Happy Angel Day Dad February 7, 1977

I have memory issues, but some things stick in my memory. The death of Dad is one of those events. He died February 7, 1977. You can visit his grave on BillionGraves: https://billiongraves.com/headstone/Fredrick-Willard-Smith/843592  or Find-A-Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85161383/f-smit – has a photo taken after the birth of his first grandchild, my niece.

According to my birth certificate, Dad was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, a location I didn’t question for many years. When I noticed some records on Ancestry.com, I wondered if he was born in Portsmouth since the records were showing North Carolina information shortly after his birth. Eventually, I found a birth certificate for Dad with birth location of Norfolk, Virginia. It’s close to Portsmouth, but at age 5 months, 1930 federal census records have him living in eastern North Carolina with his parents. I don’t know how he came to be born in Norfolk. For the Portsmouth mistake on my birth certificate, I believe Mom assumed he was born there based on where he joined the Air Force.

In the 1940 federal census, Dad and his parents had moved to the Outer Banks (North Carolina) area. They moved to Manteo, North Carolina no later than 1935 since the 1940 census showed same address for 1935.