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calsfoundation@cals.org
calsfoundation@cals.org
Self-Knowledge through Genealogy
This month, March 2025, marks my twentieth year of wearing the title of Genealogy and Local History Specialist at the Central Arkansas Library System. I have consistently worked outside the home since age twelve, but before this, I had never kept a job for longer than five years. Most previous positions couldn’t hold my attention long. A few couldn’t tolerate my habit of sharing my thoughts—unfiltered and without regard to positions or labels.
I once held a job that required on-site living with co-workers. We routinely gathered to address issues or to build bonds within staff. I labeled these gatherings as “mandatory socialization.” I usually upset someone with an honest answer to a question or an observation. This honesty is based on a knowledge of self I was encouraged to explore, learn, accept, and share.
Childhood allergies limited my time outside for the first six years of my life. My siblings and cousins would be outside, and I observed them from the window of my grandmother’s bedroom. This was preparation for my current occupation.
My grandmother Lillie Stewart Toombs, known by all as Mama Lillie, allowed me to ask her any question, knowing the answer would not always be what I wanted to hear. In this space, she shared her knowledge of family. She stood at the ironing board completing the task of laundry for clients who valued her skills.
It was in her room where I heard about her grandparents and parents, my grandfather’s family, and the fifteen children they shared—nine girls and five of the six boys lived well into adulthood. I observed the interactions of all these people. When Mama Lillie died, her youngest daughter said all that stuff she said about her family wasn’t true. I was offended and decided to prove her wrong.
My journey began at my public library with city directories. Linda McDowell was the genealogist at that time, and she introduced me to the Ancestry databases. Armed with an oral history, I was able to prove to my aunt and other family that what my grandmother shared was true, adding facts from a generation beyond what she knew.
A couple of years later, I was in transitional employment after termination from the Central High National Historic Site. The same aunt (Queen Esther Toombs) saw a job listing at the public library for the position of genealogy assistant. She encouraged me to apply. I resisted but applied before the deadline. I got the job and can see clearly the journey to this position.
My uncle Willie Lee Toombs was a track star in high school and college. He shared his joy of running, and I feel a connection to genealogical research. The opportunity to question my grandmother was the starting block. Asking questions was my practice track. Learning and sharing research techniques were hurdles conquered. Connecting others with their family history was the finish line.
I celebrate each race with my cousin and best friend, Veda Toombs, who arrived in this world forty-one days after me and was my loudest cheerleader until her earth exit in our fifth decade of life. I wear her pride in my occupational success like a favorite blanket on a cool evening.
I have over 300 relatives in Pulaski County and many more across America. Morrilton and Solgohachia in Conway County are prominent in my family history. Before arrival in Conway County, a couple of my ancestors migrated from Memphis, Tennessee, before and after the Civil War.
One ancestor when asked on the 1870 U.S. Census about her birth replied that she was born in Arkansas, confirming she was here before it became a state in 1836. City directories prove other family members were in the Little Rock area as early as the 1890s.
The Arkansas death database on Ancestry helped me name the siblings my grandmother said were born but died in infancy and youth. The first one I confirmed was Mary Charlotte. It is a name I remembered from my grandmother’s stories. Mary Charlotte was born on April 1, 1923, and died on April 15, 1923. My grandmother would have been seven years old when this child entered and left this world, but this baby made an impact on her that she shared with me.
I have relatives today with birthdays on the first and fifteenth of April. Finding facts about your family opens your mind and heart to information you didn’t think you needed. But you eventually come to understand that it expands your knowledge of self and guides you to new understandings.
Let us help you explore our resources and expand your knowledge.
By Rhonda Stewart, genealogy and local history specialist for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, housed in the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art
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Come to the Research Room of the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art to start your own family research! Visiting information is here. There are also many genealogy resources online through the library that can help you get started: https://cals.org/research-tool-subject/genealogy
