SALT LAKE CITY – July 19, 2010 – Today Footnote.com (www.footnote.com) and Lowcountry Africana (www.lowcountryafricana.net) announced the launch of a new free collection of historical records from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History containing estate inventories and bills of sale for Colonial and Charleston South Carolina from 1732 to 1872.  FamilySearch International donated the copies of the microfilm of the original historical documents.

Charleston’s role as a port of entry during the Atlantic Slave Trade means many thousands of African Americans may have ancestors who came from, or through, South Carolina. This new collection on Footnote.com will assist African American genealogy research by forming, in many cases, a seamless paper trail from Emancipation to the 1700s.

“Research about African American history and genealogy has often been especially difficult because of limited access to primary source material,” says Henry Louis Gates Jr., Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

“Footnote.com is spearheading a revolution in access to the black past by digitizing major portions of the black archive, and making these records available on the Internet.  The publication of these records from South Carolina in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is the latest example of their bold commitment to resurrecting the African American past.”

Footnote.com provides an experience where visitors can access historical records and interact with those records and members of the Footnote community.

Visitors to Footnote.com can enhance these records from the South Carolina archives through various activities including:
•    Creating and sharing web pages about the documents and their discoveries
•    Adding their own insights and comments to the documents
•    Uploading and connecting their own photos, letters and documents
•    Annotating information on the documents, which creates a searchable database

“We are excited that Footnote has joined this collaboration because they offer family historians the ability to turn public records into personal history,” said Toni Carrier, Founding Director of Lowcountry Africana. “Nowhere else on the Internet can readers interact with historical records in such a meaningful way.”

“South Carolina has one of the richest sets of early government records of social and cultural history, said Charles Lesser, Senior Archivist at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. “This new cooperative effort will revolutionize access to an especially important segment of those records.”

Lowcountry Africana has established an online volunteer program to create the searchable index for this collection.  To learn more about this volunteer program or to sign up to be a volunteer, visit the Lowcountry Africana site.

To view these South Carolina records, please visit Footnote.com.

Audio: Black History Month

Profile America for the first day of Black History Month. February is a time to recall and honor the many positive contributions to our nation made by the people of African descent. Started as a special week 84 years ago by historian Carter G. Woodson, the observance is now a full month of activities across the country. There are just over 41 million African-Americans in the U.S., 13½ percent of the total population. They are the largest minority group in 24 states.  New York has the largest number of blacks at 3.5 million, and 17 other states are home to al least 1 million. The state with the highest percentage of African-Americans among its population is Mississippi at 38 percent. This special edition of Profile America is a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau, conducting the 2010 Census beginning April 1st.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Facts for Features, CB10-FF.01

Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look under the “Newsroom” button).

The widow of Johnson Publishing Co. founder John H. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, 93, died of renal failure Sunday, Jan. 3, in her Chicago home, according to a company spokeswoman.

A close business partner of her husband’s since the beginning of Johnson Publishing in 1942, Mrs. Johnson remained the company’s secretary-treasurer at the time of her death and for years wrote a monthly fashion feature for Ebony magazine.

Johnson Publishing’s flagship, conceived as an African-American version of Life magazine and published since 1945, was named by Mrs. Johnson to reflect the mystique of fine black ebony wood, said Wendy Parks of Johnson Publishing.

But Mrs. Johnson’s greatest legacy may be her role as producer and director of the Ebony Fashion Fair, an influential event that for decades has been a showcase for the world’s top designers.

The fair was started in the 1950s as a fundraiser for a hospital in New Orleans at the suggestion of Jessie Covington Dent, wife of a former Dillard University president.

It was a success, and Mrs. Johnson and her husband decided to take the concept on the road. Produced annually since 1958, the fair became a traveling fashion extravaganza that now makes nearly 180 stops a year in the U.S. and abroad to largely black audiences from across economic strata.

“It brought to the lower-middle-class black people a sense of what fashion really was. She gave the local community a chance to see these clothes,” said Andre Leon Talley, editor at large for Vogue magazine.

The fair was both “an aspirational as well as an inspirational experience,” Talley said. It became a showcase for a new generation of black designers as well as early African-American models.

The show’s director and producer since 1961, Mrs. Johnson was initially a curiosity as she toured French and Italian boutiques and fashion houses. But her sense of elegance, and her deep pocketbook, quickly made her a respected figure in the world of high fashion.

“When they found out how much money I was going to spend, word got around,” Mrs. Johnson said in 1997.

She stayed at the best hotels, dined at the finest restaurants and dressed impeccably.

“She always had on the last word [in fashion], but it was always very elegant,” Talley said. Legendary French designer Yves Saint Laurent “would receive her in the same manner he’d receive the editor of Vogue.”

Since its founding, the Ebony Fashion Fair has produced more than 4,000 shows and raised more than $55 million for charity, according to Johnson Publishing.

Mrs. Johnson was born Eunice Walker and grew up in Selma, Ala. Her father was a doctor, and her mother was a high school principal and a teacher at Selma University, which had been co-founded by Mrs. Johnson’s maternal grandfather.

At Talladega College in Alabama, she received a bachelor’s degree in sociology. She later studied journalism at Northwestern University and interior design at the former Ray-Vogue School of Design.

She met John H. Johnson in 1940 at a dance hall called Bacon’s Casino in Chicago. The couple were married in Selma in 1941 and returned to Chicago, where she worked by his side as he started a publishing company with $500 borrowed against his mother’s furniture.

John Johnson died in 2005. Johnson Publishing is now run by the Johnsons’ daughter, Linda Johnson Rice.

Mrs. Johnson is also survived by a granddaughter.

Services will be private.

Source: Chicago Tribune

The PGA of America said Powell died at Aultman Hospital in Canton following complications from a stroke.

“Bill Powell will forever be one of golf’s most unforgettable American heroes,” PGA of America president Jim Remy said. “Bill made us appreciate the game and each other that much more by his gentle, yet firm example.

“He was born with a fire within his heart to build on his dream. In the process, he made golf a beacon for people of all color. The PGA of America is better today because of individuals like Bill Powell. We will miss him dearly. We extend our thoughts and prayers to his family as we remember a wonderful man.”

In August, Powell received the PGA Distinguished Service Award, the association’s highest annual honor. In November, he was inducted into the Northern Ohio PGA Hall of Fame and honored as the Person of the Year by the Ohio Golf Course Owners Association.

The Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce also recently presented the Powell family with its Community Salute Award.

“My father made a mark,” said daughter Renee Powell, the second black player to compete on the LPGA Tour. “And, I believe that God wanted people to know the mark that he made on this nation.”

The grandson of Alabama slaves, Powell created Clearview Golf Club after returning home following World War II. While serving in Europe, he earned the rank of Technical Sergeant in the U.S. Eighth Air Force Truck Battalion.

Powell worked 18-hour days to support his family and build Clearview. Denied a GI Loan, he found funding from two African American physicians, and his brother took out a second mortgage on his home.

Powell went on to carve Clearview out of former dairy farmland in 1946, clearing the land himself. In the process, Powell broke down racial barriers without fanfare by developing female and youth golf leagues.

Clearview opened its initial nine holes in 1948. Powell eventually repaid his benefactors to gain full ownership, and nine more holes were completed in 1978. Clearview is on the National Register of Historic Places, and nicknamed “America’s Course.”

“I didn’t build this course for any of the recognition,” Powell said in his 2000 autobiography, “Clearview: America’s Course.” “It was a labor of love. Golf is a part of society and I wanted to be included. I want you to be included, too. I’ve always felt that each individual should leave something behind of meaning. It feels good to know that I have done that with Clearview, at long last.”

In 1992, the Powells were honored by the National Golf Foundation as the Jack Nicklaus Golf Family of the Year. That year, Powell was awarded the “Cornerstone of Freedom Award” from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission.

Powell was inducted into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame in 1996, and became a PGA Life Member in 1999. Powell also received honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from his alma mater, Wilberforce University, and from Baldwin-Wallace College.

Powell also played a role in The First Tee, which has distributed more than 1,100 William J. Powell Scholarships that allow youngsters to attend The First Tee Life Skills and Leadership Academies conducted on college campuses.

Powell was preceded in death by wife Marcella and son William. In addition to daughter Renee, he’s survived by son Larry, who has served for more than 30 years as superintendent at Clearview Golf Club, and twin sisters Mary Alice Walker and Rose Marie Mathews. Funeral arrangements are pending.

By Prentiss Findlay

Eugene Frazier and Thomas Johnson surveyed a forest of graves at a hidden cemetery on James Island where they said more than 200 people are laid to rest. Most of the deceased are in unmarked graves. Many of them were Africans brought here as slaves, they said.

Frazier and Johnson have known about the graveyard for years. They told stories of how the property has changed hands over time. They talked about how they want to clean, document and preserve the final resting place of ancestors brought here in chains.

“This is not just unique to James Island. It is throughout the state really that you have this problem with burial sites,” Johnson said.

Johnson, founder of the Committee to Preserve African-American Cemeteries on James Island, said plantation slave cemeteries are as important as a history lesson. “I want my folks’ story to be told,” he said.

He smoked a cigarette as he pondered a few moldy tombstones worn smooth by time. The ground had a slight rise and fall in many places. Johnson said those “indentations” are unmarked graves.

“You almost have a feeling of connection. Your mind drifts back to what it must have been like. You can almost visualize what it must have been like,” he said.

Frazier is the author of “James Island, Stories From Slave Descendants,” published by The History Press. In his book, he identifies the location as the Old Slave Cemetery for Seabrook Plantation. The Seabrook family owned 195 slaves between 1850 and 1860, according to records that Frazier researched for his book. Prince White, a slave who was the plantation overseer, is thought to be buried in the plot, but there is no grave marker for him. There is a tombstone for his son, Prince Jr.

“It gives me a feeling that I’m standing on something holy,” Frazier said.

Johnson said the burial site is thought to date to the early 1800s. It is located in a patch of woods on Secessionville Road surrounded by neatly manicured suburban homes. Recently, SCE&G cleared a utility line right-of-way fronting the road. As a result, some of the remaining tombstones are visible from the road, and the spot has become a local curiosity.

James Island historian Doug Bostick said it wasn’t the cultural practice of the day to use tombstones to identify who was buried in a slave grave. Instead, graves were marked by something the deceased used in their last days or a favored object such as a shell. Bostick said there is a map of the area dating to the early 1800s that shows a cluster of small buildings presumed to be slave quarters next to the cemetery. The Seabrook Plantation was the largest on the island, he said.

In 1860, James Island had 21 plantations, so theoretically it also had that many African-American cemeteries. Bostick said he knows of only seven black cemeteries left on the island. “Lots of the slave cemeteries have simply been built on top of. You’ve got to figure we’ve lost 12 to 14 slave cemeteries,” he said.

Frazier and Johnson think they are in a race against time to map out the Seabrook Plantation cemetery before the collective memory of the community fades with the death of those who would know some of the history of unmarked graves. They have tried but failed to determine who owns the cemetery property to ask permission to clear it and do their historical work.

“The biggest thing is to preserve these sites to pay these individuals respect. That is our whole purpose. When you visit these sites, it’s an emotional thing,” Frazier said.

Source: The Post and Courier

Kimberly Warren was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005. In March, she began to search her family history to find where the gene might have come from.

“It’s something in my body,” said Warren, who is 37. “I want to know who in my family it was that gave it to me.”

She joined the African-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago this year to learn how to begin tracing her family roots.

As the society’s youngest member, Jones is part of a growing community of African -American genealogists in Chicago.

Formed in 1979, the African -American Genealogical Historical Society of Chicago is one of the largest of its kind in the nation. Some of its more than 200 members have published books, appeared in documentaries and lectured at national conferences.

“We’re here to dispel the mystery of our history,” said Roberta Mack, a society member. Mack has traced her family roots back to the 1860s. She said Alex Haley’s “Roots,” a historical novel published in 1976, made it okay for blacks to research their family.

“There are so many unknowns,” she said, “and we have to search for the answers and for the truth.”

The genealogy of African-Americans is receiving more and more attention. The family histories of President Obama and the first lady were published in the New York Times earlier this year. Chicago’s rich history of black Americans is preserved at a number of cultural and religious institutions, including the DuSable Museum of African American History and Trinity United Church of Christ.

“We grew up with African-American history,” said Patricia Bearden. “You’ve got a cluster of black genealogists right here in Chicago.”

Bearden is the president of the International Society of Sons and Daughters of Slave Ancestry. Formed in 1996, the non-profit organization preserves the records and artifacts of former slaves.

“There’s a growing acceptance among African-Americans to find out who they are,” Bearden said.

After the African-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago was formed, Adlean Harris and Curtis Brasfield created Patricia Liddell Researchers in 1989. Harris and Brasfield were instrumental in teaching blacks in Chicago how to research their roots. Brasfield published his genealogical research of Chicago’s first black Mayor, Harold Washington, in 1993.

The community of black genealogists is expanding. Gwen Holland teaches genealogy at her church, Fernwood United Methodist Church at South Wallace and 101st.Street on the Far South Side. Her pastor, the Rev. Albert Sampson, asked her to teach the classes after the church formed a genealogy department in the 1980s.

Holland also began a local chapter of Freedom Walk America in 2007, making it one of the newest black genealogy groups in the city.

Chicago had the highest number of participants at the First International Black Genealogy Summit held last month in Fort Wayne, Ind. More than 50 Chicagoans attended the three-day meeting that attracted nearly 500 genealogists.

One of the organizers, Marjorie Sholes, a former president of a genealogical society in California, said the summit indicated an increasing awareness of African American genealogy.

But, the topic of family history was not always open for discussion among African-Americans.

Misconceptions and Challenges

“In the past, African- Americans lowered their head in shame,” said Bearden. “If you’re ashamed of it, you won’t talk about it.”

Many black genealogists say that getting information from relatives is not always easy. Bearden began researching her family history in 1991 and started visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1992. She said that black Americans have a history of shame.

Prying information out of relatives is a challenge for many genealogists. Deborah Abbott, president of the African-American Genealogy Society of Cleveland, Ohio, said blacks have been taught to devalue their history.

“We’ve been told that slave records don’t exist, but they do,” she said. “But the information is listed under the slave holders – it’s there.”

Abbott’s curiosity about family history began when she was invited to a family reunion in 1989 by relatives she had never heard of.

“I thought I better find out who these people are,” she said.

The Uncovered Treasures

Despite the challenges, black genealogists continue to teach others how to preserve their family history. But some organizations find it difficult to keep their doors open.

Last December, the office of the International Society of Sons and Daughters of Slave Ancestry in Beverly flooded. The group had quickly run through a $250,000 state grant it had received in 1999. Volunteers were running the organization, and now Bearden had to find another office. She was determined to keep the group functioning.

“When you know that blood that’s in you, you can’t give up,” she said. “They didn’t give up.”

The group relocated to the Hotel Florence Museum in Pullman. Bearden pays for the daily operations with her own money. The museum’s current exhibit includes photographs of former slaves and artifacts.

The pride that black genealogists share comes from their knowledge of family history.

Warren has not found any relatives who may have had multiple sclerosis, but she said she has learned more than she could have imagined about her family.

“I come from a family of quartet singers,” she said.

She will continue to research. She already made the promise to her mother, the last living relative on her side of the family.

There’s more. Will add them over the next few days.

Bennett Greenspan pulling up Dad's test results on FamilyTreeDNA

Bennett Greenspan, President and CEO of Family Tree DNA, gave an illuminating talk on DNA and broke it down so that just about anyone could understand. Even for someone like me who’s done every test available, I learned something new (about mutations). Caught up with Greenspan afterward at the AfricanDNA table and went over my latest 67-marker test results. Hey, people, I had my results analyzed by Bennett Greenspan! How special is that! Anyway, will let y’all in on my findings at another time and on another forum. Watch for my post on the AfriGeneas DNA Research Forum.

David fielding questions between sessions.

David Paterson’s presentation was next. Same place. Didn’t even have to move from my seat. The theater held several hundred and the room was pretty well filled. David ran over but attendees told him to keep going. What I liked most was that he illustrated the various naming options chosen by former slaves with actual cases. How many times have you been researching a family in the census record and their surname seemed to change between census years and you wondered wha’ happened? David explained what happened in that instance and answered many more perplexing questions. Great talk, David!