INTRODUCTION
Donaldson Family, ca. 1902, in Roslyn, Washington
Top row (from left): William “Peck”, General “Jeneral”, George “Sharkey”, unidentified man.
Bottom row (from left): Mary, woman believed to be Anna (holding baby Gladys), Eugene, Hattie, Lizzie, Frankie, and woman believed to be Louisa Nicholas-Clark (General’s wife and mother of the 3 children).
Image courtesy Al “Butch” Smith, Jr. Collection of the Donaldson family.
The Donaldson Odyssey is a long-standing and evolving research project to document the Donaldsons, a biracial family with roots in Alabama and Tennessee in the 1800s. From the deep South, the Donaldsons moved to Roslyn, Washington seeking a better life, as part of a larger labor recruitment initiative by the Northwest Improvement Company to bring African Americans in to break white union miners’ strikes in the 1880s-1890s.
The project’s foundation was established by Lillian C. (Donaldson) Warren and her husband Robert E. Williams. In 1991, they self-published The Donaldson Odyssey: Footsteps to Freedom. Also known within the family as the “Red Book '' with its distinctive red cover, the book includes narrative accounts of Jessee and Anna (Smalley) Donaldson and their descendants, complemented by family stories, copies of primary source documents and photographs.
Beginning in 2019, the Donaldson Family Research Group (DFRG) formed with a goal to expand, further share, and uncover the narrative of Jessee and Anna and their genealogical branches with new and emerging discoveries. DFRG is in a process to visit sites of significance to the Donaldson family, including the 19th century plantation house site in Hazel Green, Alabama; and collect related documents from a variety of sources that includes a tradition of Washington State Black History Scholarship.
DFRG is fortunate and grateful to work with the following collaborators and wishes to thank:
The project’s foundation was established by Lillian C. (Donaldson) Warren and her husband Robert E. Williams. In 1991, they self-published The Donaldson Odyssey: Footsteps to Freedom. Also known within the family as the “Red Book '' with its distinctive red cover, the book includes narrative accounts of Jessee and Anna (Smalley) Donaldson and their descendants, complemented by family stories, copies of primary source documents and photographs.
Beginning in 2019, the Donaldson Family Research Group (DFRG) formed with a goal to expand, further share, and uncover the narrative of Jessee and Anna and their genealogical branches with new and emerging discoveries. DFRG is in a process to visit sites of significance to the Donaldson family, including the 19th century plantation house site in Hazel Green, Alabama; and collect related documents from a variety of sources that includes a tradition of Washington State Black History Scholarship.
DFRG is fortunate and grateful to work with the following collaborators and wishes to thank:
- Black Genealogy Research Group (BGRG)
- Black Heritage Society of Washington State (BHS)
- BlackPast.Org
- Cynthia Wilson
- Craven family members, including Beulah Hart & Ethel Craven-Sweet
- Central Washington University (Ellensburg, Washington)
- Giles County Historical Society (Pulaski, Tennessee)
- Maisha Barnett
- Monette Hearn
- Mrs. Esther Mumford
- Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (Spokane, Washington)
- Roslyn Ronald Cle Elum Heritage Club
- Seattle Griot Project
- Seattle Municipal Archives
- Stephanie Johnson-Toliver
- University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
- Washington State Archives
- Washington State Historical Society