Christine Sumner releases book over 50 years in the making

Hunter Jones - Jackson Sentinel

On Saturday, Christine Sumner was at the Scottsboro Public Library for the monthly Jackson County Stories program, where the library brings in people from all around Jackson County to share their stories. There, Sumner showed off and gave attendees a small look into a book she’s worked on dating back 50 years ago.

In the 1970s, Sumner gained a passion for Genealogy, searching up old records in an attempt to “solve the puzzle” of people and their ancestors, soon venturing beyond her own family tree and expanding into researching history, particularly in the former town of Bellefonte.

The results from all this work have netted the book she shows off today, “Old Bellefonte: Historical and Genealogical.”

“(The book is about) the history of Bellefonte, the first county seat and all the people that lived there. There are a lot of biographical sketches, almost 200 in the book. 80 Revolutionary War soldiers lived or died here, a lot of old Bible records in the 1700s or 1800s that lived in Bellefonte,” Sumner said. “There are biographical sketches of really all the doctors, lawyers, everybody that lived in or practiced at Bellefonte.”

Along with the people dating back to the Revolutionary War, one of the stories also follows the first regiment sent to the Civil War, where the captain, from Larkinsville, was killed on the first day of the First Battle of Bull Run. While discovering genealogy was extremely hard work, particularly back in 1969 when she first began compiling all these records, Sumner wanted to share not just the history of the town but the stories of the people who lived in it.

“That was my biggest thing because I knew Genealogy and I knew what it would mean to people so I used all the names I could find, all the birthdays, everything I could find and tried to write something about every person that lived there,” Sumner said.

The book can be purchased at the Scottsboro Public Library, Rivers Edge Gallery and at Picker’s Paradise for $69.95.

“I think it will be used for generations to come because it has so many ancestors, their birthdates, where they came from, that sort of thing.,” Sumner said.

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