African American History and Genealogy Seminar

This has been an interesting summer. During August I did a seminar in Kansas City, Kansas discussing the history of Africans and African Americans, as well as the history of African American families. The history of Africans goes back 100,00 to 200,00 years, which makes this history the oldest of all human beings. There are Africans mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The history of African in North America extends back at least 3,000 to 4,000 years. The history of enslaved Africans extends to the mid 1500s.

When there is discussion of African Americans, the history is extensive, very interesting, and saddening, but we African Americans have survived and can do very well now and in the future. Most of the African Americans during the years of enslavement had life so much more difficult than we have now and are our past ancestors that we should learn about.

KNOW YOUR ROOTS: Your Family Tree Seminar

I will do a presentation in the near future. Everyone is welcome to attend. The title of the presentation is KNOW YOUR ROOTS: Your Family Tree. The purpose of the presentation is for persons in attendance to discuss, learn, and have fun discussing the history of African Americans and even more each person will learn how to do their own family history.

The Presentation will be Saturday August 22, 2009 from 5:00 PM until 7:00 PM in Love Fellowship Center at 1723 Quindaro in Kansas City, Kansas. The cost is only $5.00/person. Refreshments will be provided and you may arrive a little early to meet me and socialize with the others who will attend.

Update

The last few months I have been busy with all types of things. Now I have more time to do things related to genealogy and family history. Opportunities have opened up for me to speak around the area. I will inform you of my speeches ahead of time as well as other genealogy and family history activities.

Carrington-Owens Picture

Attached to this message is a picture of an African American couple. The picture was taken approximately during the late 1800s or early 1900s. The picture has no name on in, however, it was with papers related to Philip Grant Carrington and his mother Clara Owens Carrington Kidd. The picture may be of Clara's parents who had the last name of Owens or Raiford (Rayford or Ray). Clara was born in South Carolina approximately 1892 in or near Spartanburg or Laurens.

Philip was born in 1910 in Ashdown, Arkansas but also lived in Colorado, Missouri, Ohio before dying in Michigan in 1982 where he was very well known throughout the state.

Please inform me if you know who the persons are in the picture.

South Carolina History and Resource

For everyone interested in locating African American ancestors who lived in South Carolina during the mid to late 1800s thru 1919 there is a 500+ page book. The book has only biographies and pictures of African Americans. The book is entitled HISTORY of the AMERICAN NEGRO: South Carolina Edition, edited by A.B. Caldwell. This is the original edition which is illustrated and published in 1919 by the A.B. Caldwell Publishing Company in Atlanta, Georgia.

My Genealogy and Family History Business

My genealogy and family history business is just beginning. The name of my business is: Seventh Cousins Genealogy and Family History. The work of the business includes: genealogy researcing for individual; presenting speeches to organzations, schools, and other groups; and teaching genealogy classes. The emphases of the business is genealogy and family history of African Americans, Native Americans, and European Americans.

The Henry Claiborne Talton Family in the late 1800s

This is a picture taken in the late 1800s of my great grandfather Henry Claiborne Talton with his second wife and the children of him and his deceased first wife and the children of him and his second wife. He was the son of a slave and slavemaster and born into slavery in 1839 in Houston County Georgia. He later lived enslaved in Claiborne Parish in northwestern Louisiana. After slavery ended he and his family lived in Ashdown (Little River County) Arkansas where the picture was taken.
He died in Arkansas in the 1920s.

Adding Pictures to the Blogs

It is beneficial to add pictures to Blogs. This is especially relevant to genealogy and family history. Often individuals have no pictures of ancestors or even of relatives in the early or mid 20th century.

Recently I took a class on Blogging and how to add pictures to the blogs. This class was at the Manhattan (Kansas) Public Library. We visited Flickr which is a method to add pictures.

Unknown African American Family

Unknown African American Family
Originally uploaded by thirkelle

This is a picture that was taken of an unknown African American family shortly after the Civil War.

It is important to label all pictures immediately so that anyone in the future will have this knowledge. The label should include the names, dates, and locations of all pictures.

Family Information

Family Information:

When beginning genenealogy research one of the first things that a researcher should do is to interview relatives to obtain as much information about the family as possible. Research should begin with the researcher's generation, including the researcher's siblings (brothers and sisters) and first cousins. Each additional generation will be researched to fill in the information and ask additional questions. The second generation researched should be the parent's generation, including the parents and their siblings and their first cousins. The third generation researched should be the grandparent's generation, including their siblings and their first cousins. The research should continue with previous generations and their descendents.

cont. African American Genealogy 101

It is important to know when doing genealogical research that most African Americans whose ancestors were in the United States when slavery ended are at least 7th cousins. During the early years of U.S. history approximately 400,000-600,000 Africans were brought to the United States as slaves. Only about one-half (or 200,000-300,000) of those enslaved Africans ever had children. So most African Americans are possibly 7th cousins. During the enslavement era most (or 90%) of the African Americans were enslaved and most lived in the southern part of the United States.

African American Genealogy 101

African American Genealogy 101 exists to provide information concerning researching genealogy as it relates to African Americans. Our genealogy is very important and it varies from the research of other races and ethnic groups. Much of the research from 1930 back to 1870 is similar to that of other Americans however the names during the late 1800s and early 1900s may change or be spelled in various ways. We must remember that 80-85% of African Americans were enslaved until the Civil War and did not offficially have last names, so they had to give themselves last names, sometimes the names of the slave owners and other times names of famous persons or names that they liked.