Welcome back to the African Roots Podcast!
I am coming to you today from Atlanta Georgia, and I am still in a post Roots-Tech high. I went, I saw, and I was truly wowed! I can’t imagine planning that event–12,000 plus people, and then Saturday, there were 20,000 people, on Family Day! What an experience, and I started with a VIP tour and was then escorted to the reserved seating section for the opening session.
I met some of the local people. Tamu Smith and Thom Reed were very gracious and made us feel a part of the activities. And it was a great place to also run into old friends from the genealogy community as well. And interestingly so many of them were there!
Pat Richley-Erickson and myself in the media hub.
I was also simply dazzled by the enormity of the place with two adjoining expo halls. There was also an interesting media booth, for participants to go in , make small videos and share their insights. I was interviewed by Bernice Bennett who also interviewed Kenyatta Berry, of the Genealogy Roadshow. I then had a chance to interview faculty members and coordinators of the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute. If you can attend, I urge you to do so.
I was pleased to see a true interest in seeing presenters from diverse communities, so when the call for papers emerges, you are encouraged to submit a proposal. I did get a chance to spend time at the Family History Center. I am still working on my project reflecting Freedmen schools in the Choctaw Nation. All the time while there, the weather was beautiful, almost spring like with temperatures in the sixties! I was truly thrilled and believe it or not, I am thinking about 2016. Overall it was a wonderful experience. Also, I urge you to watch some of the taped video streamed presentations.
Shifting gears to a few announcements:
In March, the Greater Sacramento California a Family History seminar with focus on African American family history. Some interesting exhibits will be shared and this will be the 10th year of this seminar. To be guaranteed to get a syllabus, one should pre-register by March 7th. The featured speaker is Tony Burroughs, and they have some amazing instructors as well as a wide variety of topics to be covered, from DNA to Native American genealogy. The seminar will be a full day from 8am to 4pm.
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Road Show Casting
Are you interested in being on the Genealogy Roadshow for next season? I am putting a link to the casting process for the roadshow.
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Last Night Bernice Bennett featured Char McCargo Bah, who has taken community research to a new level. She has truly become a Living Legend because of her work on the Freedmen community in Alexandria. She was a guest last night on Bernice’s show, Research At the National Archives & Beyond, which airs every Thursday at 9pm on Blog Talk Radio.
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I received a nice letter from a person who attended my workshop on using newspapers to extract the African American story. He decided to see if he could find anything published on his 3rd great grandfather. He was inspired to do some additional letter about his ancestor. He wanted to see if family oral history was correct. It turns out that this ancestor was the first Black Asst. Lighthouse keeper at the Craighill Lighthouse. He decided to google this information and found several things in print about. He found him listed in 4 different publications. I was thrilled to see that someone followed a suggestion and had some success.
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Top Online Resources
The Family Search Blog mentioned a number of African American Social Media Resources to follow. I was honored to be among those mentioned. Congratulations also to all of those mentioned. AfriGeneas was listed, as was Melvin Collier and his blog, Roots Revealed, Kristin Cleage Williams hosts Finding Eliza, LowCountry Africana, Our Black Ancestry which a large group of more than 20,000 members on social media received this honor as well. And yes, the African Roots Podcast was also mentioned. What an honor, and thank you Family Search for mentioning this site as a resource.
Well, I am here in Atlanta and have a webinar on Family Tree Webinars, entitled, Researching Your Ancestors in the Era of Freedom. I also have a presentation tonight and tomorrow. I shall be participating at the National Archives branch in Atlanta Georgia.
Well I am preparing for today and tomorrow’s event, so I shall wind things down. Thank you all, and do stay warm. I appreciate you for taking time out to tun in to this weekly podcast! Also this is Black History month and many societies are having events. Best wishes to friends in St. Louis who are having an event tomorrow. Have a great week of research, and remember to keep researching, keep documenting, and keep sharing what you find!
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