TYPE IT UP!

 I learned to type on a non-electric typewriter 

and I was no good at it.  

Even my first electric typewriter was frustrating for me. 

I was always making errors that needed to be corrected.  

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS : WORLD WAR II SELECTIVE SERVICE FILES CAN INCLUDE DETAILS OF THE OBJECTION

The military records for those who registered and served, or did not, are open to the GENERAL PUBLIC through the National Archives of the United States (NARA) since it has been more than 62 years since World War II.  The records are not all digitalized or in databases and so we often must ask an archivist for help.

NARA RECORDS OF THE SELECTIVE SERVICE - OBJECTORS

This is the link to the page with very much information.  To focus, this excerpt:

147.2.2 Records of the Selective Service System, 1940-47 (This is a record group)

Textual Records: Central correspondence, 1940-47. Correspondence concerning protests over various aspects of the draft, 1940-44. Correspondence relating to men released from active duty, 1941; and to appointments in the Selective Service system, 1940-47. Microfilm copies of the lotteries held in 1940, 1941, and 1942 to determine registrant classification order, 1940-42 (11 rolls). Issuances of national headquarters, state directors, and local boards, 1940-47. Microfilm copy of Methods For Preservation of Selective Service Records, vols. 1-5, 1944-45 (2 rolls). Case files on conscientious objectors, 1940-47, with indexes (including 4 rolls of microfilm). Microfilm copy of case files, including "cover sheets" on conscientious objectors who served in work camps, 1941-45 (282 rolls), with index (2 rolls). Locator cards for conscientious objectors sent to camps, 1941-47 (including 9 rolls of microfilm). Microfilm copy of case files on registrants appealing to the President, 1941-47 (226 rolls), with index (12 rolls of microfilm). Microfilm copy of the docket book of the Presidential Appeal Board, 1941-47 (5 rolls). Microfilm copy of records of the President's Amnesty Board, 1941-47 (4 rolls). Retained sample of appeal and local board records, 1940- 47, for Utah Appeal Board and for local boards in the Bronx, NY; Franklin City, MA; Holmes County, MS; and Pima County, AZ.

Note that "Local boards" comment.  It is always possible that a Local Board presided in the case of your ancestor.

Camps are were some COs performed service state-side in supportive, non-combat roles. They were called Civilian Public Service Camps.

My suggestion is to first get the draft registration, then find out if the person WAS drafted and if they served. If they were successful in their Objection, you will likely need to give the archivist all the information you have from those earlier documents.

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CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS : NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES : ARCHIVES THAT HOLD THE RECORDS : WORLD WAR II OBJECTORS ACCESS

Are you a child or spouse of a veteran? A "Next-of-Kin" is defined this way: Veterans and Next-of-Kin of deceased veterans have the same access rights to the record. The next-of-kin is defined as any of the following: the un-remarried widow or widower, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, or sister of the deceased veteran. Next-of-kin must provide proof of the death of the veteran, such as a copy of the death certificate, a letter from the funeral home, or a published obituary...

The GENERAL PUBLIC must respect a 62 year privacy law on military records. 

(U.S. involvement in Vietnam spanned from the early 1950's to 1973,escalating significantly from advisors to combat troops in July 1965. The Selective Service military draft was used to induct over 1.8 million men. A birth-date lottery began in December 1969. (The 62 years is for the DISCHARGE DATE so if the person was discharged in 1965 the records should be public next year.)

THE DETAILS FOR OBTAINING A MILITARY RECORD ARE HERE : NARA PERSONNEL RECORDS OF THE U.S. MILITARY  This is a start.  I have never personally found a World War II Draft Registration in which a CO was noted, but I hear some do.

According to NARA the primary place to find CO information for your ancestor is:

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in Saint Louis, Missouri, which holds the official military personnel files (OMPF's) for those who served including the conscientious objectors who did serve but in non-combatant roles.

NARA NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER

The collection you will likely be directed to or have an archivist at NARA look into for you is called: Record Group 147, which includes documentation on Conscientious Objectors (COs). 

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"CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR" ? WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU MUST REGISTER FOR THE SELECTIVE SERVICE DRAFT - UNITED STATES - AND ARE NOT ONE TO FIGHT?

I believe one can be patriotic but not agree with whatever the prevailing doings of the President or the House or the Senate or any politician that has influence on the citizens lives. I've done the genealogy for a family that had members on both sides of the Civil War.  I can just imagine the arguments at those dining tables.  So it has been, so it is - not everyone is for a War or on the same side of a question.

Conscientious Objectors are not officially "Conscientious Objectors" unless they state that WHEN THEY ARE ACTUALLY CALLED TO SERVE.  One registers and maybe there will be a draft, maybe there won't be, and maybe that person won't be called upon. Therefore, if you seek an ancestor's draft registration, their CO status will not be on those forms, which are often simple forms. A "CO" must prove they have a deep seated conviction, belonging to a religious organization that is anti-war is the primary way to prove this, such as being a member of the Jehovah Witnesses, and it can mean that the person must still serve, but not in "combat." (Other military records may have the information you seek.)

THE NUMBERS OF MEN/MALES WHO REGISTER ARE DEFINIING THEMSELVES AS "CO." HAS SOARED, some say 1000%. 

WOMEN/FEMALES STILL ARE NOT REQUIRED TO REGISTER.

I'm linking to a recommended website: If you or your loved-one wants to know "what happens next" if the United States continues or furthers its current participations and/or actions using the military, and people are once again actually drafted, this is what you want to read:

 GI RIGHTS HOTLINE MILITARY CONSCIENCIOUS OBJECTORS Wow!  Lots of information here!

(See the next post to find out where to get the military records for CO's

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SUNNY DAY

 

HOOPLA and CURIOSITY STREAM : LIBRARY RESOURCES FOR FILMS, AUDIOBOOKS, E-BOOKS and MUSIC - EVEN COMIC BOOKS AND MAGAZINES

If you haven't already, check to see if your local public library has Hoopla for library card holders. This isn't the same as having Netflix or Amazon, but it's a good resource! It beats YouTube free movies that include interruptive ads. New things are added and other things go bye-bye each month.  Linked into Hoopla is Curiosity Stream, which is the DOCUMENTARY FILM resource.  

It is currently the largest platform for these offerings.

HOOPLA DIGITAL

Recently we watched the documentary about OTZI the ICEMAN! 

LOS ANGELES UNION STATION TRAIN FESTIVAL : MODEL RAILROADING GROUPS : ZOCAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Z SCALE MODEL RAILROADING GROUP

I was able to attend the "annual" train event recently for the first time. I went with a friend whose father road the rails during the Great Depression, hoping the coal fed steam engine trains to follow construction work. We got to see a black iron locomotive up close, hear the whistle, and see the smoke.

Although I've seen some model train displays over the years that featured some interesting scale set ups, I was unfamiliar with Z SCALE.  We loved the set up so at this time I want to give a little free advertising to the group.

ZO CAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Z-SCALE RAILROADING GROUP

FACEBOOK ZOCAL Z-SCALE GROUP

This isn't from the Union Station Show but is a display from the same group.

Link to some phots from the last show.  Maybe you'll want to go to the next. This link has a list of other model railroading groups...

UNION STATION LOS ANGELES TRAIN FESTIVAL 2025

ALLEN COUNTY INDIANA LIBRARY : ACPL GENEALOGY CENTER OFFERINGS : AFRICAN AMERICAN GATEWAY

ALLEN COUNTY GENEALOGY CENTER : AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCH 

There is a lot to find here about African Americans in the United States but the list of other countries intrigues me:

Africa Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Brazil British Isles Canada

Caribbean Cuba England Europe France Grenada Haiti

Ireland Jamaica Latin America Liberia Mexico Netherlands Norway

Oceania Philippines Sierra Leone South Africa West Africa West Indies

I clicked on Sierra Leone and discovered that some Black people were loyalists to England and can be linked to Nova Scotia. I went back and clicked on the subject of RECONSTRUCTION. Up comes a list of books that focus on the Freedman's Bureau as well as politics.

Definity explore these offerings!

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BEGINNER GENEALOGY MISTAKES : CAUTIONARY TALES

Have you just found my blog? Welcome!

This is my list of things that beginning genealogists often do that you’ll probably not find to be useful or even regret. Since I began researching, more than three decades ago, the genealogy world has changed significantly because of the Internet and databases. Also there is an epidemic of scams. Those changes make it easier than ever for people to do their own research. And to be mislead or conned. This list is made up of things I did or someone I know did and was affected by!

1) Posting for family information in hopes of reaching out to others who have already done the work so you won’t have to do it at all or do it alone, thinking you can just believe it and copy it.

It can be nice to have a collaboration but there’s no way to know from the start if the stranger you connected with does quality research, will respect you, or share in a fair way. Be especially aware that con artists and scammers may use your personal information… or even pose as a relative.

Ask yourself why you’d be comfortable virtually yet not want someone to have your home address!

Keep to professional standards! 

And then if you do find a collaborator, you’ll have something to offer.

2) Posting your research on databases or sharing it prematurely because it isn’t solidly backed up with documents. Many a beginner just doesn't know better. Your family stories are precious and can be part of your book but may not be upheld by research.

Rumors and speculation cannot substitute for a clear research path that others can follow and documents.   Don’t accidentally, through ignorance, lead other researchers wrong!

3) Not considering that charts you post may not please those who are not contacted first for permission. You may be well-meaning but they may not be interested or horrified!

Some sites prod you to provide photos, give them voice samples as you record stories to share with anyone in the world, and provide other information that can profile you. Adding live persons on a chart, even as an unnamed silhouette, is NOT protecting their privacy. Keep the research within the immediate family. Ask them first. Explain it to them. 

It’s still ok to print out and 'snailmail.'

3) Not reading the fine print about who owns your research or DNA information. How long is it yours or protected?  What about your copyright? When do you loose control of it? Can it be used by law enforcement? 

This is not just about you! You may die before they’re born but they still deserve to have privacy!

4) Using your full real name for the world to see. 

Choose a handle, moniker, or nickname or an icon to represent you. Unless you're up to no good it's OK.

5) Posting with a database that has no one to complain to if you're violated or is ineffective in helping when you are. There should be a way to have information that has been posted about you or your ancestors - correct or not - taken down because it is wrong or you think it's private. Beware if it’s stated that once you post it’s permanent.

Privacy laws which may vary from country to country.

6) Using an e-mail address for genealogy that you use for business or personal communication. 

Set one up just for research. I store research in a g-mail account that I never use for communication. You can store photos and documents in Blogger (set on private),  in Drive, etc. Since I've never shared that account with others I communicate with, I've received no spam or phishing. Set another up for genealogy communications.

7) Posting a person’s death certificate on a gravestone site even though the years have not gone by in which their privacy would be protected otherwise. No privacy in death either? Just horrible and violating of living persons medical privacy too.  Telling the whole world someone had died of alcoholism, cancer, or perhaps by suicide....  To me, well, to be nice, let's say it's bad karma. 

Graveyards that let people tromp and report are so irresponsible in allowing this to happen. Even people who did not want their death announced in obituaries … who thought of their religion, charities, marriages, and children to be their own business, are quickly violated when their tombstones are photographed and burials reported, especially upsetting when the religious cemetery claims burials are on sacred ground (which you probably paid more for). 

Why obits? It used to be so friends could give their condolences… I think obits are getting to be obsolete. When it the last time you found out a friend died that way? Oh and those prompts to send flowers! Funerals are already overpriced and so are cemeteries. Don't get me started!

8) Publishing for distribution - even to immediate family - in which you do not state references and do not state intellectual property information and do not state the expectations of privacy.  You can do all the right things to do so but in the hands of the wrong relative it all goes onto a database and the Internet. 

I personally use many databases. I do not post my research on any of them. 

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COMING UP : SOME YOUTUBE VIDEO STATIONS WORTH WATCHING FOR HISTORICAL RESEARCH

I recently found some YouTube stations that provide historical accounts that are truly interesting. 

I have a policy when it comes to YouTube videos for this blog. That is that I choose not to link to videos with embedding if the video starts, ends, or has in the middle advertising. This is because the advertising is annoying and disruptive and can change, so that it can become offensive. In the past I've encountered violent and/or explicit movie and cartoon ads, military weaponry being sold to the public, and other items I do not approve of and must shield my readers from. I'm told it is YouTube who makes the selection and the Station may have no say about what shows up. When I encountered a bible study that was interrupted with ads for personal men's products, I was convinced that's true.

I understand that many YouTube station owners work hard to create their videos and hope that the hits will result in some financial benefit as a result. Fair enough. Because I'm recommending these stations, I do hope the creators will experience more hits! 

Posts like this one can be found by clicking on the label YouTube Station Recommend

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HISTORYGEO.COM GENEALOGY DATABASE REVIEW : THE CHEROKEE ALLOTMENTS IN OKLAHOMA ARE EXCELLENT #2

https://historygeo.com/  The database I used was within a genealogy library. This link may not bring up THE CHEROKEE ALLOTMENT Oklahoma link... If not, do see if your library subscribes to this database!

Ross, Carlisle, Miegs, Newton, Jordon....

Tehee, Rattlingourd, (See Range 22-east)

Walkabout

Bearpaw

Pigeon

Hazelwood

Wood

Star

McClure

(If you know your Cherokee history some of these names will be familiar to you...)

MOST OF THE NAMES ARE ENGLISH - AMERICAN - but that's OK. If you know the surname and you want to check out the Cherokee who were moved to Oklahoma, there is abundant possibility here...

The state map is sectioned into ranges and the land ownership by Cherokee is indicated by parcel size. The boundary is also shown between the Cherokee and the Creek Nation which you will see at Muskogee County  (See Range 19-east)

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HISTORYGEO.COM GENEALOGY DATABASE REVIEW : INTERESTING HISTORICAL MAP COLLECTION #1

https://historygeo.com/  There is a surname function.

There are many tourist maps on the Internet today and various sources for old maps including National and local archives. But I thought I'd give his database a try while at a genealogy library.

Maps made about the time they lived in a city, town, village, hamlet are the best.

I love to take genealogy writing a bit further, to include some understanding of where our ancestors lived, which is a whole lot about how they lived.

The Landowners Project is ongoing and to be honest, the area I was interested in was not (yet) included.

We can see if our ancestors lived near a river, a school, a cemetery, a church, or a factory - maybe where they worked. We can see if they lived in a single family home (house) or a townhouse or rowhouse, or perhaps a hotel. (The name of the school, cemetery, church or factory can link you to school, cemetery, church, or employment records.)

We can link census with address with a map. We can use landowner maps to also seek out deeds and inheritances, land grants, squatters rights.

Sometimes we can link the old map with the new, or an address with a Google Street View or Google Earth.

I used the HISTORICAL MAPS for an area I grew up in. I looked at 1850, 1862, 1890, and 1898.  All in the distant past, long before I grew up there. But I could see the names of the landowners had become the names of the streets and roads. It was interesting when a property was listed as "so and so's heirs" and when the creek showed up with an actual name. Also listed were stores, parsonages, and then where the railroad came through...

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

VISIT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER in LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA

 AACCLB - African American Cultural Center - Long Beach California

Long Beach is far south in Los Angeles County and far from the fires.  I was able to see this exhibit - small but impressive - and suggest YOU might find it as interesting as I did. The AACCLB has changing exhibits and opportunities to explore.

WISTFUL

 

CANADA LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES NATIONAL ARCHIVES GENEALOGY OF OUR NORTHERN NEIGHBOR : CENSUS, VITAL RECORDS, IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, MILITARY

CANADA NATIONAL ARCHIVES - GENEALOGY  

Canada's National Archives provides census history and a searchable database.  Learn the history of census taking along with the history of the development of the country - what's missing - what's available.

The Canadian Confederation was organized in 1867.  The Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into the Dominion of Canada...

Census was conducted in some areas well before that. Some Census is missing.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES OF CANADA - GENEALOGY  Vital Records, Immigration, Citizenship, Military

As a note the UNITED STATES CENSUS is the same: If it was not a state, then it was not counted during the Federal Census.  And if the population of a county was small, it might not have been included in the Federal Census either.

DEATH CERTIFICATES and BURIAL RECORDS : WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

In modern times the burial record is usually spawned from the mortuary that prepared the body for burial or cremated it.  The burial record will usually give information such as what cemetery, the name of a minister or priest or rabbi who conducted a ritual, and some other basic information. It is not a governmental civil records but the burial record and the death certificate seem to lean on each other. 

A death certificate is a governmental - civil report on what the person died of, the name of a doctor who had been treating that person or if an autopsy was performed.  It will often include the name of a spouse or next of kin, and don't be shocked but some people did not know the maiden name of their own mother!

Step one is to find a death certificate, as possible. Depending on location you might have to swear you are the spouse or child of the person who died.  But privacy laws vary and these records are being loaded into databases based on those privacy laws.

Yes, go ahead and check a TOMBSTONE PROJECT.

Step two is to contact the cemetery named and ask them for the burial record.  You might start by asking them for the plot location in advance of a visit.

Remember : Find A Grave TM and other such projects are TOMBSTONE PROJECTS.  There are more burials in that cemetery than the tombstones. Consider that:

There was never a tombstone or the cemetery is one that does not allow them.

That family members may have been buried in with an earlier burial that the tombstone does not include.

That family plots may not include the names of all the people buried in the plot.

 C 2024 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved

WHERE DID HARRIET JEFFERSON GO INTO FREEDOM WHEN SHE LEFT HOME AT THE AGE OF 21?

With this excerpt, I end my focus on this wonderful book! I hope you'll get a copy to read through.

 My notes re pages 262-263  :

Harriet, the daughter of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, was to be freed from the slavery she was born into at the age of 21.Her older brother could have left earlier but he stayed till he was 24. It would seem that they were to leave together, and perhaps they continued to know each other? Any woman who was self supporting in the 19th century was living in poverty. So, despite her skill at weaving, marriage to a man who could provide would be important. Was that possible?  Jefferson let them go WITHOUT MANUMISSION PAPERS. In his farmbook he said they had 'run' but though they were fugitives, no one was looking for them either, and he didn't pursue that.

Excerpt:

"To avoid the paper trail that would connect them to him, Jefferson facilitated Beverley's and Harriet's departures without furnishing them manumission papers. In fact, for anyone who might examine his papers after his death, he wrote in his Farm Book "ran" next to their names. So by law they remained fugitive slaves until the Untied States abolished slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Although some states had already abolished slavery or put it on the path to extinction by gradual emancipation before then, the force of the Federal government had always been marshaled in support of slavery, first with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, and then its stronger successor in 1850. Not only was it a federal offense to assist fugitive slaves, the 1850 act required the free states to return runaway slaves to their masters so that even in the North they were not safe.

For forty-three yeas then, Harriet risked forcible return to Virginia and slavery if her identity was discovered and reported... And so would her children.

But Jefferson was not as uncaring as one might think.

Jefferson had his man pay her stage fair to Philadelphia and gave her fifty dollars.  Population 64,000 better than Washington City (D.C.) The city had attracted many manumitted slaves from Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as from the Pennsylvania hinterlands, between 1790 and 1820. 

Basically it seems he covered his daughter's tracks.

Since Jefferson had been in Philadelphia and the Continental Congress he would have been able to arrange for her to make to Philadelphia. But perhaps she got off in Washington City rather than Philadelphia... There also her father had spent 8 years as President of the U.S... Beverly Hemings was in Washington City and went there as a white man....

She was supposedly married to a white man of good standing in Washington City.  Her brother Madison said she raised a family of children but he refused to give any surname or names of children and as late at 1863 said her identity as Harriet Hemings of Monticelllo had never been discovered...

I wonder:

With so many people doing genealogy, it is always possible that someone will discover they are descended from Harriet?

I suspect that there was some chain of communication between Jefferson and his children with Sally. 

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LAWS WITH CONSIDERATIONS OF SLAVE STATUS AND COLOR : VIRGINIA

 Excerpt pages 8-9

... It had not always been that way. The arrival of the first Africans in Virginia in 1619 had not, in itself, signaled the beginning of a fully formed slave system. True, the English in Virginia had the example of the Spanish and Portuguese sugar plantations in the Caribbean and South America; and the Dutch would later establish a thriving transatlantic slave trade system that kept those plantations supplied with labor. But not all blacks in early Virginia were enslaved Some were kept as servants, in temporary bondage.  Others bought their freedom and moved to the Eastern Shore, where many purchased land, married, raised families, and hired or bought laborers of their own.  To meet their insatiable appetite for labor, white Virginians would make the transition gradually from white English servants to black slaves over the course of the of the seventeenth century. Time and again in these early years, the newly formed assembly in the provincial capital of Jamestown legislated what it meant to have white skin or black, to be free or enslaved. The representatives, called burgesses, debated such questions as "Are all men, black and white, permitted to carry guns?  (NO, only whites, 1639)  Are African women counted as tithable **** in the same way as all men, white and black, sixteen years of age or older?  (Yes, 1643). To clarify, are free African women taxable, as well as enslaved? (Yes, but white women remain exempt, 1668). Is the child of an enslaved woman and an Englishman free?  (NO, the child take the condition of the mother, 1662) So then, the child of a free white woman and a free black man is free? (Not quite; such children will be held in service until their thirtieth birthday. In addition, the mother must pay a fine of 15 pounds sterling or herself be sold into servitude for five years, 1691).  May blacks and whites marry?  (NO, 1691, and 1705. To prevent such "abominable mixture and spurious issue," the white person will be jailed for six months and pay a fine of 10 pounds sterling. And clergymen who conduct such ceremonies will be fined ten thousand pounds of tobacco - half of which goes to the informer.).....

Note on word tithable : Explanation here from LIBRARY OF VIRGINIA : TITHABLE LAW EXPLAINED

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JEFFERSON'S DAUGHTERS by CATHERINE KERRISON : ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

This book was outstanding!

It's a biography of three of Jefferson's daughters.  They were Martha and Maria, by his wife Martha Wayles, and Harriet, by Sally Hemings, who was his mistress or common-law wife but also his slave. The man who became 3rd President of the United States (1801 -1809) had a long marriage-like relationship with Sally but could not lawfully marry her if he wanted to because she was also his slave. Martha, his daughter, lived a long life and had thirteen children. Her descendants were the ones to refute that Jefferson had children with Hemings. Maria, his younger daughter, died young also due to pregnancy.  

Early in the book we are presented with a genealogy chart. I always love to reference these charts in books and it is the beginning of surprises. If you, like me, thought of Sally Hemings as isolated, well, we were wrong. The Hemings family were all special among slaves, brought into the Jefferson family as "House" slaves, often given special educations that not only helped the family but provided useful skills for them to earn their living should they be free.  Initially they were brought in as belonging to his wife Martha Wayles, who he dearly loved and lost young because of childbirth.

No other book I've encountered does such a good job of showing how Sally Hemings was not sequestered in a secret room adjacent to his or a secret at Monticello. Though as he retired and entertained fewer visitors his private life could remain fairly private, what the slaves of Monticello knew was that the Hemings family were special.

Sally Hemings was significantly of European DNA (i.e. "White,") and so their daughter Harriet was 7/8ths "White," but still enslaved. Since relationships of various sorts between European descent and African descent people occurred before and after the American Revolution, the question of who was or was not ever a slave or a free person or who had bought their freedom from slavery was something up for discussion and legal determinations. Surprisingly, Sally's sister lived as the known common-law wife of another white man not far away - and apparently they were not given grief over this. 

This book also showed that Jefferson himself must have aided Harriet (as well as his sons) in leaving slavery and that Harriet might have had to go through her life as a free White woman, married to a White man who had to keep her secret and might not have ever seen her parents or siblings again. (There is no evidence to refute this, but my guess is that there was some channel of communication, for her older brother, who could have been freed three years earlier, waited until she was 21 and he was 24 before they left together. Testimonials of where she went and so on came down in history from other of her children who were freed.)

Harriet's special skill was to be weaving. She not only learned the traditional skills but Jefferson also had her trained on the latest more commercial contraption showing foresight that she might have to work to support herself.

Much to my delight - and increasing my respect for author Catherine Kerrison - was to learn the extensive genealogy she did in order to locate Harriet.  She had about 48 possible Harriets, supposing Harriet  only changed her surname when she left, or perhaps married soon after leaving estate, in the Washington D.C. area, which is where family history says she went to, at least right after leaving. She eliminated them one by one and came up with two strong candidates, or maybe just one, but this was inconclusive.  (It seems to me that some day some genetic link could be established if Harriet has living descendants.)

As a result, I will be excerpting this book through the next several weeks bringing to you some key points that I think will be of interest to anyone interested in American History, and especially African-American History.

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INTERNATIONAL GUILD OF KNOT TYERS

Tall ships need knots.  You might instead want to make an animal or a doll.  Went to a tall ships festival and learned about THE INTERNATIONAL GUILD OF KNOT TYERS.

Here's how to learn more. https://www.igkt.net

Excerpt: We have about a thousand members world-wide, from all walks of life, including academics, surgeons, sailors, sportsmen and women, scouters, magicians, farmers, miners and accountants.  Membership is open to anyone interested in knotting (whether expert of simply hoping to learn from others).

and https://igktna.org  NORTH AMERICA

Excerpt:  The purpose is to promote the art, craft, and science of knotting, its study and practice.