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Providing practical, down-to-earth advice for family historians since 1995, online since 1985.

From the BookShelf:
Finding a Place Called Home:
A Guide to African American Genealogy
and Historical Identity
by Dee Parmer Woodtor, Ph. D.

DearREADERS,
Whenever I go to a bookstore, I check out the offerings in the genealogy and family history section. I was delighted while browsing the shelves at Hastings Bookstore in Logan, Utah, to find this November 1999 publication from Random House of New York. The author, Dee Woodtor, is a member of the Genealogy Forum staff (AOL Keyword: roots and on the web at www.genealogyforum.com )

The book itself is beautifully laid out with photos, tables, quotes and sample documents. But don't let the good looks fool you! This book has real meat to it! I heartily applaud Dee's efforts to:

describe the type of records available
suggest how to organize research
handle the delicacies of slave trading, and the consequential short history of many African Americans
discuss the usefulness of tracing European ancestry
assist you in finding your own voice during the process
guide readers to a thoughtful presentation of results.

Chapter headings include:

Regaining Our Collective Memory, Reclaiming a Lost Family Tradition
Beginning Your Genealogical Pursuit
Techniques & Tools
Your Ancestors on Record: The importance of documenting the life cycle
A Place Called Down Home
Unraveling the ties that Bound 1870-1920
Finding Freedom's Generation 1860-1865
Close to Kin, but Still Waiting for Forty Acres and a Mule - Searching for your ancestors during the reconstruction
A Long Way to Freedom - The genealogy of your slave ancestors
The Last Slave and the Last Slave Owner
The Records of Slavery
Reconstructing Families and Kinship in the Slave Community
The Records Freedom Generated
The Last African & the First American
Conclusion - Family Reunions & Regaining a Collective Memory

Special topics include:

Sources for Advanced Research in Slave Genealogy
African American Institutional Records
Caribbean Ancestry
American Indian Ancestry
World Wars I & II
What to Do with Your Research - Writing family memoirs or the family story, and 101 genealogy research projects waiting to be done
Further Note on County Courthouse Records
Personal Recordkeeping with exercises for Beginners
African American and Genealogy Web Sites
African American Genealogy Societies in the United States and Canada.

Dee's bibliography, referenced by chapter, is found on 24 pages of closely spaced lettering -- a literal MUST READ set of resources to augment her offerings.

Notable comments, which ring true to my understanding include:

"...Once you find the last slave owner, you are using his family history and genealogy as a guide to identify his recorded transactions that named slaves he and his extended family owned over time using primarily the family's personal records, if you can find them, and any public transactions that they recorded at the courthouse. " p 275.

"Dotted throughout the South are thousands of small African American Churches of every known Protestant denomination. If there are now approximately 65,000 African American Churches in the United States, over half of them must be in the south. A recent survey reported that 70 percent of African Americans attend church. In each and every county of the historical Black Belt and in every small place where Black folks lived during slavery, you will find that they established independent churches within a few decades of emancipation. Many were extensions of churches established during slavery or through a bequest by a former slave owner." p 107.

Regarding African Americans serving in the military during the US Civil War from page 148: "Anoder ting is, suppose you had kept your freedom without enlisting in dis army; your chillen might have grown up free and been well cultivated as to be equal to any business, but it would have been always thrown in dere faces -- "Your fater never fought for his own freedom." Private Thomas Long, 1st Carolina South Colunteers Cited in Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War.

Finding a Place Called Home:
A Guide to African American Genealogy
and Historical Identity
by Dee Parmer Woodtor, Ph. D.
copyright Nov 1999
Random House Reference & Information Publishing
New York, New York 10022

Available through Amazon.com - list $18.00 - today's price 20% discount $14.40. An essential "how-to" book for African American genealogists!

Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Daily Genealogy Columnist
AOL Keyword: gf, roots or myrtle
www.DearMYRTLE.com

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