African Roots Podcast Episode #212

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Hello and welcome back to the African Roots Podcast!
You can reach me at AfricanRootsPodcast@gmail.com

Well I hope you had a good week! I had a chance to get some research done this past week. I went through boxes of Service Records of women of color who were nurses, matrons, laundresses and cooks. I have been intrigued by these women who served in the war as civilian workers and I am immersed in a project to document as many women of color as possible. So keep your eyes open for my blog post about these women on my USCT Blog.

Events coming up:
April 27th at the Family History Center, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, an all day genealogy workshop will unfold.

May 4th Family History Center in Kensington MD will also host an all day genealogy seminar from 9 – 3 pm.

News from Florida:
Oldest genealogical records to be digitized and to go online. The reason that I am sharing this information with you, is that among some of those old records from the 1600s are records with names of freed slaves. Keep in mind that from 1619 onward, Africans were In what would eventually become the United States. 1619, individuals landed in Jamestown and from that time forward, enslaved Africans were arriving throughout the America’s but also here in what we know as North America. We often think of US History as being history exclusively of UK origin. HOWEVER—we cannot forget Spain and the territory that was Spanish—and that later became the state of Florida. Well, there are records that reflect the diversity of the city that included escaped slaves who made their way to Florida from Georgia, and the Carolinas as well. So let’s stay tuned to this story—and when the records are available, I shall share with you.

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Do you use City Directories in your research?
Well there is an online site that will provide some access to directories from multiple states. Two sites are quite fascination—one which I use for Freedman’s bureau data and the other I have not used as much. Archive.org which has a number of collections has a good portal to view city directories and secondly Don’s list. Interesting sites and both are free—so take a look.

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Well a chapter in history has been closed. The Scottsboro Boys have had their names cleared at last. This was on of the terrible tragedies of the early 20th century when rape hysteria occurred and were often hurled at 9 black teenagers who were to be executed for an incident that never took place.
More information here.

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Great link containing a list of emigrants to Liberia. This came from a 19th century book about the ship Azor that transported these former slaves to Africa in 1878. This is one of the few resources that lists the outbound passengers en route to Liberia.

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MAAGI-–last night’s episode of the Bernice Bennett show was lots of fun—with a chance to hear about the upcoming African American genealogy institute!

President Charles Brown was co-moderator introducing the staff of MAAGI and a chance to get an overview of what to expect. Tune in to find out more of what is going to unfold at this Institute in St. Louis!

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NEH Grants (National Endowments of the Humanities) are available for organizations, societies, libraries to apply for and May 15, is an upcoming deadline. These grants are available for up to $1200 for groups to use. If you have a small project and need some funding, perhaps one of these grants might assist you. This might be the time to launch your project.

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Well, thanks for listening and tuning in and taking time form your own schedule to listen, and to continue to share things with me. In the meantime, have a great week of research, and keep researching, keep documenting and keep sharing what you find.

Posted by Angela Y. Walton-Raji

Author, lecturer and researcher. Author, "Black Indian Genealogy Research, An Expanded Edition". Editor, Voices of Indian Territory. Member AAHGS -Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society. PAAC-Preservation of African American Cemeteries. Founding Member of AfriGeneas. Faculty member for Samford IGHR, MAAGI-Midwest African American Genealogy Institute.

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