A Guide to the Reid-Grant-Kerns Family Papers, 1893-1996, #50977

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Reid-Grant-Kerns Family Papers, 1893-1996. Accession 50977. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Estate of Charles Reid, via Laura Grams, Palo Alto, California, 18 June 2013.

Charles Reid (1800-1899) of Norfolk, Virginia, was born in Forfar, Scotland, on 4 April 1800, the son of George Reid and Elizabeth Taylor Reid. He married Lucretia Nash (1799-1868) of Norfolk County, Virginia, on 17 March 1825. The couple had at least three sons and two daughters. Their son George C. Reid married Alice Harrison Grant; they were the parents of Cornelia Grant Reid (14 December 1893-16 May 1994), who married George L. Kerns in 1918. Their children included Alice Reid Kerns (2 April 1921-14 July 1996), who married Stanley Grams and had two children, Laura and Thomas; and Cornelius Reid Kerns (31 March 1923-10 February 1945), a B-29 navigator who was killed in action in the Pacific during World War II.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1893-1996, include photographs of Charles Reid (1800-1899) of Norfolk, Virginia, and a biography of him published by Knickerbocker Press (a copy of which is also available as LVA call number CT275.R48 A3); photographs and the marriage license of his granddaughter Cornelia Grant Reid Kerns (1893-1994); photographs of and a scrapbook recording the debutante season of Cornelia's daughter Alice Reid Kerns Grams (1921-1996); and photographs and biographical information on Cornelia's son Cornelius Reid Kerns (1923-1945), a B-29 navigator who was killed in action in the Pacific during World War II. Also includes a small file of genealogical information, chiefly pertaining to the Grant and Warren families, and a handful of newspaper clippings.

Contents List

Boxes 1-2

Reid-Grant-Kerns family papers , 1893-1996 .

Extent: .45 cubic feet (2 boxes).

Box 1 Folder 1
Alice Reid Kerns Grams, 1939, 1956 , and undated.

Photographs, pages from her 1939 Maury High School (Norfolk, Va.) yearbook, and her obituary. See also the scrapbook she kept of her debutante season, 1941-1942, located in Box 2.
Box 1 Folder 2
Clippings, 1956-1990 , and undated.
Box 1 Folder 3
Cornelia Grant Reid Kerns, ca. 1898-1918 , and undated.

Photograph of Cornelia Grant Reid as a child with her grandfather, Charles Reid; an undated photo of her as a young woman; her bridal portrait and marriage license, 1918; and an undated photograph of her taken in her late 90's.
Box 1 Folder 4
Cornelius Reid Kerns, 1941, 1950-1951 , and undated.

Undated photographs of Kerns as a child, and in uniform during World War II; pages from his 1941 Maury High School (Norfolk, Va.) yearbook; biographical sketch of Kerns written by his mother Cornelia Grant Reid Kerns after his death; a newspaper clipping about his burial in a common grave with 22 other airmen at Arlington National Cemetery; biographical sketch of Kerns included in Yale Men Who Died in the Second World War (Yale University Press, 1951); and a letter, 1950, to Cornelia Kerns notifying her that her son was to be honored as one of the men for whom a memorial plaque was placed at First Presbyterian Church (Norfolk, Va.).
Box 1 Folder 5
Genealogical information.

Limited genealogical information chiefly pertaining to the Reid, Grant, and Warren families.
Box 1 Folder 6
Reid family photographs, 1893 and undated.

Includes a group photograph, 1893, of Charles Reid with 25 of his descendants.
Box 2
Alice Reid Kerns debutante scrapbook, 1941-1942 .
Box 2
Biography: Charles Reid: Born in Forfar, Scotland, April 4th, 1800; Came to This Country in 1801, Died in Norfolk, Virginia, January 17th, 1899 , published by Knickerbocker Press, New York, ca. 1899 .

This volume is also available in the Library of Virginia's book collection, call number CT275.R48 A3.