SLAVE SALE RECORDS DIGITIZED ONLINE
Brenda Kellow
October 14, 2012
It was during the gathering of documents for the exhibit, An Unmarked Trail: Stories of African Americans in Buncombe County, 1850-1900, that organizers found items authenticating the sale of slaves for that county. It told of African American children, parents and grandparents sold the same as though they were real estate, bales of cotton or cattle. Sales were recorded in hardbound ledger books before being forgotten in dark basements of courthouses.
Asheville is organizing these slave sales and placing them online, www.citizen-times.com/article/20120921/NEWS01/309210021/Asheville-organizes-historic-slave-deeds-online?nclick_check=1.
The sales of the slaves are hand written bills of sale. It is a harsh dose of reality, but now African Americans can research their families. Note that the sales are in the names of the owners and not the ancestors.
Through these digitized documents, students will be able to write on this period in our history and teachers will use them in a multitude of ways.
TEXAS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY CONFERENCE: The Texas State Genealogical Society will hold its conference in the Fort Worth Riley Center on November 1-3. The theme is “Saddlebags to Social Networking: Following Ancestors Through History.” The speaker is Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA. Go to their website for further information, www.txsgs.org.
NACOGDOCHES DRT CHAPTER BIOGRAPHIES: The Stone Fort Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) just published a book of ancestor biographies just in time to add to your family history library. Besides featuring the early settlers there is also information on historical markers and members of the chapter, the battle of Gonzales and the Siege of Bexar. It also has a section of firsts such as the first man killed at the Battle of San Jacinto; first census taker from Bastrop County in 1850; first producing oil well in Texas and west of the Mississippi; first brick jail and brick house built in Galveston and the first state senator elected to Congress in 1846 who just happened to be Thomas J. Rusk. For further information contact Julia Clow, DRT Stone Fort Chapter, 5656 FM 1275, Nacogdoches TX 75961-0297.
GENEALOGY LIBRARY HOLDS ITS OWN LOCK-IN: The Genealogy Library is sponsoring its own lock-in on October 19 from 6-11 p.m. A pre-event programming, consisting of webinars, is from 2-5:15 p.m. The library will close briefly and reopen at 6 p.m. This lock-in is held in conjunction with the genealogy ‘After Hours’ lock-in events at four other libraries across the state: Texas State Library and Archives; Denton Public Library; Waco Genealogy Library; Clayton Library. It is free to all participants. Make advance registration at www.planolibrary.org. An arrangement to share resources with the participating libraries is a plus for researchers.
ANCESTRY SCOOPS UP 1000 MEMORIES: Ancestry.com just purchased 1000 Memories. You may recall I have written about how much I enjoy using the scanner called Shoebox on my iPhone. Shoebox is the mobile app by 1000 Memories. Ancestry will continue to build Memories; in fact, the employees are joining those in the San Francisco office. You will have the ability to scan pictures and upload them directly into your ancestors’ profiles on Ancestry.com. The 1000 Memories site says the “idea was born out of our personal frustration with not being able to tell stories of people’s lives.” Ancestry.com is certainly the premier site used by genealogists. This recent purchase is certainly an asset for all of us researchers. The 1000 Memories site is at http://blog.1000memories.com/.
BACK UP YOUR FILES: If you do not back up your files daily or weekly, please do so at the first of the month.
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: [email protected].