Do you know your family roots??? If you do, how do you feel about your discovery of things that happened to your family in the past??? I really would like to know how you feel about this subject???

I watched a Henry Louis Gates, "Finding Your Roots" episode a couple of weeks ago. It featured, Questlove, Dr. Phil and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. This show was very interested to me and I got the chance to see their re-actions to finding out their true history of the past. Dr. Phil did not seem to be to happy to find out that one of his relatives from the past was a slave owner. Questlove's segment of this show had a very strong impact on me. He seemed to have found some peace & closure learning where he came from.>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cUAP1sxvqE&t=10s

Quest is always a very upbeat person on television and the internet and to see him sit there and cry real tears really gave me second thoughts about my past history. Questlove is from Alabama just like me. As he sat there looking through his family history, I could just feel myself sitting in Questlove's seat. When Mr. Gates told him to turn the page of his history, I caught myself closing my eyes in fear of what he might see and this scared me. I went to Alabama a few years ago and I realized that I came from a Dark, Dirty, Low-Down part of the south. I am from Aliceville & Carrollton Alabama. There was mass lynching's and this place was grounds where the civil war took place amongst other things. I would be shocked if I found out my family history was not awful during the 1800's so I really don't want to know.

My parents were born in the early 1900's and evidently, things had calmed down by then. There was still Jim Crow, discrimination, lack of decent jobs and poverty but the Black people loved each other and stuck together and they seemed to have more happiness during the 1900's. Neither my mother nor father had anything very terrible to sat about their childhoods. Yes, I wouldn't mind seeing where they lived, what schools they attended and where my father used to go hunting and fishing but there's no rush with this for me.

So in conclusion of my thoughts on my history during the 1800's or before, I don't want to know. I really don't think that I am mentally capable of learning what happened to my ancestor's during the 1800's or before. The thought just hurts and scares me too much!!! I used to think about finding my family roots but it took me watching this program to realize that I am just not brave enough to know the bad things about my ancestry.

I don't know and I don't want to know...What are your thoughts about learning your family history ???

Poll result (37 votes) Yes, I do... (11 votes) Vote No, but I would like to know... (12 votes) Vote I don't know my family roots & I don't want to know... (3 votes) Vote I really does not matter to me... (11 votes) Vote

>Do you know your family roots???

I know some of my lineage back to the late 1700's.

>If you do, how do you feel about your discovery of things that happened to your family in
>the past??? I really would like to know how you feel about
>this subject???

I've been an off and on genealogy enthusiast for the last 5 years. I love it.

And yes, there are secrets and sometimes negative stories (and people) that surface in the past. The past is never what I think, though, even when I have a pretty good idea of what the "story" is. *So far*, the truth of that hasn't changed.

Knowing my roots has re-arranged me. My lineage isn't what I thought, and as a result, neither am I. Negative things clarify themselves out in the sense that you sort out what's yours and what's not, and what's shared (but has led to similar/different lives and outcomes).

I get that some people would be hesitant, though. Everybody has different family dynamics...

> I went to Alabama a few years ago and I realized that I came from a Dark, Dirty,Low-Down part of the south.

My family is from Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

The hardest part of genealogy research has been encountering slavery, Jim Crow, and the legacy of racism (especially because it makes searching more difficult).

A few years ago, I found a transcribed legal document containing the testimony of my g-g-g-g grandmother. In her testimony, she named her father, her owners, her husband's owner, the plantations she lived on and where to find them, the preacher who married her, and her children; she also described where she currently lived as a sharecropper, how she came to live where she lived, what kind of work she did, and what her general life was like.

That document broke me all the way down. My heart was...I don't even have the words. I also grieved about all kinds of things that document brought up. I had a lot of rage, too.

>What are your thoughts about learning your family history ???

It's deep. It changed me. I make more sense to myself in ways I didn't know could be relevant or possible. Plus, the process is fun. I like learning and searching and all of that stuff. There are some really colorful personalities in my family tree! Learning about my family history has tightened bonds within my family and connected me to family members who are searching, too.

I feel like the best place to get started is to talk to older people in your family, if they're around. It's amazing what people say and what they remember and how much they are willing to talk. Those types of discussions are also a good gauge for whether or not the waters are too deep for you to investigate further.

I didn't know that learning about my family history would mean that I'd have to be prepared and open to grieving...at the same time, I found so much love.

***Thank you!!! As I said earlier, I have been enlightened about a lot African American history, just being online...
I am happy that you have become comfortable with exploring your family heritage. I do understand that there is times of anxiety in your search for knowledge of your past.

>>Do you know your family roots???
>
>I know some of my lineage back to the late 1700's.

***1700's is way back in time but I do realize that the years hold clues to why & what when it comes to linking your roots and I do understand that you feel comfortable and have more inner peace knowing about your family's past.

>I've been an off and on genealogy enthusiast for the last 5
>years. I love it.
>
>And yes, there are secrets and sometimes negative stories (and
>people) that surface in the past. The past is never what I
>think, though, even when I have a pretty good idea of what the
>"story" is. *So far*, the truth of that hasn't changed.

***I do know quite a few things about my past. My mother is still alive and has always told us stories about her childhood and things that went on during her years in Alabama. She told us that our g-g-g grandmother was an ex-slave. My g-g-g grandmother was a streamline seamstress and she was at her treadle sewing machine when Abraham Lincoln. freed the slaves, of course this part of my history made me feel good. My mother has also told us about the many skills and talents of her family. My mother is a very skillful lady and a jack of several trades and me, my sisters and brother did inherit a lot of her talents and the ability to do pretty much whatever we put our minds to do. My mother is in her 80's now but she is a blues singer, a professional seamstress, and periodically does carpentry, a gardener and just a very creative woman. I do know that if my mother would have born White with her skills, we probably would have been a very wealthy family!!! Knowing that we were deprived of the privileges of fame and wealth does not bother me. I am just not ready to hear that some of my g-g-g relatives had been killed and tortured for something that they did not do. I don't want to hear about g-g-g relatives that got raped and tortured, it makes me want to cry right now just typing about this kind of stuff.

>Knowing my roots has re-arranged me. My lineage isn't what I
>thought, and as a result, neither am I. Negative things
>clarify themselves out in the sense that you sort out what's
>yours and what's not, and what's shared (but has led to
>similar/different lives and outcomes).
>
>I get that some people would be hesitant, though. Everybody
>has different family dynamics...

***Yes, I am very hesitant about learning about my past, not just became of Henry Gates documentaries on "Finding Your Roots". Ever since I want to Alabama a few years ago, I can't erase things that I saw and heard when I was there. Maybe later on or before I leave this earth maybe I might want to know my roots from way, way back but I know that I came from one of the worst areas in the south, a real bucket of blood type place. My only consolation is the fact that my parents had a pretty good life, they didn't have much material things but they had lots of love, they all lived close to God & the church and they were skillful people that were able to help each other whenever they needed to. All of the old pictures that I have seen of my parents & grandparents showed them as well-dressed, very healthy looking people, all of these thoughts keep me going, but I don't want to hear about any lynching's, torture or rapes from my family's past...Nope, I'm not ready to hear nothing like this!!!

>
>My family is from Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

***Your family is from Alabama & Mississippi are 2 of the most Jim Crow states in the south, I'm sure there are, "rough spots" in your genealogy ...
>
>The hardest part of genealogy research has been encountering
>slavery, Jim Crow, and the legacy of racism (especially
>because it makes searching more difficult).

***YES, 4 SURE!!!
>
>A few years ago, I found a transcribed legal document
>containing the testimony of my g-g-g-g grandmother. In her
>testimony, she named her father, her owners, her husband's
>owner, the plantations she lived on and where to find them,
>the preacher who married her, and her children; she also
>described where she currently lived as a sharecropper, how she
>came to live where she lived, what kind of work she did, and
>what her general life was like.
>
>That document broke me all the way down. My heart was...I
>don't even have the words. I also grieved about all kinds of
>things that document brought up. I had a lot of rage, too.

***I truly understand and I am sure you can understand my reasons for not wanting to know too much about my past history...

>>What are your thoughts about learning your family history
> ???
>
>It's deep. It changed me. I make more sense to myself in ways
>I didn't know could be relevant or possible. Plus, the process
>is fun. I like learning and searching and all of that stuff.
>There are some really colorful personalities in my family
>tree! Learning about my family history has tightened bonds
>within my family and connected me to family members who are
>searching, too.

>I feel like the best place to get started is to talk to older
>people in your family, if they're around. It's amazing what
>people say and what they remember and how much they are
>willing to talk. Those types of discussions are also a good
>gauge for whether or not the waters are too deep for you to
>investigate further.

***I truly understand why you have become a better person. As for me right about now, learning too much about my history might really destroy me mentally and I am not willing to take the chance right now to learn too much. I want to keep a good, loving positive relationship with people of all races and colors. I also try to keep in mind that even though we carry the burdens and the sins of our fore-parents no matter what color we are and we have to appreciate people that are kind and caring no matter what color they are. Right now, I am in a pretty happy place with people of all races and I want to remain this way and I don't want the past to destroy my heart and yes, I feel that learning too much about my past might alter my feelings in a negative way.
>
>I feel like the best place to get started is to talk to older
>people in your family, if they're around. It's amazing what
>people say and what they remember and how much they are
>willing to talk. Those types of discussions are also a good
>gauge for whether or not the waters are too deep for you to
>investigate further.

>I've been an off and on genealogy enthusiast for the last 5
>years. I love it.
>
>And yes, there are secrets and sometimes negative stories (and
>people) that surface in the past. The past is never what I
>think, though, even when I have a pretty good idea of what the
>"story" is. *So far*, the truth of that hasn't changed.


>I didn't know that learning about my family history would mean
>that I'd have to be prepared and open to grieving...at the
>same time, I found so much love.

***I do thank you for all of your comments and insights into your search for your roots. I commend you for your fearless efforts. I am going to save your post and maybe one day, I might become as brave as you but right now...I just can't. Thanks and God bless you !!!





♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

What a stunning document to uncover. An amazing gift that also hurts.

>
>A few years ago, I found a transcribed legal document
>containing the testimony of my g-g-g-g grandmother. In her
>testimony, she named her father, her owners, her husband's
>owner, the plantations she lived on and where to find them,
>the preacher who married her, and her children; she also
>described where she currently lived as a sharecropper, how she
>came to live where she lived, what kind of work she did, and
>what her general life was like.
>
>That document broke me all the way down. My heart was...I
>don't even have the words. I also grieved about all kinds of
>things that document brought up. I had a lot of rage, too.

--
the untold want by life and land ne'er granted
now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find

>What a stunning document to uncover. An amazing gift that also hurts.

One of the things that has become poignant to me as I search for (and through) all manner of records, is the important function of memory.

I found that my family understood memory in a profound way, especially when I began to see naming patterns.

Some of my family members, for instance, have my gggg-grandmother's children's names that appeared in her testimony. No one remembered or even knew where the names came from, though, until people started up with genealogy.

I've found out that my past was speaking to me in ways that I didn't pay attention to or understand. I feel like because of my ancestor's experiences (pre/post/during slavery), they wanted to be remembered, and to say something about it.

It's easier to hear the past when you try to trace or discover memory, however faint and incomplete.

The people in the past are not the story in the history books or the story in the rhetoric about this country and Black culture. Their presence and energy is so real and so strong, even underneath all the silences that threaten to bury them.

and some other figures that make me somewhat uncomfortable

My maternal blood group had folks that made feel a bit more at ease


I think every so called black person should get a DNA test

Family wise we have the usual joys and pains African Descended families tend to have

______________________________________

Everything looks like Oprah kissing Harvey Weinstein these days

Ben Affleck did an episode on, "Finding Your Roots">>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqn5nJ54EMc

He was very embarrassed about the fact that he had slavery roots and he probably wished that he had never found this out. Ben is a megastar and I understand that he didn't want the public to know about this. It looks like several White people did not like the fact that their fore-parents were slave owners.

I wouldn't mind knowing my bloodline but I don't want to know about any torture that my fore-parents suffered. As they say, "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". Right about now, I choose to stay out...



♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

It was like $10 extra for the blood group results. They sell it as "hey you may have a famous relative!" I thought maybe there would be one if any and I was way off.

I hear you on the horrors part. It's uncomfortable.

I only took it to see if this black Hebrew thing had any validity and well... If it's false why are there Jewish people in my blood group and why are there genetic markers in areas of Africa Hebrew people would have settled, traded, and or traveled?

______________________________________

Everything looks like Oprah kissing Harvey Weinstein these days

i had a phase in HS when my mom was heavy on it that i helped her do a lot of research. then i thought about it and it was kinda whats the point of finding more new people in our family to not associate with.

my mom is still very into it though.

<--- Big Baller World Order

their past as they can find, but I just can't right now...


♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

♥ Inescapably Me ♥

"Love is never any better than the lover" Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye)

>
>My parents were born in the early 1900's


lol shit

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/03/04/d9/0304d951c6f15d1f1c1f490ca3816244.jpg

STOP IT, PLEASE STOP !!!


♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

...


♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

I'm a cut-off northerner. All I really know is family's from the south (SC, VA & a few other states). Never met any family from down there.

I'd like to know more, but it's not something I think about much. My identity is my own either way.

Maybe later on in your life, you might seek more information about your past...


♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

i learned when i was young the benefits of doing ancestry research when you’re young, BEFORE your eldest ancestors pass away

‘when you feel like it’, Ancestry.com and physical paperwork will only tell you part of the story

ive been deep into my ancestry for over 20 years

you found concerning your ancestry???


♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

fascinated and informative.

ive been into it since i was a kid so all that anger shit left me eons ago

>i learned when i was young the benefits of doing ancestry
>research when you’re young, BEFORE your eldest ancestors
>pass away

Last grandmom died when I was 13. Never met either of my grandfathers, and my grandparents' generation was the one that moved from the south, so I'm disconnected by time and distance.

Not something that's uninteresting, but rather something that will take some work for me, most-likely including digging through public records, etc. I need time to do all of that, something I just don't have right now.

yes, finding the time can be troublesome.

id always dabbled when i was a kid, when i got older and wanted to get 'serious' i paid the $125 membership on Ancestry to kinda force me into getting more into it

it worked and i got hooked

on my own I've traced my family's last names on mom and dad's sides to two people who had to have been former slaves (through death certificates mostly). that's as far back as I can go obviously. I don't care to know anything about the slave owners. my mom did ancestry.com but that caused more problems that it was worth. I am interested though in africanancestry.com to determine what country and tribe in Africa we descend from. I never really cared for the "percentages" thing.

I hope that you post your results from africanancestry.com, this would be interesting...


♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

mmm... I don't think you should

The science they use doesn't match up with the results they say to provide (nor does the cost)

My brother wrote about them a while back

https://thenewinquiry.com/selling-roots/

His article was cited later here

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mace-lab/debunking/understanding

Double 0
DJ/Producer/Artist
Producer in Kidz In The Hall
-------------------------------------------
twitter: @godouble0
IG: @godouble0
www.thinklikearapper.com

I honestly feel that it's more for "entertainment purposes" than anything else. it's a small piece of the puzzle for sure, but it's something rather than nothing. why I find African Ancestry more interesting is because they give a bit more targeted information rather than the others who give more general information. the other companies basically compare you to the other customers to get a estimate of how much you're all alike. telling me I'm 10% this and 20% that is just confirming that all humans are basically related which I already know. that's also why some people get different results when they use different companies because they're being tested against different pools of customers. since African Ancestry doesn't test you against a customer database but instead against a pool of Africans on the continent means you're going to get a different kind of result. but yeah, i'm well aware of what this is and isn't.

I don't believe his show, "Finding Your Roots" is rigged for show business. Henry Louis Gates does a lot of thorough investigations for his shows and documentaries and most of his stuff seems to be pretty accurate. Yes, I agree there is probably no 100% accuracy...


♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

first of all he's got a pretty robust team that has access to a lot of historical records and data. they look up a lot of government records that the average person can't get to (for reasons) and that's how they find most of the information they can on people. the DNA work they do is also not the norm. it would be very expensive to get the kind of research done that HLG's team has access to. that's not exactly what you're getting from your average home DNA ancestry kit.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

as well as people using them for the wrong reasons.

and the conspiracy theorist in me thinks it’s a bad idea to give your DNA to a 3rd party

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

that's why they charge more than the others.

Dad’s side is another story.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

I'm surprised the survey indicates family genealogy doesn't matter to so many people, compared to any other survey choice. My surprise might indicate something about the bubbles and echo chambers I move in and out of, though. Maybe something about my age, too??

Honestly, family genealogy wasn't something I cared much about, either, until I got older. I don't know how old posters who voted are....

I also wonder how much of the "doesn't matter" group is a reflection of Northern migration dynamics?

Some of my family left the deep South and moved up North, but there was an intentional effort, no matter where we were, to stay connected. I don't live in the deep South, but I'm not unfamiliar with it. I feel connected to it.

It's wild to me to hear some Black Northerners with Southern roots talk about the South like its a foreign place that they're not even curious about. That's only my perception, though, obviously.

And then the question I have is whether or not people are interested in their family genealogy if the location is Africa and not the South?

and aren’t really big on extended family.

Type of people to go to a family reunion and sit in the car because it’s too hot outside.

Also the type to say “eww” at all the home cooked dishes on the picnic table and bring Whole Food platters for their kids.

I’m joking but not really

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

--
the untold want by life and land ne'er granted
now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find

He swears he traced it back to the African village and has records of the man who gave away his wife who would be the matriarch for our side of the family.

Swears he has a civil war battle where our family was on both sides and though all the losers got slaughtered, our family member somehow escaped (he thinks family let him slip out).

Anyway I say swears because my uncle is also good and telling tall tales.

Anyway, he did find a new honest to god SISTER for him and my mother. Apparently granddad had a kid with a young woman while he was away working on assignment in New Orleans. We met her a few years ago and now they've all become very close. So I got a new Auntie out of it all which is cool.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

That’s a great story.

I feel bad that I’m going to miss the family reunion on my dads side this year.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

I learned a little more than I knew before at my father's funeral strangely enough.

My cousin who gave the eulogy has done some investigating into our family history, and he went into the history of my father's name (he was possibly named after our ancestor who was a Civil War vet).

-----------------------------

HEY KIDS, (BUY MY) COMICS!! https://www.mythworldemedia.com/store

3 decades.

Found relatives that fought in the civil war.

Found people that held some of my relatives captive.

Found FOUR African ethnic groups I came from via ancestry with distant relatives.

<----

Soundcloud.com/aquil84

(HIP HOP)
http://aquil.bandcamp.com

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

The easiest thing you can do is register for free with

https://www.familysearch.org/en/

if you have names dates even death dates location or birth cities that will help a lot.

You can register with ancestry as well though to get into their records I am not sure if you have to pay or not. I definitely know you have to pay to do DNA test.

As far as doing DNA test I chose ancestry because of the popularity of it(aka database) it is the most used dna service so it has the largest number of people in it's system

As far as finding ancestry directly from the continent I just searched for profiles that had names that were African and roughly they start 5 to 6 generations back (roughly early 1800s to late 1700s.

Once you use one of the DNA services(Ancestry 23& me etc) you can upload the raw data to a site called GEDmatch(now genesis) to get an even larger database of people from all of the other dna sites who have uploaded their raw data to see any relatives (close or distant)

side note on ancestry you can message them and on gedmatch their emails will be listed to contact.

Ancestry has birth, death, certificates, marriage licenses etc etc etc. I found the immigration record of one of my great grandfathers.

I have yet to do the old fashion but effect method of going to these hometowns and looking for records there but I plan to do that in the near future.

<----

Soundcloud.com/aquil84

(HIP HOP)
http://aquil.bandcamp.com

Why aren’t people curious?

--
the untold want by life and land ne'er granted
now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find

>Why aren’t people curious?

***I know in my case of not really wanting to know is fear of the unknown and the chance of finding out things that I can not live down right now. It could be the same for others that don't want to know. In the case of African American people being ex-slaves for sure, their stories of the past in the deep south most likely is not pleasant.

I wouldn't mind knowing my bloodline, but I fear that this might open a can of worms that I can't comfortably cope with.

Like said, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen"...




♥ I LUV U 2!!! ♥

  

testing and being able to align with solid historical data in a way that would truly allow me...as a Black man in America...to get anything beyond a general idea of my history.
Too many variables



"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

fck up being interested in learned just how fcked up your slave lineage was.
There's only so much one can stomach learning.
At the end of the day....there's little to nothing that knowing specific details can do to enhance my current state of being.



"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

Investing some time in genealogical research can give you the opportunity to envision the individual persons that led to your existence. Acknowledging the injustice they suffered and keeping that front of mind doesn’t mean we have to flatten them when we imagine who they might have been as we go about gathering the information we *can* get and *do* have access to about their lives. It’s no gift to the memory of their humanity to only see them as flat, brainless repositories of misery, without any agency, from the moment they were born up until the moment they died. The names we find in the 1870 Census or a property document may not be an African name, but it’s still a name that was attached to a real person whose memory deserves to be kept.

Even under the duress of their lives, they were individual persons with personalities and relationships. Can we ever fully know all the specifics? No. But we can still gain a lot. (This is a tangent, and I don’t care about comparing us to white people, but most white people also don’t actually know verified shit about their family histories either. And in those cases when they think they do, they’re often just repeating some incorrect or overblown garbage their grandfather told them or whatever...)

If I’ve misunderstood your response, forgive me. Not trying to be aggressive. Not trying to preach. I just think the work of AfAm genealogy is dope and more people should try. I am really thankful (like on a spiritual level) for the information my family’s research has brought to me. Not just of folk who lived during slavery but of everyone in between too. I learned some interesting stuff about my great aunts and uncles and my great grandmother that was fascinating and illuminating. You can too. Cause everyone’s life is full of stories. I think people can uncover more than they expect and that it can console more than they realize.

I’m not pie in the sky about this shit at all. Let me be clear. Yes, many African Americans will hit a research wall with the 1870 Census (first Census after the civil war). It’s awful. And I am also very dubious about DNA testing. I have not done it myself although family members have.

But it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to get Ancestry research account (NOT AncestryDNA) and start looking up old Census records. Discovering new names you never knew. Tracing backwards. Seeing what work they did. All the places they lived. The partners they may have loved. Children that meant the world to them. It’s a little bit of information, but it’s also so much more than most people even realize they can have access to. It’s a way to start seeing them as people with stories and not just empty slave or sharecropping caricatures.

--
the untold want by life and land ne'er granted
now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find

I really don’t see how anyone can be ashamed once they get to an age to understand it.

But I guess if I found out an ancestor was a serial killer it could lead to shame

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

I probably gave an answer to a question that wasn't asked...
I interpreted this to be about the DNA and Ancestory.com stuff too....


"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

>It’s no gift to the memory of their
>humanity to only see them as flat, brainless repositories of
>misery, without any agency, from the moment they were born up
>until the moment they died. The names we find in the 1870
>Census or a property document may not be an African name, but
>it’s still a name that was attached to a real person whose
>memory deserves to be kept.

1,000% agree.

>Even under the duress of their lives, they were individual
>persons with personalities and relationships. Can we ever
>fully know all the specifics? No. But we can still gain a lot.

Agree.

>If I’ve misunderstood your response, forgive me. Not trying
>to be aggressive. Not trying to preach. I just think the work
>of AfAm genealogy is dope and more people should try.

Dope af!!!!

>I am really thankful (like on a spiritual level) for the
>information my family’s research has brought to me. Not just
>of folk who lived during slavery but of everyone in between
>too.

Yes!

>I learned some interesting stuff about my great aunts and
>uncles and my great grandmother that was fascinating and
>illuminating. You can too. Cause everyone’s life is full of
>stories. I think people can uncover more than they expect and
>that it can console more than they realize.

I can co-sign that. When I began, I didn't think I'd find much. I was wrong. There are/were huge gaps and brick walls. There may be information that's lost forever, and questions I have that I'll never find answers to.

> I’m not pie in the sky about this shit at all. Let me be
>clear. Yes, many African Americans will hit a research wall
>with the 1870 Census (first Census after the civil war).

I hit a research wall, with all but 2 family members.

>It’s awful. And I am also very dubious about DNA testing. I
>have not done it myself although family members have.

Same.

>But it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to get Ancestry
>research account (NOT AncestryDNA) and start looking up old
>Census records. Discovering new names you never knew. Tracing
>backwards. Seeing what work they did. All the places they
>lived. The partners they may have loved. Children that meant
>the world to them. It’s a little bit of information, but
>it’s also so much more than most people even realize they
>can have access to. It’s a way to start seeing them as
>people with stories and not just empty slave or sharecropping
>caricatures.

Yes. Yes. And yes!

And what's so evident is that they thought about the future (and not in abstract terms, but in terms of people/familial bonds).

I just don't. I'm interested, but not that way.

My ancestors got it in. Took the test and could post my results after I edit.

My family history runs deep.

Here's a link to Nicka Smith's Youtube page:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDfGEwZ7P8kHvvr-9iChExA

She's an African American genealogist with over two decades of genealogy experience. She posts all kinds of helpful videos about how to conduct a genealogy search. Even when the subject matter isn't relevant to me, I watch a lot of her videos, anyway. Our history is fascinating, and so are the unique genealogy challenges we face because of it! I sometimes watch her videos just in case I run across someone who might need the information. There's nothing like coming across someone who has answers or information (even if it's a little bit) about something you've been racking your brain about for ages.

A random sampling of topics Nicka has covered:
--Research tips for specific states
--Research basics
--Research realities and heartbreaks
--Research tips for folks with Afro-Latino roots
--Research tips about how to get the most information out of particular documents
--Research tips about helpful non-census documents

Plus, she invites other genealogists to talk about their area of expertise, experiences, and frustrations.

Finally, for any Mississippi genealogists--

If you haven't already, check out the Mississippi Department of Archives and History's website! It's worth a brick and mortar visit, too.

http://www.mdah.ms.gov/new/

fractured background. My mothers parent died when she was 10 (her father) and 13 (her mother) and she was raise by her biological aunt and the aunt's husband.

Those are MY grandparents. When I say grandma and grandpa those are the people I am referring to, but my mother kept her last name. She did not take the last name of the aunt/aunts husband. She was raised in their household and the person she is today is because of them, but she aint a "Potts."

Now I am who I am because of her, she she is who she is because of them. The "Potts." But she aint a "Potts" and I aint a "Potts" either.

In fact I have me absentee fathers last name - not my mothers. So I have this last named for whom I am one of a kind (as far as my life is concerned). I am the only one I know.

My mom still feels a connection to her biological parents. As for me, I am not one of her people (my mama's biological peoples) via upbringing or last name.

I only kinda a "Potts" via upbringing but when my grandfather died all his people just kinda referred to me and my mom as 'that girl he raised and her kid.'

And I am only one of my biological dads people in name - certainly not upbringing.

I can't feel comfortable claiming any roots as mine.

♥ Inescapably Me ♥

"Love is never any better than the lover" Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye)

especially with all the talk about reparations

Ghana having a year of return.

The last slaveship being found in Alabama

The last Africans stolen from Africa taken to the USA being found in a recording(book and video).

<----

Soundcloud.com/aquil84

(HIP HOP)
http://aquil.bandcamp.com

Anti-gentrification, cheap alcohol & trying to look pretty in our twilight posting years (c) Big Reg
http://Tupreme.com

http://theconversation.com/how-african-american-folklore-saved-the-cultural-memory-and-history-of-slaves-98427?fbclid=IwAR0WQKo-TJWRQqhC9gKmnB1s2ei1nd8UZmff-wbBRM3IyilbIazI4nB_JDY

All over the world, community stories, customs and beliefs have been passed down from generation to generation. This folkore is used by elders to teach family and friends about their collective cultural past. And for African Americans, folklore has played a particularly important part in documenting history too.

The year 1619 marked the beginning of African American history, with the arrival of the first slave ship in Jamestown, Virginia. Slavery put African Americans not only in physical shackles. They were prevented from gaining any type of knowledge, including learning to read or write during their enslavement. Illiteracy was a means to keep control as it was believed that intellectual stimulation would give African Americans ideas of freedom and independence.

The effects of slavery on African culture were huge. The slaves had to forsake their true nature to become servants to Anglo Americans. And yet, even though they were forbidden from practising anything that related to their African culture and heritage, the native Africans kept it and their languages alive in America.

One important way of doing this was through folk tales, which the African slaves used as a way of recording their experiences. These stories were retold in secret, with elements adapted to their enslaved situation, adding in elements of freedom and hope. In the story of a slave from Guinea, recorded in The Annotated African American Folktales, he asks his white master to bury him face down when he dies, so that he may return to his home country which he believes is directly on the other side of the world:

Some of the old folks in Union County remembered that they had heard their fathers and grandfathers tell the story about Sambo who yearned to go back to Guinea. Hunters and hounds feared Sambo’s woods for more than a hundred years … I guess the hounds used to feel Sambo’s homesickness. But now, since the hounds run fast and free, I guess Sambo finally got back to Guinea.

Adapting the oral storytelling traditions of their ancestors helped slaves stolen from West Africa cope with and record their experiences in America. And later it helped other generations, particularly in the 19th century, to learn what happened to the ancestors who had been enslaved.


Folklore and genealogy
Folklore has not just helped African Americans to record and remember large-scale events, or relate morals as other folk tales do – it has helped with individual family genealogy too.

Having an aspect of genealogy in folklore makes African American history not only traceable but more approachable. The stories relate to specific people, their experiences and the places where they lived. They are not necessarily mythical tales, but stories are about real people and what happened to them. They demonstrate and track the fight for freedom and independence.

This linking of genealogy and folklore gives the oral histories continuity, and adds an element of personal curiosity to the historical past. Family history figures in many folk tales makes each story unique, as one’s own heritage will be intertwined with its telling. It adds to cultural memory, too, and enhances family values as descendants are able to refer back to and honour their ancestors’ experiences. Take this extract from a retelling of The Cat-Witch, for example:

This happened in slavery times, in North Carolina. I’ve heard my grandmother tell it more than enough. My grandmother was cook and house-girl for this family of slaveowners – they must have been Bissits, ‘cause she was a Bissit.

In more recent decades, novels and book retellings of this family history have become the new way of keeping African American folklore alive. Indeed, folklore has been the inspiration behind some of the most important African American literary works. In Roots, Alex Haley’s work of historical family fiction, the main character’s father, Omoro Kinte, initiates a baptism ritual that has been transmitted throughout generations. The newborn baby is held up towards the starry night sky and then given its name. The baby is told to “behold the only thing greater than yourself”. This naming ritual is a poetic moment and has become iconic in various ways. It is even referenced in Disney’s The Lion King when Rifiki lifts Simba to the sky.

Like Roots, Margaret Walker’s Jubilee (1966) is enriched with folkloric elements. Both novels emphasise the importance of different sayings and traditions. Jubilee’s main protagonist remembers that “when she sang, the children would stop their playing and come closer to listen, for they loved all her songs - the old slave songs Aunt Sally used to sing, and the tender, lilting ballads of the war, too”. Singing folksongs was a tradition that served as entertainment or as a way to have rhythm during their work in the fields. After all, tradition is what kept the enslaved sane. Their African culture not only gave them the strength to fight for another day but it provided solace too.

For any one of us, the past is important in determining our identity and history, but without the determination and persistence of the first African Americans, it is likely that much of their story would have been lost to time. Thanks to their repeated sacrifices, African Americans can still look to their ancestors for guidance today.

<----

Soundcloud.com/aquil84

(HIP HOP)
http://aquil.bandcamp.com

https://qz.com/africa/1636639/americas-400-years-anniversary-of-african-slave-trade-is-vital/

The 1619 anniversary of Africans in the United States is significant but not the whole story
By Lekan OguntoyinboJune 6, 2019
In 2017, the United States Congress passed the 400 years of African-American History Commission Act which is charged with developing activities throughout the country to commemorate the arrival of Africans in the English colonies in 1619, an event widely regarded as the commencement of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in North America.

For more than two years, the Hampton 2019 Commemoration Commission and Virginia’s “2019 Commemoration, American Evolution” have sponsored events highlighting the forced arrival of Africans while also touting significant points of pride in Virginia’s history.


Throughout the country there are scores of events planned all year, including symposiums, films, exhibits, historical reenactments, dance performances, festivals, lectures, poetry readings and panel discussions on a range of subjects such as reparations to mark the 400th anniversary. One travel agency in Philadelphia is offering a 10-day tour of Ghana that attempts to retrace the steps of the slaves before they set out for the Americas.

Ghana is joining in the commemorations, too. Late in 2018, the West African country launched a year-long marketing and reunification initiative aimed at boosting tourism and further strengthening ties with people of African ancestry abroad. President Nana Akufo-Addo declared 2019 “The Year of Return,” kicking of a series of programs aimed at encouraging blacks in the diaspora to visit or perhaps consider resettling in the motherland.


AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER
Cape Coast Castle on the Gulf of Guinea in Cape Coast, Ghana where slaves were traded
“This 400-year mark is a time to celebrate joy, reunion, family and faith,” says Karsonya Wise Whitehead, an associate professor of communications and African and African-American studies at Loyola University Maryland. “It is a little bit of a commemoration but I also I think it is a reflection. We are looking at where we came from and how much farther we have to go. There’s something to be said for surviving being black in this country. We came from a legacy of indentured servitude, slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, the KKK and we’re still here.”

But the 1619 commemorations almost obscure one important fact: long before English pirates on two ships deposited these new arrivals from modern day Angola in Point Comfort, Virginia, Africans already had a presence in the Americas.

For instance, Estavanico, a Morrocan slave owned by the Spanish nobleman and explorer Andres Dorantes de Carranza, is credited with helping chart what we now know as the American west in the early 1500s— nearly 100 years before the first European settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. Africans were with Spanish and Portuguese explorers to North and South America throughout the 16th Century. It is believed some Africans were with legendary English explorer Sir Francis Drake on his expeditions to North America in the late 1500s.cAfricans “had been coming to territories seized by other European powers,” says Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a professor of history and dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Norfolk State University. “We do know that there were Africans in Florida and in the area later known as South Carolina.”


But those areas did not become a part of the United States until later, says Newby-Alexander, who co-chairs the African Arrival Subcommittee of Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration Commission. She adds that the English settlers didn’t have a formal slavery system in place in Virginia in 1619. In fact, Virginia’s slave law would not be enacted until the 1670s.

“Some people called them indentured servants but we know they weren’t indentured servants because indentured servants signed a contract,” she says. “There was a very uncertain period when we don’t know if they were bonded for life. By the 1640s it was clear they were being seen as an enslaved people.”

Darryl Scott, a professor of history at Howard University in Washington D.C., any question over the significance of the 1619 date, as with all things historical, comes down to perspective. “For some people who study history a certain way, the 1619 date is nothing,” says Scott, the former president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. “For other people, that date is everything.”

The reason 1619 matters, he says, is because it marks the genesis of a black English-speaking community in the United States.

Newby-Alexander says the commemoration has been a boon for researchers, with more potential to unearth lots of details about 17th Century Africans in America. “In three of the graves they found one is either African or native,” she says. “We could learn about the time period in which they died, if it was a woman, whether she had any children, how old she was, the kind of food she ate, some of the work she probably had to do, the ethnicity and hopefully reclaim the humanity that was stripped away.

“It’s taken 400 years to get to this point,” says Newby-Alexander. “There’s a lot more information coming out. Volumes of research is being done. The more people find the more they tickle the records. The earlier historians were looking at what the English were doing and Africans were a minor factor.”

<----

Soundcloud.com/aquil84

(HIP HOP)
http://aquil.bandcamp.com

its very common to come across branches of your family tree with living relatives that have no idea you are related

a handful of people will be more than willing to talk to or even meet up to share pictures, stories, etc. those are always appreciated.

then you come across those that refuse to respond to any correspondence.

dont understand how you found them

believe they are only related to who mama or daddy said we are related to

especially the over 40 crowd. these are the ones with a wide open fb page yet are completely shocked that its possible to find them on fb

>its very common to come across branches of your family tree with living relatives >that have no idea you are related

yep! i've been on both sides of that scenario.

>a handful of people will be more than willing to talk to or even meet up to share >pictures, stories, etc. those are always appreciated.

that. is. the. best.

especially when that person has information you've been hunting for! or if they have a story that's really poignant or something.

>then you come across those that refuse to respond to any correspondence.

yea. that happens.

i get nervous when i write family that i don't know. not everyone has positive feelings about family, and not everyone wants to engage with family, even if they don't have negative feelings.

1. Freedom on the Move is a database that collects runaway slave ads. Folks can contribute to the database or search it.

I like that it's a database that people can contribute to because it's not uncommon to come across records about other people as you're looking for your own family, and you *know* someone would want to have those records.

https://app.freedomonthemove.org/

2. Slave Voyages is a "digital memorial" database that provides information about some 36,000 Trans-Atlantic voyages made between 1514--1866. There are records that capture ship names, captains, ports, number of kidnapped Africans onboard, etc.

https://www.slavevoyages.org/?xid=PS_smithsonian

3. Duke University's digital American Slavery Document collection provides bills of sale, manumission papers, emancipation notes, bonds, auction notices from the time period to slavery the Reconstruction. Records from most of the Southern states appear in the database. It's a small collection....

https://repository.duke.edu/dc/americanslaverydocs

In my experience, the best place to go to find the types of documents that appear in Duke's digital archive, are wills/probate and other court documents that are connected to the owners of an ancestor.

Sometimes the White descendants of slave owners have documents that might have something to do with your family member, but they aren't aware that they have the information. Sometimes people don't realize or want to know that their family owned slaves, too.

4. The Library of Congress's WPA Slavery Narratives are the first person accounts of former slaves that were collected in the 1930's as part of the Works Project Administration.

https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/

5. There's also a Freedman's Bureau database that people can access via the National Archives.

https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau

Places like Ancestry and Family Search allow access to FB records, too.

<----

Soundcloud.com/aquil84

(HIP HOP)
http://aquil.bandcamp.com

Something that took time to click for me as I started my research: surnames.

If an ancestor's surname was, say, Brown, I'd get really focused on searching for documents with the Brown surname if the ancestor was a male.

I'd also get focused on searching for a maiden name if that same Brown family member had a wife (or wives).

I didn't know any better and thought that surnames were solely connected to owners.

It took time for me to "see" surname possibilities, so that I could perform better searches:

1. Some slaves took the names of their owners, yes. But a slave might have multiple owners or use more than one owner surname in a lifetime. Some of their children, for instance, might have the surname of owner #1 and some might have the surname of owner #2, etc.

2. Sometimes slaves took the surname of their *fathers*. For instance, one of my ancestors, a woman, used the surname Griffin/Griffith, but was *married* and owned by two masters with different surnames.

She didn't take her husband's surname or her owners. She gave her children her husband's surname, however.

3. Sometimes the children of the enslaved used surnames for their offspring that was different than their own (or their parents).

4. Sometimes, of course, a surname is a surname because owner and the father are one and the same.

5. Sometimes the slave owner surname isn't connected to a man, but a woman. This isn't uncommon. For instance, slaves were given as wedding gifts from father to daughter or brother to sister. Women inherited slaves, too.

Slave owners who were women might own slaves who used their maiden surname or married surname(s).

6. Sometimes slaves, former slaves, and free people used their own surnames.

7. Mixed families were a real thing. Men and women might remarry multiple times--as many as 3 or 4 times. Surnames get really complicated, quickly, and a family tree can expand exponentially, in those cases.

8. It's not uncommon to find "implied parentage" cases, especially when one of the parents of a child is White. This is especially fascinating, records wise, in the decade or two after slavery. Check those census records to see who lives around a former slave ancestor. Sometimes, a Black woman is listed as head of household WITHOUT a husband, yet has children with last names different than her own. The WHITE father often lives in the vicinity--and if you look at the surnames of the White folks who are listed on the census in the same area, you'll find the surname you're looking for.

i loved learning things like this along the way, it really is a journey

I'm going to start taking classes and going to workshops and conferences. It's time for me to start a sustained research plan for ancestors who were sold from Virginia and South Carolina. I hear both states can be a research challenge!

It's cute to make mistakes and learn as you go, but for only so long!