Sunday, November 6, 2016

Me in the BBC and the difficulties of tracing African-American family trees behind the walls of slavery

So here's something interesting that had happened...

One on of my Facebook genealogy groups, a journalist from the BBC wrote that she was working on a news article. She said,

"In the light of Georgetown University's decision to give 'the edge' in the applications process to descendants of slaves, we are looking at how easy or difficult it is to trace slave ancestry, and what the challenges and emotions involved are.

Have you recently found out about ancestors who were slaves? Would you be interested in talking to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) about it?" 


Now, I personally know nothing about being related to the Georgetown descendants. However, I am having the hardest, darndest time figuring out my family tree past the 1850's on most sides. (I haven't had a chance to even touch writing about the family tree stuff yet on this blog. The DNA stuff is a lot!)

Plus, I figured what the hey? I could submit something and if nothing came of it then no love lost. However, if I was included, it might provide some credibility to family members and others that may be able to help me but do not understand why I am working on this journey. I'm not much of a creative writer after working in business for so long, so I replied in bullet format/ memo style:

My experiences as an African-American in the deep south researching her heritage are:


(1) It is really difficult. 


(2)The records are hard to sift through. I am one of few in my family to hold a master's degree from university, and this is much more difficult than obtaining that. My degree is even in information systems, and it's still difficult. I feel as if I need degrees in history, anthropology, genetics, etc. to understand the mounds of disconnected information.


(3) Many of my family members and friends do not understand why I am trying to do this. For that reason, I have little support. The support that I have been given though has been amazing, and I think that it is because those individuals recognize how difficult the task is because they have attempted it to some degree before.


(4) Our elder family members did not discuss the past very much, and now many of them have passed on. I figure that to them, it might have been painful or shameful or both, but I do not know for sure.


(5) DNA tests are really expensive. So far I have spent over $1000 in 2016, and I need to spend at least $1000 more to get various other family members tested to try to unravel the history and relationships. Again, because I am the only one in my family that sees this as that important, I must foot the bill for these tests myself.


(6) I have DNA from all over the world, and many locations are those that I would never expect like Haiti, Jamaica, and Barbados. I have a small amount of Native American heritage that is not uncommon, but intriguingly it is from South America. I expected lots of West African, but I did not expect to see East, Central, or North African. I also did not expect to see some South Asian or Middle East. I expected to see European countries like Britain, Spain, France, but not Sweden, Finland, or Russian. My blood truly representative of the term "melting pot."


(7) I have lots of matches in South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina, but I have no idea who the common ancestors are. I hit the wall of slavery big time both in my search for genealogy records and relationships with DNA matches.

Oh, and I want to add that I think it is appalling that slave descendants are not given these test for free after all that has been taken from us for free in this country.

Apparently getting straight to the point works pretty well...LOL. She sent me an email asking for a telephone interview on Labor Day. I was glad that I noticed the email. We chatted about 30 minutes. I wasn't sure what would happen after that, but she told me she would keep me updated on the progress of the article.

Guess what? I was chosen to be in the article! As far as I know, no other close family members have tested yet (except two that I found out about when they popped up as a match, but we had not discussed testing among each other.) I'm not giving up hope. I plan to one day find all of my ancestors that got off the boat(s) in this thang.

...until next time...

Slave Haven: Underground Railroad Museum

I went on an impromptu visit to the Slave Haven museum yesterday. Hubby and I needed to get out of the house, and we'd been saying we were going to go every since we first heard that there was such a thing. We had no idea that the underground railroad existed this far down south. It makes sense though. I can imagine the enslaved in this place wanting to leave very badly. I feel the same way today with way less harsh conditions.

The museum was an awesome place. No pictures were allowed inside. We were given a tour by very knowledgeable people so we weren't left alone to read a bunch of walls or guess what we thought stuff was or meant. It was also my very first time seeing a crawl space in person (used to hide under the floor or in the walls). It really brought home the idea that slavery had to be an awful thing to want to get away from it that bad. The space was very small...maybe 2-3 feet deep. We were told that it was probably one of the larger ones that was used. It looked as if crawling in that thing meant nose to the dirt, snake crawling.

Anyhow, there is much awesomeness to see and learn, so if you have an opportunity I encourage you to stop by. I won't talk about it too much and spoil it for you. There is a big tour that you can take that includes about 30 related sites throughout the area. We will be going back for that.

I will say this about it...people are tripping. I've been studying the plight of my Ancestors on my own for years - as far back as high school. Much of what was real life for them is NOT taught in school. With much of their blood in the ocean, rivers, trees, and soil...I will not be going back after death saying that I did not try to do anything to make a difference and support others that are making a difference. Instead I sat back and wasted my life away. I refuse.