Posts Tagged ‘roots’

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

the journey of my dna journey

A few months ago I read Alondra Nelson’s book titled The Social Life of DNA Race, Reparations and Reconciliation After the Genome. This post is inspired by that read. After I’d finished I realized that I had never quite spelled out the terms and pitfalls of my personal DNA quest and how I was going about it. And of course Nelson’s work presented ideas I’d never really considered, such as proving a genetic connection to Africa as a means of potentially receiving monetary reparations. If any restitution is to be made for what has occurred to my ancestors I have decided it will and must first come from me.

Tajikistan 2006
Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan – 2006

Eleven years ago – that is when my interest in DNA and genetic genealogy began. Only 24 years of age then, I had been traveling within Tajikistan for roughly three weeks. I first explored the capital city of Dushanbe as a member of a Habitat for Humanity International Global Village team. Afterwards I took off to an even more far-flung corner of the country in the Gorno-Badakhshan region to check out the Pamirs and Wakhan Valley. Undoubtedly, my travels there remain steady in my top 3 favorite journeys of all time. There are many reasons and one of them is due to a very chance encounter with the group that would accelerate my desire to participate in DNA testing.

I had been wandering the bus station with my then guide, Theodore Kaye, (now an amazing editorial and corporate photographer) looking for a safe, not too tightly packed, vehicle that could get me back into Dushanbe safely. The ride back from Khorogh would be a journey of 16 hours along a very jagged path down the mountains. Selecting a vehicle that appeared to have my ultimate safety at heart was paramount. Then it happened. My face turned and caught sight of a foreigner like myself. We made eye-contact and proceeded with introductions, answering the why on Earth are you here questions and so forth. As it turned out the friendly foreigner, David Evans, a photographer for National Geographic, had been traveling in country with Dr. Spencer Wells’ team from the National Geographic Genographic project. They had just wrapped up collecting DNA samples from natives of the region. Teo asked them if it would be alright if I hitched a ride with them back to Dushanbe and they agreed.

From that point onward it was full-throttle drinking of the DNA juice that would lead me to take my very first DNA test. To be clear, the Nat Geo gang explained the Genographic project for sometime during our ride back to the capitol and I was in awe. Having never been very inclined towards science I was also a bit intimidated by Dr. Spencer Wells, but everyone was so down to Earth and the pitch they made as to why anyone and everyone should participate reeled me right on in.

Naturally, the first test I took when I returned home in late 2006 was the Genographic test.
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