Posts Tagged ‘family’

Bluesin’ for my Kin – Bentonia Blues Festival

 

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. Read more

conversation with DNA cousin Tamu Ngina

Navigating through your many DNA matches can feel like a monumental task. Give pause when needed, but do not stop collaborating. The power in DNA testing for genetic genealogy is found within your DNA matches. Sometimes the connections are solidified from the jump. Sometimes you wait for others to join the party in order to triangulate. And sometimes knowing another person out there sharing a biological genetic link and being able to acknowledge your shared kinship is all the success you get.
 
This week I was fortunate enough to share a conversation with Tamu Ngina on her YouTube channel. Tamu is a DNA cousin I connected with in January 2017 and our precise connection is still unknown. However, we have narrowed down the possibilities. I’m related to Tamu through her father and she appears to connect to me through my maternal grandmother’s father’s side of my family. Check out our conversation on genealogy, our Ancestry DNA experience, identity and more.
 
Thank you for letting me babble Tamu Ngina – Holistic Artist.

yazoo + warren county maps, DNA connections and more (part 1)

1900_CENSUS_MAP

Psst… Want to hear a secret? I guarantee this is going to rock your socks off when I reveal it you. Ready? Wait, no. Okay, here it goes. Way back when – a very long time ago our ancestors lived in very close proximity to their family. Say what?! YES! Now most of you already knew that or suspected as much for immediate family members and I know this isn’t true for everyone, but for the most part families stayed within arms reach more times than not. This little secret even applies for extended family members who could often be found nearby as well. This is something I myself continue to rediscover as I return to old census records I’d sworn I reviewed with a fine tooth comb. However, it is actually my ongoing efforts and waiting for new DNA matches (who are very slowly appearing) that is causing to re-review the records once more.

Because I enjoy sketching (it helps me to retain information better) I decided to draw out a map of the areas my 2x great grandparents, Stark King and Jeannie Gilliam King were residing in 1900 and 1910 to reflect this phenomenon of families living close by one another. These map sketches of mine are strictly based off of my imagination and are not drawn to scale or with any land surveys, so entertain me if you will.

Let me begin with the 1900 Census. Stark and Jeannie were living in the Enola area of Beat 1. I’m told Enola was once a plantation and in imagining a plantation I drew rows of houses to reflect data from four consecutive pages. In this case that would be pages 49-52 out of 67 pages from this enumeration district. Anyhow, back to Stark and Jeannie. At the time of enumeration they had in their household four children; Brucie, John, Riley and Miranda King. My great grandmother, Louise King, would be born a few months later that year. For the past decade all of the other names on the page they are listed and even a few pages forward and backwards were quite insignificant. The only exception being the Darwin Gilliam fellow who I suspect a sibling relationship to my Jeannie Gilliam, but have nothing to prove such.

Now behold the power behind DNA testing for the purposes of Ancestry or genetic genealogy. On my 1900 map I sketched all the households listed in pencil and then I went back on made bold the households where a DNA tested descendant or living representative has appeared within my list of matches. All of these particular matches have appeared within my matches at Ancestry.com. Since I’m dealing with a number of families this may become a little messy, so I will do my best to keep it tidy by assigning a letter to house in bold with a their DNA match. Here goes:

Match A: Represents a descendant(s) from the line of Sonny Hawkins
Match B: Represents a descendant(s) from the lines of Lewis & Delia Bell Miller
Match C: Represents a descendant(s) from the lines of Stark and Jeannie Gilliam King
Match D: Represents a descendant from the lines of both Rena Crockett Johnson and Albert and Cassie Ann Morris Lewis
Read more

sweet sounds of motherhood

A friend of my mother’s has a son about 10 years in age now. To his mother’s surprise he inquires about the way he used to sound when he was a baby. It was her suggestion that I try to capture some of those sounds. Rather than take a bunch of shaky camera phone video I decided to use the voice recorder to capture gurgles, coos, laughter, crying and song. Oh the sweet sound of family! Here are a few of my family audio files with a brief description included.

Baby coos… I could listen to the cooing and gurgling sounds from my sweet baby boy all day long. Recorded not so long ago, here is one of my little dude cooing.

Behold a perfect of example of my two year old attempting to avoid having to go to sleep. I’m a sucker for mommy / daughter duets, but only after a few rounds of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, ABC’s and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” In this audio file you will be graced with the voice of one tired mama (me) and my little ladybug singing, “You Are My Sunshine.” Don’t laugh y’all.

In a battle of the “Cry-Yi-Yi” I’m not really sure who beats who. When I was a mother of only one child I thought the sound of a tiny little months old human being was terrible. Now that I am a mother of two awesome human beings I realize how terribly wrong I was. The new kid on the block cries just the same as any other baby to get their very basic needs met. Toddlers, however, cry for different reasons. Reasons I do not understand most of the time, but they are to be taken serious. Don’t want to go to sleep yet cry! Wants to dress themselves cry! Doesn’t want to go to where ever cry! Can’t get the polar bear to stay on top of the mega blocks cry! Oh, those BIG emotions. So for your listening pleasure I have provided some audio of my sweet cherubs letting it out in solidarity. I think this was a bedtime cry for the oldest and a why is she crying(?) from the youngest.