THE LIBERATOR NEWSPAPER to BE DIGITALIZED - LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY

CALIFORNIA REVEALED - PRESERVATION FUNDS for THE LIBERATOR - AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER

From the Los Angeles Public Library home page EXCERPT:

The Liberator is an early 20th-century Los Angeles African American newspaper, whose owner and editor, Jefferson Lewis Edmonds, was born enslaved and spent twenty years in bondage before Emancipation. Edmonds was educated in Mississippi Freedmen's Bureau schools and served two terms in the Mississippi State Assembly before moving to Los Angeles after the end of Reconstruction due to threats against his family.

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I believe this is money well spent and will be of great benefit to African-American/ Black historians and genealogists!

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DEFENDING GENEALOGY

There are many reason's why people do genealogy research, for themselves and for others.  Like many people who are self taught professionals, personal research was the start for me, back in the day before Internet and databases, and I still use the old resources.  Came the day when I was up against a "brick wall," on my personal research.  I had to wait a while for the information I needed to reach me.  And while I was waiting I started working on a friend's genealogy because I just needed to keep learning.

Not all projects I do turn into books.  Sometimes I work only on a specific question.

Recently I found myself having to defend my love of genealogy and the time I put into it (which is not excessive.)  Oh, I knew this person was ignorant but I also sensed she was  afraid.  I was put down.  Things said to me included, "I think anyone who has to go to the library three days in a row is weird."  "Who cares about the past? I live in the present."  and "You know how you write letters? Well, write nothing about us."

I'll start with that last one.

My experience as a professional and with other professionals is that they respect privacy more than your average person.  They sometimes sign confidentiality agreements (usually when working for someone famous).  There is a lot of information out there for free or for cheap these days and an average person can find out a whole lot about someone else without their permission.  There are criminals who use that information.  Let's just say that I am as careful as I can be to keep a project within the confines of the family I'm working for and with.  However, I've had the experience of the family then doing what they want with that information, usually making copies for their relatives.  I do have to write letters to a client's relations at times.  They know it's a professional asking for information and they know who has hired me and so on, so it up to them to not respond.  (That has happened, even when it was important, and I don't pester.)

As for "living in the past," I think it is quite possible to be curious about ancestors and how they lived and to do some research around their times and place, society and culture, without actually living in their past.  Since we do not yet have a time machine to transport those now living into the past, of course it is impossible.  Then there are people who are such aficionados of an era that they do everything possible to live in it to escape the present as much as possible.  There are fans of the 1930's and fans of the 1950's who own cars, decorate houses, and wear the clothes of their era. They might shun the Internet and cell phones!  I love DNA science and anthropology and archaeology and, as my readers know, I'm also fascinated with past life regression and that the soul chooses to incarnate repeatedly.

As for myself, those who know me know I am also very interested and concerned about the future, in particular the ecosphere of our planet, beginning with my own neighborhood.

As for weird, you might find this weird but I could easily research far more than three days a week, and sometimes I have.  On one project I did three twelve hour days because there was a legal deadline involved.  I am never bored by this research.  I am enlivened by it.  Often there is something of helping people involved in it.

So let me get to the FEAR, since this person is a relative by marriage.

I have been pondering why a particular person may not want to know of ancestors or relations who are not in their immediate presence or memory. Perhaps in some way such a person is overwhelmed with the ones she knows and can't imagine having to include even more people into her worries or around the holiday table.  Because of her attitude I am no longer showing her any of the documents I found.  I know at least one of her grandchildren are interested and the day will come when it is proper to present this grandchild with her genealogy.  I personally have thought of some of my ancestors as incredibly strong people because I learned about the things they had lived through and because I discovered the role of religion and faith in their fortitude!   ... Just about every family has some secret or scandal or someone they don't like for whatever reason...

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GENEALOGY'S ROLE IN HEALING and WORKING WITH TIMELINES

Over the last few months I've had a lot to contemplate about the role of genealogy research when dealing with family, in particular family problems.  Genealogy can sometimes be an instrument of healing if understanding results from documents and can sometimes bust through mythologies that family believes as truth.

In one situation that was and is very difficult I finally came up with the solution: a time line.
I don't always use time lines and when I do I often find them to be most helpful as a reminder of what time-sensitive documents I may want to look for or perhaps overlooked as valuable.  In this case it was developing the time line of a person's grandmother and mother than created the beginnings of a healing, for it is what the person does with the information for themselves that is most important.

The situation was that the mother had due to illness and poverty had to give up the child to the care of others, which included her parents, fostering programs, and eventually an orphanage while the mother was in long term care.  The child had also been taken in by one particular aunt and uncle who had a few children to support and raise of their own, and one of these children, now an adult, had reported to me that the situation was never comfortable. 

Before the person who needs the healing was an adult, his mother had died and his father was remarried, fathering several children, but not available to him as a father.

He and his wife were bitter that his grandparents had "thrown him out."

Did they really throw him out when his mother, though ill, was alive?

First by developing a time line for the grandmother, we were able to reveal her childhood poverty, her lack of formal education (which must have been frustrating, for she was an intelligent woman, and the poverty of the family she and her husband had established in America.
During the 1940 census era, one adult child was supporting his parents and all remaining children in the household.

Using maps, we situated their row house not far from a river and using history of the area we were able to establish that this row house was across the street from a factory spewing fumes at all hours.

We were able to show that the family had not been in the city directories (which charged a fee for listing) or had a telephone until well past the point where most neighbor's did.

Using census we were able to establish that the older children left home by 14 to work as servants, other's joined the military to begin self supporting adult life.

Using church records we were able to establish that the family found religion important to them and had sacrificed to send their children to at least three first years of school in an ethnic church where they were able to begin to learn to read and write in English.

Using Social Security applications, we were able to establish the family expectation that all children begin to work for pay by 16 even when in high school.

But the time line was what made the difference because we progressed Grandma's life year by year.  Giving birth, having so many children in the household already. 

Very simply, by the time she had a grandchild to raise, this woman was worn out, exhausted, and by today's standards old enough to enjoy senior discounts.  Her husband, the grandfather was even older.

So if you find yourself or someone else in need of healing through understanding, I recommend doing a time line.


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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT

Founded January 15, 2009

FATHER TIME - 1909 Postcard

TREE IN THE LIGHT OF A SLIVERY MOON

FIVE GENERATION FAMILY TREE

A BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY ARRIVED IN THE MAIL

At this special time of year I like to tell a special story.

I recently learned of a something quite beautiful that happened for a man who, because his mother was very ill for many years and his father abandoned them, had to bounce around with relatives, was put into foster care, was himself in a children's hospital for some time, and then went to an orphanage. He was born into poverty and his grandparents who took care of him were elderly and ailing when it was decided that when he started school he would have to move from their household. This man is nearing 80 years old now.

Several years ago a mystery package arrived in the mail.

I contained a carefully put together scrapbook.  Someone had put all the letters that had been received from his mother in chronological order. The person who sent this scrapbook is probably not the person to whom the letters were addressed.

He and his wife sat together and read one letter after another that his mother had written, expressing her love for him, her concern for him, and they cried their eyes out.

His mother had died in the 1950's.
Someone had saved the letters.
The person that they were addressed to cannot be found, they say. It was too long ago.

Soon I'm going to try and find someone who might be related to her.

Just in case.


Merry Christmas!

THANKSGIVING IS FOR FRIENDSHIP TOO

Our harvest festival of PLENTY.

THANKSGIVING DONE RIGHT is my favorite holiday.

It's spiritual, not religious, and it's important to invite your friends who don't have

local family.

PILGRIMS IN THE FAMILY TREE ?

EXCERPT:

Alden was among the 100 or so European men, women, and children who boarded the Mayflower bound for America in September 1620, but after the first winter only about 50 remained to face the New World. From that modest number came estimated millions who could claim a direct lineage to the Mayflower voyagers. Yet very few of those have assembled the irrefutable proof to join the official ranks of Pilgrim descendants.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, an organization whose mission is to “honor the memory of those who made that perilous voyage,’’ was chartered in Boston in 1897 and now had 52 chapters nationwide. Only those with Pilgrim blood ties are admitted as members. About 82,268 descendants have been documented in the 113 years since the society was established.


YOU CAN ASK THE MAYFLOWER SOCIETY FOR SOME HELP, but it's up to you to prove you're related.


http://archive.boston.com/news/history/articles/2010/09/12/pilgrims_in_the_family_tree/