Annette

By Pam Dupuy

I grew up wondering who “Annette” was. When we’d visit Monroe, Louisiana, my mother, Carol Layton Parsons, would point at the four poster she slept in and say it had belonged to Annette - who had been enslaved and then stayed with the family after the Civil War, helping to look after several generations of Layton children. That was all Mom knew about Annette, as she was born a few years after Annette died.

My first clue turned up when I was doing genealogy research in Salt Lake City in the 1990s and saw in the 1900 Census records an “Annette Hawkins” living with the family as a cook.

And so began a decades long, off and on, inquiry into who this woman was. I think because, being raised up north near Philadelphia, the whole reality of slavery seemed foreign, disturbing, yet compelling.

My most recent clue came from a visit to a cousin in Philadelphia in May of 2022. I had heard she was sent a box full of ancestors’ documents which might contain a picture of Annette. My cousin didn’t know if she did but was willing to help me look. After three hours of sitting on her living room floor going through a big box of old documents and photos, we found a baby photobook at the very bottom - and there Annette was:

According to the Louisiana, U.S. Statewide Death Index 1819 - 1964, Annette Nicholas Hawkins was born in 1833 and died May 19, 1926.

Annette - so beloved by many of our Layton ancestors - finally I could see what she looked like - and hopefully share these images with her descendants.