Walter Lee Jennings is my maternal ancestor. I recall family members sharing oral histories about Walter Lee. I never saw a photograph but heard a description of him, tall and with a thick mustache.
Before he grew a mustache, he grew up as a Virginia farmer with his 12 sisters and brothers on his parents’ land. Walter Lee was born on October 18th in 1879, in Halifax County. His father, Orange Jennings, registered Walter’s birth with his wife, Mary. County Birth registries are very similar to birth certificates. The registry provides birth date, full name, an ethnic description, gender, type of delivery: live or stillbirth, place of birth, and the father’s full name (if the parents were married). Virginia began issuing vital records, birth and death certificates around 1912.
I stumbled across this lead for the Virginia birth registries while researching on Our Black Ancestry.com. The site is similar to FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and Ancestry websites that maintain genealogical documents and an opportunity for members to connect with distant relatives.
As a young man, Walter married his teenage bride, Elnora. The couple ventured away from their farm labor community for the ironworks companies. Walter became a Steel Mill worker in Pennsylvania.
Local Philadelphia history states Midvale Steel employed many African American workers during the 1890s through the 1920s. There isn’t any evidence that points that he was an employee at Midvale. However, Elnora delivered their firstborn son, Noel, whose name later changed to Frank, in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania’s birth registry confirms Walter Lee’s occupation.
I accessed this record at local Family History Center of the Church of the Later Days Saints. It’s a printout from a microfilm roll.
“Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Births, 1860-1906”
The family relocated to an Ohio border town called Youngstown, near Pennsylvania. Walter continued to employ himself in the Steel Mill industry. His work commute was the Sharon Line electric car. The electric “car” he rode to work is not like the Hybrid fuel/electric vehicles you see on the roads today. The Sharon Line was like a city bus whose route began in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Walt’s former home location on Regis Street is part of the historical African American Community called Sharonline.
Walt became a widower, a single parent of three children, Frank, Adele, and Lee, after Elnora’s death in 1908. Walter returned to his family’s farm for his parents to raise his children. He married again four years later in Michigan and continued to live in Youngstown without his children. The marriage to Margret Cobb produced his youngest son, Walter Roy, who went by Roy, and Uncle Roy’s son shared a photograph with me.
My family described him correctly. Don’t you agree? I was so excited to receive this photo and show my mother a photo of her Grandfather. She never met him.
Walt remained a Steel Worker until the day he died. He collapsed on the job of a heart attack at the age of 68. His daughter, Adele, age 58, and sons Frank, age 71, and Lee, age 69, suffered the same ending. If you are a Walter Lee Jennings descendant reading this entry, be mindful of our medical history of heart disease.
Thank you, cousins Walter, Rebecca, Carolyn, Aunt Eleanor, my late Uncle Arthur, and my mother. I could not have shared our ancestor, Walter Lee Jennings’ account without you.
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Walt was one of a few of his 12 siblings to leave their hometown.
Are you an Ohio or a Virginia Jennings descendant? There are Pennsylvania and D.C families as well. Please comment below.
Diggin4myRoots.com 
Additional: I believe Walter Lee Jennings‘ Mother was the daughter of one of the family members on the Robert E Lee Plantation in Virginia? That is how you line up in my links on Ancestry. Com. Can you check to see who were Walter’s parents and grandparents? The Mulatto’s off that Lee Plantation were tall (at least 6’2”) and very light in complexion and some of their off springs even being only 50% European have crossed the color line. That’s the case in my family.
Still digging 2
Freddie
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Thank you for your comment. Mary Adams was Walter’s mother. Jim and Coley Adams were her parents. The 1870 census enumerated the family in Halifax county. Unfortunately, I haven’t arrived in my research to the plantation where they were enslaved.
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I am an Ohio Jennings descendant
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Thanks cousin TaMara for all of the deligent research. I will search all of the family photos I have to see if there may be additional photos. The history and documents really resonate as I grew up and spent many decades living on the Sharon Line before leaving Youngstown 20 years ago. I know my Grandfather Walter Lee had quite a few nephews that also moved to and lived in the Youngstown area and worked in the Steel industry back in the day. I recall as a child and young man when some of those cousins would pass on, relatives from Virginia would travel to Youngstown for the services. Walter Lee passed before I was born, but I recall visiting his grave site at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Youngstown with my father (Walter R.) several times. My father would always tell me what a good man and father Walter Lee was.
Walt ( Grandson of Walter Lee)
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Thank you for visiting. I appreciate your comments. More photos would be great to see Orange and Mary Jennings’ descendants.
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Thanks cousin Tammy I am new at this I so much desire to know about my family history. Alonzo Jennings is my grandfather. I never meet him but heard about him. Him and my grandmother Hester Davis where married when she was 14 years old. It was an arranged marriage. They had two daughters. My mom Louise T. Jennings and Ella Jennings. My mom passed in 2019 at the age of 94 on Long Island New York. My aunt Ella who still lives on Long Island is probably in her early 90s. Thanks so much for the info. I look forward to meeting and knowing more about my family.
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You are welcome, Cousin Louise. Thank you for sharing your branch of history in our family tree!
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Hello family,
I was born in 1953 in Youngstown Ohio on the far east side which we call the Sharonline. I have spent most of my adult life traveling as a musician and lost track of a lot of family members I knew as a little boy. I can remember uncle Monroe, Frank, Alonzo, Roy, Ulee, and I remember seeing an elderly gentleman that they called uncle Walt at a family picnic sitting in a chair relaxing. I thought all these guys were my dad, Leslie Jennings, brothers. Thanks to your work it seems uncle Frank was my dad’s cousin. I think the work you guys are doing is awesome and if there’s anything I can do to help let me know.
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Thank you, Leslie!
Welcome to the site.
Do you recognize any relatives in wedding party photo? I think the bride maybe a Cobb or Gainer. The older woman on the left resembles Margaret Cobb Jennings.
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Hello, I’m a granddaughter of Monroe Jennings, Orange Jennings was his great grandfather. My grandfather grew up on the Sharon line and has a great memory I just never know exactly what to ask him. Thanks for sharing this. I use ancestry and family search.org for research.
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Welcome, Cousin Andrea!
My Grandfather Lee was your Great- Grandfather Monroe’s first cousin.
Questions to ask, What were family gatherings like? Did they include out of town relatives? Where were the relatives traveling from Pennsylvania, New York, Washington D.C. or Virginia? My mom recalls Youngstown family visiting Columbus. They would have a big barbecue in the backyard.
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Hi Andrea,
I am a nephew of Monroe Jennings. I think my dad was his brother, Leslie Jennings. Tammy help me out if I’m wrong lol. We called him uncle money. He would gather up all the kids and drive us to the local store and buy us candy. We always thought he was driving with his eyes closed cause he would squint his eyes. We loved us some uncle money! You are in good hands with cousin Tammy.
Leslie Jennings Jr.
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