I’ve been working on an African-American ancestry case for a good while now, attempting to discover a friend’s ancestor’s whereabouts before Emancipation. Unsurprisingly, this has been a tough one. But I’m chipping away, one research project at a time! Because of that project, I invariably disappear down the rabbit hole when I discover a new-to-me … Read more
I’ve blogged that one of my ancestors living in the (later notorious) Forsyth County, Georgia had a 14-year-old Black child named Isaac Suthard living on his farm in 1880. I wrote that blog post 10 years ago, and at the time I just assumed that Isaac was a hired hand, in the same way that … Read more
When you see this… And then you see this… And realize there was once a company with some line on an order form somewhere asking: Aha, you want to buy a marriage registry book for your county? How about a nice volume for “Colored” marriages? (The Times-Recorder is Americus, Georgia’s newspaper to this day.) The … Read more
This historian’s heart was gratified today to see a firsthand account in our local newspaper, the Cherokee Tribune, of some of the troubles Canton experienced during the Civil Rights era. Though we still have a long way to go (see: internet comments, ugh), it’s heartening to see my little town having an open discussion and … Read more