Welcome back! This has been a busy week! And a shout out to those who are attending the gathering of historians in Washington DC, hosted at the Smithsonian, looking at “The Future of the African American Past.” They are scholars in African American history, who are taking a look at African American history as a discipline, and hope that you will catch some on Saturday as well, as they are being live streamed. Listen to the presentations HERE. I should also point out that the conference papers can also be downloaded HERE.
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New Co-habitation Records Found!
Thanks to the efforts of the Westmoreland County Clerk of the Circuit Court and her staff, the county’s cohabitation register and register of children, both 1866, were recently rediscovered. The pages will be conserved, digitized, and added to the on-going cohabitation register digital project. The records will rest on a digital project at the Library of Virginia and can be explored
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The International Black Genealogy Summit Schedule has been posted!
The schedule for the Black Genealogy Summit is now available. Please take a look–a lot of familiar names and some new names are among the speakers. I am looking forward to being there, and looking towards meetings friends and colleagues at this event in northern Virginia in early September! Take a close look at the conference schedule.
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The Georgetown Memory Project has been in the news quite a bit the past several weeks. The effort to study the incidence of slavery among Jesuits has somehow become big news as it is just capturing the attention of the public. Over 200 enslaved people were sold south, to allow Georgetown University to expand.
There is now an effort now to re-establish contact and to find descendants of the slaves of the Georgetown slaves sent south to Louisiana.
Well last night on Bernice Bennett’s show featured the lead genealogist Judy Riffel, and a descendant of one of the Jesuit held slaves who now lives in the state of Washington. I have been fascinated to look at the stories of people who are descendants. I am surprised at how surprised the descendants are. The slave holders were priests who were men of their day. Slavery was horrific, and everyone–even the most well respected, also found enslavement of other people to be perfectly acceptable. Tune in to last night’s show if you missed it. Her show can be heard every Thursday evening on Blog Talk Radio at 9 pm.
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Well time to wrap things up this week, and thank you so much for taking time to listen. You are appreciated for tuning in and thank you for your messages and notes this week! And remember to keep researching, keep documenting and keep sharing what you find!
