Celebrate Black History Month

 The Genealogy Guys celebrate the contributions of 

African ancestors to the culture of the world!

Human DNA May Be Found on Last Known Slave Ship to Reach America

Researchers studying Clotilda, the last known slave ship to reach America in 1860, have discovered most of the ship is still intact – down to an unventilated pen for captives. 

See the entire story at USA Today at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/12/27/last-known-slave-ship-clotilda-human-dna/9022380002/?fbclid=IwAR1_LCIKJq5k3tMRF0yYdjXhTM3r_-2CaS0cO0BuJqfQk6iQLPsFVKUVoMc

Slavery Ancestor Project Expands

 

American abolitionist Harriet Tubman stands with a group of formerly enslaved people she helped lead to freedom. Photo: Bettmann/Getty

A database that gathers records about the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants is undergoing a massive, crowdsourcing-powered expansion to unlock Black Americans' genealogical histories, organizers tell Axios.

Why it matters: The initiative to be unveiled today by Enslaved.org is the latest to reconstruct lost or incomplete timelines and records from the 1600s-1800s, as the U.S. and other nations reckon with systemic racism.

How it works: The general public and outside researchers can submit family histories, runaway slave ads, or documents of purchase to Enslaved.org.

• Project manager Catherine Foley tells Axios that two levels of review will then determine if the material can be included.

• Users can search their names and town histories and connect the experiences of enslaved people, from voyages to the changing of names, Foley said: "The records will tell the story."

• Technological improvements have helped researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Maryland grow Enslaved.org into one of the most comprehensive sites on slavery by organizing millions of data points from multiple university collections.

The big picture: The expansion comes as Americans show heightened interest in their family histories; as U.S. universities, cities and corporations confront legacies of how they benefited from slavery; and as public school districts face pressure to teach more clear-eyed accounts of slavery.

 • Websites like ancestry.com have made old primary documents like birth certificates and baptism records more accessible with a click. Interest also skyrocketed in recent years thanks to Harvard historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and his PBS shows on ancestry.

• The University of Virginia organized a consortium of more than 40 colleges and universities to share resources as they confront the role of slavery and racism in their histories.

• Two big British companies — insurer Lloyd's of London and brewer Greene King — promised last year to make certain amends for their historic role in slavery.

• The New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project generated school curriculum changes but a backlash from conservatives who saw a refocusing on slavery as anti-American.

President Trump has pushed back on some efforts to educate about systemic racism and is threatening to veto defense spending to keep Confederate leaders' names on some military bases.

Flashback: "Critical race theory, the 1619 Project, and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda, ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together. It will destroy our country," Trump said in September 2020.

• Trump called new scholarship and the reexamining of slavery in the U.S. a "twisted web of lies" and said it was "a form of child abuse" if taught in schools.

What they’re saying: Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor, founder of the National Black Cultural Information Trust, said African Americans have long sought to reclaim their past amidst hostility.

• "Even after the Civil War, former enslaved people put ads in newspapers looking for lost family members," she said. "This website is a continuation of that tradition as we look for our past and family but this time in a digital space."

Source: Axios.com - https://www.axios.com/slavery-ancestor-project-to-expand-d73563bd-123f-420b-b45b-c873757007cc.html?fbclid=IwAR1UqwyYL_q4M1VMIEbXBNTM0tq46c6MCNJagXW958tHmYItP9eSCKuBV5g

Histories, Voices of Enslaved People Documented by New American Ancestors Website

We have received the following press release from American Ancestors at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) about this very important new website resource and wanted to share it with you ASAP.

Unsung Heroes Award - Individual - Stacy Ashmore Cole

Dateline: 
Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree
Burbank, CA
June 1, 2019

The Genealogy Guys Podcast and Vivid-Pix have today given Stacy Ashmore Cole the Unsung Heroes Award for an Individual for the second quarter of 2019.

Stacy Ashmore Cole
Unsung Heroes Award Winner

The pre-Emancipation records of African-Americans in Liberty County, Georgia, are online at FamilySearch.org, but they are not indexed and online summaries normally omit their names. Stacy Ashmore Cole created TheyHadNames.net at  https://theyhadnames.net/ to remedy that gap. So far, more than 4,500 African-American names have been transcribed and added to a searchable database of wills, estate inventories, bills of sale, and other documents. From the pre-Emancipation probate and deed/mortgage records of the Liberty County courts digitized by FamilySearch, TheyHadNames.net now has:

• transcripts or summaries of 160 wills with more than 1,220 names of enslaved people;
• more than 200 estate inventories with more than 1,900 names'
• 30 deeds with more than 300 names; 
• 1,151 names of African-American church-goers in 1846;
• and more.

Individuals with African-American ancestry in Liberty County may now use the information in this site to trace their families back before the U.S. Civil War. Researchers and historians may also use it to shed light on the experiences of these people.

Stacey Ashmore Cole exemplifies the great qualities of a volunteer who sees something that needs to be done and does it. 

We Sing Your Praises!

Will of Benjamin B. King, one example of an original document
transcribed into TheyHadNames.net. 

Estate Inventory of Ann S. Chambers, Liberty County, Georgia
(Click to enlarge.)

Part of the page for Midway Church Records with links
to the original images at FamilySearch.org and transcriptions
at TheyHadNames.net site.
(Click to enlarge.)

Massive New Database Coming to Identify Enslaved Americans & Descendants

Michigan State University has just announced a project, supported by a $15 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, to compile an online hub of databases from around the world to help identify African-American slaves and their descendants.

The website Open Culture published this important article on 23 January 2018 at http://www.openculture.com/2018/01/massive-new-slave-trade-database-will-finally-allow-us-to-identify-african-american-slaves-and-their-descendants.html. This project promises to be one of the most important online endeavors for African-American researchers and historians.

Image purchased from 123RF.com.
(Click to enlarge.)