G’ mornin’ to y’all.
I’ve been rather pleased with the amount of interest and participation in our little Genealogy and Family History Community (GFHC) Group. Though I was sure there was at least a passing interest in the subject, I didn’t know what to expect when I first set up the Group. Well, it appears there's a lot of interest. So, I wanted to say thanks to you all who have joined, followed, participated in or even just occasionally browsed through our Groups discussions so far. It’s been so much fun.
In fact, we’ve grown so much, it’s been suggested that it’s time we set up our very own, regularly scheduled
GFHC OPEN THREAD
(TA DAAAAAAA!)
After much debate and consideration with 2 GFH members (well, maybe not so much debate and consideration), I decided Friday mornings at 11am CST seemed to a good time to schedule our open thread. However, if there’s a general consensus that this day and time isn’t workable, I’m sure folks will not be shy in expressing their feelings.
I’m going to start off our first Friday morning Open Thread, and Lady Libertine, who brilliantly made the initial suggestion, will compose and publish next week’s. After that, we’re looking for volunteers to host the GFH Open Threads.
Calendar:
February 25 – edwardssl
March 4 – Lady Libertine
March 11 – coquiero
March 18 –
March 25 –
April 1 - Getreal1246
April 8 -
And so forth. You get the picture.
Lady Libertine also suggested that, if desired, we can make our Open Threads themed. Although the Open Threads may have a theme, it’s not mandatory that we only talk about the theme. All subjects (and questions) are open for discussion.
So, after I made a discover last night, I decided I’d make my open thread about Brick Walls.
My husband is African-American. We have encountered, obviously, many brick walls while working on his family history. But we haven’t given up, and though it may be slow and arduous, we’re slowing chipping away.
My husband’s g-grandmother was a woman named Winnie Bland. She was born a slave between 1843 and 1845 in Chatham Co, North Carolina. She died in Wake Co, North Carolina in 1936, and shown on her death certificate were the names of her parents, Cherry Bland and Buck Bland.
I found record of Cherry in 1870 Chatham Co which indicated she was born around 1803, and in 1880, she showed up in the census Mortality Schedules as having died in March of 1880 of jaundice. I never found a record of Buck. I had assumed he was a slave who had died before 1870, and I had resigned myself to the notion that I would never find anything further on him, unless I might stumble across a will or deed that gave him to another slave-owner.
Last night I was looking through my tree for something else entirely (I don’t even remember now what it was), when I found those little leaves from ancestry.com shaking on their names. I don’t usually take the time to click on those, because they’ve seldom told me anything I didn’t already know. But it just seemed weird to get one of those leaves on Buck Bland. So I clicked on it.
Up came 6 family trees of William “Buck” Bland of Chatham Co, NC, born 1789 and died 1860. Buck, who I thought was the first name of an African-American slave, turns out to be the nickname of the white slave-owner.
Omg.
Now, as we’ve been discussing all week, confirm, confirm, confirm. This I will most certainly do. But this is an incredible lead. The Bland family at various times was shown in the census records as “mulatto”, and this could be were that happened.
Frankly, I don’t know sometimes how to react to this kind of information. This isn’t the first time that I’ve discovered the name of a white slave-owner who was the father of the children of his slaves. The other case was of Henderson Judd, who publicly admitted to being the father of his housekeeper’s children. His housekeeper was once his slave.
My feelings are mixed - excited by a possible significant discovery, yet terribly sad about the situation.
I told my husband about what I’ve found, and he says full-speed ahead. History was, what history was.
I’ll be ordering the land and will record microfilms from the LDS for Chatham Co this weekend.
So, tell me about your brick walls. Or anything else you want to talk about. You got questions? We’ve got plenty of experienced genealogists (I wouldn’t count me in as one of those yet) who will gladly give you suggestions or opinions.
And let’s see some volunteers for future Open Threads!