Two weeks ago, I shared some news on my Facebook feed that I’d like to share and elaborate on here as well. My post on Facebook read as follows:
After many, many months of visualizing a community kin connecting and genealogical event I’m so excited to be one month out from this project. Yazoo Mississippi area family, friends and members of the community, I hope that you will ALL join me in this unique Bluesin’ for my Kin endeavor made possible through funding provided from the We Shall Overcome Fund from the good folks at the Highlander Center.
Meet me at the Blue Front Café in Bentonia during the week or at the Holmes Farm on Saturday, June 15th during the 47th Bentonia Blues Festival. I will be sharing information about Sons and Daughters of the U.S. Middle Passage, a lineage society dedicated to the memory of freed and enslaved ancestors. The objectives of SDUSMP are Historical, Educational, Memorial and Patriotic. Additionally, I will be providing FREE genealogical assistance and guidance for recording and preserving your own family historical narrative. Joining me will be the amazing folks from the Ricks Memorial Library to provide insight on what the local library has to offer for your research quest.
In-kind partners include Ancestry and MyHeritage who have both provided free DNA kits as well as free annual subscriptions to their databases. FamilyChartMasters has tossed in some beautiful blank family pedigree charts and Arcadia Publishing Charleston is participating by providing some of their amazing Mississippi area historical books. Swing by for an opportunity to win some of these amazing prizes.
Whether you’re rooted in the Yazoo area or just trekking through I can’t wait to blues and rejoice in the memory of our collective Yazoo area roots and love of family research.
Allow me to break this down piece by piece and the importance of this project not only to me, but to the folks in Yazoo County, Mississippi, surrounding areas and any community wishing to host their own community kin connecting initiative.
During the third week and on the third Saturday in June the small rural community of Bentonia, Mississippi hosts one of the oldest blues festivals in the country. Started by Mr. Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and now in its 47th year – this particular festival is said to be like none other in the country and visitors come from all over to participate and enjoy a variety of blues musicians. This will be a first time for me attending this festival and while I enjoy live music of all sorts including the blues, my purpose for wanting to visit is because I’ve got the blues. I’m bluesin’ for my kin.
My great-grandmother, Louise King was born in 1900 in El Dorado, a plantation community located in the SW corner of Yazoo county near the Warren county line. Her parents, Stark King and Jeannie Gilliam were presumably born in or around this part of the county and resided in Yazoo until roughly 1916 when they moved up to Bolivar county. I never knew my great-grandmother as she died years before I was born, but her daughter – my grandmother Johnetta, I knew well enough. Regrettably my grandmother never provided a detailed pedigree on her family to her children. She did not pass along oral narrative about her grandparents to her children. As a result, my mother and her siblings know very little about their ancestors. This leaves me with a particular sadness.
I’ve come to learn that my situation is not unique. Like me, there are many others who have been disconnected from their familial roots history in Yazoo and elsewhere. Last year when I contacted Mr. Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and told him I wanted to come his Bentonia Blues Festival and host a genealogical community kin connecting program he was more than happy to allow it.
Having organized three youth genealogy programs on behalf of a local C.A.R., a children’s lineage society in Sarasota, Florida I knew I wanted to approach this Bentonia Blues Festival a little differently. For this event, I’ll be attending on behalf of the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP) of which I am a board and charter member of the society.
Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage as mentioned previously, is a lineage society dedicated to honoring the memory of freed and enslaved ancestors. Founded in 2011 with the first members being accepted in 2016, the organization remains open to any person not less than 18 years of age who can prove direct lineal descent from a man, woman, or child who is of African-descent and was forced into slavery in the United States of America prior to the end of slavery as marked by the 13th Amendment. A brief review of their website will provide you with further details about the organization and its mission, conference and projects.
Considering the history of areas like Bentonia prior to December 1865 when the 13th Amendment was effective I trust there are no shortage of descendants to once enslaved persons.
The online Mississippi Encyclopedia states the following regarding late antebellum Yazoo County:
By the late antebellum period, Yazoo County had become an agricultural powerhouse. In 1860 its population of 22,373 was the fifth highest in the state. Yazoo had more enslaved persons (16,716) than all but two other counties, and slaves accounted for three-quarters of the county’s total population. In 1860 the economic value of Yazoo farms was the highest of all Mississippi counties, in large part because of its cotton production and the value of its livestock.
The Mississippi Encyclopedia also tells us that 37 percent of Yazoo’s 6,550 residents in 1830 were enslaved individuals and 70 percent of the 10,000 residents were enslaved in 1840.
My 3x great-grandmother, Mary Gilliam born circa 1850 was one of those enslaved. My soon to be 97-year-old cousin, a great-granddaughter to Mary Gilliam once shared a story about her and Mary. How she would sit on the porch brushing Grandma Mary’s hair as a young girl and how Mary would tell her stories about a Mr. Willie Brown who had brought her into Yazoo during slave times. I’ve yet to find the proper documentation that could substantiate my cousin’s oral narrative and which would allow me to honor Grandma Mary in SDUSMP, yet I trust other descendants from Yazoo with similar stories can and should validate claims of their enslaved kin.
In order to effectively do this collaboration and the community’s participation is vital. The entire Yazoo county as well as those in the Bentonia area are invited to participate in our “Bluesin’ for My Kin” program where on-site genealogical guidance and research will be made available. On behalf of SDUSMP, I would love for individuals to share oral histories, funeral programs, family Bibles, photographs and so forth in this unique community kin connecting event. Together we are bluesin’ for connection and reconnection. Bluesin’ for family. Bluesin’ for identity. Bluesin’ for reconciliation, for love and peace and so much of what knowing our roots has to provide. Because this initiative is bigger than what I can accomplish on my own or with SDUSMP I have extended invitations to the library staff at B.S. Ricks Memorial Library to join us in addition to other local lineage societies. Knowing that that our ancestors are as diverse as each one of their descendants, we want the community to understand the various resources available to them as they begin or continue on their roots seeking journey. Whether your ancestor was enslaved or an enslaver, a Confederate or Union solider or maybe a post antebellum transplant with Revolutionary War ancestors – ALL are invited.
I look forward to Bluesin’ for my Kin with all ya’ll. RSVP here and let me know you’re coming!
This program is made possible with funding from the We Shall Overcome fund. We cannot thank the Highlander Research and Education Center enough for their consideration this Bluesin’ for my Kin project and their continued effort to propel projects that promote culture and social change across the Deep South.