Welcome back to this episode of the African Roots Podcast! You can reach me HERE.
As the Storm Approaches………..
Well hello everyone, I am coming to you from the Mid-Atlantic waiting for bands of rain to approach as Hurricane Florence is coming ashore. Prayers for the safety of our friends and family in the Carolinas who are in the path of the storm. Here in the Mid-Atlantic, we are awaiting that to move through bringing us mostly rain and lots of it. However we must think about those in the direct path of the wind and power, and pray that they will come through it safely.
Roots to Glory Tour Underway………..
In the genealogy community, I want to give a shout out to a group of researchers who have traveled to West Africa as part of the Roots to Glory heritage tour. They are currently in the Ivory Coast, or Cote d’Ivoire as it is said in French. Among the travelers are Bernice Bennett and Patricia Glover Howard, who are participants in the Roots to Glory tour. They will be visiting the village of where the mud cloth is made. Many of you are familiar with the beautiful mud cloth images. Best wishes for a wonderful and memorable trip.
A New Podcast Emerges: DeColonize The Mind ………
Congratulations to genealogist and researcher George Geder, who has joined the podcast community! So proud and so impressed with him. It is called De-Colonize the Mind. He is giving critical analysis to things that we have been taught over the years. He is active in social media, and for us, we consider George Geder to be the conscience of the genealogy community. Community and welcome to the podcasting community.
African American Family History Day ……………….
I am getting ready to travel to Poplar Forest in Virginia where I will be participating in the African American Family History Day. I am on the program with friend and colleague, Dr. Shelley Murphy. The event will occur next Saturday on September 22 from 10 am to 2:00 pm. Shelley will give the opening address, and there will be two poignant sessions—-1) Asking the Right Questions, and 2) Moving form Oral History to the Records. I am excited to be one of the presenters at Poplar Forest next Saturday. I am going to speak about one line of my family from Tennessee. I shall show how I moved from a story shot someone in Tennessee, who ran away to Texas. This was part of the oral history. How was I able to find anything about this ancestor? Well, I shall be talking about that.
In October and in November, I will give a presentation on getting started with family history. Both will be presented at the Community College of Baltimore County–in Essex and Catonsville MD. More about that to come later.
Shout out to the Curtis family who had their 50th family reunion in Prince George’s family, where over 400 people attended. One interesting chapter contains a family that left the family circle and passed, into another culture, but DNA brought the family back together. I have had the chance to research this family with amazing history, going back to colonial times to St. Mary’s County Maryland. So glad they had this reunion.
A Black Newspaper Archive will be a result of a collaborative effort to consolidate the various sites where black newspapers are held. The Chicago Defender, the Afro-American, the Obisidian website will host this parent project. Let’s keep our eyes open on this site that will put these historic publications in the hands of hundreds of more people.
Relative Race Begins……….
By the way—Relative Race begins this weekend. This show combine competition–a race—with genealogy. Four pairs of people are involved in a race across the country, as well as a race to find their family’s history. It combines genealogy with the excitement of a competition! Tune in, or watch it online as I do on www.byutv.org. Several people of color are on the teams so anxious to see what they explore and what they find!
Time for a Project
Have you ever felt burned out, or feeling empty about what to do next with your genealogy? Sometimes those discoveries are not as frequent as they used to be? Are you feeling that you have run out of things to do? And do you love the process of looking? Well—perhaps it is time for you to initiate a project!! Do you have a project? Perhaps you can back up and look at those events that affected the entire community. You might find the next genealogy endeavor to become enriched by telling a larger story–the story of the community. The ancestors had numerous contacts. Pay attention to the societies that the ancestors were part of? Was grandpa a mason, or grandma a member of the Eastern Star? What do the old newspapers tell you? What were the benevolent societies that they were a part of? Do their headstones reflect something? You can learn a lot by studying the community. Perhaps the next story might be study the societies were active. If you live in Lexington Kentucky—-there was the old Colored Orphanage, created by the society that created it? Did you ancestors attend the old academies, or Rosenwald schools? Look beyond the ancestral back yard..you may be surprised to see what you may find. Consider exploring those artifacts in the family and see what they can point you to. So many projects in which you can immerse yourself. Perhaps there was one group that was dominant. Have you ever driven through the old hometown and taken a photo of each and every black church? Some of those churches are over 150 years old. Take photos–document those old establishments. Find a project and you will probably stumble upon your own ancestors in a new way.
Well, going to wrap things up–on this stormy day, I hope that all of you will stay safe. If you have power, pull out a journal and write about or record about what is happening as you go through things. In the meantime–please remember to keep researching, keep documenting and always keep sharing what you find.
