#black genealogy

[blkglhistorian]

My uncle sent my mom a picture of my great great grandparents. He’s saying my great great grandfather was Hindu?!?!?!!! Of course all the census records just call him Mulatto.

[itsstillsweetiebythealtar]

Genealogy Sites

This is a list of all the sites that I’ve used to research my family history. Some of these sites may be state specific (Carolinas) but most of them include information from through the country. I will continue to update the list as time goes on 🤌🏾

Slave Narratives (I was able to find one of my ancestors through this, they were interviewed) https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/

Slave Voyages (If you would like to get information on the slave ships, ports, and possibly markets) https://www.slavevoyages.org/

Lowcountry Africana (lists the names of freedmen and their counties, this is focusing on the state of South Carolina) https://lowcountryafricana.com/

South Carolina Plantations (lists the plantations owned throughout the state, some have more information) https://south-carolina-plantations.com/

Race and Slavery Petitions (legal documents concerning slaves, free people of color, and white people) https://dlas.uncg.edu/petitions/

Fold3 (military related records) https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjzyemb27P-AhXHFdQBHdQhAKcYABAAGgJvYQ&ae=2&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESa-D22pb5Baezi2zOQjbzS8dX8mAHU3FYMHV7nDM6hDG-QfuJjyvM5UhkOdqQKmnYkPmOw4WLqYwmNPsmIEkWhD537b9hOSATv7xHExAvsLnbo8ak8vURfKWQgQjP1ngE1JDxgkvDP0TPPzZl&sig=AOD64_2CatEJVnBDXpyjDm9G2h0saZZ9tw&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwjOkdyb27P-AhVymGoFHWKhA4EQ0Qx6BAgGEAE

Plantations of North Carolina (list of plantations throughout the state split into counties) https://www.ncgenweb.us/ncstate/plantations/nc_plantations.html

[thechanelmuse]

Juneteenth aka Freedom Day.

Juneteenth is a centuries long, Black American commemoration day for the end of American chattel slavery, particularly for the ancestors who learned of their freedom in Galveston, Texas in 1865 — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Although they're no longer in America and we're no longer culturally the same, Juneteenth is also celebrated by the Mascogos, the descendants of Seminole Indians who escaped America at the tail end of the Gullah Wars (1739-1858), in Nacimiento de Los Negros, Mexico.

Up until 1997, the American flag (sewn by Grace Wisher) was the only flag Black Americans waved during the parade and overall celebration. Since then there are only two other flags that are raised and waved: the official Juneteenth flag (made by Mr. “Boston Ben” Haith) and the Black American Heritage Flag (made by Mr. Melvin Charles & Mr. Gleason T. Jackson).

Red, white, and blue. Red, black, and gold. That's it. This is not a Pan-Africanism takeover day. Keep your colonizing ethnocide to yourself and reserve it for cleansing your shit.

Juneteenth flag

Black American Heritage Flag

SN: If you're Black American and haven't done your genealogy or reached roadblocks in your tree, you can learn about lineage tracing and find some tips in this post. Much success.

[eggyoin]

Mermaid Petra and Marianne! Would you swim with them?

Also here https://x.com/Eggyoin/status/1776673353199161681

[toranekooo]

エルトシャン | ELDIGAN

➷ reblog + credit if using / saving.

[juicy-cloture]

Happy BHM to my fellow AAs!!

My name is Ariel and I am an amateur genealogist. It’s actually something I really enjoy and have spent countless hours going through archives to construct my family tree and those of others.

In the spirit of the season, I’m offering my ancestry investigatorial services to help you build your family tree & trace it back as far as we can go. Obviously for us things get sticky around the late 1800s as far as documentation goes, but I have been able to trace a couple familial lines up to enslaved individuals arriving in Virginia in the 1600s. I’ve also been able to find a lot of fascinating records- one of which was the enslaved “marriage certificate” of my great great great (3x) grandparents. Obviously I can’t promise anything but I will search as diligently as I can 🫡

I’m doing this on a pay what you can basis. $5, $20, whatever y’all can afford. I’ll just need your family names & info- the more you know the better. Your grandparents’ names, birthdates, and birth places are a great place to start but if there are some holes you don’t know I’ll do my best to help you figure it out. Just lmk! 🤎

[yooniesim]

for the longest time i thought you were asian, but like specifically korean or japanese idk why 😭

hahaha anon no worries, I am multiracial/mixed. specifically blasian (japanese tho not korean) so you were kinda right 😂

[historybizarre]

But DNA can only tell you so much. “I was just getting so sick of the interpretation being, ‘We have an African individual, and our interpretation is this person is from sub-Saharan Africa,’” says Vicky Oelze, an anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz who studies the archaeology of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Being able to pinpoint where exactly a person is from, she says, “has implications for their culture, their language, their beliefs, their practices—which contributed to so much of the culture of the Americas and the African diaspora at large.” To trace those origins with more precision, Oelze uses a tool called isotope mapping. Just as geographic regions vary in types of rocks and trees, they also have different proportions of elements. Oelze and her team focused on the isotopes strontium 86 and 87, which show up in the ancient bedrock of Angola. (A quick refresher from chemistry class: Isotopes are variations of an element that have the same number of protons—in the case of strontium, that’s 38—but different numbers of neutrons.)

[reasoningdaily]

Freedmen: The untold history of Indian Country slaves

[kaiserrreich]

An Almost Comprehensive Interactive Guide on the British Branch of the Malfoy Family

This is to help fanfic writers get a clearer view of the tree and who's related to who any things like that, as well as to discuss genealogy in the wizarding world, cause I'm deeply into ancestry and etc rn. Most of the characters here are completely fanon and I just came up with them on the spot.

For viewing  (click here) the family tree, it is preferred you looked through the tree on the PC version, as there's a lot less clicking, scrolling and general issues you'll have to do/fix

Notes on specific members of the family:

Armand Malfoy and Ermesinda Malfoy (of Normandy) arrive in Pevensey, England with William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest. He is given a piece of land in Wiltshire as reward, which soon becomes Malfoy Manor. Later on in life, Armand sires a son named Adelemus.

Marie Malfoy neé Devereaux marries Jacques Malfoy II and has Nicole and Jacques Malfoy III. The latter who died a year before she, both dying from the Bubonic Plague.

Nicholas Malfoy II courts a young Elizabeth Tudor I in 1550 before breaking it off the same year. (Also correction: Elizabeth was born 1533, NOT 1553. A mistake the sign of my sleep deprivation yuh 🤠)

Bernadette Black neé Malfoy, eldest sister of Florian and Artemis Malfoy marries Eridanus Black. The pair produces one child Hercules Black. Bernadette, deeply resentful at the slow descent of her marriage, after a more violent argument than normal, informs muggle wizard hunters and allows for Eridanus Black to be burned at the stake. (Inspired by Artemisia Blackwood's story)

Septimus Malfoy marries Abigail Weasley, who has two children named Magnus and Josephine. Septimus divorces Abigail for his young mistress, Geraldine Yaxley and disowns his children, not allowing them to use the Malfoy name. This conflict will fuel the feud the Malfoys and Weasleys have even in the present day.

Constantine Malfoy's brother-in-law, Marianus Flint taught Arithmancy at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for nearly 70 years! (1884 - 1952)

Abraxas Malfoy was allegedly involved in a shady plot that pertains to the attempted sabotage of the first muggleborn Minister's political campaign that was unsuccessful, later on, the Minister in question, Nobby Leach, contracted a mysterious illness and left the post in 1968.

Lucius Malfoy is the current patriarch of the Malfoy Family, the son of Abraxas Malfoy, husband of Narcissa Black and father of Draco Malfoy and paternal grandfather of Scorpius Malfoy. Believing strongly in pureblood supremacy, he joined the Death Eaters who agreed with his stance on blood purity. He was Lord Voldemort's right hand man throughout the First Wizarding War, but was replaced by his sister-in-law, Bellatrix Lestrange during the Second Wizarding War. (I basically "copied the homework but don't make it look obvious" for Lucius's bio lol)

Also more sidenote: If you see a Malfoy sibling have a child and their children seemingly died childless. (Nicholas, Athena, Hermes Carrow and Hercules Black) they had children, I was just too lazy to add it in. Same goes with Hardwin and Emmeline Potter.

(I originally posted on Reddit)

[stardust-megu]

"I've been observing the people here—they know what they're doing. I find that reassuring."

I realized that I haven't posted this photo of my Ayra cosplay! It's one of my favorites!

📸 Brittany Lee Artistry (IG)

Ayra cosplay made by me!

[itsstillsweetiebythealtar]

Another meeting is coming up!!

If y’all can, please take the time to follow

https://instagram.com/protectsthelena?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

I’ve posted about the Gullah Geechee community before but I just want y’all to stay up to date on what’s going on, even if I don’t get a chance to post.

The Gullah Geechee community is fighting to preserve their community and the environment from multiple companies attempting to “build up” the area with golf courses and resorts when the Charleston area already has MORE THAN ENOUGH. Please follow this page and stay up to date on how you can help fight back.

[thechanelmuse]

How genealogy is used to track Black family histories

Our names are important to us. They tell us who we are and often, who we come from. So imagine suddenly discovering the last name you’ve always carried… might not actually be the name you should have. 

Alex Neason began looking into her family’s history after discovering her great grandfather’s name was different from what she believed for her whole life. In her search to discover the story of that last name, she enlisted genealogist Nicka Sewell-Smith.

For Black Americans, genealogy can fill in the blanks left by the legacy of slavery and racism in the U.S. Services like the Freedmen’s Bureau and Slave Voyages provide free access to records and documents to help with that search. We talk about the power of genealogy in fostering knowledge and connection for Black Americans.

Source

If you click on the word “source,” it’ll take you to the article where you’ll see a LISTEN button. It’s a 30-minute audio that discusses the info provided in the article even further. Y’all know I’m big on getting people to trace their lineage. All that “we don’t know where we come from.” Who told you that? Everything in the US is in plain sight. Everything.

Discover your fam. 

I assist others when they reach a roadblock, like getting past the “1870 wall.” But you can’t beat the feeling of you discovering them on your own. Unearthing your history, seeing photos, reading stories that were stored, and saying their names that haven’t been said for centuries. I’ve been tracing mine (scanning, logging) since my family reunion in 2005 through oral family history and obituaries (those are records), and since 2011 through databases of US archived records like ancestry.com (purchased by BlackStone) and familysearch.org (free database owned by the Latter-day Saints Church). There are others, but those are the main two I use for comparative results.  

Archiving Centers, Census Records & Other Records

There are archiving centers in every state and DC that also keep records for those particular states and the federal capital. There’s a footnote on all records that tells you where they are housed. And please...Don’t just do a simple pedigree chart of your family tree. Get to know your great-aunts, great-uncles and cousins. It’s also helpful for seeing who lived around who (fam often lived next door to each other) and puts more of the pieces together of your complete family story. You can see the land and acres they owned or your fam today still owns, as well as if that land was stolen from them.

US census records go back to year 1790. Depending on when or if your ancestors were enslaved or free: you’ll find them attached to slave logs that have been made available online or kept in archiving centers (you go there), or or they’ll be listed on census records as free persons (1790-1710), free colored male/female (1820-1840), Black (1850-1920), Mulatto (1850-1890, 1910-1920) or Negro (1900, 1930-1950). “New” census documents are put on sites, like ancestry.com, every 10 years. As of 2023, you can only trace from 1950 to 1790. The 1960 census will be out in 2030. How to trace from 1950 to today, birth, death and residential records. So again, depending on the census year, you’ll notice your ancestors racial classification change throughout documents for obvious reasons. 

Keep in mind that the the largest slave trade for the United States was the domestic slave trade. In house human trafficking and selling (in addition to property insurance of enslaved people and the selling of enslaved people as the building block of Wall Street’s stock exchange) is how US capitalism was built. So just because you know a lot of your people are from Tennessee, for example, it doesn't mean that’s where that line stayed. I’ve found my ancestors throughout 7 states (so far). Another example, people with Louisiana roots damn near always have ancestors who were trafficked from early Virginia. Going beyond year 1790, records were kept in Christian and Catholic churches and old family history books so most of those documents are scanned online and/or still kept in the churches. I’m talking books books. 

If your ancestors walked the Trail of Tears, or were caught as prisoners of war or trafficked to Indian Nations to be enslaved, you’ll find an Oklahoma Indian Territory and Oklahoma Freedmen Rolls section on ancestry.com. You can discover more info on sites, like the Oklahoma Historical Society. (Every state has its own historical society for archived genealogical records.) 

Here’s the National Archives.

Also for Oklahoma, you may also find your ancestors in Indian Census Rolls (1855-1940) as [insert tribe] Freedmen, depending if they weren’t rejected through the “blood quantum” Dawes Rolls for not being the new light to white status. You’ll see their application and the listed questions & answers with or without a big void stamp. And on the census, you’ll even see the letter I (pronounced like eye) changed to the letter B. This is also for those in Louisiana.

Freedmen’s Bureau & Bank Records 

There were Freedmen’s Bureau records and Freedman’s Savings Bank records in other states. To see if your ancestors had their records in those systems, you can search by their name. The state and age will pop up with people having that name. It’ll give you a wealth of other info, like all of the kids and other fam if they were present or mentioned to the person who logged that info in. With the Freedmen Bank records, you can see how much money your ancestors put in there (that was later stolen from them by way of the United States government), which is still there today. It’s the biggest bank heist in US history (that they try to keep hush hush) with the equivalence of more than $80 million in today’s value stored in there today. Back then, it was valued almost close to $4 million. Stolen wealth met with bootstrap lectures. 

Here’s a short video on that heist:

Today the bank is called the Freedman's Bank Building, located right on Pennsylvania Ave. Plain sight. 

Trace your lineage. 

There’s a lot more that I can list. But this is just the basics. Like I said before, it’s a more rewarding feeling when you discover your ancestors by yourself. You may reach roadblocks. Take a break. Try going the “Card Catalog” route on ancestry.com’s search engine. Don’t skip the small details. 

SN: Slave Voyages isn’t a genealogical site, but rather a database for slave ship logs and the estimates of purchased Africans who became human cargo to be enslaved by country like USA, or by colonizers like Spain, Great Britain, etc.

[packedwithpackards]

Spelman Seminary, companionship, Sophia B. Packard, and Harriet E. Giles

Harriet Elizabeth "Hattie" Giles and Sophia Brett Packard in a photograph sometime before 1891. Image from Spelman College Archives and NYPL.

In 1881, Sophia Brett Packard founded Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary with her longtime companion, Harriet E. Giles. The school would later be renamed Spelman Seminary in 1884 in honor of John D. Rockefeller's wife, Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman, who was an active abolitionist and school teacher, since the latter had paid the balance to keep the school open, which opened its doors in 1888. Sophia would continue onward on the school's board of trustees, then as president until her death in June 1891, when there were 464 students and faculty of 34. There's more to this story than the four paragraphs on Sophia's Wikipedia page.

Sophia, my fifth cousin five times removed, was born in New Salem, Massachusetts in January 1824 to Winslow Packard (1790-1852) and Rachel Freeman (1788-1844). She had five siblings: Joseph Fairbanks (1812-1883), Jane (b. 1815), Mary (1815-1838), Hubbard Vaughn (1817-1861), and Rachel Maria (b. 1818). She would graduate from the Charleston Female Seminary in Massachusetts, work at the Connecticut Literary Institution in Suffield, be secretary for the American Baptist Home Mission Society. By the early 1880s she was committed to helping improve education for Black people, specifically Black women, in the South. She would later be described as a "woman of rare executive ability" and having an earnest, strong character. [1]

There is more to be said. You may have noticed earlier that I described Harriet E. Giles as her life-long companion. This is first evidenced by the fact that Sophia died from sickness while on a summer vacation with Harriet, and would be buried in Athol, Massachusetts. Harriet, who lived until 1909, and born in New Salem, Massachusetts like Sophia, would become the president of Spelman Seminary when Sophia died. One writer would call Harriet and Sophia a lesbian power couple, noting that they met each other in the mid-1850s when Harriet was a student at New Salem Academy and Sophia was the preceptor. Both would be buried next to one each other in Silver Lake Cemetery. They would also be described as "close friends and supportive coworkers" by Harry G. Lefever in his article on the early origins of Spelman College. He also noted note the New England-progressive outlook they brought to the school, noting their emphasis on liberal and industrial courses, but employed assumptions about gender roles, which became part of the curriculum while being self-sacrificing and putting others before themselves. At the same time, they never fundamentally challenged social injustices or inequities, either by staying silent about redistribution of land for formerly enslaved peoples, not actively lobbying to end lynching within the South, or having Black people in leadership positions. [2]

Further evidence shows Harriet and Sophia living together in Suffield, Hartford, Connecticut in 1860, within the Mather household, in this below census extract:

Sophia and Harriet are highlighted by a yellow box. Source is 1860 United States Federal Census for Sophia B Packard, Connecticut, Hartford, Suffield, Year: 1860; Census Place: Suffield, Hartford, Connecticut; Roll: M653_79; Page: 667; Family History Library Film: 803079

The same is the case in 1865, when they are living in the same household in Worcester, Massachusetts, along with many other teachers and students. She would still be living in Worcester, Massachusetts until at least 1867. At first I couldn't find her in the 1870 census, and her 1890 passport application does not mention Harriet. However, digging into it more, I found them together in Suffolk, Massachusetts, and it turns out that Harriet submitted a passport application at the same time as Sophia. Additionally, when Harriet died in November 1909 of pneumonia, an obituary in The Sumpter Enterprise at the time described Sophia as Harriet's "friend and co-worker". The Atlanta Constitution would use similar language in their obituary. They were both called "devoted Christian woman" in another article about Spellman, which isn't surprising considering Sophia had worked in a church and what became Spellman was originally in the basement of a church before moving to a new location. [3]

Otherwise, a 1853 student lists for New Salem Academy note that Harriet's father, Samuel, is the secretary of the academy, Harriet as a teacher of music. Sophia is not listed there. However, she is listed as a preceptress in 1855 and Samuel is still secretary of the school, and Harriet is a student in the school's classical department. I also found them together in the 1880 census, boarding on 275 Shawmut Avenue (which is seemingly just an apartment building) in Boston within the Ryder household, along with many other boarders. [8] Harriet would also write a moving eulogy to Sophia, and mentions "loving companionship" which is undoubtedly a way to allude to the romantic relationship they had together, whether it can be called a domestic partnership, romantic friendship, or something else:

It is not necessary to euloigize one so widely known. Her work speaks for her; and the monuments she has erected, will endure from generation to generation, in the lives made better by her influence. How large her bundle of sheaves! How thickly studded her crown with stars for those she has won to Christ! We mourn not for her, but for the work, and the workers who will so greatly miss her loving companionship and wise counsels. Surely "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever."

Both also opened the Rollstone School in March 1859 together, which ended after both accepted teaching positions at the Connecticut Literary Institution. They both, would also, teach at the Oread Institute in Worchester from 1864 to 1867, with Sophia as co-principal and Harriet as teacher of ornamentals and music. They also both co-founded the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society in 1877.

"Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles with Spelman Seminary Students" in 1886, via  National Alumnae Association of Spelman College

Spelman Seminary would later become Spelman College when its name changed in 1924. Otherwise, one article in The Springfield Daily Republican on November 25, 1939, possibly accessed using one of the libraries here, notes that an oil painting of Harriet was gifted to the Swift River Valley Historical Society. It is likely still in their collections, even though it is strange since the society wasn't incorporated until 1962.

While we don't know everything about Sophia, Harriet, and their relationship, which some have described as an iconic same-sex couple among many others, we can say that their legacy certainly lives on to this day.

Notes

[1] The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 2 (James T. White & Company. 1921), 270-271; "Spelman - Packard" clipping in The Boston Weekly Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 30 Jun 1891, Page 3.

[2] The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 2 (James T. White & Company. 1921), 271; "Spelman - Packard" clipping in The Boston Weekly Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 30 Jun 1891, Page 3; "Oread Institute," Lost Womyn's Space, Apr. 27, 2011; Riese Bernard, "16 Lesbian Power Couples From History Who Got Shit Done, Together," Autostraddle, Mar. 31, 2017; Harry G. Lefever, "The Early Origins of Spelman College," The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education No. 47 (Spring, 2005), pp. 60-63.

[3] Massachusetts, U.S., State Census, 1865 for Sophia B Packard, Worcester, Worcester Ward 7, image 4; U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 for Sophia B Packard, Massachusetts, Worcester, 1867, Worcester, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1867, Image 173; U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925 for Sophia B Packard, Passport Applications, 1795-1905, 1888-1890, Roll 344 - 01 Mar 1890-31 Mar 1890, Image 368; 1870 United States Federal Census for Hattie Giles, Massachusetts, Suffolk, Boston Ward 08, Year: 1870; Census Place: Boston Ward 8, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_645; Page: 39A; U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925 for Harrich Elizabeth Giles, Passport Applications, 1795-1905, 1888-1890, Roll 349 - 09 May 1890-16 May 1890, Image 43; "Harriett Giles obituary - clip 1" in The Sumter Enterprise, Epes, Alabama, 02 Dec 1909, Page 3; "Harriett Giles obituary - clip 2" in The Sumter Enterprise, Epes, Alabama, 02 Dec 1909, Page 3; "Miss Harriett Giles Dead; Was President of Spellman" in The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, 14 Nov 1909,  Page 8; "Death notice for Harriett Giles" in The Clayton Record, Clayton, Alabama, 26 Nov 1909, Page 1; "Spellman Seminary" in The Rochester Daily Register-Gazette, Feb. 16, 1898, via Ancestry.

[4] U.S., High School Student Lists, 1821-1923 for Harriette E Giles, New Hampshire, New Salem Academy, 1853, pages 2, 3 (exact source is Catalogue of Trustees, Instructors and Students of New Salem Academy, Massachusetts, for the year ending November 10, 1853 (Greenfield, MA: Charles A. Mirick, 1853), 2-3); U.S., High School Student Lists, 1821-1923, New Hampshire, New Salem Academy 1855, page 3-4, 6 (exact source is Catalogue of Trustees, Instructors and Students of New Salem Academy, New Salem, Mass., for the year ending November 15, 1855 (Greenfield, MA: Charles A. Mirick, 1853), 3-4, 6); 1880 United States Federal Census for Hattie S. Giles, Massachusetts, Suffolk, Boston, 715, Year: 1880; Census Place: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 558; Page: 62A; Enumeration District: 715.

Note: This was originally posted on May 8, 2023 on the main Packed with Packards WordPress blog (it can also be found on the Wayback Machine here). My research is still ongoing, so some conclusions in this piece may change in the future.

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[larrywilmore]

New ep is up!

[origingenealogy]