EXMORE, Va. (Delmarva Now) -- Bobby Harmon doesn't fit the image that likely pops into one's mind when the word "genealogist' is mentioned.
Harmon, a slim, dreadlocked, 25-year-old man who currently works as a sales associate with Nike, spoke to the Boys and Girls Club at Occohannock Elementary School about his passion for his Eastern Shore of Virginia roots — and encouraged the children to follow their own passions, as well.
"My goal here today is just to talk to you all about the history of the Eastern Shore, because, whether you know it or not, the history of the Eastern Shore is very involved with everybody in this room — because everybody has somebody that came from the Shore, owned land, did something in their life, that's saved in a record somewhere," Harmon said.
Harmon was born in Norfolk, but his family ties are in Northampton County — his father's family is from Exmore and his mother's is from Eastville.
Their roots go back to pre-Civil War days.
"For about 160 years, my family has been living in Eastville, Virginia. They've left land records there; they've left war records from the Civil War; they've left different court cases ... Essentially, that's basically all my book is going to be about — it's going to just be about the records that I'm finding, and then me ... giving commentary," Harmon said.
His interest in local history, and in his own family's genealogy, stems from growing up around older relatives — his oldest sibling is two decades older than he, and with numerous cousins decades older than that, he heard many stories that piqued his interest in tracing his heritage.
Harmon told the Boys and Girls Club youth he plans to write a book about his family in Northampton County — and to become a certified genealogist.
"I can start a business, I can help other people from the Shore find their family, and I can go places and talk to other kids, just like this, and get paid — and I can make a career from it," he said, urging his listeners to also think outside the box about careers.
It all started with a two-week free trial subscription to Ancentry.com, he said.
Still, it was only when he started delving into local records at the county clerk of court's office in Eastville that fascinating details of his ancestors' lives really began to emerge.
Nowadays, Harmon carries around a thick, black, three-ring binder, stuffed with copies of various documents.
Harmon handed out to the children two copies of historian Frances Bibbins Latimer's book about black history on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, "Life for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair."
"That book is very important to me, because I've got three relatives in that book," he said.
Latimer's book was the first published of biographies of African Americans from Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The information Latimer recorded gave Harmon important clues to pursue in local court records about his ancestors, including one who served in the Civil War.
"Thomas Nelson Baker, that's my third great-uncle," he told the children, after having one person read the entry about Baker from the book.
"So, what I did, I decided I'm going to write a book on my family, the Baker family, so I started cataloguing the records that I could find," he said.
Harmon told the group what he is doing — researching his roots — "can be easily done by anybody."
A good way to start recording their own family's history is to find a relative 50 years or more older than themselves, he told the children.
"You start asking questions. You start writing down names, locations, and birthdates," Harmon said, adding, "Once you get this information, then you can go to the library."
"Essentially, there's so much hidden history on the Eastern Shore; you can just walk down the street and see something that's historic," he said.
It looks like Harmon is well on his way to honoring and perhaps even expanding on the work of Latimer, who dedicated much of her life to preserving and writing about the history of blacks on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
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