Welcome back to the African Roots Podcast! You can always reach me here.
We are almost into the holiday season. Halloween is over, and we are almost into Thanksgiving.
Well, we are fully into this downside of a milestone year, and I hope that you are honoring the ancestors, still this later into the year. Note that of course were still celebrated the 150 years of freedom of our ancestors, many of whom gained that freedom when the Civil War ended in 1865. In addition, that was also the same year that slavery was officially abolished with the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was passed. That was the official act that abolished slavery. How many of you are also aware that we are celebrating a special 50th anniversary as well. Yes, it was 50 years ago that the Civil Rights acts was passed as well. We should honor our ancestors and remember all of these dates. I was quite young when the law was passed. The decades have quickly passed, but we should not become complacent and forget this significant time.
I hope that you have been honoring your ancestors by blogging, writing, sharing your local history. Have you found your family’s freedom story? How did freedom come to them? The act of emancipation changed the trajectory of your family’s life. We should tell this story and tell it frequently. And how did the Civil Rights act affect your own family life, and pathway. As we move to the end of this year, let us appreciate what has transpired and also what happened 150 years ago, and also 50 years ago.
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I have been busy this week with #NANOWRIMO. That stands for National Novel Writing Month. Well, I am taking one of my ancestral stories, and putting the story down in a narrative historical novel format. This an website and an initiative to pull out the words that are inside, and to commit to about 1670 words a day for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, one should have 50,000 words. That is the length of a small novel. I am using documents that I have from a Civil War pension file, and am telling the story. I have placed myself on the soil with them and imagined what must have transpired when my gr. gr. grandfather told my Amanda that he was leaving to join the soldiers. I guess I have head many of these words in my head for so long. Since Sunday November 1, I have been writing and have been enjoying this process. At the end have 6 days. I have written over 15,000 words. I am surprised. I have a commitment at least to tell the story and go through the exercise. I urge you too, to consider to write the family story. Try to comprehend, put it in a family history. I am having a lot of fun with #NANOWRIMO2015, and I have run into a handful of other genealogists who are also “doing Nanowrimo as well. So wish me luck with this endeavor.
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Last night’s episode of Bernice Bennett’s show featured Regina Mason, author of a new edition of the Life of William Grimes, The Runaway Slaves. This was the first of all of the slave narratives to be published. What I like is that she spent 15 years authenticating the data in his history. She is her family historian, and she has co-edited this book. She has received a few awards for her work, and now she is working on her own journey to authenticate this journey. She went to verify the information that was there. What a wonderful lesson, she took many years to veryify data, and that effort is one of two stories. One story is the story being researched, and the other story is the journey itself. I appreciate what writers do, and have major respect for the process and we all need to be thinking about this. Tune in and listen to Regina Mason, on Bernice’s show from last night. The show is available afterwards as a podcast immediately after the broadcast
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The Smithsonian, National Museum of African American History and Culture opens in 2016 and is now offering internships and fellowships. This is a great opportunity for young scholars. We need more archivists, and repositories. For more information click HERE.
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Next week in Veterans’ Day and people in Kansas City are looking for relatives of Waymon Minor, in Apanoosa County Iowa. He is of interest because he was the last person to die in World War I, 3 hours before Armistice was signed. He is buried at St. Mihiel Cemetery in Thaincourt, north of Paris. There is an effort to locate relatives and to honor him.
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Also a newspaper site for African American newspapers is now available. Please take a look here!
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Thank you all for sharing stories with me. Your time is appreciated and your sharing stories and projects is also appreciated. You have choices and I am aware of that, and I an honored by your sharing your time.
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Don’f forget to join the BLACK PRO GEN Google hangout on Tuesday November 19th at 9pm est.
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Well, winding down after another week. Thank you for listening and remember to keep researching, keep documenting and keep sharing what you find!
