Family Tree Girl

Originally posted on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: “Melungeon” is a term applied to many people of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia: East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. The most common adjective used to describe the Melungeons is “mysterious;” no one seems to know where the…

Originally posted on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: An article by Brian Donohue, recently re-published in the NJ.com web site, will interest many genealogists, especially in light of the political issues in the Presidential campaigns that are receiving a lot of publicity lately. Donahue points out that a high percentage of America’s immigrants have arrived…

Originally posted on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: On Sunday, Nov. 22nd, PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow will be taping an episode at the Ideson Library Building, 550 McKinney & Smith Street in downtown Houston. The location is across the street from City Hall. The public is invited to attend as audience members from 9 am to 6…

Mom is reading a book I picked up last Saturday in Shippensburg, PA and on her way to her bedroom she said I have some some things for you to look up, I said okay. She will put stickies on the spots. Then she says “my grandma (Clara Marsh Davis) always talked about the past,…

Who is DAR? It is the National Society of the Daughter’s of the American Revolution, known as DAR. It is a lineage society and membership is open to any female 18 years and older regardless of race, religion or ethic background. Women wanted to be included in expressing their patriotic feelings, since they were not…

I have listened to some of the Voices from the days of slavery on the Library of Congress webpage. (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/vfssp.html#FountainHughes.html) In the past they have only been clips, maybe 1 minute or so. I can’t listen to more than one per day. This evening I have now heard the full interview from Fountain Hughes. He…

It was a good Saturday morning in Louisa County. I was invited to lead a workshop on the challenges that we all experienced when doing African American genealogy. The principles apply to all genealogy research since each of our families will challenges us one way or another. Researching African American is a challenge in itself.…

Originally posted on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: Here is your chance to be a television star  and also to have a genealogy mystery solved for you. The producers from the PBS’ series “Genealogy Roadshow” are collecting family stories from viewers in the southwestern United States. If you live in Northern or Central New Mexico…

This is really something to consider, thanks to Dick Eastman. Dick is explaining the current need as to why we need to begin converting our video tapes to DVD. For those of us that have numerous family videos that covers our precious interviews and family reunions we need to plan this conversion now.

Originally posted on Genealogy Adventures: This post is a glimpse into my working practices when it comes to researching black ancestors who were enslaved. On the one hand, it will probably look like Olympic standard mental gymnastics. On the other, I hope it gives a good framework for other African Americans researching their own enslaved…