Welcome back to the African Roots Podcast!  You can reach me HERE. It is great to be back home in Maryland! I was in Atlanta this time last week, and two weeks ago, I was in beautiful Salt Lake City, for Roots Tech.  I had a great experience in both cities, but coming home is always a nice thing.

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A serious winter is still roaring away and I hope that you are all keeping safe and warm. We are at the end of February, and just two more days to take advantage of free access to Fold3 and the African American collections on that site. So if you are not already a subscriber, take advantage and look at the Civil War service records, also items reflecting Civil Rights years, slavery, emancipation and so much more.
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Still time to also submit a proposal for presenting at the annual national conference for AAHGS, that will occur in October in Richmond Virginia. If you are thinking of submitting, go on and get that proposal in right now.

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A special thank you to all who are visiting the new mapping site, Mapping The Freedmen’s Bureau. Perhaps you had an ancestor who used the services of the Freedmen’s Bureau, or who was a patient at a post civil war hospital, or who attended a freedmen’s school. Well I am excited to mention that there is now another new mapping site. The African American Geography of the Civil War in Tennessee. This is a wonderful site that is also interactive, and it is a GIS application that has over 150 sites. Also Union Army recruitment sites that recruited black soldiers from Tennessee. You might find some additional records that might reflect your ancestors and help to tell more of the story.  So take a look at this new mapping site. What a thrill to see some new colleagues in the mapping world.

Landscape of Liberation Map

I was fascinated by one of the documents that I discovered through this site was one pertaining to the Colored Orphan’s Asylum in Memphis when many children were left homeless and parent-less during the Civil War.

 Harper’s Weekly, May 1866

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Tune in to last night’s episode of Bernice Bennett’s show, if you missed it.  Her guests were two people whom she had as guests before. Sharon Morgan and Thomas DeWolfe were her guests who shared elements of their lives since the book Coming to the Table was published. This was an interesting show and provided listeners to get another version of the same story. What happened after the book was published and after they have traveled across the country together sharing their  story of the life after the publication. Ms. Bennett’s show, Research at the National Archives and Beyond airs every Thursday evening at 9pm on Blog Talk Radio.

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Keep your eyes open for updates on the MAAGI website. Registration will open up this weekend. This might be a great time to enhance you genealogy skills and take classes at the Institute.

And speaking of classes those who are halfway through the History of the Slave South offered through University of Pennsylvania. Keep at it, what a wonderful accomplishment to complete this amazing course.
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Upcoming Events

March 21st 2015 at Enoch Pratt Free Library at the Southeastern branch, I shall be giving an all day presentation on methods of researching Native American Ancestry. This will go from 10 am to 4L30 pm.

April 18th, Old State House Museum in Little Rock Arkansas, I am honored to participate in a special event called “Let Freedom Ring”. This is in celebration of freedom and how the enslaved population coped and fared in those years as the war ended. I hope to see many in Arkansas for that event.  This will be free and open to the public.

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How does one balance—perhaps this is the time to invest in a good calendar or planner to keep up with things. Also I use not only a planner, but also a journal, and during this sesquicentenniel of the end of the Civil War, of slavery, establishment of schools, or hospitals. There are so many unwritten stories, and many are buried in collections such as Record Group 105. As we plan our reunions, I hope that many will incorporate the year of freedom into the family story. In many cases, those whose families were free people—they too had endured separation. In some cases one portion of the family was manumitted, but others remained enslaved. They too were now able to reunite with loved ones, because movement was no longer restricted.
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Also take note of the wonderful online celebrations of Black History from the wonderful exhibits that have been shared online. Some photo galleries and amazing images. Yes, every month is Black History Month for myself and so many others, there are some special online exhibits that have been shared. Also I am thrilled to see that people are still sharing events and photos from Roots Tech and I urge you to catch the live video streams from that event. Also note–Bernice Bennett has compiled all of the videos made by African Americans at Roots Tech on one YouTube Video channel.

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Don’t forget to tell your own stories including your version of this winter’s amazing story. I hope you are also writing and journaling to share you own story. Yes, I love journaling, and believe in recording events in one’s life.

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Well time to wind down. Thank you all for taking time to listen to this week’s podcast! Thank you all for being there.

Have a wonderful week everyone, and please remember to keep researching, keep documenting and remember to keep sharing what you find!