Some Genealogical Valentine Treats

Mrs. Harders, unknown location, to Rena Lerfald, postcard, c. 1909 - 1913, unpostmarked; Lerfald-Westaby Postcard Collection; privately held by Troy Midkiff, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Vancouver, Washington, 2010.

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm a little late getting out my greeting and news, because as you all well know, sometimes making family history gets in the way of blogging about it. Yesterday evening, I made a little more family history spending time with my three young nephews while my sister was at work. After baths and cuddles and tucking the boys into bed, I powered up my new netbook with the intention of getting some blogging done in time to post early this morning; however, the wireless signal in the apartment complex was weak and inconsistent. So my posts (including my State Archives Series) will be published a bit later today or tomorrow.

However you're spending Valentine's Day, you won't want to miss the following Valentine treats that have been put together by the genealogical community! The first one is the Valentine's edition of Shades of the Departed, the beautiful and incomparable genealogy, history, and photography e-magazine! Oh, and I did I mention, it's free?

True to their quality standards, the writing and editorial team headed by the footnoteMaven have put together a fabulous issue featuring vintage African-American photos (this is African-American history month, after all!), a sweet fiction piece, an article on what the archival process involves, and much, much more! Plus, it's just so fun to actually turn the pages of this online magazine--go check it out, if you haven't done so--and you can download it for reading again later!

The next treat is from another one of my favorite people, Lisa Louise Cooke. She recently had the privilege of interviewing Lisa Kudrow, with whom you will be familiar from the television show, Friends. If you haven't already heard, Ms. Kudrow is the executive producer of a new genealogy show airing on NBC March 5th, Who Do You Think You Are? Lisa C. interviewed Lisa K. in her latest episode of the Genealogy Gems podcast, which is available to listen to today.

Now if you've never listened to a podcast, don't be intimidated! You don't need an iPod, an MP3 player or any fancy technological equipment. All you need is the computer you're using right now to read this, and either speakers or headphones. Go to this link and look at the little white podcast player in the right-hand column. Click on the play button ( > ) and listen to this fascinating and exclusive interview!

A genealogical Valentine magazine and radio show...or at least the modern versions of such...it doesn't get any better than this!  Happy Valentine's Day!

The National Archives and Footnote.com Launch Online African American History Collection

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND FOOTNOTE.COM LAUNCH ONLINE AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY COLLECTION

Over a million pages of original documents, letters and photos, most digitized for the first time.

Lindon, UT - January 29, 2009 – In celebration of Black History Month, Footnote.com is launching its African American Collection. Footnote.com has been working with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C., to digitize records that provide a view into the lives of African Americans that few have seen before.

“These records cover subjects including slavery, military service, and issues facing African Americans dating back to the late 18th century,” explains James Hastings, Director of Access Programs at NARA. “Making these records available online will help people to better understand the history and sacrifice that took place in this country.”

Footnote.com has spent the last two years with NARA compiling this collection and is currently working on adding more records that will be released in the upcoming months. African American records currently on Footnote.com include:

•Service Records for Colored Troops in the Civil War – Records for the 2nd-13th infantries including enlistment papers, casualty sheets, oaths of allegiance, proof of ownership and bills of sale.

•American Colonization Society – Letters and reports relating to this colony established in 1817 for free people of color residing in the U.S.

•Amistad Case – Handwritten records of this landmark case beginning in 1839 involving the Spanish schooner Amistad, used to transport illegal slaves.

•Southern Claims Commission – Petitions for compensation resulting from the Civil War.

“The Southern Claims Commission records are a very rich, often overlooked resource for African American family research. They often contain information that cannot be found anywhere else,” says Toni Carrier, Founding Director of the USF Africana Heritage Project. “These records document the experiences of former slaves during the Civil War and in the days immediately after. Many contain detailed narratives that make it possible for descendants to envision the lives and experiences of ancestors.”

Footnote.com is also working on additional record collections that will be released shortly. Those records include:

•Records of the US District Court for the District of Columbia Relating to Slaves, 1851-1863 – includes slave schedules, manumission papers and case papers relating to fugitive slaves.

•Records for the Emancipation of Slaves in the District of Columbia, 1862-63 – minutes of meetings, docket books and petitions pertaining to emancipation of slaves.

•Registro Central de Esclavos 1872 (Slave Schedules) – registers from Puerto Rico giving information for each slave: name, country of origin, name of parents, physical description, master’s name and more.

•Records Relating to the Suppression of the African Slave Trade and Negro Colonization, 1854-1872 - letters, accounts, and other documents relating to the suppression of the African slave trade.

•Correspondence of the Military Intelligence Division Relation to “Negro Subversion” 1917-1941 - record cards and correspondence of the Military Intelligence Division (MID) that relate to activities of blacks in both civilian and military life.

In addition to these records, Footnote.com also features member contributions that include topics ranging from the Underground Railroad to Women Abolitionists to African Americans receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor.

“The contributions to our site have been impressive,” says Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “It’s exciting to see people connect with history and with each other.”
To view the African American Collection on Footnote.com visitors can go to http://go.footnote.com/blackhistory/.

About Footnote, Inc.
Footnote.com is a subscription website that features searchable original documents, providing users with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

About The National Archives
NARA alone is the archives of the Government of the United States, responsible for safeguarding records of all three branches of the Federal Government. The records held by the National Archives belong to the public – and it is the mission of the National Archives to ensure the public can discover, use, and learn from the records of their government.

This and That

Reading through my e-mail this morning, I came across these little snippets of interesting items to share with my readers:

• *The Dowagiac [Michigan] Daily News has a fascinating article about Verge Hawkins, who is lecturing on African-American history at the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College's spring lecture series. He encourages families to study genealogy together "because if you have different generations, they can focus on some things and tell their story. When you tell your own story, you're a much stronger person."

• *"Today Michigan lawmakers will begin contemplating one of the most heated questions within the adoption community -- should upwards of 20,000 people be allowed to access family information that has been kept secret for decades? Bills in both chambers of the Legislature would allow people adopted between 1945 and 1980 to obtain their original birth certificate. It also would allow birth parents to tell the state whether they want to be contacted, and how. A hearing on the matter will be held today before the House Families and Children's Services subcommittee." My paternal grandmother was one of the "lucky" adoptees whose adoption was finalized in 1940 (when she was 16), so she was able to access her own birth certificate. Thousands of Michigan adoptees have never had that chance. Read more here.

• *From Cyndi's List Mailing List, a website where you can do an Irish placename search, Irish Ancestries.com. The placename finder is on this page.

• *Looking for Michigan newspapers that might carry obituaries online? This list appears to have current--not historical--papers, but some have archived obits, so check it out.

• *From the Oakland County Mailing List at RootsWeb came this terrific news: "Later this year the State Library will be putting digitized death certificates for Michigan on its website. The years covered will be 1900-1910. Granted its not as much as some states but for Michigan that's a major step!"

Black History Month Wrap Up

As Black History Month wraps up, I wanted to leave a few observations, thoughts, and helpful links. This year, I probably paid more attention to this heritage month than in the past, simply because I have recently learned through a DNA test that some close family members have African ancestry. How long ago this race blended into their family tree is unknown, but the results were hardly surprising to me, since I have suspected for a while the possibility of Melungeon roots in their ancestry. Whether this proves to be the source of their African roots, or whether it is much more ancient, research will only tell. Of course, this only makes me curious to find out if I have anything other than Caucasian/West European blood in my own genetic makeup!

If you know or suspect you have African roots, or you're merely curious as to how genealogists of African descent undertake the complicated challenges of their particular research, then may I suggest four excellent blogs by those who have been researching and/or blogging their genealogy for some time: Craig Manson blogs about his African, Native American and Caucasian roots at GeneaBlogie, and brings a unique and professional perspective from his service as an officer in the military and experience as a judge and law professor to the geneablogging world. Taneya Koonce McClellan is a librarian at Vanderbilt University who maintains six(!) genealogy blogs and a website (her main blog is Taneya's Genealogy Blog). Her blogs contain many historical articles and notices she gleans from old newspapers in Tennessee and North Carolina. George Geder is a professional photographer, photograph restorer, writer, and lecturer, as well as a forum manager for the book forum at AfriGeneas. I especially enjoy his Wordless Wednesday posts on Genealogy~Photography~Restoration when he uses an ancestral photo and then later blogs about the history of the individual(s) featured within it. And Jennifer Cotten Campbell at But Now I'm Found: Genealogy in Black and White (who also has other blogs and a website) painstakingly details the complexities of surname changes and brick walls of researching enslaved ancestors. Other genealogy blogs on African-American research can be found at Chris Dunham's Genealogy Blog Finder: African-American Blogs.

Back when I was a homeschooling parent, I signed up to receive educational materials from the United States Postal Service. I was recently sent a packet on Black History Month and the release of the 31st stamp in the Black Heritage series, which features Charles W. Chesnutt (1858–1932), "a pioneering writer recognized today as a major innovator and singular voice among turn–of–the–century literary realists. In novels such as The Marrow of Tradition and short stories such as those collected in The Conjure Woman he probed the color line in American life." Although he could easily have "passed" as a white man, Chesnutt used his influence and his author's voice to examine and expose racial issues during a time of great civil injustice in American history. If you are interested in receiving the USPS educational kits, visit their classroom resources page.

Back to the subject of genealogy bloggers: Tim Abbott of Walking the Berkshires posted a series called "Race and Memory" in which he shares his thoughts and observations of race relations from the time of his ancestors in colonial America through the Civil Rights era and to the present day. These essays are sober, touching on complexities, and reminding us that American slavery was not just a Southern issue. We sometimes forget that at one time, slavery was present in all the original colonies, and that during the Civil War, several of the Union states were slave states until the Emancipation Proclamation.

Several months ago, the family of my brother-in-law and our own family gathered together to watch the DVD of Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilburforce, the Member of Parliament who was instrumental in ending the slave trade in the British Empire (which was also a catalyst for abolitionism in the United States). The plot focuses not so much on the issues of slavery, but on the life of a man who lost his health--and nearly his life--in his mission to put an end to this inhumanity. Wilburforce's mentor was John Newton, writer of the lyrics of "Amazing Grace." At about the time I saw the movie, I was sent a link to a YouTube video of Wintley Phipps that provides a possible explanation for the tune of famous hymn. This video also gives an interesting music lesson about Negro Spirituals and the black notes of the piano.

Unfortunately, I missed PBS's African-American Lives 2 (I'm not much of a television watcher, and so often miss interesting shows when they air). However, I was excited to see that there are major clips available on PBS's website. My local public library is a wonderful resource for many PBS series available on DVD, and I will be looking for this and the first series to take home and watch, hopefully during my upcoming Spring Break.

Last on my list of African Roots links: I received the following interesting book review from Rick Robert's Global Genealogy Newsletter about the book To Stand and Fight Together.

In 1812, a 67-year-old black United Empire Loyalist named Richard Pierpoint helped raise “a corps of Coloured Men to stand and fight together” against the Americans who were threatening to invade the tiny British colony of Upper Canada.

Pierpoint‘s unique fighting unit would not only see service throughout the War of 1812, it would also be the first colonial military unit reactiviated to quash the Rebellion of 1837. It would go on to serve as a police force, keeping the peace among the competing Irish immigrant gangs during the construction of the Welland Canal.

Pierpoint and the Coloured Corps are the central focus, but the sidebars featuring fascinating facts about the rise and fall of slavery in North America and the state of African-Canadians in early Canada provide an entertaining and informative supplement. Among other tidbits, readers will find out why “Good Queen Bess” launched the British slave industry and how Scottish pineapples are connected to the American Declaration of Independence.

Steve Pitt‘s first book, Rain Tonight: A Tale of Hurricane Hazel, was nominated for the Silver Birch, Red Cedar, and Rocky Mountain awards. He has been published in many magazines and newspapers, including Toronto Life, Canadian Family.