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Local figure

Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald

Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald was born enslaved in 1844 to Harriet, a woman held by the Smith family of Hillsborough, after James Strudwick Smith's son Sidney raped her mother. In 1845 Cornelia, Harriet and Cornelia's brother Julius were sold to Mary Ruffin Smith, Cornelia's aunt. She married Robert G. Fitzgerald in 1869, and the couple later raised their granddaughter Pauli Murray in Durham.

Source: NCpedia: Fitzgerald, Robert George

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

Research sources

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Harriet, enslaved by the Smith family in Hillsborough, gives birth to Cornelia after Sidney Smith rapes her Harriet, bought by James Strudwick Smith in 1834 as a maid for his daughter Mary Ruffin Smith, was raped by his son Sidney and gave birth to Cornelia in 1844, while the family's home was in Hillsborough. Cornelia's granddaughter Pauli Murray told the story in Proud Shoes. People: James Strudwick Smith, Mary Ruffin Smith, Pauli Murray, Cornelia Smith FitzgeraldSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, Smith family and early UNC connections
  2. James Strudwick Smith sells Harriet, Julius and Cornelia to Mary Ruffin Smith Shielding his property from creditors, James Strudwick Smith passed most of the family's holdings to his daughter Mary Ruffin Smith, including Harriet and her children Julius and Cornelia, whom he sold to her in 1845. Cornelia had been born in 1844 after Sidney Smith raped Harriet. People: James Strudwick Smith, Cornelia Smith FitzgeraldSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, Smith family and early UNC connections
  3. Robert G. Fitzgerald marries Cornelia Smith of Chapel Hill Fitzgerald married Cornelia Smith, a niece of Mary Ruffin Smith, the Chapel Hill benefactor of the university. Their granddaughter Pauli Murray later told the family's story in Proud Shoes. People: Pauli Murray, Mary Ruffin Smith, Cornelia Smith FitzgeraldSearch the index · NCpedia: Fitzgerald, Robert George (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
  4. Pauli Murray celebrates her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross Murray, newly ordained an Episcopal priest, celebrated her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill at the invitation of the rector Peter James Lee, who cited her family's connection to the parish. Her grandmother Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald had been baptized in the same chapel on December 20, 1854. People: Cornelia Smith FitzgeraldSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, 1977 First Holy Eucharist at Chapel of the Cross

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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Books about Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald

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