Our Family Story

From Jim & Martha to Willie Mae & Eddie Young

Every family has a beginning, a heartbeat, a moment when ordinary people step into extraordinary purpose. For the Young family, that story stretches back into the red soil of Hampton County, South Carolina — a place where our ancestors survived, persevered, rebuilt, and ultimately rose into a lineage rooted in love, land, and legacy.

Our earliest known grandparents in this line were Jim Aiken and Margaret (Martha) Frasure Aiken, born just a handful of years after Emancipation — Jim in 1867 and Martha in 1873 . They came into a world still trembling from the aftershocks of slavery, but determined to build a life that belonged to them. They married, raised children, worked the land, and built a family foundation strong enough to hold generations.

Jim and Martha lived and labored on the grounds of the Tison, Lawton, Maner, and Garnett plantations — lands once shaped by bondage, but eventually transformed by the hands of our kin into places of work, dignity, and connection. These were the same plantations where many Aiken relatives later became sharecroppers, cooks, caretakers, machine operators, and horse handlers. Over time, Aiken men and women became central to the workings of the historic Belmont Lodge — a prestigious retreat where Aiken men trained horses and hunting dogs and Aiken women kept the home running with grace and skill .

Jim and Martha Aiken raised sixteen children, each one a branch stretching forward into the future: Evans, Lillie, Phoebe, James, Pelman, Elizabeth, Willie, Martha, Jeanette, Amanda, Lucius, Margaret, Samuel, Julius, Ephraim, and Matthew . These were the children who would anchor the Aiken name in Hampton County and beyond — cousins thick as siblings, families living up and down the same dirt roads, kinfolk gathering under oak trees, in kitchens, and on porches to share news, food, and laughter.

Among those sixteen was Amanda Aiken, a young woman born in 1905 who grew up amid this bustling, close-knit Aiken world. Amanda later gave birth to a daughter whose spirit, warmth, and wisdom would become the heartbeat of the next era of our family: Willie Mae Aiken, lovingly known as Mae, Mama, and eventually Emo .

From Estill to Harlem: The Journey of Willie Mae

Willie Mae Aiken was born July 22, 1929, in Estill, South Carolina, the eldest of three children. She grew up surrounded by her large Aiken clan — cousins like siblings, elders who taught through stories, and traditions grounded in faith, hard work, and family unity. She spent her childhood on lands her ancestors once labored on, where Aiken relatives continued to work for decades — especially at the Belmont Lodge, whose halls and fields held generations of Aiken footsteps.

As a teenager, Willie Mae joined the Great Migration’s northern wave. She first moved to Paterson, New Jersey, before being lovingly redirected by Aiken relatives to Harlem — a community humming with Black life, ambition, and possibility. There, her Uncle Lucius watched over her like a guardian, ensuring she remained surrounded by kin and opportunity. And in that circle of protection, a new chapter of the family story was waiting

Enter Eddie Young: A Man of Strength, Quiet Leadership, and Deep Roots

Before Willie Mae ever set foot in New York, another story had already begun — the story of Eddie (Edgar) Young, born September 17, 1907, in Wagon Branch near Ridgeland, South Carolina . Eddie was raised primarily by his grandmother Julia Young — part of a long line of Youngs whose roots ran deep through the Beaufort, Hampton, and Ridgeland areas.

Like so many Black boys in the early 1900s, Eddie’s childhood was marked by hardship, responsibility, and early independence. At just 13, he set out alone into the world, walking countless miles and finding his way through Savannah, Columbia, Philadelphia, and finally New York City. He worked, learned, sacrificed, and built a life through determination and skill — becoming a craftsman, builder, and self-taught problem-solver whose hands could fix just about anything.

Family brought him north — first his siblings, then later, the Aiken and Cuyler connections that tied the Youngs and Aikens together long before his marriage. In Harlem, through Uncle Lucius, Eddie met a young woman whose presence felt like home: Willie Mae Aiken.

Their union was not an accident — it was alignment. It was ancestry at work.

The Young Household: A New Foundation, A New Legacy

Willie Mae and Eddie married and built a family shaped by unity, discipline, humor, and deep love. They raised their children first in Harlem, where Eddie, Michael (James), Dolores (Athaliah), Segun (Marvin), and Cynthia were born. Later, in 1955, the family moved to the Howard Projects in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where Aharon (Anthony), Randy, and Shoshana (Loretta) were added to the fold .

Together they raised 10 children between Eddie’s earlier daughters and the eight he shared with Willie Mae.

Their home was the kind where:

Everybody had a seat at the table.
Wisdom was handed out with dinner.
Peace was expected.
Love was practiced, not just preached.
And nobody — nobody — walked away without learning something.

Willie Mae was the family’s warm fire — the peacemaker, the nurturer, the teacher, the woman whose sweet potato pies, gentle corrections, and unwavering faith held generations together. Eddie was the steady foundation — a quiet leader whose actions taught responsibility, character, and staying power. “Keep a good name,” he would say, “because your reputation arrives before you do.”

They complimented each other perfectly. Her voice and his example raised a family that would spread across the country but never lose its center.

A Legacy That Lives On

Today, the love story that began with two Southern souls — shaped by history, hardship, faith, and family — has blossomed into an extraordinary living legacy.

From their union came:

10 children
46 grandchildren
94 great-grandchildren
47 great-great-grandchildren

That is 197 descendants, and counting — each one carrying the strength of Jim and Martha, the resilience of Amanda, the grace of Willie Mae, and the steady courage of Eddie.

What began in the fields and porches of Hampton County now spans cities, states, and nations. What started with sharecroppers, caretakers, and builders grew into educators, leaders, artists, entrepreneurs, healers, and thinkers.

This is our story.
This is our inheritance.
This is the Young family.

And as we gather for our reunion, we honor the people who stood before us — and the ones who will come after — with gratitude, pride, and a commitment to keep this legacy alive.

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