Publisher's Synopsis
Honoring the Legacies of Toms, Hunt, Pettis, Henderson, McGhee, and Brooks Families and Impacting Generations to Come Getting To Know Your Family by Leonard C. Toms, Sr. traces the footprints of early Arkansas pioneers in the Toms family to their fraternal grandfather, Sam Toms born 1822, a former slave and formally from North Carolina. Leonard's maternal grandfather, William Pettis was born into slavery in 1821. He not only knows where his grandfather was enslaved but by whom. On Leonard's mother's side of the family, he found that his fraternal grandfather Elijah Hunt was born in 1880 in Arkansas. Additionally, his maternal grandfather was Henry Brooks who was born in 1868 in Louisiana but later moved to Arkansas. In Knowing Your Family, so many mysteries are solved. Four of the big mysteries to Leonard were solved with the help of Joyce Elliott, Kendra Smith, Sheryl Lipscomb and Loleta Towner. They are truly family historians. Leonard C. Toms, Sr. was the only child born to the union of Eddie Lewis Toms and Mavis J. Hunt. Born and raised in North Little Rock, Arkansas, Leonard is a retired public educator. He has played semi-pro baseball for years. After retiring from playing, he coached, refereed basketball and umpired many games for competitive little league baseball all over the country. He and his wife Marie have two sons: Leonard, Jr. and Kilian Toms. They have nine grandchildren. In this book you will find factual information that is helpful in starting any family members' family tree. Stirring stories were written by or told by family members and friends. Revealing interviews with personal accounts featuring prominent family elders and upcoming generations are sprinkled throughout Getting To Know Your Family. Getting To Know Your Family includes: . Special Tributes . Earliest Grandparents .African Heritage . Family Historical Facts . Revealing Family Stories and Photographs What's New: Read the accounts of our family and how we connected the dots in the We're Related mini-sections. .Our African Ancestry: Featuring a Motherland trip to Ghana, Africa tracing the Tom's lineage to Africa with photos, stories, personal accounts of the journey that you don't want to miss. Still making family connections in his generation, Mr. Toms presents a 260+ page family keepsake, a treasure trove of information ready to be passed from generation to generation. The Getting To Know Your Family book is a fascinating read for any African American family enthusiast as well as all Toms family members."
