Venecia Eubanks Sutton Price

********************** Texas State Genealogical Society Grand Prize Book Award Winner 2022 ********************

Connecting to one's family is Vee's passion. The third oldest of six children, Venecia "Vee" is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, she lived with relatives in Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, and spent extensive time with relatives in Tulsa throughout her young life. As a result, she heard many family stories and learned valuable life lessons from her elders while growing up. Vee would later lean heavily on those stories due to her parents' untimely deaths. Also, after the loss of her two older brothers over the next few years, Vee realized she was the oldest living descendant and saw herself responsible for "telling the stories" and sharing what she had learned from her ancestors.

An amateur genealogist, Vee traced her paternal family history back to slavery. Native Americans enslaved her great-grandparents, first in the southern United States and later in Indian Territory (Oklahoma.) Also, her maternal grandparents were former Missouri slaves who settled in Kansas (a Free State) after the Civil War. Because of these locations and situations, there are many records about their lives that Vee has discovered dating back as early as the 1870s.

Documenting the history and traditions within African American families can be difficult but most rewarding when discovered. Vee sees it as an honor to share her ancestors' stories and wisdom. Her mission is for the younger generations to feel "Connected" to their ancestors and use those "Connections" as a compass to help guide them in life..

Her book, "Beth Fortner Moseley, Her Story" (2021), is a memoir written by her late aunt, whose original manuscripts were discovered many years after her death. Upon discovery, Vee felt compelled to not only tell her aunt's story but to augment the story by adding photos, news articles, interviews, and other background sources to give the readers a much richer insight into her Aunt B.'s life.

As time and inspiration permit, Vee hopes to write future books to illuminate more of her rich family history.