Family Geography Research Paper

Family Geography Research Paper

Jordan O. Payne
James Madison University

Family Geography Research Paper

My name is Jordan Payne. I am a nineteen year old sophomore at James Madison University. I live
in the Sunchase Apartment Complex, Building Unit 1921, Apartment G2 off of Neff Avenue in Harrisonburg,
Virginia. Although I can go back a little further in history, Ive decided to start with my maternal Great
Grandfather George Leigh Atkinson. George was born February 25, 1880 in Richmond, VA near Church
Hill. He married Edith F. Peers whos lineage can be traced back to the King family in Ireland. Edith was
born on August 2, 1889. She gave birth to my grandfather David Atkinson on December 8, 1928. George
died at the age of 91, eight days before his 92 birthday. Edith died at the age of 81 in February of 1971, one
year after the passing of her husband.
Straight out of high school, David joined the Navy for about two years. After the Navy, he spent his
early 20s as a sheet metal worker before joining the plumbers Union in 1953 where he worked for roughly
forty years with heating and air conditioning in new building construction. He married my grandmother
Helen Winter, whom he met in high school, on April 23, 1949 in St. Benedicts Church in Richmond. I have
traced her back to my Great Great Great Grandparents Andrew and Theresa Winter who worked as a
laborer and housekeeper in the Southern Part of Germany in the late 1840s. After migrating to the US
Theresa gave birth to my Great Great Grandfather, Joseph Bernard Winter, on June 7, 1854 who grew to
be a successful business man in Richmond, VA after years of bookbinding. Andrew died August 10, 1861
at age 50 and is buried in the Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond. Theresa died January 14, 1889. Joseph
married my Great Great Grandmother Mary Elizabeth Vondelehr Winter and they gave birth to my Great
Grandfather Julian John Winter Sr. on December 26, 1884. He married my Great Grandmother Bessie
Grover Broach on November 29, 1906. Together they had 13 children, a couple of which died early in
childhood. Their last child being my Grandmother, Helen Elsie Winter. Bessie passed away January 26,
1931 and Julian re-married a woman named Edna Mae Lipscomb Winter, 23 years his junior. Because of
this, Helen was raised by her two older sisters, Mabel and Dot who both died in the 1990s.

Family Geography Research Paper

After high school, Helen got a job working in an office for Henrico County. After marrying my
grandfather David, they spent their honeymoon riding the train to Myrtle Beach and began their family
together. He built their family house on N. Linden Ave where they raised all of their nine children. David and
Helen were both Catholic and raised every one of their children as such. Catholicism does not allow the
use of contraceptives. Those who do choose to use birth control are no longer allowed to partake in
Communion and understand that God would no longer sustain them (Tentler, 2004, p. 1). After giving birth
to their first two children, Helen quit her job in the Henrico office and began her new job as a stay at home
Mom. This is not unusual for the 1950s. Women were expected to be happy washing dishes, preparing
meals, [and] cleaning the house, this was seen as the ideal woman (Lamb, 2012, p. 16). Out of their nine
children, my mother, Amy Winter Atkinson, was lucky number nine. Helen passed away December 7, 2008
after battling Alzheimers for a few years. Amy grew up at 318 N. Linden Ave. and attended Highland
Springs High school. While in high school, she worked at Confederate Hills Golf Course as a snack bar
attendant. Towards the end of high school she worked at her uncles company, BMG Metals, after school
and during the summers. She stopped working there when she was accepted to the University of Virginia.
While at UVA, she worked in a data entry job and left to get a job at the Movie Hut. She was fired from the
Movie Hut job for lending her key to a friend so that she could go in and rent a movie. After leaving that job
she worked at the Aramark as a waitress, and kept that job until graduating college and beginning a new
job at Region 10. Upon graduation, she met my father, Larry Mason Payne Jr.
I have traced my fathers lineage back to my Great Grandmother, Sylvia Moon who was born
March 5, 1927. In her later adult years, she lived in 1011 Rougemont Ave. where she worked at Top Notch
which is a residential program for adults with disabilities and later as a Certified Nursing Assistant with
hospice. She married George Mason Payne and together they had a son, my grandfather, Larry Mason
Payne Sr. on March 6, 1952. Sylvia passed away April 28, 2013 of old age. She was a strong woman who

Family Geography Research Paper

survived breast cancer, multiple surgeries, and still managed to do whatever she could for a family. Often
times, she would open her home to family members in need of a place to stay.
My grandfather Larry never went to high school and spent the majority of his working years selfemployed at Larrys Payne Tree Service. He was 19 when he met Harriet Sillet who gave birth to my father,
Larry Mason Payne Jr., on May 25, 1971 at the age of 17. Because my father is a junior, they decided
when he was born that he was going to be nicknamed Scooter. Due to the age and lack of finances Larry
and Harriet had, Scooter was raised by his grandmother Sylvia. Adolescent pregnancy was not considered
a problem until the 1970s when parenting teenagers were less likely to be married. When the young couple
was not married, like Harriet and Larry, adolescent pregnancy began to seem like a serious social problem
(Meyers, 2004, p. 55). Larry and Harriet both died in the year 2014. Larry passed away under unusual and
unclear circumstances in July at UVA hospital in Charlottesville, he was later cremated. Harriet passed
away a few months before on March 20th.
Scooter attended Charlottesville High School where he played football. He received an offer to play
in college although the offer was revoked when he failed English his senior year. During his senior year, he
worked at Ponderosa steak house and upon graduation he got his own apartment at 2401 Peyton Dr. and
started a new job as a salesman at Cavalier Beverage. He was there for about a year until he was fired for
wrecking the delivery truck. He eventually moved back in with Sylvia and then began working with his uncle
doing roofing and side jobs. That is when Scooter met my mother, Amy. They found out, not long after
meeting that they were pregnant with me so they decided to get married on Amys 22nd birthday on
November 11, 1994. Together, they rented a place at 2518B Willard Dr. in Charlottesville. When I was
born, on April 25, 1995, they decided that the upstairs neighbors were too noisy for a couple with a new
baby and they moved to 1015A Tufton Ave. They resided in the lower level of a condo that was owned by a
struggling couple. Following the couples divorce, the bank took ownership of the house, forcing my parents

Family Geography Research Paper

to leave. In 1996, they bought their first house together in Fluvanna County at 42 Riverside Dr. At this point,
Scooter is working at Chanellos as a pizza delivery man after being fired from Blue Ridge Roofing for
insubordination refusing to dig a ditch. He then moved on to Pizza Hut in 1997. Because my mom worked
during the day, I stayed home with my dad and vice versa for nights.
I began school in 2001, following Pre-K, at Central Elementary in Fluvanna. In 2002, Scooter had
moved out of 42 Riverside Dr., the house my parents had bought together, and the two were officially
pronounced separated in 2003. At this time, he has gotten a job at Coke-a-Cola as a salesman. Amy has
now been fired from her job at Region 10 for getting drunk at a company New Years Eve party when she
was supposed to have been on call. She then picked up a job at The Arc where she was eventually fired for
calling in sick when really she had just drank too much the night before. During this time, Scooter and Amy
were battling for custody of me in family court. Scooter had been living with his then girlfriend and was
required to get his own place after being awarded custody. The courts felt that Amy was currently unfit to
provide me with the adequate care an elementary student required due to her struggles with alcoholism. My
dad and I then moved to a trailer at 868 Georgia Ln. where we stayed for about a year until the owners of
the trailer decided they wanted it back. We then moved to an apartment complex near Hollymead
Elementary School where I went to school for the majority of my third grade year. After a year there, my
dad could no longer afford the housing so we had to move to a duplex at 1006 Willow Dr. behind Burnley
Moran Elementary School where I spent my fourth grade year and not far from Walker Upper Elementary
School where I spent my fifth grade year. During these two years, my mother, Amy has now been fired from
multiple teaching jobs due to excessive alcohol consumption. On July 2, 2005, she got sober and did some
jail time and treatment. She was required to move in with her brother at 325 N. Linden Ave. in Richmond in
order to be supervised as conditions for her treatment. She had limited supervised visitations with me and
picked up a job from January to March 2006 at Advanced Chimney until she was laid off for lack of work.

Family Geography Research Paper

In 2006, Scooter re-married and moved to 8 Oak Terrace located in the gated community of Lake
Monticello. Lake Monticello was chosen as a place to move our family because his new wife had children
who were already enrolled at their schools while I had previously been zoned for Charlottesville city
schools. My father didnt want me to be associated with the city curriculum because the students attending
public city schools tend to be less motivated and less academically focused. Thus, I attended Fluvanna
Middle School for my sixth and seventh grade years along with my new stepbrother and stepsister. This
same year, Amy began working briefly at Top Notch until starting to pursue her Masters in Social Work at
the Virginia Commonwealth University. Around this time, Scooter got fired from his job at Coke-a-Cola in
Charlottesville because the company was bought out by Coke-a-Cola Enterprises Inc. In later years, the
Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Charlottesville closed its doors and consolidated the company to a new
location in Sandston, VA (Graff, 2010). Because of this, our house in Lake Monticello was foreclosed and
we were forced to move to 2111 Dominion Dr. in Charlottesville across the street from the Fashion Square
Mall. I lived in that house for about two years and Scooter picked up a job at UTZ chips as a salesman,
although during that time, he also separated from his wife. While Scooter is occupied with a divorce, Amy is
graduating from grad school in August, gladly accepting her job offer from the Daily Planet, and marrying
her new husband in June of 2008. Her and my stepfather moved into what we refer to as The Little House
at 306 N. Linden Ave. where they prepared for the birth of my sister that coming November. They chose
this house to be close to my grandmother and grandfather in order to help take care of my grandmother in
her last few months dealing with Alzheimers. In 2009, she gladly accepted a job as a case manager at Bon
Secours Hospital and her, her husband, and their new daughter moved to a bigger house a few doors
down, directly next to my grandfather at 314 N. Linden Ave.
During my freshman year at Albemarle High School, the house shared with my dad on Dominion
Dr. was robbed at gunpoint resulting in my refusal to return to the house. We briefly stayed with Scooters

Family Geography Research Paper

girlfriends parents while he made arrangements for us to find a new place. We ended up at 868 St. Charles
Rd. near Pantops Mtn. in Charlottesville. Although this house was out of my school district, I remained at
Albemarle High School until the end of the year when my school noticed that I was zoned for Charlottesville
High and forced my relocation. At this point, Scooter now has a new girlfriend and has allowed me to
choose the school district in which we plan to move. I decided to have him choose a home within the
Monticello High School district so we all moved in to 2091 N. Hill Rd. in 2010 the summer before my
sophomore year.
An important aspect of my fathers life is that he has been diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis.
Ankylosing Spondylitis can be referred to, in its simplest terms, as a severe form of arthritis that causes
immense pain and discomfort. Over time, the joints become inflamed and can fuse together creating new
bone formation in the spine. Researchers have found a link between a HLA-B27 gene that contributes to
the development of AS. Robert Colbert says, that since the discovery of the HLA-B27 AS connection over
30 years ago, we have learned a great deal about what HLA-B27 does; unfortunately, this has not
answered the question of how it causes disease (2006, p. 6). Because his condition causes so much pain
and makes it harder to get moving in the morning, he was eventually fired from UTZ for being late to work.
He picked up a new job at Ideal Office Installations but could no longer perform the heavy lifting necessary
to efficiently complete his job resulting in his termination. Scooter and his girlfriend found out they were
having a child and they were married in Las Vegas, Nevada towards the end of 2011.
At the time, Scooter and I were constantly fighting and I had begun talking to my mom about
moving in with her in Richmond. After hearing the intense recaps of my arguments and concerns regarding
living with my Dad and his new wife and stepdaughter, my mother filed for custody and received it once my
father failed a random drug test for marijuana administered by the courts. Marijuana that he had been using
to dull the pain of his arthritis. After that, I packed up my things and moved to 314 N. Linden Ave. where,

Family Geography Research Paper

although I was zoned for Highland Springs High School, I attended Henrico High School as a part of the
International Baccalaureate program. We chose to avoid Highland Springs High School due to the high rate
of negative social stigma surrounding the school. This comes with the high percentage of poverty in
families and percentage of students who do not show a significant level of academic dedication and drive to
succeed. I continued at Henrico High my junior and senior year and received an Advanced Diploma and IB
Certificate at my graduation on June 13, 2013. During my freshman year of college, my father moved to
North Carolina at 5785 Chadbourn Hwy. after experiencing difficulties with his wifes family. Her family
continued to cause problems by filing false allegations of child abuse against my father and other small
annoyances.
I came into James Madison University studying Social Work in 2013, although after
encouragement from my mother, decided to switch majors at the end of my freshman year and pursue a
career as an Elementary School teacher, which is something that I have always been interested in doing. I
worked in the Department of Philosophy and Religion in Cleveland Hall at JMU as a supervisors assistant
to Anita Brown my first two semesters as a student. I have worked at Camp Alkulana, a camp zoned
specifically for under-privileged, inner city youth every summer since 2011. I was introduced to this camp
through my mother, Amy, who spent a summer or two as a camper and counselor-in-training when she was
young. I plan on keeping healthy relationships with the campers and employees by continuing to participate
in the mentoring programs for campers and attending events to support the Richmond Baptist Association. I
hope to further support the Association later in life when it is financially stable for me to do so. I believe
Camp Alkulana has helped me to solidify my decision to work with children in the future. After teaching in
an Elementary School for a few years, I have considered studying Administration or maybe policies to help
improve education for under-privileged youth who deserve extra attention and motivation. My family
geography has impacted the person that I am today. From what camp I decided to work at to my attitudes

Family Geography Research Paper

towards parenting, marriage, and children. I am thankful for the experiences in my life, positive and
negative, because they have taught me so many things about the real world and myself. I am aware of my
own capabilities and strengths more so because of the hardships my family and I have endured and for that
I will be forever grateful.

Family Geography Research Paper

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References
Colbert, Robert. (2006). Expanding The Research Horizon In Ankylosing Spondylitis
Understanding the Role of HLA-B27. Spondylitis Plus, 6-7.
Graff, Henry. (2010, July 27). Charlottesville Coca-Cola Plant Closing. NBC-29 News. Retrieved March 1,
2015, from http://www.nbc29.com/story/12876573/charlottesville-coca-cola-plant-closing
Lamb, V. M. (2012, April 2). The 1950s and the 1960s and the American Woman : the transition from the
housewife to the feminist. History. 1-110.
Meyers, Adena. (2004). Pregnancy in Adolescence: Information for Parents and Educators. National
Association of School Psychologists, 55-58.
Tentler, Leslie. (2004). Introduction. In Catholics and Contraception: An American History. Cornell, New
York: Cornell University Press.