By By LYDIA GRIMES Lifestyles reporter
Many of you have heard me spout on and on over the last few years about the Heritage of Escambia County, Alabama book that I, and others on a committee, worked on. The book came out last December and has sold pretty well. I received an email from the publisher last week stating that the books can be bought at a special discount in time to use for Christmas gifts.
I have the books here at The Brewton Standard office and instead of being the regular $64.80 they will be on sale from Oct. 15, 2003 to Jan. 15, 2004 for $48.20. This might be your best opportunity to get your copy and think about them as Christmas gifts. I guess I am prejudiced because of all the work I did on the book, but I am very proud of it. We could have had a bigger book if we had received more stories, but that is the way it goes sometimes. If you are interested, let me know.
I have received another email from the Alabama Department of Archives and History. With the tax cuts going on all over the state, the Alabama Department of Archives and History is also taking a hit. I know that many of you travel to Montgomery to use the facilities there quite often. I have been many times and it is a wonderful place to do genealogical research.
I have received an announcement from the department that they are having to make some cuts that might have some impact on you researchers. As of Oct. 1, in the new budget cuts, the Archives is losing seven staff positions and all of its students workers. This makes it impossible to maintain the old schedules for their building, museum and reference room to be open. The hours will be changing to Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and the first Saturday of each month from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
Be sure to plan your trips to the Archives so that you won't get there and find the place closed.
I am going to get started on another family in this area but will not finish this week. Barbara C. Martin, a descendant of Absalom Fuqua, has worked really hard on the Fuqua family and deserves a lot of credit for this material along with a couple of other Fuqua descendants.
Absalom Fuqua was born about 1800 in North Carolina, the son of Randolph Fuqua and apparently the descendant of Guillaume Fouiquett, a French Huguenot who settled in Virginia.
Absalom Fuqua and his father migrated to the Conecuh/Escambia area by way of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. His father, Randolph Fuqua, was eligible for two draws in the Georgia Land Lottery of 1807. By 1827 they were both in Early County, Ga. and soon afterward were in Walton County, Fla. After some time spent in Covington County, Ala. he was back in Walton County by the time of the 1840 Federal Census. He was only two households away from the family of John Barrow in 1840 and although some think he may have married a Barr, it is quite possible that she was a Barrow. Whatever her last name, her first was Tabitha and by 1850 the family was living in Conecuh County with their 13 children. The 1860 census found her living with a son, so it is likely that Absalom had died during the previous 10 years. Tabitha herself was missing on the 1870 census so it is safe to assume that she had died between 1860 and 1870.
Next week I will get on to the children of Absalom and Tabitha.