“Flowers all over the place”
Angela Davidson and Karen White note how the love of gardening was passed down in the Hughes family.
Theme: Farms, Food, and Gardens
Karen Hughes White
 with her daughters and granddaughter.jpg)
 with her daughters and granddaughter.jpg "Karen Hughes White (center) with her daughters and granddaughter, 1996")
In 1996, four generations of the Hughes family of Fauquier County came to Monticello soon after learning of their descent from Rev. Robert Hughes of Union Run Baptist Church and head gardener Wormley Hughes of Monticello. Their ancestor was Reverend Hughes's son, also Wormley Hughes (1851-1901), who left Albemarle County with the Union army in the confusion at the end of the Civil War; his parents were "broken hearted."
The research of Karen Hughes White, an archivist and founder of the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County, was the key to making her family’s connection to the Hughes, Granger, and Hemings families of Monticello. At the Getting Word Gathering in 1997, Karen’s extended family members said that, thanks to her, they were “overwhelmed with joy” to be brought together in the place of their ancestors.
Interview Information
18 July 1996, Charlottesville, VA
Interviewees: Lloyd Hughes, Sr., Ethel Hughes Bolden, Timothy Hughes, Lloyd Hughes, Jr., Angela Hughes Davidson, Karen Hughes White
Excerpts
"Sundays at Ashville"
Karen Hughes White describes how time spent with her grandmother remembers being inspired by her grandmother to learn more about her family’s history.
Themes: Family, Oral History Transmission
"A feeling of self, of belonging"
Karen Hughes White describes her response to returning to Monticello.
Theme: Monticello
Ancestry
- Elizabeth Hemings 1735–1807
- Betty Brown 1759–post 1831
- Wormley Hughes 1782–1858
- Robert Hughes 1824–1895
- Karen Hughes White 1953–
Related People
- Lloyd Hughes, Sr. father
- Timothy Hughes brother
- Angela Hughes Davidson sister
- Robert Hughes ancestor
- Wormley Hughes ancestor