Well hello everyone–it is so good to be back! Welcome back to the African Roots Podcast and you can reach me at AfricanRootsPodcast@gmail.com

I know this is not a Friday, and we are into a brand new year—and happy new year to you all! Things are going by so quickly and it is almost February.

Upcoming Travels:

Lots of travel coming up Salt Lake City, Sacramento California, then Arkansas, for the AHA annual conference, then I may join some ladies in New Orleans in May, then on to the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, then on the Kentucky and to visit some of the old Civil War Fort Nelson is. And in July I will be at ACPL for MAAGI—The Midwest African American Genealogy Institute. So lots of things are underway.

52 Families in 52 Weeks- Completed

I have to point out I have been resting–in a state of recovery—last year I committed to documenting 52 families in 52 weeks. This was loosely based on the 52 Ancestor project launched by Amy Johnson Crow. But instead of writing about 52 ancestors, I committed to documented to documenting the families of the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes—Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek & Seminoles. I decided to document 52 families-meaning  one family each week–and to reflect their histories. Well– I got it done!!! But to undertake a project like that–you will find that you will slow down more than one time during the year. As the year end approached, I had to catch up. Thankfully, I finished on the 30th of December I finished my last of the families.

These were stories with images of family records, and some with a some photographs, and even some interviews from the Indian Pioneer project. I have to point out that one family gave me a real challenge–that I had thought that one woman was the matriarch of the family. There were so many families had the same person listed as the mother—Elsie Stevenson. I discovered that there were 3 different households with a woman called Elsie who was the family matriarch. These families were not all connected. Some had been enslaved by different people and there was a 4th Elsie who was a Choctaw Freedman. With all of these Elsies, I was able to sort it out—and to determine the families from each other.

I was also excited to write a story about Joe & Dillard  Perry who had an on going story of requesting to be moved from the Freedman Roll to the Blood roll. That entire project of 52 weeks really wore me out, and I took a break.

Now that the 52 week project is over, time for new adventures.
I have some goals that I can share:
* Completely revise and publish a manuscript and publish it as a book.
*To solve a DNA connection and to determine how we match.
* To restore my YouTube channel–African Roots TV will be coming back. (remember you heard it here first)
* Digging the Roots will be coming back—Shelley Murphy will be joining me again for some genea-chats.

Book Reviews Coming

Final goals for this year will be: *Book Reviews–I will be adding some book reviews to the YouTube channel.

First Review–Somerset Homecoming by Dorothy Spruill Redford–the story where a young woman was inspired to search for and to find her own family history. Well–these are the books that I hope to cover on my YouTube channel.

This research-inspired books are again part memoir, but also how family history research became the meat of the book.  Similar books that I shall discuss are, “Sweeter the Juice”, or”One Drop” by Bliss Broyard, and “The Washingtons of Wessyngton” by John Baker. Well I shall be researching books all inspired by research that is shared with the readers. So these are things to look forward to. All will be reviewed on YouTube!

So–welcome back to the listening community, and join me this year as many things are unwinding, and I hope to see some of you as my travels unfold.

In the meantime, join me, and remember to keep researching, keep documenting, and always keep sharing what you find! Welcome to 2018!!