Genealogy Storytelling

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Great Images of African American History

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The Library of Congress shares some great images of African American history.  A log cabin, a city row house, and a Baptist church. As a list of buildings, it is unremarkable. When I describe these three structures with a focus on their places in history, the list gets much more interesting. They are also: the slave quarters on the Tennessee plantation owned by Pres. Andrew Jackson, the headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women and home of civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune, and the Alabama church led by a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, which was bombed three times between 1956 and 1962.

See full story on loc.gov

Pierre Fazende and The Chalmette Battlefield

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This is another story about a lost african-american community called Fazendeville near the Chalmette Battlefield.

While much deserved attention this week has gone to the 200th anniversary of the American victory at the Battle of New Orleans, this year also marks the 50th anniversary of two less-remembered losses near the Chalmette battlefield. They were vestiges of opposite ends of antebellum Creole society, one a tiny hamlet of poor black families, the other an opulent plantation mansion.

Both survived a century after the Civil War, and both were obliterated in 1965.

The hamlet developed out of a rice field owned by Pierre Fazende, a free man of color who appears to have inherited a portion of the Chalmette plantation on which the Battle of New Orleans was fought. In 1856, his son subdivided the elongated parcel, positioned roughly parallel to the former American firing line, and sold the 33 lots of “Fazendeville” to other free people of color, and after the Civil War, emancipated slaves.

For the full story on nola.com click here.

Storytelling Is Important in Native American Culture

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An interview with Enoch “Kelly” Haney, former Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.

Posted by Jessica Murray on November 17, 2014 in In The Community

Kelly shares the importance of storytelling to tribal culture and the priceless knowledge handed down to younger generations through oral history.

Learn how Kelly’s art has been influenced by his family history and Native American traditions in the video interview below:


 

See more at: ancestry.com

DNA Results Can Confirm Your Research

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DNA results is a sure fire way to confirm your paper trail results.

Sometimes no matter how hard I try, with so little time to research, I just cant come up with a good DNA-related story angle for certain guests. That is pretty much the case for last weeks episode. This typically happens when the DNA supports the genealogical research well and there are no real surprises or mysteries to explore.

This isnt entirely unexpected for people who have primarily British and/or Colonial roots like Sting and Sally Field where there is a very good genealogical paper trail to follow. Sometimes, with people like Deepak Chopra, whose ancestral origins come from regions that are not as well represented in the databases, it can also be a challenge because we just dont have as much information about the genetics from those regions and there are generally less DNA cousins with whom to compare family histories. Testing additional family members can sometimes help to reveal interesting information, but we dont always have that opportunity, which was the case for the three guests from last week.

When that happens, I fall back on the traditional Finding Your Roots formula. In the script, I lay out their admixture first at the global level, looking at the broad overview, meaning how much of their DNA traces back to major population groups like Africans, Europeans, Asians and Native Americans. Then we break it down into the sub-regional categories for each guest, detailing the more specific areas or populations groups from which the testing companies predict their ancestors originated over the last 500-1000 years. If there is some diversity there, we will often show it to the guest mapped out across their chromosomes like we did with Sally in this episode.

For the complete article click here for Finding Your Roots | PBS

Adoptees Use AncestryDNA to Find Family

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Adoptees use AncestryDNA to find family members.

Hear it from an adoptee, a story of she not only found out she is Irish, Scandinavian and European Jewish, but how she connected to a few family members as well. Read or listen to Nancy’s story here.

Taking a DNA test can open up possibilities that haven’t been available before, but will they happen to you? There is only one way to find out. Take a DNA test for yourself.

Once you have those results back, you can review them. DNA can unlock the mystery of where your genetic roots came from 500+ years ago. Your unique DNA reveals what you have inherited from those who came before you. Are you Irish? Native American? Italian? When you take an AncestryDNA test, we compare your DNA to the known regions around the world and give you an estimate of how your DNA matches those regions. I have talked to many people who are adopted and the ethnicity is one of their top reasons for taking the test.

See full story on ancestry.com