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Monday, February 21, 2011

Early Postcards of Starkville


I'm always looking for early postcards of Starkville and don't you know I came across this charming book.

If you live in/near Fort Wayne, Salt Lake City, or Washington, D.C., copies of this book will soon be available for viewing at the Allen County Public Library, Family History Library, and the Library of Congress.

Black and white copies are still available. Send me an e-mail and I'll be sure to forward your query to Ruth Morgan.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Getting Serious About Your Research

Those of us who attended the International Black Genealogy Summit are still talking about the wonderful speakers we heard. From the East Coast, to the West Coast, and all points in between, more than 400 of us were there to represent, network, and put on our thinking caps.

This year, October 20, 21, and 22, Fort Wayne will host the National Black Genealogy Summit. Roberta Ridley, of the Allen County Public Library, and I promised ourselves that when we found our common Ridley ancestor that we would do a part two presentation of Deborah Abbott's and Char McCargo Bah's He Owned Our People: One Plantation, Two Families, Two States...

My grandmother's great grandfather, James Ridley, was born in North Carolina -- just as Roberta's Ridley family had been. While her family eventually went to Indiana, mine remained in Mississippi. I have no doubt that 2011 will be the year that we will break through that brick-wall.

Come join us for fun-filled and edifying weekend!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

February: My Favorite Month

Forget about the cold, February is my favorite month. I so look forward to see black history programming on my local PBS stations in Chicago: WTTW (aka Window To The World), WYCC (City Colleges of Chicago Public Television), & WYIN (Lakeshore Public Television).

Tuesday, I watched When I Rise, a documentary about Barbara Smith Conrad. "I am from east Texas: Center Point community...Rolling hills, red clay dirt, honeysuckle everywhere...this community was founded by five freedmen. One of them was my great grandfather...We sang all the time..."

Ms. Smith Conrad, with a voice to-die-for, was one of the first black students admitted to University of Texas at Austin. During an era of Jim Crow, she was dropped from a student opera, Dido and Aeneas. Life-changing events will take her across the globe, several times over, on an incredible odyssey.

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