Welcome back to the African Roots Podcast! You can always reach me at AfricanRootsPodcast@gmail.com
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Well this is October folks and this is probably the month that also has a large number of events going on—starting with next weekend—conferences, lectures, heritage day celebrations are all taking place. Of course after October things wind down for the holiday season—so we can understand that for sure.
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Tomorrow, October 4
Little Rock Group Hosts Research Day
Giving a shout out to folks in Little Rock Arkansas where they will be hosting a Research Day tomorrow. The Arkansas AAHGS Chapter will host a Research Day on Saturday, October 4, 2014 at the Arkansas History Commission located at #1 Capitol Mall (parking is located in the back of the Capitol turn on Wolfe Street) downtown Little Rock. The event beings at 10:30 am and will last throughout the day.If you are interested in learning how to trace your family history, and live in that area, you may want to join them!
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Maryland State Archives Family History Festival
And for those in the Mid-Atlantic area, the Maryland State Archives is launching and hosting American Archives Month, during the month of October. and tomorrow, they will be celebrating by hosting a free Family History Festival on Saturday, October 4, 2014 from 10:00am to 4:00pm in Annapolis.
One of the speakers is a must-hear presenter Robyn Smith! I have heard her presentation on the value of court records—and she will present a session on U sing Court records in Genealogical Research. She is also the host of the blog, “Reclaiming Kin” as well.
The EVENT is free to the public.
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Family History Day Workshop in Baltimore
For folks in Baltimore—there will be a big family history day workshop next weekend—October 11th. The opening keynote is at 8:30 am and of course this family history day will run throughout the day in Stemmers Run in Essex MD. Robert Barnes a retired president of the Maryland Genealogical Society as well as the Baltimore County Genealogical society will be featured opening keynote speaker where he will share the lessons that he has learned as a researcher and as an author.
Another speaker will be Noreen Goodson who is well known for her beginner’s workshops and her work with the Baltimore AAHGS Chapter. The event is free and is sponsored by the the Baltimore stake of the LDS Church.
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Two Black Genealogy Conferences Next Weekend!
Now next week—from Pittsburgh to Chicago—folks will be busy. The national AAHGS conference
will unfold from October 9 -12th, and in Chicago, the annual AAGHSC conference will take place the same weekend—10th and 11th. These are two large and very active groups in the African American genealogy community. I have placed links for you—so you can see what is planned for both society experiences. I have had the pleasure of attending the events for both societies and surely I know that participants will walk away inspired and motivated to get back to the projects on hand.
Speaking of projects–once we are motivated to launch a new project, how do you manage them all? You know what we do as researchers is engage ourselves in various genealogy or writing or blogging projects. I have been involved with trying to organize them myself, and what an experience I am having. Perhaps I will try to address the issue of project management in the future. I am learning so much and with the amount of paper that we all produce we are sometimes bogged down with our many projects. And then add conferences and events to them–it takes a different kind of energy to address them.
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Incarceration Records for Genealogical Data
Have you ever looked for someone and could not find them, although you know that they were not deceased in a record? Well you may want to consider exploring some amazing and not often mentioned records from the American penal system. Last night on Blog Talk Radio’s program hosted by Bernice Bennett, her guest gave us an earful! Records of prisons, prison dockets and state and federal data were presented. Sharon Battiste Gillens is an amazing researcher and an excellent presenter anyway. She took us through some amazing data collected on inmates some of which are so filled with details about the lives of those incarcerated, especially in the early 20th century.
She also pointed out that many of the prisoners were not just found in prison records, but were in many cases enumerated in the federal system. We all listed to the story of James Banks, who from the age of 11, was a part of the system that just could not let him go. Other issues were discussed also such as those cases of peonage—the detaining of men on charges on vagrancy, and them feeding them into a structured work system from which so many could not escape for years. The discussion was well done and truly an enlightening one. Bernice Bennett’s show, Research At the National Archives and Beyond, airs every Thursday evening at 9:00 pm on Blog Talk Radio.
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Reflections About Genealogy Television Programs
Well—-I am sure that you have been reading some of the chatter which has been engaging, about the recent episodes of Finding your Roots. There are some doubts whether data presented to the guests truly reflected what was being said. Yes we saw the female child being presented as a male child, and we also know that being described as “Creole” is a physical description and another person being describes as being “African” is also a physical description—and it is not an indicator of the place of birth of the person whose name appears on the a document. We saw other data where the voice over did not match proven fact and have learned that some assumption were made.
However—there is still so much to appreciate:
1) More are asking questions and looking for answers to family mysteries.
2) Many now appreciate the involvement of family in the genealogical inquiry process.
3) These shows have demonstrated a strong need for standardization of the presentation of genealogical data to recipients. And in the case of African American genealogy—assumptions and generalities and old sayings (such as slaves had no names) must be avoided.
This is a great time to address the issue—for some of the most egregious errors and remarks are a call for others of us in the community to speak, write, teach and lead.
This week several blogs and discussions have occurred also on several genealogy blogs that I share with you here:
1) Nicka Smith share her feelings in her post, Jumping the Shark with Green Jeter. She confronts many critical rules that African American family researchers must face–the issues with the mulatto term–which is no guarantee of a bi-racial parentage of each person.
2) Terry Ligon asks questions and looks at the issues of persons learning about their missing fathers in his piece In Search of Our Fathers. He addresses how such issues should be approached with respect and frankness, as the voids in the lives of the guests are being presented.
3) I also addressed the issues from the first broadcast last week, on my personal blog when Courtney Vance learned the story of his grandmother Ardella Vance. In that piece In Search of Victoria Ardella’s Family, I addressed some of the missed opportunities to provide a platform that transcended the tragedies in a young girl’s life. Editing issues often affect what we see, but we as an inquiring audience and as people whose histories are on the same historic landscape have the right to have the story told differently. Yes the medium of television often features the salacious stories–but then again–some of these are coming through a portal that is considered the least salacious in structure–PBS! So I felt compelled to take Ardella’s story to another place and to say her mother’s name.
I hope that others will write and share their thoughts as well. Are we up to that task?
I shall leave that question unanswered and hope that you will think about it and perhaps we can collaborate in ways to see that our stories are told, and told with respect and dignity, and told without assumptions. We can do this!
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Thank you all for listening and know that you are appreciated. In the meantime, remember to keep researching, keep documenting and keep sharing what you find.
