thechanelmuse

[thechanelmuse]

Image by Gordon Parks (New York,1960s)

[thechanelmuse]

Updated records:

I got an email today from Ancestry. They've updated the records for the "U.S. Freedmen's Bureau Records," totaling to 3.2 million now. They use the word "updated" to mean that it contains new information or new records altogether (including records that were previously private with restrictions lifted 👀🤔).

So see if your people saved any money in the Freedmen's Heist Bank. Print and save those documents.

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.

[thechanelmuse]

nina simone performs “i wish i knew how it would feel to be free” at the montreux jazz festival, 1976, switzerland

[thechanelmuse]

[thechanelmuse]

I literally cannot overstate how important creative hobbies are when dealing with mental illness. If you can’t draw, there are coloring books. If you can’t write a novel, you can write in short journaling bursts. If you can’t sing in the shower, you can listen to music. Sometimes with mental illness it feels like we have this dark presence inside of us that is bumping around in our brain and organs, causing problems. It helps immensely to let it out.

[thechanelmuse]

KYLA PRATT Jennifer Hudson Show

[thechanelmuse]

Fact. As a listener of Taylor's music, who digs her stripped down folk-pop and country stuff, the fact that she's a singer-songwriter, and the way she circumvented the loss of her previous royalties into celebrated newly created ones she now owns, Taylor is a bland 34-year-old woman who runs an eternal teenage girl meets endless sleepovers brand with awkward performances and facial expressions to boot. If only she would make her pen game grown and everything else shifted with it. That clock is ticking.

ate

[thechanelmuse]

"Girl in Pink Dress" by Laura Wheeler Waring 1927

[thechanelmuse]

Even through the smallest of cracks, light will always find a way.

Dr. Nicole Addison

[thechanelmuse]

[thechanelmuse]

I've never seen a Hollywood icon, who's been in the game since eleven months, get this star-struck upon meeting a living legend.

Struck for damn near a minute, honey lol. That Janet impact.

#janet jackson #drew barrymore #ross matthews

[thechanelmuse]

Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) — Trumpet Solo  [oil on canvas, 1970s]

[thechanelmuse]

If life can remove people you never dreamt of losing, it can replace them with someone you never dreamt of having.

-@lipikkawrites

[thechanelmuse]

Cowboy Carter

You know you did the damn thing when people crave a second serving after you release a 27-track album that oddly feels too short.

I am people.

#cowboy carter #act ii cowboy carter #beyonce #I've been busy but I plan on giving my thoughts on this act ii era soon

[thechanelmuse]

Don’t hurt ‘em, Giselle! All-encompassing from the music (sonically, vocally) to the looks, this is her best era yet.

[thechanelmuse]

Andre 3000 | Oil on Canvas | 30x40

[thechanelmuse]

Self Care Check:

How are you?

How are you feeling?

Are you well hydrated?

Have you eaten?

Have you moved your body?

Have you rested enough?

Have you spoken kindly to yourself?

Have you done something that brings you joy?

Have you reminded yourself of how important you are?

Have you practiced self care?

Sending love,

-Dr. Nicole Addison