I just love doing heritage pages and as soon as I saw My Sweet Jessa Page Kit by Teresa Loman I new I would be creating another one. The lace and paper flowers are so sweet! The photo is of my great grandparents who were poor farmers living in Hancock County, Tennessee. There are several “communities” there scattered about the rugged mountain land. Some were cut off from the “real world” and only saw occasional “outsiders.”

The layout – I blended a copy of the photo into the diamond background paper just to add a little more interest to my layout. I wanted a large journaling block but thought it needed something to tie it to the photo. On the circle mat, I duplicated the background paper and set one to multiply blend mode to make it a little darker to better ground my black and white photo.

Journaling:
Being residents of Hancock County, Tennessee makes you possible Melungeons. We are still tracing the family tree which is hard because you were not wealthy landowners, but common people living less than common lives. Melungeons are the mixed-race people who lived in and around Newman’s Ridge, not far from where you called “Over Home.” They were dark complected and often accused of being half-African American. But they clung to their claim of being Portuguese Indian. It seems now that DNA is proving their claim true but also proving that they were more than just one race. They contained a “Mélange” of Portuguese, American Indian, African American and Anglo-Saxon - a true mixture in the melting pot of America. While you may not have been a direct descendant from the core families there, you certainly lived in and among them making you unique as well.

Credits:
My Sweet Jessa Page Kit by Teresa Loman
DSP Lauren Font (October 2008 Club Digital) by Suzanne C Walker