Our Unique Stories

swanson curry

1901-1923

Life Story

A Journey North and Home Again

Early Life and Family Roots

Swanson Curry was born on April 15, 1901, in the Lawrence community of Newton County, Mississippi. Later records identify him as the son of William Curry and Mary Whitehead, members of two well-established African American families whose roots ran deep in the Lawrence community.

One chapter of Swanson’s childhood, however, presents an intriguing genealogical mystery.

The 1910 Federal Census does not place him in the household of William Curry and Mary Whitehead. Instead, it records an eight-year-old boy named “Swansom Billinger” living in Beat 4 of Newton County as the adopted son of Napoleon Whitehead and Josephine Whitehead. The child was attending school but had not yet learned to read or write.

Napoleon Whitehead was the brother of Mary Whitehead, making Josephine Swanson’s aunt by marriage. The child’s age closely matches Swanson Curry’s documented birth year, and no other child of similar age bearing the name Swanson has been found in the Lawrence community during this period.

The surname Billinger (or possibly Billingsley) remains unexplained. Although the Whitehead family maintained close relationships with members of the Billingsley family in the Lawrence community, no surviving record explains why Swanson was enumerated under that surname. It is possible that the enumerator recorded the wrong surname, that Swanson was informally raised within another household before living with the Whiteheads, or that another circumstance—now lost to history—accounts for the discrepancy.

While the differing surname prevents absolute certainty, the cumulative evidence strongly suggests that the adopted child listed with Napoleon and Josephine Whitehead in 1910 was the same Swanson later identified as the son of William Curry and Mary Whitehead.

The Great Migration to St. Louis

As a young man in his early twenties, Swanson joined the Great Migration, the historic movement that carried hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial cities of the Midwest and Northeast.

He settled in St. Louis, Missouri, establishing his home at 2832 Clark Avenue in the city’s Seventh Ward. There he married and found employment as a butcher, a skilled occupation that offered opportunities seldom available in rural Mississippi.

Living with Swanson was his relative Carl Curry, illustrating the importance of extended family networks during the Great Migration. Many migrants relied upon relatives already established in northern cities for housing, employment opportunities, and emotional support while building new lives far from home.

Illness in the City

Although St. Louis offered greater economic opportunity, it also exposed migrants to new hardships.

Like many rapidly growing industrial cities during the early twentieth century, St. Louis struggled with overcrowded housing and infectious diseases. Tuberculosis remained one of the nation’s leading causes of death, particularly within densely populated working-class neighborhoods.

After battling pulmonary tuberculosis for several months, Swanson was admitted to St. Louis City Hospital during the autumn of 1923.

He passed away during the early morning hours of October 28, 1923, at only twenty-two years of age.

Two Death Certificates—One Family Story

Swanson’s death left behind an unusual documentary trail that demonstrates both the challenges and the importance of careful genealogical research.

Following his death in St. Louis, his relative Carl Curry served as the informant for the Missouri death certificate. During what was undoubtedly a time of grief, Carl provided parental information that was only partially correct.

The Missouri certificate identifies Swanson’s father as Jake Curry and his mother as Sylvia Curry. Subsequent research, however, demonstrates that these were not Swanson’s biological parents. Census records identify Sylvia Curry as Carl’s mother and Jake Curry as Sylvia’s father. Rather than identifying Swanson’s immediate parents, Carl appears to have mistakenly supplied the names from his own branch of the extended Curry family.

Interestingly, the Missouri certificate still preserved the family’s connection to the Whitehead family through the maternal line. That detail is consistent with later evidence establishing that Swanson’s mother was Mary Whitehead, suggesting that Carl knew Swanson belonged to the Curry-Whitehead family but inadvertently substituted names from his own household.

Swanson’s family arranged for the A. Russell Undertaking Company of St. Louis to prepare his body for the long journey home by rail.

When his remains arrived in Lawrence, Josephine Whitehead completed the Mississippi death registration. She correctly identified Swanson as the son of William Curry and Mary Whitehead, preserving his true parentage for future generations.

Josephine’s role in both the 1910 census and the 1923 death registration provides one of the strongest pieces of evidence linking the adopted child in her household with the young man who later died in St. Louis.

Final Resting Place

Following the long journey from Missouri back to Mississippi, Swanson was laid to rest at Union Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery in Lawrence, Newton County.

Although his life ended hundreds of miles from home, his family ensured that he returned to the community where he had been raised, surrounded by generations of Curry and Whitehead relatives whose lives were intertwined with the history of Lawrence.

Legacy

Swanson Curry lived only twenty-two years, yet his story reflects several defining themes of twentieth-century African American history.

He was born into a close-knit Mississippi family, likely spent part of his childhood in the household of relatives who helped raise him, joined the Great Migration in search of opportunity, established himself as a skilled butcher in St. Louis, and ultimately became one of the many young African Americans whose lives were claimed by tuberculosis before effective treatments became available.

His story also serves as an excellent example of the importance of careful genealogical research. By comparing census records, multiple death certificates, and family relationships, a fuller and more accurate account of his life emerges than any single document could provide.

Today, Swanson Curry is remembered as a devoted son, husband, migrant worker, and member of both the Curry and Whitehead families. His life—and the documentary trail he left behind—continues to illuminate the history of Newton County and the broader story of the Great Migration.

Resting Place

Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery

Photos/Albums

Swanson Curry
Swanson Curry, 1901-1923

Sources

  1. Mississippi Death Certificate of Swanson Curry (1923) identifies his date of birth as April 15, 1901, and names his parents as William Curry and Mary Whitehead. The information was supplied by Josephine Whitehead, who completed the death registration after his body was returned to Newton County.
  2. William Curry and Mary Whitehead were members of long-established African American families in the Lawrence community of Newton County, Mississippi. The Curry and Whitehead families were closely connected through kinship, marriage, and community life during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  3. 1910 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, household of Napoleon Whitehead; enumerating “Swansom Billinger,” age eight, as the adopted son of Napoleon and Josephine Whitehead. The census records that he attended school but had not yet learned to read or write.
  4. Napoleon Whitehead was the brother of Mary Whitehead, making Josephine Whitehead the wife of Swanson’s maternal uncle. This close family relationship provides important context for Swanson’s appearance in their household during the 1910 census.
  5. The child enumerated as “Swansom Billinger” has not been conclusively proven to be Swanson Curry. However, the nearly identical age, residence within the Lawrence community, Josephine Whitehead’s later role as informant on Swanson Curry’s Mississippi death certificate, and the absence of another known child named Swanson of similar age in the community collectively provide strong circumstantial evidence that the records refer to the same individual.
  6. The surname Billinger (or Billingsley, depending upon interpretation of the enumerator’s handwriting) remains unexplained. Although the Whitehead family maintained close associations with members of the Billingsley family in Lawrence, no surviving record explains why the child was enumerated under that surname. At present, this discrepancy remains unresolved.
  7. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, informal kinship care was common within African American communities. Children were frequently raised by grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other relatives without formal legal adoption, and census enumerators often recorded such children as “adopted” sons or daughters regardless of their legal status.
  8. St. Louis City Directory and related records place Swanson Curry at 2832 Clark Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as a butcher, illustrating his participation in the Great Migration from rural Mississippi to an industrial northern city.
  9. The Great Migration (approximately 1915–1970) saw more than six million African Americans leave the rural South for northern and western cities in search of employment opportunities and relief from the legal and social restrictions of Jim Crow segregation.
  10. Missouri Death Certificate of Swanson Curry (1923); documenting his death at St. Louis City Hospital on October 28, 1923, from pulmonary tuberculosis.
  11. Pulmonary tuberculosis was among the leading causes of death in the United States during the early twentieth century, particularly in densely populated urban neighborhoods where overcrowding and limited access to health care facilitated its spread.
  12. Missouri Death Certificate of Swanson Curry; identifying Carl Curry as the informant. The certificate lists Swanson’s parents as Jake Curry and Sylvia Curry, information later shown to be inconsistent with other documentary evidence.
  13. Census records identify Sylvia Curry as the mother of Carl Curry and Jake Curry as Sylvia’s father. The parental information supplied on the Missouri death certificate therefore appears to reflect Carl’s own immediate family branch rather than Swanson’s biological parents.
  14. Despite the incorrect parental names, the Missouri death certificate preserves the family’s connection to the Whitehead family through the maternal line, a detail consistent with Swanson’s later identification as the son of Mary Whitehead.
  15. Records of the A. Russell Undertaking Company, St. Louis, Missouri, document arrangements for returning Swanson Curry’s remains by rail to Newton County, Mississippi, for burial.
  16. Mississippi Death Certificate of Swanson Curry (1923); completed by Josephine Whitehead, who correctly identified his parents as William Curry and Mary Whitehead, providing the most reliable evidence of his parentage.
  17. Josephine Whitehead’s appearance both as the caregiver of the adopted child enumerated in her household in 1910 and as the informant on Swanson Curry’s Mississippi death certificate in 1923 constitutes one of the strongest pieces of circumstantial evidence linking the two records.
  18. Union Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery Records, Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi; documenting the burial of Swanson Curry following the return of his remains from St. Louis.
  19. The reconstruction of Swanson Curry’s life illustrates an important principle of genealogical research: no single record should be accepted uncritically. Instead, census records, vital records, family relationships, cemetery records, and other documentary evidence should be evaluated collectively to establish the most reliable historical conclusion.
  20. Family records, federal census records, Missouri and Mississippi death certificates, cemetery records, city directories, and genealogical research collectively document the life of Swanson Curry and provide the basis for identifying his connections to both the Curry and Whitehead families.

Sources Consulted

1910 U.S. Federal Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4; Missouri Death Certificate of Swanson Curry (1923); Mississippi Death Certificate of Swanson Curry (1923); St. Louis City Directories; Records of A. Russell Undertaking Company, St. Louis, Missouri; Union Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery Records, Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi; Curry and Whitehead Family Records; Newton County Genealogical Research Collections.

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