death certificates, interviews and photographs to validate the oral history that was passed down through generations by family members . The book starts out with the author visiting his grandfather's old home site. He reflects back on his life as a child growing up in the segregated South and the death of his father and mother. He writes about how Jim Crow education ended in Union Parish, Louisiana when he was a senior in high school and how the community reacted to it. The book has an extensive appendix of family and extended family members obituaries, land patents, marriage licenses, photographs and other documents that further supports the family's history. As a child grwing up in the South, Bilberry often asked himself the question, "Why were there so many light-skinned or fair-skinned people in his family?" After many years of researching this question and many other ones he found out that there was a story that need to be told and that story was that "There's More Leaves on the Tree."
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About the Book
There's More Leaves on the Tree is about the author's 14 year journey in search of his great grandfather's Frank Bilberry's white father and African American mother. The book starts out with a visit to his grandfather's Ladell Bilberry old home site. The visit reveal that the old home site was now overtaken by the forest where it can barely be found any longer. The home he knew as a child has now fallen down with a few remnants left from the past. It was a place where his ancestral family and extended families once bought land raised and sold crops to make the best living they could. He reminiscences about how his mother and father once lived in this area. His mother really didn't like living on a farm and designed a way to convince her husband to move closer to the town of Marion, Louisiana. The author writes a chapter about "The End of Jim Crow Education" in Union Parish, Louisiana. He recalls how the Plessey vs Ferguson doctrine of 1896 and the Brown vs Education doctrine of 1954 co-existed at the same time. One law allowed African Americans to have separate but equal facilities as Whites but in 1954 the Brown vs Board of Education stated it was acceptable to go to the same schools. The book delineates the struggle his high school, the community and the Union Parish School Board had in trying to reconcile this dilemma when it was time for the senior class to graduate in 1970. The Bilberry surname originated from White immigrants from Alabama who made their way to the rich fertile land of Union Parish, Louisiana. Most of them bought land, raised and sold crops to make their living. Many owned slaves. Slaves were valuable property to the slave owners. Many mulatto children were fathered by slave owners with the slave female. It was not uncommon for this to continue after the emancipation of the slaves. The latter is the case with Frank Bilberry. He was born circa 1878 to a former slave holder that lived near his mother's family. His white father sired several other sister and brothers other slave and former wome. Like many other slaves of South several slaves used the surname Bilberry after their master's name after being emancipated. The book is filled with pictures that follows along with the story of the book. It has an extensive appendix at the end of the book that includes death certificates, marriage licenses, land patents, obituaries and photographs of both white and black Bilberry's and their extended families (Honeycutts, Horn, Nelson, Bridges, Feazel, Wilhite, Warren, Burch, Ellis, Archie, Armstrong, Roberts, Robinson, Montgomery and more) of Union Parish, Louisiana. Every Family has a family story to tell but someone must be willing to tell it.
About the Author
Charles is a retired Engineering Inspection Supervisor. He was raised up in Marion, Louisiana but has resided in Las Vegas, Nevada since 1970. His educational background includes an Associate of Science degree in Drafting Technology from the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas; a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas; a Bachelor of Arts degree in General Ministry from Bethany University in Scotts Valley, California; a Master of Arts degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary. He was an adjunct professor at Bethany University in Las Vegas, Nevada and became interested in writing his family’s history while teaching church history classes and after attending several family reunions. He enjoys fishing, hiking, writing and traveling with his wife Taryn.