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We are thankful that you are a member of our genealogy family. To show our gratitude, the Good Genes Genealogy Services team is offering our November 2021 ebook, Family Ties That Bind, to you at a Black Friday 2022 rate.
We are providing you with preview of the book. Please follow the link to our publisher’s store, or pick up your copy on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Enjoy reading a portion of our Chapter 3.
Chapter 3
There’s a knock on the door.
It’s Monday, June 2, 1890, the first day the U.S. Census takers began their monthlong gathering of data that would provide unique, one-time information forever etched in our historical documents. The questioner posed several questions to the household representative. Among those worth noting was the following:
Question #4 ask whether the races of the household inhabitants are “white, black, mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, Chinese, Japanese or Indian.” The Census questioner could no longer look at the household and answer the question. It was up to the household member to self-disclose the information. It was the first and last time that the “quadroon and octoroon” race descriptions were asked on Census documentations.
According to a National Public Radio report, “the government concluded: “These figures are of little value.” “Quadroon” and “octoroon” have never been used again for the census.”
WUAL APR Weekend Edition Saturday
Alabama Public Radio | By Pat Duggins
Published November 4, 2022 at 7:07 PM CDT
Alabama voters head to the polls next week for the midterm elections. One ballot item would abolish slavery in the state. The vote takes place one hundred and fifty seven years after the thirteenth amendment ended the practice nationally. Historians say many of the estimated four hundred thousand enslaved people, who were freed in 1865, chose to live out their lives in Alabama. APR spoke to some of their descendants who say they’re still dealing with the impact of the slave trade. The Alabama Public Radio newsroom spent nine months investigating one aspect of that. Namely, the effort to preserve slave cemeteries in the state. APR’s documentary is titled “No Stone Unturned.”
“I got all my equipment in the back of the Honda CRV. How’s that for efficiency and good engineering?” asked Len Strozier during a quiet morning in a wooded area on the Black Warrior River, north of Tuscaloosa. He’s getting ready to go to work.
“It all scissors out like that,” he said. The scissoring refers to a collapsible rig about the size of a grocery store shopping cart. It has big black wheels, a box on top with buttons and a small view screen. There’s another box down below.
“Alright, this is ground penetrating radar machine. This is two GPS machines,” said Strozier.
A radar antenna that looks for airplanes typically points up. Strozier’s antenna looks down. What interests him lies underground…
It’s just a matter of putting it together,” quips Strozier. He uses his equipment to scan for things like buried water pipes that are leaking. That’s about thirty percent of what he does. Today is how he spends most of his time.
He’s looking for bodies.
“Just walking around, and there’s one right there. That’s a casketed burial,” said Strozier after working less than a minute. “Right now, I see an air pocket where a body was buried in the ground. As the body is placed in the ground. If it’s not embalmed, or protected with a vault, it all breaks down, It degrades…decomposes—including the wooden casket,” he observed.
Strozier runs Omega Mapping Services in Fortson, Georgia. APR news invited him to scan this two acre spot near Tuscaloosa. We’re at the Old Prewitt Slave Cemetery. It was set up in the 1820’s by John Welch Prewitt, a local plantation owner. The one unmarked grave Strozier found was just for starter. A more complete total came later.
“In less than thirty minutes, forty. Just walking around. I’ve seen forty burials out here,” said Strozier.
There’s a handful of tombstones and plain burial markers at Old Prewitt. Nowhere close to the number of graves Strozier found. This isn’t just an issue involving the dead. There are the living as well.
“My father drove us there,” said Patricia Kemp. “I was probably…maybe I want to say six or seven. Then, he’d drive to a place and he’d tell us what it is, or who they were. So, that’s what I remember.”
As an adult, Kemp did some research and she thinks some of her ancestors are buried at the Old Prewitt Slave Cemetery. By that time, the burial yard was disappearing as trees and scrub brush took over. At one point, Alabama listed Old Prewitt as one of the state’s most endangered places.
“Knowing that that cemetery is there, and it is just dwindling away, it’s just being washed away. It’s just thrown away,” said Kemp. “It’s like taking my grandfather, my great grandfather, or father or my mother and knowing that they’re buried there, and just trashing them.”
Old Prewitt isn’t the only slave cemetery in Alabama.
Researchers from the University of Alabama in Huntsville say up to two hundred slaves rest here, at the Mount Paran Cemetery just south of the Tennessee border. That doesn’t count the estimated ten thousand enslaved people believed to be buried nearby in Huntsville.
“I was able to find my great great grandfather listed,” said Ollie Ballard. She thinks that ancestor was one of them. He was enslaved in Huntsville in 1842.
“He was on the Longwood Plantation,” she said. “And, we found his name, and then his son’s name…Caswell, and Caswell, junior. And, we were able to follow him to his death.”
But, that doesn’t mean Ballard can visit her great, great grandfather’s grave site. She’s not sure where that is. There are oral histories told by family members and the few records Ballard could find– but that’s all. And if you’ve never heard a story like that before, we met someone who has.
“All the time, all the time. That is…that is…one of the most outrageous,” said Ethel Alexander. She’s with the Birmingham African American Genealogy Group, the largest of its kind in the state. She says even if family members find the cemetery where their enslaved ancestors are buried, questions often remain
“They may not see anything but a rock,” Alexander observed. “They may not see nothing but tree. You know, you’re not going to be to say ‘oh, there’s my grandfather…great, great, great slave.’”
Back at the Old Prewitt Slave Cemetery in Northport, Alabama– Len Strozier has been doing some thinking. His preliminary scan with ground penetrating radar showed forty unmarked graves. So, now he’s ready to make an educated guess about what he calls unmarks.
“I would say there would be at least two hundred unmarks, in this acre and a half, at least that, without a doubt,” said Strozier.
Each of these unknown burial sites can represent a mystery to a family somewhere. But, you don’t have to have an ancestor buried at Old Prewitt to be involved. For example…Tuscaloosa native and former world heavyweight boxing championship Deontay Wilder.
The parking lot at the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission is especially busy today. Onlookers form a ring around a life sized bronze statue, still covered with a black tarp. The chatter seems divided between the art work and the man who posed for it.
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Deontay Wilder is from Tuscaloosa. He still lives here. Wilder made the rounds in the VIP room just before the statue in his honor was to be unveiled. Some fans talked about his five years as champ. Others focused on his ninety three percent knockout rate. APR news was there for something else.
“To go down there, you can like feel the energy and the power of it,” said Wilder.
During a quiet moment, Wilder talked about visiting the Old Prewitt Slave Cemetery. It wasn’t a long trip. Wilder lives almost next door to the burial site. He says he didn’t know about it when he moved in his new home in Northport. But, he soon did.
“You know how when you move into an area, and the neighbors come and greet you with pies and cakes,” said Wilder.
Instead of dessert, Wilder’s neighbors brought something else
“For me, I got greeted with important information. I got greeted with historic information and stuff like that,” recalled Wilder.
That included stories about Civil War plantation owner John Welch Prewitt and the slave cemetery he set up in Northport in the 1820’s.
“It’s amazing to know that I have an untended graveyard, I literally mean on the side of me. It doesn’t spook me out or nothing like that,” he said.
“I don’t know that a whole lot else stands out about him as except as a slave holder and a plantation owner,” said Doctor Joshua Rothman, of John Welch Prewitt. “Other than that, he’s a very wealthy man and kind of the late antebellum period.”
Rothman is head of the history department at the University of Alabama. His area of expertise is slavery. And, he’s heard his share of stories about Prewitt, including the whoppers.
“So the two that I’ve heard the most are that he enslaved 1000 people, and was the biggest slave holder in Tuscaloosa County. And there’s another story about there being like bars of gold buried on his property,” recalled Rothman.
Rothman says he’s not sure one way or the other about the gold, but the slave count was more like one hundred and fifty, not a thousand.
“What’s weird is that it’s a story people told them they like, but you can look at the census. And you can see it’s not true,” he said.
And if that’s not enough…
“There’s also the tale of a ghost walking on the site of the former home of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Prewitt,” read Allison Hetzel, of the University of Alabama’s Theatre Department. This story comes from the Alabama state archives. It’s from a folder marked “negro folklore.”
“Mrs. Prewitt, affectionately known as “Miss Betsy,” by the negroes, would visit the cabins with simple remedies when any of the slaves were ailing. It is claimed that Miss Betsy still walks on rainy nights, basket on arm. That story being shared by many of the better educated white farmers,” read Hetzell.
“If you tell yourself that story, and you genuinely believe it, then what is there to feel guilty about?” suggested Joshua Rothman.
“It’s not a secret, for example, that there are a lot of stories that are have been told by white Southerners, over the course of many generations, trying to make slavery seem far less bad. And that’s a very different kind of story than descendants of enslaved people are likely to tell,” he said.
And telling that story can be difficult. That’s because whites also kept the records. For the families and volunteers trying to preserve slave cemeteries or find the graves of lost relatives, that’s often where the trail goes cold.
Back at the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports commission, everybody crowds around for the unveiling of Deontay Wilder’s statue…
“It was a treat,” said the champ. Wilder wasn’t referring to letting the crowd see his statue. But, rather the powerful experience of visiting the Old Prewitt Slave Cemetery.
“To understand and know where you are, and what you’re setting your feet on, and what occurred in certain times of the years, that you don’t nothing about,” Wilder said.
Wilder says he’s also ready to help out when it comes preserving Old Prewitt. Not everyone can call on a celebrity to do that. Most of the work to rescue slave burial sites is done by African American families or volunteers. And, their effort apparently faces obstacles not shared by their white neighbors.
It’s check-in time at the Methodist Church in New Market’ Alabama, near the Tennessee border. The paperwork is being done at table one. Volunteers at table two are handing out sausage biscuits. There was also a side order of personal stories…
“I was able to find my great great grandfather,” said Olley Ballard from Huntsville. “He was on the Longwood Plantation. And, we found his name, and then his son’s name…Caswell, and Caswell, junior. And, we were able to follow him to his death.”
Ballard is hoping to find answers here today. She’s among one hundred people attending the twentieth annual workshop of the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance.
Ballard says her great great grandfather was enslaved in Huntsville in 1842. The issue that brought her here today isn’t who he is, but rather where he is now.
“I’m so glad you asked that question,” she said. “Because he was on the Longwood Plantation. And so, I’m thinking, and based on what my forefathers said to me. That more than likely that my great great grandfather was on that plantation.”
And that’s possibly where he’s buried.
Today’s workshop featured speakers on cleaning tombstones and repairing cemetery gates. Ballard is one of only two African Americans in the audience. It’s not grave markers or gates that she came to talk about. Ballard is still working to find her great great grandfather’s burial site. We met someone who’s heard a lot of stories like that…
“All the time, all the time. That is…that is…it was one of the most outrageous,” said Ethel Alexander. She didn’t attend the cemetery workshop. We sat down with her at her home near Birmingham where she went through notebooks on her own family tree.
Alexander is past President of the Birmingham African American Genealogy Group. It’s the largest organization of its kind in the state.
‘ We weren’t really human beings. We were chattle…c.h.a.t.t.l.e,” she observed.
Alexander is referring to the lack of records on kidnapped Africans. The U.S. Archives says the first census that counted former slaves as people was in 1870. Alexander says, before that, most records were bills of sale…
“Say for instance, a planter, he dies, and they have to sell everything,” said Alexander. “The first thing they sell are their slaves, and they were sold before the animals. So we didn’t really have first names except the first names they would give you.”
You heard about Olley Ballard and her effort to find her great great grandfather’s burial site in Huntsville. Ethel Alexander says even if Ballard finds the slave cemetery she’s looking for, she may face another problem…
“They may not see anything but a rock. They may not see nothing but tree. You know, you’re not going to be to say ‘oh, there’s my grandfather…great, great, great slave,” said Alexander.
Back at the workshop of the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance, Rusty Brenner is at work. He sells a spray called D-2. It’s used to clean tombstones. Olley Ballard’s great great grandfather may not have a burial marker of his own, but she says his life is still worth remembering
“They were landowners,” said Ballard. “Even though he was enslaved person in 1842, but 1903 he and wife owned one hundred and sixty acres of land. So, I’m proud and I want to pass it along generation to generation.”
And Ballard has a plan to do that, whether she finds his grave site or not.
“At presently, I’m working with the city of Huntsville and a group to erect a memorial that honors the enslaved people in Huntsville,” she said. “We have approximately fifteen thousand slaves and slaveholders, but we don’t have a grant.”
Money is an issue that comes up a lot on preserving slave burial sites. Some cemeteries only need upkeep. Slave burial grounds often need something like archeology to identity who’s there. Ballard says she hasn’t had much luck finding money for that.
“Many of the grants want you to preserve something,” Ballard noted. “Well, you now we’re looking to preserve words and where they used to be. They’re looking for buildings.”
That situation may be changing, slowly….
Members of Congress are considering what’s known as the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act.
“There are so many sites in Alabama that are known and unknown,” said Alabama Democrat Terri Sewell. She’s a co-sponsor of the U.S. House version of that bill. The measure would enable the U.S. Park Service to create a burial site network. Sewell says it would also provide grants.
“Hopefully, we can speed up the clean-up, but also really direct people on how about doing the historical investigation on the amazing people who are buried there,” said Sewell.
Having a good idea is one thing. But, the burial site legislation has been in committee for three years. It was just was re-introduced back in February. Sewell says there’s nothing wrong with the bill itself.
“No, it was just technical issues about the partnership between the National Park Service and the network, and some very important provisions I wanted to flesh out when it comes to the grants,” Sewell contended.
But, until a final vote is made in Congress, the descendants of slaves and newly freed blacks can only wait. Back at the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance workshop, it’s time for the door prizes. Winners with the lucky numbers pick from items including a tombstone cleaning kit.
Even if Congress passes the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, Olley Ballard may not get the one thing she’s looking for—the exact location of her great great grandfather’s gravesite in Huntsville.
“I know like to know that, definitely that this is location of Longwood Plantation. I would like to walk the grounds, touch the soil, and feel the presence of my ancestors. I would love to do that,” said Ballard.
And feelings like that are shared by others. Not just in Alabama, and not just in the south.
That wasn’t the only story Ballard told that day. Huntsville had a cemetery for slaves and newly freed people. That land was sold to the city. Ballard says it got lost in the fine print.
“And so, they had a stipulation in the deed that the colored cemetery must be protected, but it was not protected,” she said. Huntsville built a parking deck on that spot. APR heard a similar story with a different ending..
“So what happened was they were trying to widen this road Foothill Road in Bridgewater,” said Lorayn Allen.
“And the contractor looked up, and he says, Oh, my God, he said, there’s a cemetery up here,” she recalled. “He says, ‘I think it’s a slave cemetery.’ I don’t know how he knew it, he just knew it.”
Allen’s slave cemetery isn’t in Alabama. It’s not even in the south. In fact, to talk with her about it, I had to fly coach. Bridgewater, New Jersey is about a half hour southwest of Newark Liberty International Airport. It’s here that we found the Prince Rodgers Slave cemetery. It’s wedged between two suburban homes on Foothill Road.
“Prince Rodgers was an amazing human being who was born here in 1815,” said Lorayn Allen. “His parents were literally kidnapped by the Dutch and brought here for free labor.”
Allen formed a foundation to preserve the Bridgewater burial site. Raising money to preserve this slave cemetery is only part of that battle. The other is convincing her own grandchildren that slavery existed in New Jersey.
“They call me Mimi,” said Allen. They say ‘Mimi, for God’s sake, we live in Somerfield, New Jersey.’ I say, do you realize they still have Ku Klux Klan ramblings in certain areas over here? Everything that happened in the South happened here in the North. Make no mistake about it.”
Historians say eleven thousand enslaved Africans were in New Jersey at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The number grew from there.
“Um, but we’re looking about 12 and a half thousand in the year 1800, and about 80% of, um, Africans and African Americans in New Jersey at that point are in slavery,” said Doctor Jesse Bayker. He teaches at Rutgers University. Specifically, Bayker is with the Scarlet and Black Research Center. It focuses on racism against African Americans. New Jersey residents are often surprised when they hear about slavery in the Garden State. Bayker says one group in particular.
“When I talk to African Americans in New Jersey who are not fully aware of the depth of the history of slavery in this state, they are often upset that they haven’t learned it earlier, um, that they have been told, uh, their whole lives, that this was a Southern problem, but that New Jersey wasn’t like that, um, it shifts their perspective of their own home state,” stated Bayker. He says slavery in northern states has been talked about in academic circles for almost a century. But, it’s only been studied seriously since the 1990’s.
“Now it’s the question of, um, making sure that that trickle goes down to things like high school textbooks, um, and to, to students at an earlier age before they get to college,” said Bayker.
Back in the town of Bridgewater, it doesn’t take long to find someone who’s surprised about slavery in New Jersey.
Christopher Montefusco lives on Foothill Road.
“Yeah, it’s crazy, to think New Jersey this far away. I was totally shocked, totally blown away,” he said.
Montefusco wasn’t surprised I was here to talk about the Prince Rodgers Slave Cemetery. It’s in his side yard. The tombstones are within view of the goalie net Montefusco’s son uses for soccer practice.
“You couldn’t see any of the headstones, you couldn’t see anything. So, I thought it was the neighbor’s property,” he said.
Loryan Allen show us Prince Rodger’s tombstone. It’s is the largest in the cemetery. The names and dates are worn away and harder to read. Both that marker and the other smaller ones have parts broken off. Allen thinks it was local teenagers…
“I guess they were drinking,” Allen speculated. “So, they decided they were going to take the stones, and they literally lifted them up out of the ground and threw them all over the cemetery. They broke them in half.”
The upper left hand corner of Prince Rodgers’ grave marker is chipped off. Allen says it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
“They weren’t able to get it out of the ground, but they were able to break it. They had to make an effort to break that stone,” she said.
Prince Rodgers’ slavery ended in 1839. A New Jersey law freed captive women at the age of twenty one and black men at twenty five. The cemetery that bears Rodger’s name was officially dedicated last year. But Allen says, by that time, the name of the former slave was all over town.
“There’s a ten acre complex right around the corner on Prince Rodgers Avenue that’s named in his honor, and there’s a shopping center, Prince Rodgers Shopping Center, and Prince Rodgers Avenue goes all the way to Bridgewater Commons,” said Allen.
But, Allen wants Rodger’s stories to live on as well. He supposedly fought in the U.S. Civil War as a free man, and his descendants live in Bridgewater to this day. All of the families we’ve met in this series have cemeteries and memories they’re working to preserve. But that chance may be slipping away due to the passage of time. There’s also the issue of people, both white and black, who don’t want to talk about racial issues including slavery.
A gentle rain was falling during our visit to the Old Prewitt Slave Cemetery in Northport, near Tuscaloosa. We began our series on preserving slave burial sites here. This two acre cemetery was set aside by plantation owner John Welch Prewitt in the 1820’s.
“Obviously, there are very distinct rows,” said Len Strozier. He runs Omega Mapping Services in Fortson, Georgia. APR news invited him to use ground penetrating radar to do an underground scan of Old Prewitt. Strozier found forty unmarked burials within a half hour. He says he also noticed how they were buried.
“Someone was managing this cemetery,” he observed. “And bodies weren’t thrown out there like grass seed. They were meticulously, and the depths are pretty similar, too.”
“The only reason any of us are here today, is because somebody came before us, and they really came before us,” said Patricia Kemp, who we met earlier in our program. She believes some of her ancestors are laid to rest at Old Prewitt.
“I want to where I came from. I want to know about slavery. I want to what they went through, because they went through a lot for me to be here,” said Kemp.
And answers like those may take more than ground penetrating radar.
“There’s not going to be any body left in here. The body’s decomposed,” said Strozier. The hair, teeth, bone, is pretty much gone,” said Len Strozier. He says his equipment can confirm that someone is buried at Old Prewitt. But, it won’t reveal who that person is. Strozier says that would take clues uncovered by something closer to archeology.
“It could be the sole of a shoe, it could be the handle off the side of a casket, it could be a button off a shirt,” he speculated.
And that kind of work will likely take time and money. Congress has been working for three years to pass the African American Burial Ground Conservation Act. If the measure becomes law, it’s supposed to provide grants for preservation. But there may be things that dollars can’t buy. Getting people to talk about slavery, for one.
“You know, our students often come into the classroom in college, uh, having not been exposed to the history of slavery in the north and especially the history of slavery in New Jersey,” said Doctor Jesse Bayker at Rutgers University. We spoke with him as APR visited the Prince Rodgers Slave cemetery in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Bayker says many of his students hear for the first time how eleven thousand slaves were held in the Garden State around the year 1800.
“It’s a surprise to many of them that slavery was, uh, an important part of new Jersey’s early development of new Jersey’s economy,” Bayker stated.
Not only did New Jersey enslave Africans, but it was the last northern state to free them following the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The subject of slavery became more than a topic of classroom discussion at Rutgers back in 2016.
A report released for Rutgers’ two hundred and fiftieth anniversary focused on the school’s own ties to slavery. An enslaved worker helped build the campus. Rutgers’ first President owned slaves. His family once held famed abolitionist Sojourner Truth. Jesse Bayker says the university is confronting its role in slavery, but not everyone in New Jersey is
“The people who are uncomfortable with looking at that history or acknowledging it. I think they have their own journey, and their own road that they need go on to deal with the fact that we’re going to keep on talking about this,” said Bayker. “We’re going to keep acknowledging this history. No, we’re not to sweep it away under the rug.”
And the hesitancy to talk about slavery may be complicating efforts to preserve slave burial sites both in New Jersey and here in Alabama. You might recall our visit to the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance and its twentieth anniversary workshop north of Huntsville.
“You can find the first name of enslaved people, the slaveholders,” said Ollye Ballard. We met her earlier in our series. The retired magnet school principal is working to find the burial site of her great great grandfather in Huntsville. She says records that identify slaves only with numbers or first names make it tough.
“If it was you, it would just ‘Pat’ and maybe age thirty seven. But, that’s all the information you will have on them,” Ballard stated.
Her great great grandfather was enslaved in 1842. She says one thing she’s tried is to talk with the families of former plantation owners for clues to his final burial site. But, getting the descendants of slaveholders to open up to families of the enslaved hasn’t been easy.
“Many times when we make a presentation, we hear things like ‘I had nothing to do with that, that was long before,” Ballard recalled.
“They’re not gonna say nothing, they just go, that’s where we buried him,” added Ethel Alexander. We met her earlier in our program as well. Alexander is the past President of the Birmingham African American Genealogy Group. It’s the largest organization in the state that helps black Alabamians trace their roots. Alexander is researching her own family tree, so she says she knows the roadblocks and the frustrations.
“You know, we there’s a lot of things we take that we don’t like to take, but we take it anyway,” she said. “Because we just don’t have the strength to fight it. You know, but yeah, it’s frustrating. And it’s sad, and it’s hurtful.”
But, Alexander says that frustration involves more than just white people who don’t want to open up. She uses her own family as an example.
“Yes, we talk among ourselves,” Alexander confided. “We do. And the way I’m talking to you may be a little different than the way I might talk with my dad, you know. And, he did not talk a lot. And,I was thinking about that. I think about that often because they never talked about growing up too much, and what was going on and all of that. That was always kind of not talked about.”
It’s other people who may not to talk that has Alexander concerned. She says her family tree has a possible branch in Florida. Alexander doesn’t know what kind of reception she’ll get when she goes looking for access to those burial sites…
“What can I do? You know what I’m saying? Very rich people own it. It owned by this big company. What are they going to say? Would they going to help me get to it? Because I know it’s there. I scared they’re going to say…sorry.”
Voters in Alabama head to the polls next week for the November midterms. One issue on the ballot is whether to remove slavery from the State Constitution, 157 years after Congress banned the practice nationally with the 13th amendment. And all that uncertainty may be just one issue as Alexander, and others, work to make sure there’s No Stone Unturned.
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There are many ways to learn of our ancestor’s good taste in fine things. The Good Genes Genealogy team — First Cousins Ann Wead Kimbrough and Mark Owen — are fortunate that our grandmother, “Mama” Helen Wilkes Owen Douthy, was a collector of fine items, including china settings.
Mama Helen always found discreet ways to ‘break the mold.’ She was mother of six children and the twice-divorced mother made sure that her children were raised in a close-knit community as she worked as an administrative specialist — a “Hidden Figure” — employed at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska. She found ways to travel the world as an ambassador from her church. It was on those travels that we also gained valued treasures that are great conversation pieces today.
The exquisite porcelain, blue flowered paisley and white patterns on her china, were indicators of the time period in which Mama Helen owned her set. The clues are good for genealogy sleuths who are interested in how our ancestors acquired and valued their fine things that provided for our great foundation.
Here are some tips on finding out when Mama Helen acquired this beautifully maintained china place setting.
(First cousins Ann and Mark’s mothers are the daughters of Mama Helen).
In our family, we are aware of at least two relatives — one is an ancestor — who were and are visually impaired. In our lineage, Great Aunt Ada Chitwood Wilkes, became blind during our Grandmother Helen Wilkes Owen Douthy’s youth. The other visually impaired — fully blind — relative is John Charles Kimbrough, 36, son of Ann Wead Kimbrough of Good Genes Genealogy.
On Oct. 15, 2022, we honor White Cane Safety Day by sharing what we know of our Great Aunt Ada. She and Great Uncle Cecil Wilkes, were co-principal caregivers for Grandmother Helen along with her mother, Edna Wilkes Robinson, the Good Genes Genealogy team, Mark Owen and Kimbrough.
“I remember ‘Mom’ was blind and yet, she could really cook and sew,” said Angeline Cecil Owen Wead, eldest daughter of Grandmother Helen, also the mother and aunt of the Good Genes Genealogy team.
Ancestry.com research confirmed the abilities of Great Aunt Ada and Great Uncle Cecil inhabited a home in 1934 that confirmed her occupation. We suggest that all readers of this blog research ancestors who were differently abled by asking questions of your living relatives. That is how we learned about the life of Great Aunt Ada. She transitioned on Nov. 19, 1955 in Omaha, Nebraska, several years following the death of her husband, Great Uncle Cecil.
White Cane Day Safety Day is one way to pause and observe the challenges our ancestors faced while navigating the sighted U.S. prior to the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. The signing of the U.S. law followed years of discrimination lawsuits and awareness campaigns by advocates and individuals who knew well the hurdles faced by those with mental, emotional and physical ailments.
The United States does not have the lock on providing legislation to protect and support those with visual and other disabilities. While in Hong Kong, Good Genes Genealogy’s Ann Wead Kimbrough, learned firsthand of the societal accommodations for its elderly and disabled residents. For instance, streetlights, public signage and private facilities showcased its welcoming adjustments for “specially abled” individuals.
Here are some ideas on how to honor our ancestors on White Cane Safety Day:
It’s’ Labor Day. The “celebration” is a U.S. holiday and has been dubbed the unofficial closing of summer. There are many layers to the meaning of Labor Day for Black folk. Here is an excerpt from the ebook, “Black Laboring Days,” Copyright © 2021 by Ann Wead Kimbrough, Mark Owen
Most of us regard the Labor Day weekend each September
as the official end of summer. Yet, Labor Day had different
meanings for the once enslaved African Americans who
worked for no wages on lucrative agricultural plantations.
Even after the Union defeated the Confederate states in the
Civil War, those freed by the federal statute continued to
endure harsh conditions during the Reconstruction period.
Those conditions were imposed upon African Americans by
the Southern states’ Black Codes (read in the next section of
this blog) while U.S. labor unions were waging efforts for
the federal government to enact a national holiday in honor
of other laborers.
The federal law creating Labor Day was born to
recognize the employed men, women, and children. During
the Industrial Revolution in late 1800, several atrocities were
reported about the working conditions for the impoverished
and new migrants whose average workdays were 12 hours
and children as young as five were included. (Labor Day
2021: Facts, Meaning & Founding – HISTORY). On Sept. 5,
1882, the first Labor Day parade took place in New York
City. See below.
Black Codes, Black Laws
Meanwhile, African Americans were suffering as
laborers during the same late 19th century period. African
Americans’ treatment in the Industrial Revolution era was
deemed as carryover treatment from the days of mass
enslavement. Post-slavery and during the Reconstruction,
every Southern state’s legislature enacted Black Codes to
“protect their investments” (Project MUSE – Blue Laws and
Black Codes (jhu.edu) and to build infrastructure. In
Virginia, prison labor on the chain gang was primarily
comprised mainly of African Americans who were deemed
vagrants and guilty of other crimes under the state’s Black
Codes. The chain gang members were not compensated, and
their purpose was to build roads “to bring Virginia into the
automobile age.” (Project MUSE – Blue Laws and Black
Codes (jhu.edu)
Black codes required freed African Americans to sign
yearly labor contracts. If they refused to sign the agreements,
the laborer risked being arrested, fined, and forced to join the
chain gang and not receive any wages for their toils. (
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes)
https://nomoreslaveryyay.weebly.com/rights-and-vagrancylaws.html
According to numerous historical documents, Congress
passed legislation to repeal all Black Codes, yet the Southern
States continued with its practices.
(https://nomoreslaveryyay.weebly.com/rights-and-vagrancylaws.html)
There was an overlap of Black Codes in non-Southern states.
Known as the Black Laws, the restrictions were enacted in
conditions that included Ohio in 1803. Author Stephen
Middleton, (The Black Laws: Race and the Legal Process in
Early Ohio · Ohio University Press / Swallow Press
(ohioswallow.com) explains Black slaves and free African
Americans found refuge in Ohio. Yet, new laws prohibited
many movements and imposed restrictions that were
eventually overturned in 1886.
Real Labor Days
The real labor days began in the 17th century in the United
States. Enslaved ancestors from the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade were often sold and repurchased again at marketplaces
like this one on Whitehall Street in Atlanta, Georgia.
Civil war photographs, 1861-1865, Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division
The involuntary work performed by slaves has been
documented in multiple media formats. However, leading
scholars on the topic of African Americans’ slave history,
“Clearly, dominant narratives at historic plantation sites have
long been maintained by a white elite class at the expense of
the enslaved and African American history in general. There
is evidence of inclusion of the enslaved at the plantation
museums; however, this movement is slow and
evolutionary—not revolutionary.” (SEGEOGLOGO.eps
(d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net)
The enslaved life was anything but glamorous. Southern
plantations were booming in commerce. Due to demands for
cotton, tobacco, rice, and all agricultural products, the wealth
of its owners increased the intensity to grow the slave
population. Dark-skinned people, including Spence Johnson,
the once free member of the Choctaw Nation, were placed in
involuntary servitude. He and his family lived in the Indian
Territory in 1850 when his mother and Johnson were sold at
a Louisiana slave auction. They were not brought to the
United States during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, yet
were stolen and sold to perform free labor on giant
plantations:
As if laborious tasks were not enough to complete, slaves
were the victims of horrific crimes against their bodies.
Sometimes the chopping off of legs and arms and even
women’s breasts were designed to keep slaves from fleeing
their plantations. In the case of the phenomenal inventor and
scholar George Washington Carver, he was castrated as a
child by his master. His enslaver wanted to ensure the
African American slave would not be intimate with the
White man’s daughter.
(George Washington Carver Was Not
Gay, But Castrated (Updated 2021) – MICHEAUX
PUBLISHING (wordpress.com
Ebook | By Ann Wead Kimbrough, Mark S. Owen
ISBN: 9781716435287
Your connection to your ancestors is the shortest path to God. Whatever your connection to your ancestors is- whether it is a heart connection or whether it is a distant memory- they are a part of you. And you are a part of them. Your connection with them transcends lost stories, names, and pictures. You are here because of them, and their soul lives in your heart, bones, and flesh. I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors. I know that whether I know their stories or not, I am connected to them. We are bound together by a divine web of life. I call on them every day. I call on my biological ancestors, as well as my spiritual ancestors. My connection with my ancestors gives me life. It is my foundation. Thank you, Power, in me, through me, as me, around me, through the Christ within. And so it is.Honor your father and your mother,that your days may be long upon the landwhich the Lord your God gives you.Exodus 20:12Daily Thoughts from the HillCopyright: Hillside International Truth Center, Inc.Bishop Dr. Jack L. Bomar – Executive BishopBishop Dr. Barbara L. King – Founder
One of the best ways to attract the attention of the genealogy “police” is to utilize materials that are either copyright protected or belong to private collections. Instead, find the copyright owners and utilize government archives and subscription services — including those that require fees — to remain free and clear in your postings. For instance, my subscription with WordPress entitles me to pull photos from its files.
Some tips:
Just because something has been posted to Instagram, Twitter, or other social media platforms does not mean that content is now in the public domain and free for anyone to use. Social media is no different than other forms of online content — the content creator retains the copyrights to any images, text, or video he or she created. When reusing content found on the internet it’s vitally important to make sure you have obtained the right to do so from the content owner.
https://www.freeadvice.com/legal/who-owns-the-content-posted-on-social-media/
2. I usually post content and pictures that are derived from my personal files, including photographs taken by me or someone who have given the “rights” for me to do so.
Source: Ancestry, family files.
3. I usually seek photos to reuse that are from public sources such as the National Archives, Georgia Archives, newspapers and other media where the ownership is clearly stated. Please add the citations that are conveniently provided by the public site. For instance, the Digital Library of Georgia via GALILEO, offers five tabs on its site that include “cite.” Click on that tab and you will find the following for the photo that I am posting:
| Citations Photograph of the parent teacher association booth at the fair, Manchester, Georgia, 1953 MLA Not Available. “Photograph of the parent teacher association booth at the fair, Manchester, Georgia, 1953.” Pine Mountain Regional Library. 1953, http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/pinemountain/do:bhtc53312. APA Not Available (1953). Photograph of the parent teacher association booth at the fair, Manchester, Georgia, 1953. Retrieved from http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/pinemountain/do:bhtc53312 Chicago Not Available. “Photograph of the parent teacher association booth at the fair, Manchester, Georgia, 1953.” 1953. May 4, 2022. http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/pinemountain/do:bhtc53312. | |
4. Below is the content that accompanies the above photograph. I post it with a sigh of relief that all copyright and/or free use content is acceptable.
Collection:Pine Mountain Regional Library CollectionTitle:Photograph of the parent teacher association booth at the fair, Manchester, Georgia, 1953Date of Original:1953Subject:Parents and teachers assocations–Georgia–Manchester
Fairs–Georgia–Manchester
Coca Cola (Trademark)
Concessions (Amusements, etc.)–Georgia–Manchester
African American children–Georgia–ManchesterLocation:United States, Georgia, Meriwether County, Manchester, 32.85985, -84.61993Medium:photographsType:StillImageFormat:image/jpegDescription:Photograph captioned “The PTA booth doesn’t seem as busy as the Woman’s Club booth at present.” Two girls and a boy stand in front of the parent teacher association booth at the Tri-County Fair in Manchester, Georgia.Metadata URL:http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/id:gbp_bhtc_bhtc53312Digital Object URL:http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/pinemountain/do:bhtc53312Language:engOriginal Collection:Pine Mountain Regional Library, Manchester, GeorgiaHolding Institution:Pine Mountain Regional LibraryRights:
1 locations associated with this record
5. Be careful with the use of music as copyright infringement cases are plentiful in this category. Yet, there are many ways to work around using music in your genealogy spaces with safety and care. My advice:
Keep your ancestry genealogy research fun and worthwhile. The best way is to avoid collisions with those who troll with the intent to make innocent mistakes a big deal.
“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it, establish your priorities and go to work.” Anonymous
The next time you look at a public photo, take a second and third look. Look at little closer.
I did just that and discovered a few gems that otherwise would remain barely etched into my childhood memories. At the picture in this blog feed, you will notice a Black man with a basketball. That’s my Dad, Dr. Rodney S. Wead. I am right next to his right, left from our view. I also noticed my maternal grandmother, Helen Douthy (the sunglasses and bonnet-like hat) holding the hand of my cousin, Lori. Lori’s mother, Aunt Greta, is holding my other cousin, Debbie.
I was 11 years old when this photo was take at Franklin Elementary School. Always the tallest girl in each grade, it helps now that my height helps to identify me in a crowd such as this one.
My paternal grandfather, Sampson Wead, is pictured in what was a rare sighting. He was a member of the DePorres Club and they were protesting Reed Ice Cream not hiring Black workers. That took a lot to do in the 1950s for Black folk no matter the location.
What a bonus!
It’s time for you to dig those old photos out of boxes, closets and other places to display for us to share in your family history.
Check out Putnam County. Let’s guess the year!
GEORGIA ARCHIVES
The Georgia Archives, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, invites applications for a part-time Administrative Research Assistant for an NEH grant.
SUMMARY
The Administrative Research Assistant will be a member of a team working on a National Endowment for the Humanities grant-funded project to identify Georgia records regarding the state’s response to desegregation. The end goal for this project is to present interactive in-house and virtual classes and tours for college and university professors, and students. Responsibilities of this position include finding documents to support the goals of the project.
RESPONSIBILITIES
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:
QUALIFICATIONS
Educational Requirements
Associates degree.
Required Experience
More than one year of experience performing clerical or administrative work.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
The University System Office is an equal employment, equal access, and equal educational opportunity, and affirmative action institution. It is the policy of the University System Office to recruit, hire, train, promote and educate persons without regard to race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status as required by applicable state and federal laws (including Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, Sections 503, and 504, ADEA, ADA, E.O. 11246, and Rev. Proc. 75-50).
For questions or more detailed information regarding this policy please contact the University System Office Human Resources at 404.962.3242. Individuals requiring disability related accommodations for participation in any event or to obtain print materials in an alternative format, please contact Human Resources.
EMPLOYER INFORMATION
Founded in 1918, the Georgia Archives identifies, collects, provides access to, and preserves Georgia’s historic records. As the state archives of Georgia, one of the original thirteen colonies, the Georgia Archives holds a rich collection of colonial and state records covering nearly three centuries. Of the 85,000 cubic feet of records in the Georgia Archives, approximately 72,000 are official state records, 6,000 are local government records, and 7,000 are non-governmental (manuscript) collections. The Georgia Archives maintains a library collection of 23,000 books, pamphlets, and periodicals. The Georgia Archives, as a unit of the Board of Regents, is not part of a specific institution of higher education. The Board of Regents is a state agency.
LOCATION
The Georgia Archives is located at 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, Georgia, and is adjacent to Clayton State University and the National Archives at Atlanta. Morrow is in Clayton County and is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is about 20 minutes away.
SALARY
This temporary position pays $14.81 per hour and will end no later than the end of year 2022.
BACKGROUND CHECK
A successful background check will be required for successful candidate prior to hiring.
On a warm Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, Hillside’s Presiding Bishop Dr. Jack L. Bomar, led the sacred, community “Ancestral Prayer” ceremony. It included drumming that girded the rhymical and ancestral honoring blessings with the pouring of libations by Hillside member Sharon A. Smith. Today, she said, “I am the High Priestess” while acknowledging the oldest person attending the ceremony to give her the permission to continue.
The ceremony was the culmination of a monthlong series of genealogy workshops led by the Good Genes Genealogy Services team. GGGS donated its services to its host, Hillside International Truth Center, which is undergoing a massive renovation on the church’s nearly 50-year-old facility.
The outdoor ceremony was highlighted by Bishop Bomar leading the attendees in a process that began with everyone listing their ancestors on a blue sheet of paper. Everyone was asked to call the names of the ancestors and affirm the following prayer:
PRESENTED BY VALERIE TOLIVER IN THE FORM OF A COLLAGE
During the month of February 2022, Good Genes Genealogy Services presented three Saturday virtual classes involving family ancestry and genealogy.
Theme: “Walk With Our Ancestors
Participants: Adults.
Assignment: Express families’ histories in varied formats. Others showcased their various projects. All shared with classmates to spark deeper ancestral questions, comments.
Here’s Valerie Toliver’s compelling story about her journey:
Genealogy project
February 19, 2022
My History, A journey Through Time
This collage encompasses my journey from my homeland, Africa! In doing the African Ancestry DNA test, it was determined that my matriclan test (my mother’s maternal roots) results were for the Yoruba Tribe in Nigeria. A female cousin on my father’s side did the matriclan test as well. Her results determined the maternal roots for my father’s family. The results were the Yoruba and Hausa tribes also of Nigeria. Thus, I have included the flag of Nigeria as well as the symbols for both Yoruba and Hausa on my collage.
In my genealogy research over the years, I have been able to uncover 5 enslavers of my maternal and paternal ancestors. I have this list of surnames included in my collage. At this time, I have verified only one of the enslavers as being a DNA connection. My maternal great-great grandfather was enslaved and fathered by a member of the Shields family who originated in Scotland/Ireland. I don’t have a picture of the enslaver, but I have included pictures of one of his son’s and grandson’s. I also have included a picture of the DNA match that I have with one of his descendants, my 4-6th cousin. Their family shield, along with the copy of the will showing the sale of my ancestor to a 2nd enslaver is on the collage as well. I’m continuing to research the other 3 enslavers for my family. I have included a copy of the slave list for one enslaver and a reimbursement for funds owed to one of the enslavers for allowing my ancestor to serve in the United Stated Colored Troops. The signage used to lure more of the Black people, both enslaved and free, to serve in the Civil War is depicted in my project as well.
The culmination of items included are: pictures of my maternal and paternal ancestors, churches they attended, cities and states they lived in, articles from the “colored news “, the gravestones of my enslaved great-great grandfather and great-great grandmother, my grandfather’s barn and the stone memorial erected at my mother’s childhood church listing the members that have transitioned since 1870. My mother cut the ribbon for this historic wall only a few years prior to her transition in 2020. At the time, she was the oldest member in age and years of attendance that still attended the church.
This project started out just as a small collage to acknowledge Black History Month. It became much more as I stood in my truth about who I am and how I came to be.
I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams. I am God’s child.
Valerie Toliver
I am taking a different narrative to receiving tips on where to find freebies to aid in genealogy research: Let’s freely give back a gratitude of thanks to a man who quietly helped a cherished civil rights favorite.
Rosa Parks would have been a 109 years old this month. Mike Ilitch transitioned two years ago.
To summarize my maternal grandmother’s life: She did the most.
In the winter months during 1963, my Maternal Grandmother, Helen Mary Wilkes (and also spelled Wilks), was donning a thinly clad garment and acting in the Greek tragedy, “Antigone.” That in of itself is nothing spectacular.
That is, except that “Mama Helen” (as were told by her to call her), in 1963 was also a mother of adult children and a high school student while working as an unnamed “Hidden Figure” at the Strategic Air Command Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base in nearby Bellevue, Nebraska. She was not supposed to be a “brain” at Offutt where she worked as administrative assistant to the scientists. She was actually an astute mathematician with an amazing intellect with exemplary secretarial skills.
Mama Helen was not supposed to be on the theatre stage at her age, 45, in a supporting role to help build her acting repertoire. She was not supposed to understand the Greek language and read Latin. She was not supposed to be old enough to be the mother of the play’s director. After all, she was a black woman who should have been content to remain hidden as a white-collar worker albeit with tremendous skills outside of the workplace. I often traveled with her from North Omaha to theatres around the city and developed my love for Latin, global travels and writing.
Thankfully, Mama Helen was never content being confined to what the so-called societal norms were in Omaha and across the nation. She would always tell me about her travels around the world. She was the super volunteer for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She played the organs at various churches on Sunday, often for no pay as she considered it her tithe to the church and unto God. Monies were stretched in the household, according to my mother, Angeline Cecil Owen Wead, the oldest of six children born in five years to Mama Helen and Grandpa Eugene Owen, II. Mama Helen was mostly the single parent in their household as my grandfather was off to build his hopes of a Hollywood career as a dancer and singer.
Thankfully, the village that was led by our Great-Grandmother Edna Lou Wilks Robinson, worked. Mama Helen received significant assistance from Grandmother Robinson.
In later years, Mama Helen was voted into the prestigious Omaha Central High School Hall of Fame. In this tribute to Mama Helen when she was inducted in the Hall of Fame that also honors Warren and Susie Buffett, my Dad, Dr. Rodney S. Wead, countless athletic, political, academic, world leaders and more, Mama Helen was remembered:
“Helen loved music and the arts and volunteered with Opera Omaha, Omaha Community Playhouse, Center Stage, and Chanticleer Theater. She served on the Nebraska Arts Council and Omaha’s Human Relations Board.
Helen passed away in 2008 at the age of 90.”
Upon Mama Helen’s retirement, she devoted her time to a program that she earlier developed to help single women develop skills to become secretaries, assistants and other related jobs inside of offices. She conducted the classes at a local community center.
This post about freebies usually appears on Fridays. In honor of a great week by all who have contacted Good Genes Genealogy Services, here’s your day-before treat:
Good Genes Genealogy Services Reference Guide
During January and February 2022, the Good Genes Genealogy Services team provided five (5) workshops. The free workshops for the DeKalb County Public Library, and the Saturdays-in-February workshops where the proceeds are fully donated to our host, Hillside International Truth Center, certain references were named.
The following is a compilation of the referenced genealogy materials:
Census
Release of the 1950 U.S. Census records, April 1, 2022. 1950 Census on Track for 2022 Release, Despite Pandemic | National Archives
Free or Limited Trial Genealogy Sites (a sampling)
This site is dedicated to genealogy research for African Americans. https://afrigeneas.com
According to its website, “Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.” https://ancestry.com
African American Genealogical Research How to Begin – African American Genealogical Research – Research Guides at Library of Congress (loc.gov)
Part of the Library of Congress website, Chronicling America has searchable images of US newspapers from 1792-1963. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
It is based in the UK and already has released the 1921 Census. The site is a compilation of media and government reports. There is a 14-day free trial. https://www.findmypast.com/
Search over 10 billion global historical records, birth, marriage and death records from 32 countries, 25 million pages of historical newspapers dating back to 1803, and more than 6.3 billion names – all with a 14-day free trial. Use it free for two weeks and cancel if it’s not for you. https://www.myheritage.com.
The USGenWeb Project is comprised of volunteers who provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. It is a non-commercial site and wants to provide free genealogy access for everyone. http://www.usgenweb.org/
Access free digitized images of newspapers, books, films, maps, personal narratives, photos, prints, and drawings.https://www.archives.gov/
This site is free, yet it does ask if you wish to make a donation to keep its access free. Here’s the website announcement “Trace your roots for FREE with our searchable database containing thousands of identified and mystery photos for genealogy enthusiasts looking for long-lost family. Anyone who finds a photo of a direct ancestor that is owned by the archive will receive the photo for free. If the historic photos you find pique your interest in genealogy, you can continue your research by doing a family search here.” https://deadfred.com/
If your ancestors were Jewish, this website has more than 20 million records from all over the world to help you trace your Jewish heritage. https://www.jewishgen.org/
Access free digitized images of newspapers, books, films, maps, personal narratives, photos, prints, and drawings. Home | Library of Congress (loc.gov)
This is an activist group of historians, genealogists, researchers, and open government advocates, Reclaim the Records identifies information that should be in the public domain but has been restricted by the government, archive or library that holds it. https://www.reclaimtherecords.org
Genealogy Conferences
This site bills itself as “ConferenceKeeper.org is the most complete calendar of genealogy events — anywhere! Here you will find hundreds to thousands of genealogy webinars, workshops, seminars, conferences, podcasts and more, from genealogy societies, libraries, and other organizations all around the world.” It’s true. https://conferencekeeper.org/conference-keeper/
You may also be interested in the following conferences:
Free admission to virtual and in-person genealogy conferences, seminars such as Upcoming Webinars – Legacy Family Tree Webinars
The Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) – hosts an annual Expo in Athens, GA, gagensociety.org
It is billed as the larges family genealogy conference in the world. It’s the virtual, RootsTech 2022 • FamilySearch
Genealogy Research in Military Records
The National Archives holds Federal military service records from the Revolutionary War to 1912 in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. See details of holdings.
Military records from WWI – present are held in the National Military Personnel Records Center (NPRC), in St. Louis, Missouri, See details of holdings.
The National Archives does not hold state militia records. For these records, you will need to contact the appropriate State Archives.
Web link National Archives Genealogy Research in Military Records | National Archives
Libraries
THE best and “free” source in genealogy research begins at your friendly neighborhood library. One library system that is used by Ann is the DeKalb County Public Library. Having a library card gives you access to services such as “Ask a Librarian” and broader research sites. Anyone may also request library cards in former home libraries across the nation. DeKalb County Public Library (dekalblibrary.org)
Find It! The Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/pubrr/findit-faq.html
Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Allen County Public Library has one of the largest genealogy collections in the United States.Home | Allen County Public Library (acpl.lib.in.us)
Nonpopulation Census Records
Nonpopulation census records can add “flesh” to the bones of ancestors and provide information about the communities in which they lived. Agriculture, mortality, and social statistics schedules are available for the census years of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Manufacturing schedules are available for 1820, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. These records are arranged by state, then by county, and then by political subdivision (township, city, etc.). Schedules of business are available for 1935 for the following industries: advertising agencies, banking and financial institutions, miscellaneous enterprises, motor trucking for hire, public warehousing, and radio broadcasting stations.
Web link National Archives Nonpopulation Census Records | National Archives
Scholarships (a sampling)
Many scholarships are offered for budding genealogists – experienced ones and organizations.
Board For Certification Of Genealogists® Scholarship For African American Students
American Society Of Genealogists Scholar Award
AncestryProGenealogists® Scholarship
Frazine K. Taylor African American Research Scholarship
Georgia Public Library Service IGHR Scholarship
State Censuses
State censuses can be as important as the federal census to genealogists but, because they were taken randomly, remain a much-under-utilized resource in American genealogy. State censuses often can serve as substitutes for some of the missing federal census records – most notably the 1790, 1800, 1810, and 1890 censuses. Many state censuses also asked different questions than the federal census, thus recording information that cannot be found elsewhere in the federal schedules. While not all states took their own censuses, and some have not survived, state and local census records can be found in many locations. Most states which took censuses usually did so every 10 years, in years ending in “5” (1855, 1865, etc.) to complement the federal census. These state census records are most often found at the state archives or state library. Many are also on microfilm through a local Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and online via commercial genealogy databases. State Censuses – History – U.S. Census Bureau
Addendum
Inaugural 2021 Genealogy Book published by Good Genes Genealogical Services
Researching genealogy and family histories are exciting activities. Equally thrilling are the research results coming to life in the form of podcasts, blogs, puzzles, articles, affirmations, proclamations, presentations, stage plays, films, clothing and other expressions of our ancestors’ rich legacies.
Here’s a partial listing of the Black History Month programs, activities and other recognitions throughout the United States:
About 12 years ago, I received important advice from an Arkansas special collections librarian. She asked me to share my paternal family’s history as I discovered it — bit by bit.
I recall telling her that I did not have much to report on my grandfather, Samuel Luster Weed (now Wead), and his family who lived in Helena, Arkansas during the bloody summer of 1919 in the Delta region. She said, “even if you have one page to share, share it.” This librarian was responsible for my brick wall breakthrough as she found Big PaPa Wead. I am forever grateful.
I did. By sharing, a one-page document, I learned that too few documents are shared with family, libraries, museums and other entities. Today, Rhonda Stewart, is the Genealogy & Local History Specialist at Central Arkansas Library System. I am sure that she is still encouraging her library patrons — whether virtual or in-person — to share their stories.
Start where you are. That is the straight-forward message I received from Rhonda. It applies to new and seasoned genealogy and family ancestry researchers.
Thank you, Rhonda.
I have been repeating that refrain since then. I will repeat it again soon during the annual Sankofa Genealogy monthlong celebrations hosted by Atlanta, Ga.’s Hillside International Truth Center. During our Saturday Sankofa Genealogy workshops, our emphasis is to encourage participants to show their work. Do as Rhonda wisely advised me, share their stories. As the Ghanian Sankofa bird teaches us, reach back to retrieve what is lost while moving forward as its body shows.
Start where you are.
I recently received an email prompt from the TV network, NBC. It showcased a story about a lady who “struck” black family genealogy gold by linking her family’s past to that of Abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Another NBC story that aired a year ago was also a great bright light. It featured a boy dressed up like his favorite news anchor who became an ancestor. It is an example of starting where you are. I am sure that Rhonda is proud. I am.
February is the perfect month to journey with our ancestors. For the second year, Good Genes Genealogy Services LLC, will offer a series of Saturday morning, live and virtual workshops that follow the principles of the Ghana, Africa Sankofa bird.
You may register on this site. It is super easy and all of the proceeds are dedicated to Hillside International Truth Center. The amount of the workshop is nominal and it correlates to Hillside’s “22 Days of Sankofa Transformation.”
Twenty-two (22) is a powerful number. Two (2) is a rare prime number. Twenty-two represents a double prime, and when added, it equals the number “four” (4). In numerology, 22 is considered a Master number.
February is known as the month of love, is marked by the American Heart Association, and is the USA’s Black History Month of recognition and celebration. The power of love is always with me. The recent deaths of loved ones from matters of the heart impact my soul. The annual recognition of Black History Month honors our ancestors — whether African American, Irish American, Afro Caribbean American and more.
Tips for a worthwhile attendee to this workshop series:
A word of gratitude: The workshops conducted by Mark S. Owen and Ann Wead Kimbrough, are made possible through the collective production team of ministers. They are Bishop Jack Bomar, Drs. Marian Gamble and Tony Burks II, Revs. Sharon Hodnett and Senay Johnson.
Live your best lives and record your stories. We have a limited amount of time in this earth realm. How are you preparing to leave lasting legacies? Keep in mind our future generations. Namaste.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 2022 I AM HERE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD
You are here to change the world. Future generations will reap the harvest of your good works. Shine and shine brightly — excerpt Daily Thoughts from the Hill daily_thoughts_from_the_hill@hillsideinternational.org.
I was moved by a newspaper columnist’s description of the great flood in the 1940s that invaded my hometown, Omaha, Nebraska and neighboring city, Council Bluffs, Iowa. What led me to this article was an active conversation I was having with my parents about a time when the entire community pulled together to help one another.
My Dad and his buddies were drafted to help build structures to help fend off the water disaster that paralyzed the area for several weeks.
As I listened to their separate remembrances, I was scanning the flooded areas via today’s Internet. There were empty spaces where houses and businesses once stood, while stronger structures remaining upon the soggy grounds.
What was my fantastic tool to locate the historical Iowa and Nebraska? It’s the Freebie Friday “My Genealogy Hound.” It’s a great website with more than 2,100 historic county maps from throughout the United States. I’ve found it helpful when I was researching my ancestors in Georgia. I wanted to see where my paternal family lived in Helena, Arkansas in 1919, and our (Good Genes Genealogy team) maternal relatives’ homes and businesses in Springfield, Missouri between 1900 and 1945.
Some maps don’t allow the researcher to drill down and find every old road that I was seeking. Yet, most of the county maps give me a great sense of the areas.
There’s at least one county map for every county in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.
Only partial lists exist for the remaining U.S. states. Within all states, more county maps are regularly added.
Enjoy your genealogy geography hunting!
On this annual day of Epiphany, it is also the birth of my most cheriished ancestor. Today, Jan. 6, 2022, would have been my Paternal Aunt Beverly Ann Wead Blackburn Jones’ 85th birthday. She transitioned in 1973 at the age of 36. I was 15 years old. It was the first family death that left an indelible mark upon my life.
My father’s baby sister, my mother’s best friend, my dear ancestor Aunt Beverly, has taught me so much over the nearly 49 years since her transition. Many of our ancestors have that ability to guide us through our genealogy journeys. My advice: Let them.
Aunt Beverly is more than the grave marker of her birth and death dates. She was a standout scholar, athlete and civic citizen that began in her high school years. She continued with similar activities in college and added accomplishments that included journalist, sorority member and U.S. Senate recognized achiever. She was twice married, had three children during her first marriage, owned businesses and hosted many recreational and entertainment activities for children and teenagers in our hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
When I wrote about my dear Aunt Beverly a year ago, I did not have the family details that I have since retrieved. Thanks to Aunt Beverly, I offer the following genealogy tips that lead to more discoveries in our ancestry searches:
4. Verify new information. Using my paternal great-great grandmother’s data, I verified her birth year by reviewing the 1880 U.S. Census for her age at that time. I also found two other trees that included Fannie Robinson Wade as part of their research. The reconciled birth year information appears to be accurate.
5. Select a routine day or date to review and update ancestral information. I use my ancestors’ birthdays, marriage anniversaries, holidays and death anniversaries to pause and review existing information for updates. With Aunt Beverly, I review her life’s story on her birthday and in June of each year.
The how-tos that I presented can be expanded by each researcher reading this WordPress blog and social media post. Share your ideas to help others and the Good Genes Genealogy team to gain new research techniques.
Our genealogy traces our family from western and central Africa and western Europe. Our ancestors entered the United States at the Virginia and Georgia Ports. First cousins Mark Owen and Ann Lineve Wead (it is protocol to use the maiden names of females in genealogy searches) are responsible for writing this blog. Although Ann has been involved in genealogy research while searching for certain ancestors since the age of 10, the cousins began deeper research of their families during the COVID-19 Pandemic Year of 2020. Devoting as much as 6 hours some evenings to the methodical training and research of genealogy, the cousins completed the year 2020 by earning genealogy certificates. Join us. @goodgenesgenealogy on wordpress and fb, twitter Sign up for our blog and enjoy the journey. View all posts by Learning family histories
One of my facebook genealogy page colleagues gifted her children with their individual family trees. Now that the winter holidays are over, this idea is perfect for 2022 family reunions.
My colleague said the most often asked question is where to purchase the tree stand? She offered this bestchoiceporducts site.
Here is the back of one of the branches for you to consider how to list your ancestors.
How to make this happen for your family? Be creative by using this example as your foundation of an idea that brings new meaning to our genealogy phrase, “family tree.”
Happy New Year!
Thank you for spending our first year in business with Good Genes Genealogy Services LLC.
Check out the ancestry.com Library edition for free forms and charts
I did a double take when I was searching for genealogy information via ancestry.com on my local public library’s website. The free Ancestry.com site courtesy of my favorite library, DeKalb County Public Library, has different offerings than my private, subscription-based ancestry.com account.
That’s the first freebie: Use your public library card to log into your local branch’s website and search for ancestry.com. Once in the site, select the “charts and forms” tab and click on to access it.
The second freebie is found in the ancestry.com charts and forms tab. You may wish to download any or all six of the forms and charts. The forms and charts are great tools to help the novice and seasoned genealogy researchers to organize family documents.
The charts and forms from ancestry. com are also exclusively offered on library sites. That’s a bonus for having a library card.
Hurry! Ancestry.com’s Library editions may be ending soon, according to the company’s website.
My ancestry.com family tree is appropriately named: “Bartee Douthy Duncan Fisher Kimbrough Owen Parker Shaw Thompson Wead Weed Wilks Wilkes Family Tree.”
Below is a photo of the Wilkes family and friends in front of their home in Springfield, Missouri. It is estimated that this photo was taken in 1925.
To gain the best results from building your family tree on any ancestry website, list the top surnames. As you build your family tree, remember the surnames and always use the maiden names of your female ancestors in genealogy searches.
In my early years of researching my family, I included my female ancestors’ married names in family genealogy searches. It limited my information collection. Now that I have replaced the married names with maiden names, the family searches are much more successful.
How do you find the maiden names? Check marriage certificates and licenses, marriage announcements and bonds for the correct maiden names of relatives. For instance, as shown below, I located the maiden name of Florida L. Fisher on the marriage license certifying the union with our cousin, Herbert Gerald Parker.
If marriage documents are tough to find, ask your oldest family members to help remember the maiden names. When I used my maternal Great- Great-Grandmother’s Melissa C. Gray Wilkes’ maiden name, I easily located her parents and her grandparents. The Gray surname was the key to finding her parents, grandparents and siblings.
Great-Great-Grandmother Melissa Gray Wilkes (1871 – 1934) is viewed below:
Happy family searches. Build your family trees with maiden names linked to the strong surnames.
For many of us, it is a challenge to learn of our grandparents and their parents. Think about the challenge of locating 10 generations of grandparents, or stated another way, your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents!
While the Good Genes Genealogy cousins are only halfway there with our maternal grandparents, we, like you, will keep trying to reach the 10th generation of relatives.
Here’s some solid advice from us and colleagues who are genealogy buffs:
Have fun, relax, share memories and ask great questions of your relatives to build your tree.
Happy Holidays!
I was busy preparing my holiday cards when my thoughts turned to gift-giving. What is the greatest genealogy gift that I could give to my family? The answer: Ancestral research findings.
Guess what? I, too, received the greatest gift.
I poured through our family ancestry records and discovered great finds via newspapers.com. I attached the newspaper clippings to my family members’ trees and also printed some records to share as part of my gift giving.
The clipping below was part of my gift to Cousin-by-marriage Florida L. Fisher Parker a year ago during the holiday season. She was overjoyed to see this clipping, her marriage license and other related documents that I uncovered through electronic methods. My discoveries also prompted Florida sharing funny and tearful memories about that great day in her life.
Florida, the widow of Ret. Col. Herbert Gerald Parker, is an enthusiast genealogist. She piqued my interest in genealogy while we all lived in Tallahassee, FL. Typically, I would visit with Florida and we would prepare documents for the family reunion. After the burial of her husband, my cousin, Herb, at Arlington National Cemetery in D.C., Florida chose to live near her daughter and family in Maryland. Distance and COVID-19 restrictions have grounded our travels and frequency of our conversations.
That’s why this year, I bundled up some new finds that are related to her deceased father, Dr. Miles Mark Fisher. During my research of her father, I discovered my greatest gifts.
By sharing your ancestral findings with loved ones, you are giving the greatest gift of all during this holiday season and throughout the year.
Happy Holidays!
The Good Genes Genealogy Services team has been providing free and low-cost services to engaging clients throughout 2021.
To keep our services at this level, we invite you to support us by investing a few dollars into the books we published during this second health pandemic year. The bonus book is written by Dr. Ann Wead Kimbrough about her father, Dr. Rodney S. Wead, a relatively unknown and yet effective community leader.
All of the books genealogy books are written by the cousin duo, Kimbrough and Mark S. Owen. The book illustrator for all books is Veverly Byrd-Davis. Besides our publishing company, http://www.lulu.com (see bookstore, Good Genes Genealogy), our books are offered on many national book sites.
Hear, hear! Rather than dole out hard cash (or credit cards) for an annual audio subscription for books, I choose to make great use of my DeKalb County (GA) Public Library card and tune into hoopladigital.com.
Check your library for free audio book subscriptions.
That’s my best Freebie Friday tip. Sign up and listen to great books like the one I just finished:
Courtesy of http://www.searchforancestors.com/ancestryfreebies.html
Ancestry.com is a premium subscription-based genealogy website with over 8 billion genealogy records, most of which are online images of original documents. In addition, Ancestry has more than 35 million user-submitted family trees, which include photographs, written stories, and scanned documents.
One of Ancestry’s best kept secrets is that they also have over 1,300 always-free databases. To view these free records, you may be asked to sign up for a free account, but the account is free, no strings attached. You do not need a free trial to view these records.
The free databases are available to search at the Ancestry site at Ancestry.com Free Index Collection.Ancestry.com Free Collection Search
First Name | Last Name | Any USA AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY — CAN AB BC MB NB NF NT NS TT ON PE QC SK YT — INTL Locality |  |
Although this database is called the Free Index, it actually includes indexes as well as images. This Free Index Search contains all the free Ancestry.com record databases but does not include the very popular Family Trees.
Below is a list of the most popular Ancestry free databases. Scroll down to see some of the the free Ancestry databases that are listed by country and state.
Harvard-Trained Lawyer Founded Hair-Lotion Maker TGIN (Thank God Its Natural Haircare) ://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-trained-lawyer-founded-hair-lotion-maker-tgin-11637690757
In our family, several births, deaths and marriages took place in the month of November.
In 1888, two teenagers — Robert B. Wilkes and Melissa C. Gray — married in a simple ceremony in Greene County, Missouri. The hard-to-view document includes the signature witness of our Great-Great Grandfather’s father, Peter Wilkes. He gave permission for his 17-year-old son to marry his bride.
For our Great-Great Grandmother, the form noted that she was under the age of 21. Other records show that she, too, was 17 years old.
Their marriage remained for another 40+ years until their deaths. Their union produced 13 children; 11 lived to adulthood. The Wilkes family lived a great life in the hills of Springfield, Missouri. Most children, including our Great-Great Grandmother Edna Robinson, graduated from high school and moved away from home to the states of Nebraska, Hawaii and New York.
If you are interested in the lives of your ancestors, check out the marriage records. For those even easier to read than this one of our loved ones, you will likely learn more about the circumstances of the marriage. In this case, the only person requiring permission to marry was the groom since he was not yet the legal age of 18 years old.
By planes, trains and automobiles, an estimated 54 million U.S. travelers made it families and friends this 2021 Thanksgiving season. Those numbers are nearly equal to pre-Covid 2019 levels, according to AAA, air, train and government travel trackers.
If so, don’t spend all of your time around the table of good food, or shopping until you drop. Instead, start now to preserve your precious history by recording short and even long stories of your loved ones.
As a nearly lifelong writer (Ann) who began journaling at age 10, I learned the importance of being a good listener who captured cool stories from the annual family gatherings. Those early lessons served me well as I became an award-winning financial journalist who found that my interview skills came in handy when I became more interested in African American family genealogy.
Admittedly, it is not easy getting our family members to open up about their past. However, I have found that to get meaningful conversations started, flattery gets you everywhere. Here are my quick tips on how to glean information from your loved ones:
For more ideas on how to speak with your relatives to capture their stories, check out this great freebie checklist from Genealogy Bargains.
Happy chatting!
An excerpt from our November 2021 e-book
Welcome to the fourth in a series of our e-books that highlight the unique genealogy of African Americans. Do you know how many of your ancestors were in the military? We didn’t realize until the documents were released a few years ago that revealed our African American male ancestors who served in various military assignments. Come walk with us and learn how you can find your hidden ancestors who served bravely battled in conflicts, served, and supported white male regiments to earn victories for the United States.
Turning to other conflicts, did you know that despite the numerous reports to the contrary, former African American slaves cared so deeply about their families remaining together that our ancestors searched for decades to find those separated from them? The horrific sales of individual slaves on blocks where husbands and wives, sisters and brothers and other relatives saw each other for the last time. That is until former slaves began to place editorials and advertisements in newspapers across the nation. Thankfully, there are published accounts of slave family reunion stories found in the more than 3,500 Black newspapers. To our delight, and we are sure it will be the same for you, there are tremendous love stories that emerge from the rubble of lost couples in our research.
On the topic of love stories, learn about an elite man who courted and married a former slave. They were of different races, and their 13-year marriage yielded five children worth remembering more about. Educational, political, social, and governmental structures protected and exposed the interracial couple’s life long after the husband’s death. It involves the measurement of one’s race based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s designations of one-quarter and one-eighth Black persons.
Each November, we celebrate our military veterans who fought world wars in the name of freedom from fascism, slavery, and more. When my (Ann’s) daughter, Jocelyn C. Kimbrough, announced to our family that she was trading her collegiate days for enlistment in the U.S. Army, we were surprised. She served with honors.
Yet, it was in her blood as of a few years later, we discovered in our ancestry research that many of our relatives served in U.S. military units. We are still clarifying records on potential relatives who may have served in conflicts ranging from the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Ancestry.com boasts of 760 thousand records about African Americans’ involvement in wars since the Revolutionary War. See African American – Fold3.
This chapter will highlight our great maternal uncles – the Wilks, Wilkes brothers — and their varied military service assignments to guide our reader to sources that may provide similar results.
The U.S. Selective Service began ordering the registration of young men in 1917. It remains a primary source of documents, aka draft cards for ancestors since the “threat of unforeseen forces,” and remains part of the directive by Presidential and Congressional orders for men between the ages of 18 and 25. Who Needs to Register | Selective Service System: Selective Service System (sss.gov). However, it is clear that the ages of men signing up for the draft were well over age 25, as shown on the draft card of my Great Uncle Earnest Wilks. His younger brother, Alvin Wilks, was 27 years old when he enlisted in military service in 1941.
He led an exciting life and retired from the military in Hawaii, where he was a community leader, and musician. Let’s begin with draft cards to learn more about your ancestors’ whereabouts.
Thank you, one and all, for encouraging us to continue publishing our monthly e-books. The latest one is just published on our Lulu Publishing website … soon it will be available on worldwide distribution. Get your copy now!
Ancestor Comedian Richard Pryor had a funny bit about Black people in horror movies. He said that Black people would enter a haunted house and hear a ghostly voice say, “hello.” Pryor said the likely answer would be “goodbye.”
Pryor’s funny gag lines were prior to the current-day horror films where Black actors are among the headliners.
In honor of Pryor, here’s a haunted story in recognition of Halloween.
Gwen McKinney is a podcaster, writer and thinker. Check out her podcast (see it in her own words/voice) and join the conversation. FYI: German Holocaust survivors in the U.S. and abroad, receive regular reparations from that government. Also, South Africa, Canada, Austria and France provide financial restorative justice.
Proud to share our latest podcast, Reparations: Beyond Acres and the Mule. Along with the policy implications, reparations comes with the human saga. We feature scholar/historian/civil rights champion Mary Frances Berry who shares the story of Callie House, a formerly enslaved washer woman who struck the first blow for repatriation and repair as the little-known mother of the reparations movement. We also give voice to a multigenerational chorus of sister warriors including Rosemarie Mealy, Nkechi Taifa, Robin Rue and Dreisen Heath. True to our mission, the podcast advances narratives that unerase the truths of Black women, often maligned and marginalized in both the historical and contemporary record. Please take a listen HERE from our website or visit whatever streaming service you prefer for Unerased Kitchen Table Talks.
We’d be thrilled if you’re so moved to help us amplify this episode. I suggest the following tweets:
1. How can you measure the damage from 4 centuries of bondage and soul pillage? In the latest @UnerasedBWS podcast episode, we explore the human toll of reparations. Tune in, subscribe, share!
2. Will we see reparations come to fruition? Meet advocates from the National African American Reparations Commission leading the way to institute federal reparations laws in the latest @UnerasedBWS podcast episode. Tune in, subscribe, share! https://unerasedbws.com/reparations-beyond-the-acres-and-the-mule/
With praise and appreciation!
gmck
| Gwen McKinney | Creator & Campaign Director Stoking passions. Telling stories. Making change.p:(202) 841-3522a:McKinney & Associates1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20036w:www.mckpr.com e: gwen@mckpr.com |
It’s October and that means baseball is in full swing. Do you know how many of your ancestors were a part of Black Baseball stardom? Since 1858, the game of baseball has featured sluggers, great pitchers, fielders and speedsters who have defied the odds and have mostly gone unnoticed.
Let’s dust off the ancestral home plates and locate your family members who were the stars on playing fields long forgotten or never researched. Start with the year 1858.
In 1925, Historian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson published a report that he stated was expensive to publish and difficult to compile. Yet, he did it.
“The aim of this report, like that on Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the
United States in 1830, is to promote the further study of a neglected aspect
of our history. As stated elsewhere, most of these free Negroes “have
been forgotten, for persons supposedly well-informed in history are surprised to learn today that about a half million, almost one-seventh of the
Negroes of this country, were free prior to the emancipation in 1865. It is
hardly believed that a considerable number of Negroes were owners of
slaves themselves, and in some cases controlled large plantations.”
As the second Black man to receive a degree from Harvard University, he also became a dean in the school. He was a journalist and well published author, including the historic, standalone read, The Mis-education of the Negro.
Read the report by clicking on the link and downloading the 50+ page document derived from the 1830 U.S. Census. You may find your ancestors in the records.
Enjoy your Freebie Friday!
I (Ann) moved back to the Atlanta area in the first months of 2020. You know the rest: The COVID-19 restrictions started and it limited my reconnections and great adventures to my favorite places with the best folk.
It’s time.
Although the health and safety precautions must be adhered to, my first local museum visit will be APEX.
If you are in D.C., it should be the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
In my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, please visit, Great Plains Black History Museum.
In the few museums listed above, strong advocates brought them into existence. My friend, Dan Moore, is the champion of the APEX Museum. Bertha Callaway is the proactive instigator of the Great Plains Museum.
To help you get to your local destination, this wikisite is helpful. If you need to add content site, please provide information so that others may benefit:
This is a sortable table. Click on the column you wish it sorted by.
The hundreds and perhaps thousands of special salutes to our favorite and newest ancestor, former U.S. Secretary of State and General Colin Powell, is a collective valuable lesson for all who write about our ancestors’ lives.
On many occasions, I (Ann) have been designated to write obituaries about my family, friends and even former work colleagues. Obituary writing is a skill and talent. It is not the time for careless regards of facts. There are professional obituary writers whose purpose is to provide professionalism to the sometimes rough passages we often read in programs and on websites during times of bereavement.
My “P’s”( for obituary writing:
When the inevitable occurs, you are ready with the necessary information. It is best to listen to family and friends who send virtual messages or whose personal visits include conversations about the deceased person(s). You may hear something that adds a new name or important life event about the loved one(s).
You may also wish to enlist the assistance of a professional such as my friend, Dr. Tony Burks.
Tony Lamair Burks II
Writer
Email
Website
Dr. Tony Lamair Burks II first learned the art and craft of storytelling from his four grandparents in lower Alabama. He is an award-winning education expert who coaches and trains leaders for excellence as chief learning officer of LEADright. His stories about school and life have appeared in newspapers, blogs and books around the world. He has written six books and contributed to four. He is passionate about helping others tell their stories. For over a quarter of a century, he has written, co-written and ghost-written obituaries and funeral orations. He has served as the interim director of a publishing house, and he currently leads a series of interactive workshops — Unleashing Your Untold Healing Story and Writing Your Story — to help others unearth and release stories that have been held deep within.
Reference: www.funeralbasics.org/write-great-obituary/
Check out daily posts @goodgenesgenealogy on wordpress, fb, twitter and via goodgenesgen@gmail.com. Also check out @weadwriteandgenealogy on wordpress
Our ancestors understood the concept and outcomes of cooperative economics. They worked together to store up the crops and canning of goods to have for those “rainy days” or harsh winters.
The message is to take care of the collective community while caring for oneself. The usual analogy is the airlines’ safety directive to first ensure that oxygen is flowing to the lead or responsible person before helping another.
It is in this vein that we offer the opportunity for our wonderful readers and supporters to shop our affordable Good Genes Genealogy e-books and help us to help you by keeping our sites free to global community.
We plan to offer e-books that will compliment upcoming webinars, podcasts and more.
Our family — the Wilks, Wilkes, Gray, Lee, Owen, Weed and Wead — made their homes in Arkansas during the 19th and early 20th centuries. That is where many also paid into burial insurance offered by fraternal organizations. The insurance also paid for grave markers that also came with special fraternal graphics.
Those special insignas headstones offer huge clues to the organizations your ancestors were affiliated with such as those associated with the Good Genes Genealogy heritage. While we are offering a glimpse into the fraternal insurance-based burials in other states.
On our maternal side – Gray, Wilks, Wilkes — were in northwest Arkansas before moving across the state line into Missouri. Ann’s paternal side — Lee, Weed, Wead — were in the southeast, Arkansas Delta area. The maternal Owen family resided in Hope, Arkansas, before they and other African Americans were put on trains and buses and pushed out to northern cities. Our mothers — born with the surname Owen — are direct descendants of that migration from Hope. The father of Angeline Cecil Owen (Ann) and Lyla Janet Owen (Mark) was a young man when his father and sister landed in Kansas City, Missouri, shortly after the death of Grandfather Eugene Owen, Jr. ‘s mother, Armentha in 1925.
Not only was Great Grandmother Armentha Powers Owen buried in the “black” cemetery in Hope, Arkansas, other ancestors’ graves are in the state. To learn a little more about our relatives and other researchers of Arkansas family histories, consult the guide to cemeteries based on insurance companies and fraternal markers on graves.
heck out daily posts @goodgenesgenealogy on wordpress, fb, twitter and via goodgenesgen@gmail.com. Also check out @weadwriteandgenealogy on wordpress
This provocative story is not for the faint of heart. John Jea was born in 1773. He describes the horrors of the near starvation and awful beatings.
He was a young man from Old Callabar, a place in Nigeria, Africa.
The author likely came from a proud status in his country. Yet, his unasked-for slave status in the United States produced a different result that he ever imagined.
Someone may be able to link their heritage to John Jea. By listing his parents and describing where he was enslaved and travels in the United States, the opportunities increase for African American family researchers to link with him.
In the same edition of the <a href=”http://<a href=”https://www.newspapers.com/clip/86791782/paper-edition-announcing-the-marriage-of/” style=”text-decoration: none;display:block;” target=”_parent”><img src=”https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?clippingId=86791782&width=700&height=669&ts=1607535806″ alt=”Paper edition announcing the marriage of James A. Hoover and Emma Schwartzy, 5th great grandparents” style=”max-width:100%;”><span style=”display:block;font: 13px helvetica, sans-serif; color: #747474;padding: 4px 0;max-width: 700px;”><strong>Paper edition announcing the marriage of James A. Hoover and Emma Schwartzy, 5th great grandparents</strong> 29 Mar 1895, Fri <em>Westmoreland Recorder and the Westmoreland Signal (Westmoreland, Kansas)</em> Newspapers.com</span>Westmoreland, Kansas newspaper that announced the marriage of our fifth Great Grandparents, James A. Hoover and Emma Swarty (we believe it is Swartz), read the unique collection notice:
Check out daily posts @goodgenesgenealogy on wordpress, fb, twitter and via goodgenesgen@gmail.com. Also check out @weadwriteandgenealogy on wordpress
Our broadcast genealogy leader is Harvard Professor, Author and forever research Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
I am marking my physical and virtual calendars to January 2022 when Dr. Gates next season of <a href=”http://<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/erpwv1pQxbs” title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen>”Finding Your Roots” debuts. Here’s the teaser. Let’s chat during the season about his special finds.
Check out daily posts @goodgenesgenealogy on wordpress, fb, twitter and via goodgenesgen@gmail.com. Also check out @weadwriteandgenealogy on wordpress
It’s Freebies Friday from your hosts, Good Genes Genealogy! Take a peak at our book, “Out of Sight…” published in February 2021 that puts you on the right path to locate your ancestors.
An excerpt from our book: There are thousands of federal, state, local and private records that offer guidance for genealogy researchers.
Archives Library Information Center (ALIC)
Listing of State Archives
Alabama
Alabama Department of Archives & History
624 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36130
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 300100, Montgomery, AL 36130
Phone: (334) 242-4435\
Email: mark.palmer@archives.alabama.gov
Alaska
Alaska State Archives
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 110525, 141 Willoughby Avenue, Juneau, AK 99811-0525
Phone: (907) 465-2270 Fax: (907) 465-2465 E-mail: archives@alaska.gov
Arizona
State Library, Archives and Public Records
History and Archives Division
Mailing Address: 1901 West Madison, Phoenix, AZ 85009
Phone: (602) 926-3720 Fax: (602) 256-7982 E-mail: See the Contact Form
Arkansas
Arkansas History Commission
Mailing Address: One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 77201
Phone: (501) 682-6900 E-mail: state.archives@arkansas.gov
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California
California State Archives
Mailing Address: 1020 O Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone, Reference Desk: (916) 653-2246 Phone, General Information: (916) 653-7715 Fax: (916) 653-7363
E-mail: See the Contact Form
Colorado
Colorado State Archives
Mailing Address: 1313 Sherman Street, Room 122, Denver, CO 80203
Phone: (303) 866-2358 Toll-free, in state only: (800) 305-3442 Text: (303) 866-2229 E-mail: See the Contact Form
Connecticut
Connecticut State Archives
Mailing Address: Connecticut State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106
Phone, General Information: (860) 757-6500 Phone, History and Genealogy Unit: (860) 757-6500
Text: (860) CONNREF (860 266-6733)
E-mail: See the Contact Form
Delaware
Delaware Public Archives
Mailing Address: 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. North, Dover, DE 19901
Phone: (302) 744-5000 E-mail: See the Contact Form
Florida
State Archives of Florida
Mailing Address: R.A. Gray Building, 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250
Phone: (850) 245-6700 TDD: (850) 245-6096 Reference Fax: (850) 488-4894 E-mail: info@dos.myflorida.com
Georgia
Georgia Archives
Mailing Address: 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, GA 30260
Phone: (678) 364-3710 E-mail: See Ask an Archivist
Hawaii
Hawaii State Archives
Mailing Address: Kekauluohi Building, Iolani Palace Grounds, 364 S. King Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
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Phone: (808) 586-0329 Fax: (808) 586-0330 E-mail: archives@hawaii.gov
Idaho
Idaho State Archives
Mailing Address: Idaho State Archives, 2205 Old Penitentiary Road, Boise, ID 83712
Phone, Archives: (208) 334-2620 Fax, Public Archives: 208-334-2626
Illinois
Illinois State Archives
Mailing Address: Margaret Cross Norton Building, Capitol Complex, Springfield, IL 62756
Phone: (217) 782-4682 Fax: (217) 524-3930 E-mail: See the Reference Request Form (Illinois Residents Only)
Indiana
Indiana State Archives
Mailing Address: 6440 East 30th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46219
Phone: (317) 591-5222 Fax: (317) 591-5324 E-mail: arc@icpr.in.gov or see the Contact Form
Iowa
State Historical Society of Iowa: State Archives and Records Program
Mailing Address: State of Iowa Historical Building, 600 East Locust, Des Moines, IA 50319-0290
Phone: (515) 281-5111 E-mail: dm.library@iowa.gov
Kansas
Kansas Historical Society: State Archives
Mailing Address: 6425 SW 6th Avenue, Topeka, KS 66615-1099
Phone: (785) 272-8681 Phone, State Archives Reference Desk: (785) 272-8681, ext. 117 E-mail: reference@kshs.org
Kentucky
Department for Libraries and Archives
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 537, Frankfort, KY 40601
Phone: (502) 564-8300 Fax: (502) 564-5773 E-mail: kdla.archives@ky.gov or see the Records Request Forms
Louisiana
Louisiana State Archives
Mailing Address: Louisiana State Archives, Louisiana Secretary of State, P.O. Box 94125, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9125
Phone: (225) 922-1200 Fax: (225) 922-0433 E-mail: See the Contact Us Page
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Maine
Maine State Archives
Mailing Address: 84 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333
Phone: (207) 287-5790 Fax: (207) 287-6035
Maryland
Maryland State Archives
Mailing Address: 350 Rowe Boulevard, Annapolis, MD 21401
Phone: (410) 260-6400 Toll free: (800) 235-4045
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Archives Division
Mailing Address: Secretary of Commonwealth, Massachusetts Archives, 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125
Phone: (617) 727-2816 Fax: (617)288-8429 E-mail: archives@sec.state.ma.us
Michigan
Archives of Michigan
Mailing Address: 702 W. Kalamazoo Street, Lansing, Michigan 48915
Phone: (517) 335-2576 E-mail: archives@michigan.gov
Minnesota
Minnesota State Archives
Mailing Address: Minnesota Historical Society, 345 Kellogg Boulevard, St. Paul, MN 55102-1906
Phone: (651) 259-3260 Fax: (651) 296-9961 E-mail: See the Contact Us Page
Mississippi
Mississippi Department of Archives & History
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 571, Jackson, MS 39205-0571
Phone: (601) 576-6876 Fax: (601) 576-6964 E-mail: refdesk@mdah.state.ms.us.
Missouri
Missouri State Archives
Mailing Address: 600 W. Main, P.O. Box 1747, Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: (573) 751-3280 Fax: (573) 526-7333
E-mail: archref@sos.mo.gov. Please read the guidelines before sending reference requests.
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Montana
Montana Historical Society
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 201201, 225 North Roberts Street, Helena, MT 59620-1201
Phone, Research Center: (406) 444-2681 E-mail: mhslibrary@mt.gov or see the Online Request Form .
Nebraska
Library/Archives Division of the Nebraska State Historical Society
Mailing Address: Library / Archives, Nebraska State Historical Society, P.O. Box 82554, 1500 “R” Street, Lincoln, NE 68501
Phone: (402) 471-4751 Fax: (402) 471-3100 E-mail: nshs.libarch@nebraska.gov
Nevada
Nevada State Library and Archives
Mailing Address: 100 North Stewart Street, Carson City, NV 89701-4285
Phone: (775) 684-3310 Toll free, in state only: (800) 922-2880 Fax: (775) 684-3311 E-mail: See the request form
New Hampshire
New Hampshire Division of Archives and Records Management
Mailing Address: 71 South Fruit Street, Concord, NH 03301
Phone: (603) 271-2236 Fax: (603) 271-2272
E-mail: archives@sos.nh.gov . For birth, death, and marriage records, contact the Division of Vital Records Administration
at http://www.sos.nh.gov/vitalrecords/.
New Jersey
New Jersey State Archives
Mailing Address, State Archives: 225 West State Street, P.O. Box 307, Trenton, NJ 08625-0307
Mailing Address, State Records Center: 2300 Stuyvesant Avenue, P.O. Box 307, Trenton, NJ 08625-0307
Phone: (609) 292-6260 Fax, Reference: (609) 292-4127 E-mail, State Archives: njarchives@sos.state.nj.us
New Mexico
State Records Center and Archives
Mailing Address: 1205 Camino Carlos Rey, Santa Fe, NM 87505
Phone, Archives and Historical Services Division: (505) 476-7948
Fax, Archives and Historical Services Division: (505) 476-7909
E-mail: archives@state.nm.us
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New York
New York State Archives
Mailing Address: New York State Education Department, Cultural Education Center, 222 Madison Avenue, Empire State Plaza, Albany,
NY 12230
Phone, Research Assistance: (518) 474-8955 Phone, General Information: (518) 474-6926
E-mail, Research Assistance: archref@mail.nysed.gov
North Carolina
State Archives of North Carolina
Mailing Address: 4614 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4614
Phone: (919) 807-7310 Fax: (919) 733-1354 E-mail: archives@ncdcr.gov
North Dakota
State Archives
Mailing Address: 612 East Boulevard Avenue, Bismarck, ND 58505
Phone, Reference: (701) 328-2091 E-mail: archives@nd.us
Ohio
Ohio Historical Society Archives/Library
Mailing Address: 1982 Velma Avenue, Columbus, OH 43211
Phone: 614-297-2510 Toll free: 800-686-6124 Fax: (614) 297-2358
E-mail: reference@ohiohistory.org or see the Reference Contact Form .
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State Archives and Records Management
Mailing Address: 200 NE 18th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Phone, Archives: (405) 522-3579 Phone, Records Center: (405) 524-4416 Fax, Archives: (405) 522-3583
Fax, Records Management: (405) 524-7567
Oregon
Oregon State Archives
Mailing Address: 800 Summer Street NE, Salem, OR 97310
Phone: (503) 373-0701 Fax: (503) 373-0953 E-mail: reference.archives@state.or.us
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State Archives
57
Mailing Address: 350 North Street, Harrisburg, PA 17120.
Phone: (717) 783-3281 E-mail: ra-statearchives@state.pa.us
Rhode Island
State Archives
Mailing Address: 337 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903
Phone: (401) 222-2353 Fax: (401) 222-3199 E-mail: statearchives@sos.ri.gov
South Carolina
Department of Archives and History
Mailing Address: 8301 Parklane Road, Columbia, SC 29223
Phone, Reference Room: (803) 896-6104 Fax, Reference Room: (803) 896-6198 E-mail: See the Genealogy Request Form
South Dakota
South Dakota State Archives
Mailing Address: 900 Governors Drive, Pierre, SD 57501
Phone: (605) 773-3804 Fax: (605) 773-6041 E-mail: archref@state.sd.us
Tennessee
Tennessee State Library and Archives
Mailing Address: 403 7th Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37243
Phone: (615) 741-2764 E-mail: reference.tsla@tn.gov
Texas
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 12927, Austin, TX 78711-2927
Phone: (512) 463-5455 Email, Reference: reference.desk@tsl.state.tx.us
Utah
Utah State Archives
Mailing Address, Research Center: 300 S. Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Phone, Research Center: (801) 533-3535 E-mail: See the Contact Form
Vermont
Vermont State Archives and Records Administration
Mailing Address: Office of the Secretary of State, 1078 Route 2, Middlesex, Montpelier, VT 05633-7701
Phone, Reference Room: (802) 828-2308 E-mail: archives@sec.state.vt.us. For vital records requests use vitals@sec.state.vt.us.
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Virginia
Library of Virginia
Mailing Address: 800 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: (804) 692-3500 E-mail: See the Contact Form
Washington
Washington State Archives
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 40238, Olympia, WA 98504-0238
Phone: (360) 586-1492 E-mail, State Archivist: archives@sos.wa.gov
E-mail, Research Requests and Information on Public Records: research@sos.wa.gov
West Virginia
West Virginia State Archives
Mailing Address: Archives and History Library, The Cultural Center, 1900 Kanawha Boulevard East, Charleston, WV 25305-0300
Phone: (304) 558-0230
The West Virginia Archives will not answer e-mail research requests. All research requests must be submitted in writing.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin State Historical Society Library-Archives
Mailing Address: Archives Reference, Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706
Phone: (608) 264-6460 Fax: (608) 264-6472 E-mail: See the Archives Reference Request Form
Wyoming
Wyoming State Archives
Mailing Address: Barrett Building, 2301 Central Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82002
Phone: (307) 777-7826 Fax: (307) 777-7044 E-mail: See the Contact Form
Source: State Archives | National Archives
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Hidden Figures in Your Family – House Hunting
If you find your relative’s diary
A recent visit to East St. Louis, I’ll., yielded highs and lows.
Jazz musician ancestor Miles Davis grew up in the deep South…that is, southern Illinois. Nearby Davis’ boyhood home are stark images of ravaged homes such as this one I captured while riding in the back seat of a SUV.
What are you capturing? Anywhere you are, I’m sure famous folk have walked those same streets. Research. Record. Reward your genealogy work.
GoodGenesGenealogyServices 2.0 
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