For the second time this week Yuma Conservatives have spread false rumors on national TV claiming the Democrats are committing voter fraud in Yuma County. It is not true. This is Sally Sheridan speaking. I am telling you that it is not happening.
I care about America. I have worked for BOTH parties. I have been a Republican and I have been a Democrat. I care more about America than I ever cared for either party. We vote. That’s how we do it here.
I resent being intimidated politically and I take it personally. Let me tell you a true story. Six years ago, 2004. I was doing phoning and other volunteer tasks for the Democratic Party. I have done it for Republicans in the past, too. I was raised to be interested in politics. Also in 2004, I was caring for a father whose mind was slowly, slowly failing. It was my duty to help my father fill out what turned out to be his last ballot for the Presidency of the United States. I guess I knew that at the time. He cared a lot about the Republican Party and had held elective office for eight years.
The year 2004 was a year when I did not favor the incumbent administration and was actively working to unseat them. I felt terrible, terrible, when I, myself, had to mark his mail-in ballot in exactly the opposite way as I had marked my own. It was tempting. I could have marked it my way. I had the power. But I didn’t do it. I marked every single choice exactly as my Dad said. I hated doing it. I felt like I was going to be sick. But I did not fail him and I did not betray him. I am an American. We vote and then we count the votes and that’s what I believe is the best political system on earth. I believe in it even if it means I know my side is going to lose. I would rather lose the election than lose my country.
I was so repulsed by the experience that I actually carried my Dad’s mail-in ballot in my purse for two days and just played with the idea of “forgetting” to mail it. But I always knew in my heart that I would mark his ballot the way he wanted it and I would mail it in plenty of time for it to be counted. I am an American.
I have not been political on my Facebook page purposely. I set it up as my genealogy and family tree page and I want to keep it that way. Today and in this one Note I am political. I am asking my Conservative friends to ask themselves one question and I do not particularly want to know the answer. Do you share my picture of what it is to be an American? Specifically, if the 2012 election were to be held today and your elderly parent wanted to vote for Barack Obama or whomever the Democratic candidate would be, would you believe in America enough to faithfully fill out their ballot and mail it in or would you not? Do you believe in the American political system of government that much? Would you do the ballot the correct way or would you subvert the political system? Don’t tell me, just play out my situation in your mind and think of what you would do if you were in my place.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
My Six Degrees of Separation from Marilyn Monroe
I learned last night that I may share a 5th great (5 greats) with Rev. Billy Graham. Someone at Ancestry.com says Billy Graham is the 4th great grandson of my Hans Casper Culp. I posted a message saying, “Where did you get this information?” I did a quick search on the Internet and I couldn’t find the nexus. In genealogy, if they can’t show the connection then it is just speculation.
On the other hand, I do have the documentation that shows that I do share a 2nd great grandfather (Christian Bowman/Bohrmann) with a woman named Eleanor Silliman Goddard. That makes her my third cousin or first cousin twice removed.
Apparently, she was a close friend of Norma Jean Baker, having been raised in the same foster home as Norma Jean.
Here is the information I have beginning with her connection to my great great grandfather Christian Bowman. The information comes from my cousin Linda Culbertson Pound. The first sentence shows the connection.
Genealogy of Linda Culbertson Pound(and Sally Sheridan)
39. ELEANOR BARBARA4 ROECK (NETTIE LAWRENCE3 WILSON, SARAH (SALLY) FRANCES2 BOWMAN, CHRISTIAN (BOHRMAN)1) was born 18 Oct 1907, and died May 1983 in Los Angeles County, Glendale, California. She married ERVIN SILLIMAN GODDARD 13 Jun 1925, son of CHARLES GODDARD and MARY BOYD. He was born 30 Jan 1904 in Holland, Bell County, Texas, and died Dec 1972 in Los Angeles County, Malibu, CA.
Notes for ELEANOR BARBARA ROECK:
Menard Messenger
Vol. IX No. 46
Thursday, September 7, 1916
(page 1)
Mrs. Ferd Wilson and son Douglas of Sanderson and daughter Mrs. Jerry Monroe of Sheffield came in Wednesday of last week in their Ford for a visit at the Roeck home. Little Miss Nellie Roeck who has been visiting in Sanderson returned with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Middle name, birth and death dates from Terry Rasberry from Travis County, Texas records.
Notes for ERVIN SILLIMAN GODDARD:
Chapter 3 of the book "Marilyn Monroe, the Biography" by Donald Spoto states that Marilyn Monroe was taken into the Goddard home after the marriage of Doc Goddard and Grace McKee.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1930 Census, Tarrant County, Texas:
1216 Pennsylvania Avenue (apparently an apartment house)
Goddard, Irvin S. Head R (rented) M W 26 Texas Arkansas Tennessee
Eleanor W F W 23 Texas Texas Texas
Eleanor D F W 3 Texas Texas Texas
Irvin S M W 2 Texas Texas Texas
"Irvin"s occupation is listed as "Sanitation Inspector"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ervin's SS application, dated 4/22/1937, gives his address as 3107 Barbara Court, Hollywood, Calif, and his place of employment as Unusual Pictures, 6823 Santa Monica Blve., Hollywood.
SS application copy is in my files. lcp
Children of ELEANOR ROECK and ERVIN GODDARD are:
i. ELEANOR SILLIMAN5 GODDARD, b. 17 Dec 1926, Travis County, Texas; d. 17 Feb 2000, Santa Monica, CA.
Notes for ELEANOR SILLIMAN GODDARD:
Reference to comments made by Eleanor (Bebe) concerning Marilyn Monroe are found throughout the book "Marilyn Monroe, the Biography.", by Spotos Foster sister of Marilyn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Birth
GODDARD ELEANOR THOMPSON 12-17-1926 f TRAVIS ELEANOR ROECK ERVIN S. GODDARD
Obit
GODDARD, Eleanor "Bebe"; 73; Santa Monica CA; Los Angeles T; 2000-2-17
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Obituaries; Eleanor Goddard; Monroe Companion
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; Feb 17, 2000; MYRNA OLIVER;
Abstract:
Eleanor "Bebe" Goddard, a foster sister and teenage friend of Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, has died. Goddard was 73.
Six months her junior, Goddard long outlived Monroe, who died Aug. 5, 1962, at age 36 of a drug overdose that was ruled a suicide. Described in recent years as "a grandmotherly woman in a tight perm," Goddard spoke at observances of the 25th, 30th, 35th and other anniversaries of Monroe's death conducted at the star's crypt in Westwood Village Memorial Park.
Goddard and Monroe met and became close friends when, after each had been in a series of foster homes, they spent several teenage years in the Van Nuys home of Goddard's father, Ervin S. "Doc" Goddard and his new wife, Grace McGee Goddard, a close friend of Monroe's institutionalized mother, Gladys Baker.
Full Text:
(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2000 all Rights reserved)
Eleanor "Bebe" Goddard, a foster sister and teenage friend of Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, has died. Goddard was 73.
Frequently a spokeswoman at gatherings of Monroe fans, Goddard died Friday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica. Her friend Steve Campbell said the heavy smoker and activist for smokers' rights, who attributed her health problems to air pollution surrounding her Burbank home, died of emphysema.
Six months her junior, Goddard long outlived Monroe, who died Aug. 5, 1962, at age 36 of a drug overdose that was ruled a suicide. Described in recent years as "a grandmotherly woman in a tight perm," Goddard spoke at observances of the 25th, 30th, 35th and other anniversaries of Monroe's death conducted at the star's crypt in Westwood Village Memorial Park.
Goddard and Monroe met and became close friends when, after each had been in a series of foster homes, they spent several teenage years in the Van Nuys home of Goddard's father, Ervin S. "Doc" Goddard and his new wife, Grace McGee Goddard, a close friend of Monroe's institutionalized mother, Gladys Baker.
Campbell said this week that many of Monroe's anecdotes about hardships growing up--beatings, hunger and the string of foster homes- -were actually borrowed by the star from Goddard's early experiences.
Goddard told fans about the happy days she and Norma Jean spent going to movie theaters and dreaming of becoming film stars. She said the two girls shared clothes and makeup and talked for hours about whether they would achieve fame.
In 1991, when Goddard revisited their old Van Nuys High School for presentation of a picture of Monroe, she described her famous foster sister: "She was just a really average girl, except she was so much more beautiful than average."
Disputing an anecdote that the young Marilyn was so skinny she was nicknamed "Norma Jean the Human Bean," Goddard told the students that Monroe at 15 already had a figure dangerous for any teenager.
"We were the same height, same weight, same everything--except the distribution," Goddard said.
Goddard told The Times in 1991 that she had last shared a birthday celebration with Monroe in 1953, the year the actress starred in the hit film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." She said Monroe invited her foster family to her Doheny Drive apartment for dinner and birthday cake.
"It was not-well-cooked liver and kind-of-tough baked potatoes," Goddard related. "It was the first time I had seen her with a glass of wine and a cigarette, and I was having a fit laughing because she didn't drink or smoke."
The foster sister contributed a lock of Monroe's hair and baby pictures to a time capsule buried at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and scheduled to be opened Aug. 5, 2062, the 100th anniversary of Monroe's death. Goddard also sold personal items of Monroe to collectors and dealers in celebrity memorabilia.
Goddard relished the rise of Monroe's stature as an actress in the decades after the star's death.
"She was so put down by her studio and other people who really didn't know her well when she was alive," Goddard told The Times. "To me it is just a glorious experience that the interest in her keeps increasing and that she is up there thumbing her nose at them."
Credit: TIMES STAFF WRITER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SS application on June 12, 1944, gives middle name as Silliman. Eleanor's application states that she is 17 years old, living at 1020 Lawrence Avenue., Chicago, Ill. and employed by Wilding Pictures Corp., 1345 Argyle Avenue, Chicago, Ill. .
SS Application copy is in my files. LCP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per Terry Rasberry, from Travis County files, Eleanor's middle name was Thompson.
More About ELEANOR SILLIMAN GODDARD:
Burial: Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, Ca.
__________________________
[Final note from Sally]
I was delighted to learn about the connection to Marilyn Monroe but Billy Graham? Not so much.
On the other hand, I do have the documentation that shows that I do share a 2nd great grandfather (Christian Bowman/Bohrmann) with a woman named Eleanor Silliman Goddard. That makes her my third cousin or first cousin twice removed.
Apparently, she was a close friend of Norma Jean Baker, having been raised in the same foster home as Norma Jean.
Here is the information I have beginning with her connection to my great great grandfather Christian Bowman. The information comes from my cousin Linda Culbertson Pound. The first sentence shows the connection.
Genealogy of Linda Culbertson Pound(and Sally Sheridan)
39. ELEANOR BARBARA4 ROECK (NETTIE LAWRENCE3 WILSON, SARAH (SALLY) FRANCES2 BOWMAN, CHRISTIAN (BOHRMAN)1) was born 18 Oct 1907, and died May 1983 in Los Angeles County, Glendale, California. She married ERVIN SILLIMAN GODDARD 13 Jun 1925, son of CHARLES GODDARD and MARY BOYD. He was born 30 Jan 1904 in Holland, Bell County, Texas, and died Dec 1972 in Los Angeles County, Malibu, CA.
Notes for ELEANOR BARBARA ROECK:
Menard Messenger
Vol. IX No. 46
Thursday, September 7, 1916
(page 1)
Mrs. Ferd Wilson and son Douglas of Sanderson and daughter Mrs. Jerry Monroe of Sheffield came in Wednesday of last week in their Ford for a visit at the Roeck home. Little Miss Nellie Roeck who has been visiting in Sanderson returned with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Middle name, birth and death dates from Terry Rasberry from Travis County, Texas records.
Notes for ERVIN SILLIMAN GODDARD:
Chapter 3 of the book "Marilyn Monroe, the Biography" by Donald Spoto states that Marilyn Monroe was taken into the Goddard home after the marriage of Doc Goddard and Grace McKee.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1930 Census, Tarrant County, Texas:
1216 Pennsylvania Avenue (apparently an apartment house)
Goddard, Irvin S. Head R (rented) M W 26 Texas Arkansas Tennessee
Eleanor W F W 23 Texas Texas Texas
Eleanor D F W 3 Texas Texas Texas
Irvin S M W 2 Texas Texas Texas
"Irvin"s occupation is listed as "Sanitation Inspector"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ervin's SS application, dated 4/22/1937, gives his address as 3107 Barbara Court, Hollywood, Calif, and his place of employment as Unusual Pictures, 6823 Santa Monica Blve., Hollywood.
SS application copy is in my files. lcp
Children of ELEANOR ROECK and ERVIN GODDARD are:
i. ELEANOR SILLIMAN5 GODDARD, b. 17 Dec 1926, Travis County, Texas; d. 17 Feb 2000, Santa Monica, CA.
Notes for ELEANOR SILLIMAN GODDARD:
Reference to comments made by Eleanor (Bebe) concerning Marilyn Monroe are found throughout the book "Marilyn Monroe, the Biography.", by Spotos Foster sister of Marilyn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Birth
GODDARD ELEANOR THOMPSON 12-17-1926 f TRAVIS ELEANOR ROECK ERVIN S. GODDARD
Obit
GODDARD, Eleanor "Bebe"; 73; Santa Monica CA; Los Angeles T; 2000-2-17
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Obituaries; Eleanor Goddard; Monroe Companion
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; Feb 17, 2000; MYRNA OLIVER;
Abstract:
Eleanor "Bebe" Goddard, a foster sister and teenage friend of Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, has died. Goddard was 73.
Six months her junior, Goddard long outlived Monroe, who died Aug. 5, 1962, at age 36 of a drug overdose that was ruled a suicide. Described in recent years as "a grandmotherly woman in a tight perm," Goddard spoke at observances of the 25th, 30th, 35th and other anniversaries of Monroe's death conducted at the star's crypt in Westwood Village Memorial Park.
Goddard and Monroe met and became close friends when, after each had been in a series of foster homes, they spent several teenage years in the Van Nuys home of Goddard's father, Ervin S. "Doc" Goddard and his new wife, Grace McGee Goddard, a close friend of Monroe's institutionalized mother, Gladys Baker.
Full Text:
(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2000 all Rights reserved)
Eleanor "Bebe" Goddard, a foster sister and teenage friend of Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, has died. Goddard was 73.
Frequently a spokeswoman at gatherings of Monroe fans, Goddard died Friday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica. Her friend Steve Campbell said the heavy smoker and activist for smokers' rights, who attributed her health problems to air pollution surrounding her Burbank home, died of emphysema.
Six months her junior, Goddard long outlived Monroe, who died Aug. 5, 1962, at age 36 of a drug overdose that was ruled a suicide. Described in recent years as "a grandmotherly woman in a tight perm," Goddard spoke at observances of the 25th, 30th, 35th and other anniversaries of Monroe's death conducted at the star's crypt in Westwood Village Memorial Park.
Goddard and Monroe met and became close friends when, after each had been in a series of foster homes, they spent several teenage years in the Van Nuys home of Goddard's father, Ervin S. "Doc" Goddard and his new wife, Grace McGee Goddard, a close friend of Monroe's institutionalized mother, Gladys Baker.
Campbell said this week that many of Monroe's anecdotes about hardships growing up--beatings, hunger and the string of foster homes- -were actually borrowed by the star from Goddard's early experiences.
Goddard told fans about the happy days she and Norma Jean spent going to movie theaters and dreaming of becoming film stars. She said the two girls shared clothes and makeup and talked for hours about whether they would achieve fame.
In 1991, when Goddard revisited their old Van Nuys High School for presentation of a picture of Monroe, she described her famous foster sister: "She was just a really average girl, except she was so much more beautiful than average."
Disputing an anecdote that the young Marilyn was so skinny she was nicknamed "Norma Jean the Human Bean," Goddard told the students that Monroe at 15 already had a figure dangerous for any teenager.
"We were the same height, same weight, same everything--except the distribution," Goddard said.
Goddard told The Times in 1991 that she had last shared a birthday celebration with Monroe in 1953, the year the actress starred in the hit film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." She said Monroe invited her foster family to her Doheny Drive apartment for dinner and birthday cake.
"It was not-well-cooked liver and kind-of-tough baked potatoes," Goddard related. "It was the first time I had seen her with a glass of wine and a cigarette, and I was having a fit laughing because she didn't drink or smoke."
The foster sister contributed a lock of Monroe's hair and baby pictures to a time capsule buried at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and scheduled to be opened Aug. 5, 2062, the 100th anniversary of Monroe's death. Goddard also sold personal items of Monroe to collectors and dealers in celebrity memorabilia.
Goddard relished the rise of Monroe's stature as an actress in the decades after the star's death.
"She was so put down by her studio and other people who really didn't know her well when she was alive," Goddard told The Times. "To me it is just a glorious experience that the interest in her keeps increasing and that she is up there thumbing her nose at them."
Credit: TIMES STAFF WRITER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SS application on June 12, 1944, gives middle name as Silliman. Eleanor's application states that she is 17 years old, living at 1020 Lawrence Avenue., Chicago, Ill. and employed by Wilding Pictures Corp., 1345 Argyle Avenue, Chicago, Ill. .
SS Application copy is in my files. LCP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per Terry Rasberry, from Travis County files, Eleanor's middle name was Thompson.
More About ELEANOR SILLIMAN GODDARD:
Burial: Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, Ca.
__________________________
[Final note from Sally]
I was delighted to learn about the connection to Marilyn Monroe but Billy Graham? Not so much.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Where have we Mitchells been for the last 5,000 years?
Where have we Mitchells been for the last 5,000 years?
I have been trying to understand our history as an ancient family. It isn't easy, because I didn't major in science and I don't understand the languages of science. I am a word-person not a number person. I recently asked a question on the RL-21 DNA Project website. I asked them to explain it to me in words since, even though I have been following the discussion on the website, I don’t understand the spreadsheets and scientific jargon that I read there. I said to those experts, “I need words.”
My Question: My closest (Mitchell) match on FTDNA (25/37) is a Basque gentleman. We have been trying to figure out when we last were sitting around the same campfire. I guess it was before L 21 and before there were Basques. Can you explain our history to me?
This is the answer I received and it is a good one:
Answer: [A couple of notes: First, the Bell Beaker culture may have built Stonehenge. That is the prevailing view at this time. Second, the term MRCA means Most Recent Common Ancestor.” Sally]
"Suppose the Bell Beaker Folk were derived from a population that expanded out of the Caucasus with the knowledge of mining and working copper. They might keep this secret to themselves since an advanced technology might give them an advantage over any other populations they might encounter. They might also just be unreceptive to different cultural practices and thus keep to themselves and intermarry. If they found themselves in northern France about 2,200 B.C. they might form a homogeneous population where most of the members shared a restricted pool of autosomal [DNA] values. As the population grew, a segment might choose to branch off in search of new land to farm or sources of copper ore to work. Suppose such a segment moved south into southeastern France and then to the area of the Pyrenees. Groups living in mountain valleys would have geography to assist them in the social isolation they practiced with respect to surrounding populations. Suppose that the L21 mutation occurred in the original Beaker population located in northern France right about the time a group moved south, so that the southern group did not include any L21 members. Or suppose L21 evolved in a group that was socially isolated from the population that moved south, in which case it may have existed for many generations and already have started to spread east and west when the ancestors of the Basques began migrating. If the original populations, or elements of these populations, continued to exercise social isolation from other populations they would retain roughly similar pools of autosomal [DNA] marker values. This might result in people whose ancestry has lived in the British Isles for the last 3,000 years showing autosomal [DNA], and perhaps yDNA, results similar to Basque populations, or some Roma populations, or some Ashkenazi populations, or some ethnic groups from Pakistan, or India, etc. etc. Or maybe not. Based on our current knowledge it could have happened like that, but just because something could have happened doesn't mean that it did." by Ralph Porter.
I have been trying to understand our history as an ancient family. It isn't easy, because I didn't major in science and I don't understand the languages of science. I am a word-person not a number person. I recently asked a question on the RL-21 DNA Project website. I asked them to explain it to me in words since, even though I have been following the discussion on the website, I don’t understand the spreadsheets and scientific jargon that I read there. I said to those experts, “I need words.”
My Question: My closest (Mitchell) match on FTDNA (25/37) is a Basque gentleman. We have been trying to figure out when we last were sitting around the same campfire. I guess it was before L 21 and before there were Basques. Can you explain our history to me?
This is the answer I received and it is a good one:
Answer: [A couple of notes: First, the Bell Beaker culture may have built Stonehenge. That is the prevailing view at this time. Second, the term MRCA means Most Recent Common Ancestor.” Sally]
"Suppose the Bell Beaker Folk were derived from a population that expanded out of the Caucasus with the knowledge of mining and working copper. They might keep this secret to themselves since an advanced technology might give them an advantage over any other populations they might encounter. They might also just be unreceptive to different cultural practices and thus keep to themselves and intermarry. If they found themselves in northern France about 2,200 B.C. they might form a homogeneous population where most of the members shared a restricted pool of autosomal [DNA] values. As the population grew, a segment might choose to branch off in search of new land to farm or sources of copper ore to work. Suppose such a segment moved south into southeastern France and then to the area of the Pyrenees. Groups living in mountain valleys would have geography to assist them in the social isolation they practiced with respect to surrounding populations. Suppose that the L21 mutation occurred in the original Beaker population located in northern France right about the time a group moved south, so that the southern group did not include any L21 members. Or suppose L21 evolved in a group that was socially isolated from the population that moved south, in which case it may have existed for many generations and already have started to spread east and west when the ancestors of the Basques began migrating. If the original populations, or elements of these populations, continued to exercise social isolation from other populations they would retain roughly similar pools of autosomal [DNA] marker values. This might result in people whose ancestry has lived in the British Isles for the last 3,000 years showing autosomal [DNA], and perhaps yDNA, results similar to Basque populations, or some Roma populations, or some Ashkenazi populations, or some ethnic groups from Pakistan, or India, etc. etc. Or maybe not. Based on our current knowledge it could have happened like that, but just because something could have happened doesn't mean that it did." by Ralph Porter.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
We, white family genealogists, must make good faith efforts to search our own records for slave names
By Sally Sheridan
My friend and cousin Derry sent this to me this morning and it fits in with what I have been thinking. This is what she wrote:
Hi Sally,
Glad to hear the article led you to create a blog. What a good idea.
We lived in Germany for several years during the 1960s. I was very
interested in the way the Germans went about educating their people
about the horrible events of WWII. Their newsreels and documentaries
spared no one's sensibilities. Not much room for denial.
It seems to me that admitting what the consequences of legalized
slavery might be to later generations is difficult but necessary if we
are ever to get our heads straight about what it is to be American.
It is really hard for me to admit that slavery is part of our
heritage. And the too common attitude that Aw shucks it wasn't so bad
is really shabby. So good for you girl . You are facing it with
facts. And most important they are facts that will be valuable to
other people.
Love,
Derry
On Oct 15, 2009, at 3:25 PM, Sally7143@aol.com answered saying:
____________
The reference to Germany is relevant and we Americans are in need of a national conversation about our greatest shame. The Gates article is a good start. But after the summer of screaming, gun-toting, Obama hating protesters, and a "You lie" yelling Congressman, in a climate like this who could possibly imagine a group of people who could talk to each other about gently, lovingly, kindly, compassionately, peacefully doing something positive and useful toward healing our wounds?
____________________
We can. Genealogists: amateurs, professionals, corporate, religious, academic, local, international, etc.
We, you and I and all of us can lead this as a significant gift of good will and respect to the cause of human rights and respect for everyone's right to know their own family. Genealogists can lead a gentle revolution of love and care and respect by demanding more from our own professional community and more from ourselves to offer our services and find new ways to make this information far more accessible than it has ever been.
There is no excuse for us to have to dig so hard for what is hidden and ignored in big archives such as Ancestry and the LDS and many other storehouses.
Genealogists lets open up and locate those slave names. Those names are not buried under sands of Ethiopia waiting for archaeologists to find them like the skeletons of Lucy or Ardi. They are there if we force the big data bases to go back and look for them.
And most important of all, we white family genealogists, must make good faith efforts to search our own records for slave names. We must do this for our own sakes and for the soul of our country. It is that important
The reference to Germany is relevant and we Americans are in need of a national conversation about our greatest shame. The Gates article is a good start. But after the summer of screaming, gun-toting, Obama hating protesters, and a "You lie" yelling Congressman, in a climate like this who could possibly imagine a group of people go about gently, kindly, compassionately, peacefully doing something positive and useful toward healing our wounds?
We can. Genealogists: amateurs, professionals, corporate, religious, academic, local, international, etc.
We, you and I and all of us can lead this as a significant gift of good will and respect to the cause of human rights and respect for everyone's right to know their own family. Genealogists can lead a gentle act of reconciliation by demanding more from ourselves to offer our services and find new ways to make this information far more accessible than it has ever been.
There is no excuse for us to have to have to dig so hard for what is hidden and ignored in big archives such as Ancestry and the LDS and many other storehouses. Those names are not buried under sands of Ethiopia waiting for archaeologists to find them like the skeletons of Lucy or Ardi. They are there if we force the big data bases to go back and look for them.
And, most important of all, we, white family genealogists, especially those of us with Southern roots, must make good faith efforts to search our own records for slave names. We must do this for our own sakes and for the soul of our country. It is THAT important.
By Sally Sheridan
My friend and cousin Derry sent this to me this morning and it fits in with what I have been thinking. This is what she wrote:
Hi Sally,
Glad to hear the article led you to create a blog. What a good idea.
We lived in Germany for several years during the 1960s. I was very
interested in the way the Germans went about educating their people
about the horrible events of WWII. Their newsreels and documentaries
spared no one's sensibilities. Not much room for denial.
It seems to me that admitting what the consequences of legalized
slavery might be to later generations is difficult but necessary if we
are ever to get our heads straight about what it is to be American.
It is really hard for me to admit that slavery is part of our
heritage. And the too common attitude that Aw shucks it wasn't so bad
is really shabby. So good for you girl . You are facing it with
facts. And most important they are facts that will be valuable to
other people.
Love,
Derry
On Oct 15, 2009, at 3:25 PM, Sally7143@aol.com answered saying:
____________
The reference to Germany is relevant and we Americans are in need of a national conversation about our greatest shame. The Gates article is a good start. But after the summer of screaming, gun-toting, Obama hating protesters, and a "You lie" yelling Congressman, in a climate like this who could possibly imagine a group of people who could talk to each other about gently, lovingly, kindly, compassionately, peacefully doing something positive and useful toward healing our wounds?
____________________
We can. Genealogists: amateurs, professionals, corporate, religious, academic, local, international, etc.
We, you and I and all of us can lead this as a significant gift of good will and respect to the cause of human rights and respect for everyone's right to know their own family. Genealogists can lead a gentle revolution of love and care and respect by demanding more from our own professional community and more from ourselves to offer our services and find new ways to make this information far more accessible than it has ever been.
There is no excuse for us to have to dig so hard for what is hidden and ignored in big archives such as Ancestry and the LDS and many other storehouses.
Genealogists lets open up and locate those slave names. Those names are not buried under sands of Ethiopia waiting for archaeologists to find them like the skeletons of Lucy or Ardi. They are there if we force the big data bases to go back and look for them.
And most important of all, we white family genealogists, must make good faith efforts to search our own records for slave names. We must do this for our own sakes and for the soul of our country. It is that important
The reference to Germany is relevant and we Americans are in need of a national conversation about our greatest shame. The Gates article is a good start. But after the summer of screaming, gun-toting, Obama hating protesters, and a "You lie" yelling Congressman, in a climate like this who could possibly imagine a group of people go about gently, kindly, compassionately, peacefully doing something positive and useful toward healing our wounds?
We can. Genealogists: amateurs, professionals, corporate, religious, academic, local, international, etc.
We, you and I and all of us can lead this as a significant gift of good will and respect to the cause of human rights and respect for everyone's right to know their own family. Genealogists can lead a gentle act of reconciliation by demanding more from ourselves to offer our services and find new ways to make this information far more accessible than it has ever been.
There is no excuse for us to have to have to dig so hard for what is hidden and ignored in big archives such as Ancestry and the LDS and many other storehouses. Those names are not buried under sands of Ethiopia waiting for archaeologists to find them like the skeletons of Lucy or Ardi. They are there if we force the big data bases to go back and look for them.
And, most important of all, we, white family genealogists, especially those of us with Southern roots, must make good faith efforts to search our own records for slave names. We must do this for our own sakes and for the soul of our country. It is THAT important.
A Genealogist’s Most Powerful Tools: Luck and Karma
By Sally Sheridan
[First posted on GenealogyWise.com October 19, 2009]
I have had many recent breakthroughs, one truly bizarre one.
I have known for a long time that my 5th great grandmother, Barbara Culp, was scalped by Indians in South Carolina in 1761. She lived to have the child she was pregnant with and two more, including my 4th great grandmother.
My husband and I have been married for 36 years. He was raised in Illinois and Wisconsin. I grew up in the Southwest. We met when we were both in our late twenties. He came to my home town as a stranger who happened to land a job here when he finished graduate school in another city. He had been here a year and a half before I moved back to this town. We met on a blind date and he asked me to marry him two weeks later.
When my father-in-law died in northern Wisconsin this June (2009), the question came up about their family’s genealogy materials. My husband’s 90 year- old father, Ed, had collected a great deal of information but my husband’s sister wasn’t interested in it. So, even though I am drowning in my own family history, I said, "I'll take it." (The true test of a natural born genealogist.)
Two weeks after Ed died, his 80 year-old cousin, Jim, whom I have never met, called me and was very excited that someone in Ed's family was interested in Ed's genealogy materials. He had talked recently to my sister-in-law, and she made it clear that she was clearing out Ed's house and sending Ed's stuff to me, the daughter-in-law. Jim was ecstatic that I was interested in keeping all of the stuff. So Jim and I are now bosom buddies.
Now get this picture:
I am trying to write a book about my own Culp and related ancestors who owned slaves.
I have found 48 slave names and I am working with a university project (LowCountry Africana) to get that information online. Some of those enslaved people were the daughter and grandchildren of my 3rd Great Grandfather, Peter Culp. They are my family and I am trying to find them, as well.
Then my father-in-law dies and I get all of this totally different family's stuff. I don't need this. I don't want this. I don't want to "do" my husband's family. I don't have time for this! But this Cousin Jim told me in his first phone call that he was coming up on the first anniversary of the death of his dear wife of 57 years. It is just a matter of a few days. And he is so happy to talk to me for two and a half hours about Ed’s mother's Thomas family and I don't have the heart to cut him off.
He has tons of materials that he is itching to send me immediately and what am I going to say? (Shall I say, "I'm really busy with my own family right now, Jim."?) He is genuinely elated as he talks of getting this package together to send to me.
So instead I say something like, "I'd be thrilled to have that hundred pound package of new genealogical materials."
This is when the Universe decides to teach me a lesson in Karma. You can't avoid it if you are sending out the signals to bring things to you.
This is THE REST OF THE STORY. This is where it gets strange.
You must trust me on this. My husband and I met on a blind date and he asked me to marry him two weeks later. We had just celebrated 36 years of marriage when I received this package of materials on his father’s mother’s Thomas line.
I still cannot report this without getting chills. What I found in the Thomas family records:
• The man responsible for protecting the settlers, the Commander of the British Militia at the tiny settlement of Fishing Creek, South Carolina, at the time my 5th great grandmother was attacked and scalped, was my husband’s 5th great grandfather, Colonel John Thomas.
Two hundred forty eight years ago, my husband’s ancestor failed to protect my ancestor from being scalped.
My husband always said he “recognized” me as soon as he met me and that’s why he asked me to marry him so soon after we met. He was looking for me and he knew I was the one he was looking for. He has always said that, and now we know why. KARMA. He has spent this lifetime making me feel safe and cherished.
The second part of THE REST OF THE STORY.
• When I looked at Colonel John Thomas’ will, I found the names of eleven more enslaved persons in South Carolina: men, women and children, who I can document on LowCountry Africana.
So, my husband’s family documents that I didn’t want, that I considered to be a distraction from my own work, turned out to be impossibly interwoven with my family and to my work finding and saving slave names.
One thing I know, if I had not been looking for slave names in Col. John Thomas’s will, I wouldn’t have found them. This was in my mind when I wrote my previous blog (We, White Family Genealogists, Must Make Good Faith Efforts To Search Our Own Records). I have found the names of 59 enslaved persons while sitting right here in my own bedroom in the last 10 months using a book I've had on my shelf for 25 years and materials I received unsolicited from my father-in-law's 80 year old cousin.
Have you missed any names in the documents you already have? Look again. Please.
By Sally Sheridan
[First posted on GenealogyWise.com October 19, 2009]
I have had many recent breakthroughs, one truly bizarre one.
I have known for a long time that my 5th great grandmother, Barbara Culp, was scalped by Indians in South Carolina in 1761. She lived to have the child she was pregnant with and two more, including my 4th great grandmother.
My husband and I have been married for 36 years. He was raised in Illinois and Wisconsin. I grew up in the Southwest. We met when we were both in our late twenties. He came to my home town as a stranger who happened to land a job here when he finished graduate school in another city. He had been here a year and a half before I moved back to this town. We met on a blind date and he asked me to marry him two weeks later.
When my father-in-law died in northern Wisconsin this June (2009), the question came up about their family’s genealogy materials. My husband’s 90 year- old father, Ed, had collected a great deal of information but my husband’s sister wasn’t interested in it. So, even though I am drowning in my own family history, I said, "I'll take it." (The true test of a natural born genealogist.)
Two weeks after Ed died, his 80 year-old cousin, Jim, whom I have never met, called me and was very excited that someone in Ed's family was interested in Ed's genealogy materials. He had talked recently to my sister-in-law, and she made it clear that she was clearing out Ed's house and sending Ed's stuff to me, the daughter-in-law. Jim was ecstatic that I was interested in keeping all of the stuff. So Jim and I are now bosom buddies.
Now get this picture:
I am trying to write a book about my own Culp and related ancestors who owned slaves.
I have found 48 slave names and I am working with a university project (LowCountry Africana) to get that information online. Some of those enslaved people were the daughter and grandchildren of my 3rd Great Grandfather, Peter Culp. They are my family and I am trying to find them, as well.
Then my father-in-law dies and I get all of this totally different family's stuff. I don't need this. I don't want this. I don't want to "do" my husband's family. I don't have time for this! But this Cousin Jim told me in his first phone call that he was coming up on the first anniversary of the death of his dear wife of 57 years. It is just a matter of a few days. And he is so happy to talk to me for two and a half hours about Ed’s mother's Thomas family and I don't have the heart to cut him off.
He has tons of materials that he is itching to send me immediately and what am I going to say? (Shall I say, "I'm really busy with my own family right now, Jim."?) He is genuinely elated as he talks of getting this package together to send to me.
So instead I say something like, "I'd be thrilled to have that hundred pound package of new genealogical materials."
This is when the Universe decides to teach me a lesson in Karma. You can't avoid it if you are sending out the signals to bring things to you.
This is THE REST OF THE STORY. This is where it gets strange.
You must trust me on this. My husband and I met on a blind date and he asked me to marry him two weeks later. We had just celebrated 36 years of marriage when I received this package of materials on his father’s mother’s Thomas line.
I still cannot report this without getting chills. What I found in the Thomas family records:
• The man responsible for protecting the settlers, the Commander of the British Militia at the tiny settlement of Fishing Creek, South Carolina, at the time my 5th great grandmother was attacked and scalped, was my husband’s 5th great grandfather, Colonel John Thomas.
Two hundred forty eight years ago, my husband’s ancestor failed to protect my ancestor from being scalped.
My husband always said he “recognized” me as soon as he met me and that’s why he asked me to marry him so soon after we met. He was looking for me and he knew I was the one he was looking for. He has always said that, and now we know why. KARMA. He has spent this lifetime making me feel safe and cherished.
The second part of THE REST OF THE STORY.
• When I looked at Colonel John Thomas’ will, I found the names of eleven more enslaved persons in South Carolina: men, women and children, who I can document on LowCountry Africana.
So, my husband’s family documents that I didn’t want, that I considered to be a distraction from my own work, turned out to be impossibly interwoven with my family and to my work finding and saving slave names.
One thing I know, if I had not been looking for slave names in Col. John Thomas’s will, I wouldn’t have found them. This was in my mind when I wrote my previous blog (We, White Family Genealogists, Must Make Good Faith Efforts To Search Our Own Records). I have found the names of 59 enslaved persons while sitting right here in my own bedroom in the last 10 months using a book I've had on my shelf for 25 years and materials I received unsolicited from my father-in-law's 80 year old cousin.
Have you missed any names in the documents you already have? Look again. Please.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Mindfully Thankful
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I thought I was appropriately grateful for everyone and everything in my life, but it turns out that I was more self-involved than grateful. Case in point:
I sent an email to an author /friend of mine, sharing my genealogy is Karma story about the inexplicable intersection of my husband's family with mine, two hundred forty-eight years ago (see link--GenealogyWise.com/A Genealogist's Most Powerful Tools...).
I first met Judy when she quoted one of my writings in a book she wrote. And then she put another article I wrote on her website as a guest contribution.
So last week I sent her my Genealogy/Karma article, probably hoping she might post my latest article on her website. I asked her to send me positive energy because writing about slavery was very depressing sometimes.
What I got back from her was an email that stopped me cold. In it, she praised my writing and mentioned her wish to find more about her own genealogy. Then she apologized for not writing sooner. She said she has just been diagnosed with MS. But she said she would send me positive "strength, energy and healing vibes."
I thought about that for two days. Wow. I should be sending her energy and strength. Having her send me that email made me think of I how self-involved I can get with my own projects and my interests. I didn't even know she was sick. I didn't even inquire about her health or well-being.
This Thanksgiving Day, may I truly remember my loved ones. May I remember to wonder about their well-being and ask how they are before I tell them how my life is. May I remember to phone my 90+ year old friends and relatives and do it more often.
I am mindfully thankful for everyone in my life and wish only the best to you on this Thanksgiving Day.
I sent an email to an author /friend of mine, sharing my genealogy is Karma story about the inexplicable intersection of my husband's family with mine, two hundred forty-eight years ago (see link--GenealogyWise.com/A Genealogist's Most Powerful Tools...).
I first met Judy when she quoted one of my writings in a book she wrote. And then she put another article I wrote on her website as a guest contribution.
So last week I sent her my Genealogy/Karma article, probably hoping she might post my latest article on her website. I asked her to send me positive energy because writing about slavery was very depressing sometimes.
What I got back from her was an email that stopped me cold. In it, she praised my writing and mentioned her wish to find more about her own genealogy. Then she apologized for not writing sooner. She said she has just been diagnosed with MS. But she said she would send me positive "strength, energy and healing vibes."
I thought about that for two days. Wow. I should be sending her energy and strength. Having her send me that email made me think of I how self-involved I can get with my own projects and my interests. I didn't even know she was sick. I didn't even inquire about her health or well-being.
This Thanksgiving Day, may I truly remember my loved ones. May I remember to wonder about their well-being and ask how they are before I tell them how my life is. May I remember to phone my 90+ year old friends and relatives and do it more often.
I am mindfully thankful for everyone in my life and wish only the best to you on this Thanksgiving Day.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
November 22, 1963 The End of the World
November 22, 1963 The End of the World
Worked on my book yesterday. I have 113 pages and I still have a long way to go. I keep changing the title. Yesterday, I was reviewing the part I wrote about the day JFK was assassinated. Here is what I wrote. It starts when I was at my Freshman English class at Amarillo College:
On November 22, 1963, I attended my 11 AM English class as usual. I was taking two classes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My earlier class, American History, had been cancelled that day for a very special reason. My teacher, Dr. Gettys (I don’t remember her first name any more) was a die-hard Texas Democrat. I remember that she was a blood relative of Temple Houston, son of Sam Houston. She and her husband, who was also Dr. Gettys, had held a big party at their home for all their students a couple of weeks before this. I remember (Mr.) Dr. Gettys looked like a real Kentucky colonel with white hair and a goatee. Come to think of it, I guess he resembled Colonel Sanders. I remember being impressed with all the beautiful wood in their house. Wood paneling, wood staircase, wood antique furniture. Just such a beautiful home, lots of Civil War things, not like a lot of tacky Texas interior design with eagles and flags, this was restrained and tasteful. Real class. Like something you see in Architectural Design Magazine, or House Beautiful.
But that had been earlier in November. On this Friday, my Dr. Gettys, (Mrs.) Dr. Gettys), had cancelled classes for the day in order to travel to Dallas to see President Kennedy in Dallas that afternoon. I was impressed that she was going to see the President, but my family was Republican, so I wasn’t as impressed as I probably should have been.
My English class ended at exactly 12:30 PM. I remember going out to the parking lot and there was a little snow on ground left over from a couple of days before. When I started my car, the radio was already on and they were reporting something that had happened in Dallas. Something about shots being fired at the President.
That moment was the end of my childhood. Everything changed after that and my life never went back to the way it was in the summer of 1963, when everything was simple and predictable and normal. I knew even at the time that it was the end of something, maybe the end of everything. Two hours later, I was entering the Air Force Base. It was a major SAC (Strategic Air Command) base. The whole purpose of the base was to keep SAC bombers in the air at all times. They carried atomic bombs, ready for World War III.
All of a sudden, a gate I went through three times a week, at the same time of day, was totally transformed from a friendly open road where smiling MPs would wave me on through, to some kind of foreign county where the guards carried guns, and not holstered guns either, they held them in their hands, and everyone had to get out of their cars and open their trunks and I didn’t know where I was anymore. I never found my way back to my life, the life I thought I was going to have.
Worked on my book yesterday. I have 113 pages and I still have a long way to go. I keep changing the title. Yesterday, I was reviewing the part I wrote about the day JFK was assassinated. Here is what I wrote. It starts when I was at my Freshman English class at Amarillo College:
On November 22, 1963, I attended my 11 AM English class as usual. I was taking two classes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My earlier class, American History, had been cancelled that day for a very special reason. My teacher, Dr. Gettys (I don’t remember her first name any more) was a die-hard Texas Democrat. I remember that she was a blood relative of Temple Houston, son of Sam Houston. She and her husband, who was also Dr. Gettys, had held a big party at their home for all their students a couple of weeks before this. I remember (Mr.) Dr. Gettys looked like a real Kentucky colonel with white hair and a goatee. Come to think of it, I guess he resembled Colonel Sanders. I remember being impressed with all the beautiful wood in their house. Wood paneling, wood staircase, wood antique furniture. Just such a beautiful home, lots of Civil War things, not like a lot of tacky Texas interior design with eagles and flags, this was restrained and tasteful. Real class. Like something you see in Architectural Design Magazine, or House Beautiful.
But that had been earlier in November. On this Friday, my Dr. Gettys, (Mrs.) Dr. Gettys), had cancelled classes for the day in order to travel to Dallas to see President Kennedy in Dallas that afternoon. I was impressed that she was going to see the President, but my family was Republican, so I wasn’t as impressed as I probably should have been.
My English class ended at exactly 12:30 PM. I remember going out to the parking lot and there was a little snow on ground left over from a couple of days before. When I started my car, the radio was already on and they were reporting something that had happened in Dallas. Something about shots being fired at the President.
That moment was the end of my childhood. Everything changed after that and my life never went back to the way it was in the summer of 1963, when everything was simple and predictable and normal. I knew even at the time that it was the end of something, maybe the end of everything. Two hours later, I was entering the Air Force Base. It was a major SAC (Strategic Air Command) base. The whole purpose of the base was to keep SAC bombers in the air at all times. They carried atomic bombs, ready for World War III.
All of a sudden, a gate I went through three times a week, at the same time of day, was totally transformed from a friendly open road where smiling MPs would wave me on through, to some kind of foreign county where the guards carried guns, and not holstered guns either, they held them in their hands, and everyone had to get out of their cars and open their trunks and I didn’t know where I was anymore. I never found my way back to my life, the life I thought I was going to have.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Professor Gates, Michelle's Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy and Mine
(This was first published on GenealogyWise.com)
Professor Gates, Michelle's Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy and Mine
By Sally Sheridan
Dear Friends,
I have a shameful confession to make. I am the great great great granddaughter of slaveholders.
My ancestors held African people and their children in slavery.
In the 1800's, one of my ancestors (probably more) fathered at least one child whom he continued to hold in slavery. Her name was Martha. As she grew into adulthood and had children, he kept them, his grandchildren, as his slaves, too. Once I started researching it, I found that many of my Southern relatives held slaves at that time.
Who can imagine such a thing? Not in my family!! No. We aren't like that. We wouldn't...I mean...Oh, dear, it says in this 1785 will...2 slaves Min and Fawn bequeathed to...and "Min's increase" bequeathed to someone else, her future children will be given to someone else?....
I grieve for four years. I don't know what to do with this information. Min and Fawn and Min's increase. What a horrible expression. Increase.
November 4, 2008. My beloved Barack Obama is elected President. I touched his hand on September 15, 2008 and now he is the President of the United States. The day after his election, I find a book with more family wills and more slave names and then more wills and more slave names follow. Forty-eight enslaved men, women and children in all. Now I realize that I have to do something with the names. I had kept Min and Fawn in my heart for four years. That was wrong. I had to give these names to someone who could save them and share them with their descendants.
And there was much more to do, now. I had found the name of the daughter that my great great great grandfather, Peter Culp, had fathered and I had found the names of her ten children. So, eleven of the forty-eight slaves were my aunt and cousins. I want to find them.
Once you know their names, you have a moral responsibility to save them and share them. This is my mission now. I am already inspired, but today I found yet another powerful inspiration.
Here, in my first post, I place this article by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., which recapitulates the story of both Michelle Obama's ancestry and the story of my great great "granddaddy" and the unknown slave woman who was Martha's mother, the true story of our American racial heritage.
I hope someday Martha's descendants can find their ancestry like Michelle Obama has and because, while I'm ashamed of my great great great granddaddy's actions, I embrace his daughter and her children. I hope someday I can do it in real life.
________________________________________
Published on The Root (http://www.theroot.com)
Home > Michelle’s Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy—and Yours
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Michelle’s Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy—and Yours
By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Posted: October 8, 2009 at 11:50 AM
In defiance of law, social convention and what some “believe,” an enormous amount of “race mixing” has long been occurring in the U.S.
First Lady Michelle Obama’s maternal third-great-grandfather was a white man who fathered Melvinia Shields’ (her maternal third great-grandmother) son, Dolphus T. Shields, both slaves. This discovery, like all recoveries of the identities of ancestors we thought had been obliterated in the crucible of slavery, is first and foremost a welcome gift for the first family, especially for Michelle’s mother, Marian Shields Robinson, and the Shields family line. And for anyone still naïve enough to believe in the myth of racial purity, it is one more corroboration that the social categories of “white” and “black” are and always have been more porous than can be imagined, especially in that nether world called slavery.
As I have learned since embarking upon my African American Lives series (for PBS), never before are more African Americans determined to ferret out the names of their slave ancestors, and never before have more resources, especially online, been available to facilitate these searches. But, be prepared. To paraphrase the Bible: seek; but fasten your seat belt as to what ye may find.
For those of us fortunate enough to lift the veil on our family’s slave past and identify our actual ancestors, these genealogical searches often yield startling results—two in particular. The first shock? That Cherokee Princess that family lore says is your great-great-grandmother most probably never existed. The sad truth is that the overwhelming percentage of African-American people have very little Native American ancestry in their DNA.
A Harvard colleague of mine likes to say, “DNA don’t lie.” And the Reverend Eugene Rivers likes to say that “DNA has freed more black men than Abraham Lincoln.” But genealogy and DNA tests are also “freeing” a lot of our white ancestors as well, revealing the vast extent of white ancestry that each black American has. Here are the facts: Only 5 percent of all black Americans have at least 12.5 percent Native American ancestry, the equivalent of at least one great-grandparent. Those “high cheek bones and “straight black hair” your relatives brag about at every family reunion and holiday meal since you were 2 years old? Where did they come from? To paraphrase a well-known French saying, “Seek the white man.”
African Americans, just like our first lady, are a racially mixed or mulatto people—deeply and overwhelmingly so. Fact: Fully 58 percent of African-American people, according to geneticist Mark Shriver at Morehouse College, possess at least 12.5 percent European ancestry (again, the equivalent of that one great-grandparent). As a matter of fact, if I analyzed the y-DNA (which a man inherits exactly from his father, and he from his father, etc.) of all the black players in the NBA, fully one-third (somewhere between 30 percent and 35 percent) would, incredibly, discover that they were descended from a white male who impregnated a black female, most likely a female slave, just as a white man did Michelle Obama’s third-great-grandmother. In the ‘60s, we were fond of saying that we are an “African people.” Well, our DNA proclaims loudly that we are a European people, a multicultural people, a people black as well as white. You might think of us as an Afro-Mulatto people, our genes recombined in that test tube called slavery.
For African American Lives, I’ve tested 21 African Americans, possessing a range of phenotypes—from a person who could “pass” for “white,” and whose father actually did, to people with darker and more traditionally African features, such as Don Cheadle and Chris Rock. Not once has any person tested turned out to be 100 percent African. Chris Rock, for example, is 20 percent European. Don Cheadle is 19 percent European. That straight black hair and high cheek bones on your grandmama’s head? Look at a Google Map of Europe, find Italy, then look straight north to England and Ireland, Germany and France. That’s where, in all probability, your ancestor’s hair texture and lighter complexion comes from, not from the rendezvous of a fugitive slave and an Native American compatriot, united in enmity toward a common enemy, sitting around a campfire, smoking a peace pipe and woofing on the white man.
Black roots are deeply and improbably tangled, inextricably intertwined with the history of slavery and the genes of the very Euro-Americans who enslaved our ancestors. In my personal case, geneticists floored me by revealing that not only did my father’s line go back to Ireland (we had thought this), but my mother’s did as well, which is very rare. (Only 1 percent of us descend from a white woman who slept with a black slave or former slave.) Not only that, but my own admixture shows that I am 49.4 percent European and 50.6 percent African, even though no one would ever mistake me for a “mulatto.”
The story of the paternity of Melvinia Shields’ children is all too common in the annals of American family trees. Among the guests in African American Lives, Quincy Jones (who is a direct descendant of King Edward I), Maya Angelou, Tom Joyner and Morgan Freeman all learned the names of the white male who impregnated their black female slave ancestor—unlike Mrs. Obama whose white ancestor remains anonymous. My paternal great-great-grandmother, Jane Gates, took the identity of the father of her children with her to her grave in 1888. But with DNA tests, we are closing in on this Irishman’s identity, almost a century and a quarter later.
What all this means is that in defiance of the law and social convention, and just what some “believe,” an enormous amount of “race mixing” has long been occurring in the United States. We as a society have been in deep denial about our heritage of interracial sexuality for just as long. Some of this sexual contact was voluntary, we now know: For example, Morgan Freeman is descended from white Alfred and black Celie Carr, who not only stayed together after slavery ended but lived together openly and are buried together in Mississippi. But most of it was coerced or violent or a species of rape, a reflection or a result of a profound imbalance of power. Because of a confluence of factors—the illegality of miscegenation, the prevalence of sexual abuse and rape at the root of these relationships, infidelity, guilt, shame and disgrace at an unwed pregnancy—both black people and white people had a certain vested interest in keeping these relationships in the dark, as it were.
The first lady’s family tree—and the social and sexual complexity it reflects—is quite typical of the family trees of a majority of African Americans. And we all have to be happy for Mrs. Obama that her ancestors—long lost—have now been found. There is a certain inexpressible joy in knowing from whom you have descended, knowing where and from whom and through whom you come from, no matter what their complexion or hair texture. Michelle Obama’s family tree enables all Americans to marvel at—and begin to accept—the very complexity of race relations in the history of this country, a complexity registered in our collective DNA, a complexity writ large on the very face of black, or mulatto, America.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is the founder and the editor-in-chief of The Root.
first lady white ancestors
michelle obama slavery
michelle obama white ancestor
michelle obama white great-great-great-granddaddy
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Source URL: http://www.theroot.com/views/michelle-s-great-great-great-granddaddy-and-yours
Links:
[1] http://www.theroot.com/users/henrylouisgates
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html?_r=1
[3] http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~amciv/faculty/gates.shtml
[4] http://www.theroot.com/views/dark-and-lovely-michelle
[5] http://www.theroot.com/views/how-michelle-obama-passed-white
[6] http://www.theroot.com/views/black-president-white-hands
[7] http://www.theroot.com/views/black-mommy-white-me
Professor Gates, Michelle's Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy and Mine
By Sally Sheridan
Dear Friends,
I have a shameful confession to make. I am the great great great granddaughter of slaveholders.
My ancestors held African people and their children in slavery.
In the 1800's, one of my ancestors (probably more) fathered at least one child whom he continued to hold in slavery. Her name was Martha. As she grew into adulthood and had children, he kept them, his grandchildren, as his slaves, too. Once I started researching it, I found that many of my Southern relatives held slaves at that time.
Who can imagine such a thing? Not in my family!! No. We aren't like that. We wouldn't...I mean...Oh, dear, it says in this 1785 will...2 slaves Min and Fawn bequeathed to...and "Min's increase" bequeathed to someone else, her future children will be given to someone else?....
I grieve for four years. I don't know what to do with this information. Min and Fawn and Min's increase. What a horrible expression. Increase.
November 4, 2008. My beloved Barack Obama is elected President. I touched his hand on September 15, 2008 and now he is the President of the United States. The day after his election, I find a book with more family wills and more slave names and then more wills and more slave names follow. Forty-eight enslaved men, women and children in all. Now I realize that I have to do something with the names. I had kept Min and Fawn in my heart for four years. That was wrong. I had to give these names to someone who could save them and share them with their descendants.
And there was much more to do, now. I had found the name of the daughter that my great great great grandfather, Peter Culp, had fathered and I had found the names of her ten children. So, eleven of the forty-eight slaves were my aunt and cousins. I want to find them.
Once you know their names, you have a moral responsibility to save them and share them. This is my mission now. I am already inspired, but today I found yet another powerful inspiration.
Here, in my first post, I place this article by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., which recapitulates the story of both Michelle Obama's ancestry and the story of my great great "granddaddy" and the unknown slave woman who was Martha's mother, the true story of our American racial heritage.
I hope someday Martha's descendants can find their ancestry like Michelle Obama has and because, while I'm ashamed of my great great great granddaddy's actions, I embrace his daughter and her children. I hope someday I can do it in real life.
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Published on The Root (http://www.theroot.com)
Home > Michelle’s Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy—and Yours
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Michelle’s Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy—and Yours
By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Posted: October 8, 2009 at 11:50 AM
In defiance of law, social convention and what some “believe,” an enormous amount of “race mixing” has long been occurring in the U.S.
First Lady Michelle Obama’s maternal third-great-grandfather was a white man who fathered Melvinia Shields’ (her maternal third great-grandmother) son, Dolphus T. Shields, both slaves. This discovery, like all recoveries of the identities of ancestors we thought had been obliterated in the crucible of slavery, is first and foremost a welcome gift for the first family, especially for Michelle’s mother, Marian Shields Robinson, and the Shields family line. And for anyone still naïve enough to believe in the myth of racial purity, it is one more corroboration that the social categories of “white” and “black” are and always have been more porous than can be imagined, especially in that nether world called slavery.
As I have learned since embarking upon my African American Lives series (for PBS), never before are more African Americans determined to ferret out the names of their slave ancestors, and never before have more resources, especially online, been available to facilitate these searches. But, be prepared. To paraphrase the Bible: seek; but fasten your seat belt as to what ye may find.
For those of us fortunate enough to lift the veil on our family’s slave past and identify our actual ancestors, these genealogical searches often yield startling results—two in particular. The first shock? That Cherokee Princess that family lore says is your great-great-grandmother most probably never existed. The sad truth is that the overwhelming percentage of African-American people have very little Native American ancestry in their DNA.
A Harvard colleague of mine likes to say, “DNA don’t lie.” And the Reverend Eugene Rivers likes to say that “DNA has freed more black men than Abraham Lincoln.” But genealogy and DNA tests are also “freeing” a lot of our white ancestors as well, revealing the vast extent of white ancestry that each black American has. Here are the facts: Only 5 percent of all black Americans have at least 12.5 percent Native American ancestry, the equivalent of at least one great-grandparent. Those “high cheek bones and “straight black hair” your relatives brag about at every family reunion and holiday meal since you were 2 years old? Where did they come from? To paraphrase a well-known French saying, “Seek the white man.”
African Americans, just like our first lady, are a racially mixed or mulatto people—deeply and overwhelmingly so. Fact: Fully 58 percent of African-American people, according to geneticist Mark Shriver at Morehouse College, possess at least 12.5 percent European ancestry (again, the equivalent of that one great-grandparent). As a matter of fact, if I analyzed the y-DNA (which a man inherits exactly from his father, and he from his father, etc.) of all the black players in the NBA, fully one-third (somewhere between 30 percent and 35 percent) would, incredibly, discover that they were descended from a white male who impregnated a black female, most likely a female slave, just as a white man did Michelle Obama’s third-great-grandmother. In the ‘60s, we were fond of saying that we are an “African people.” Well, our DNA proclaims loudly that we are a European people, a multicultural people, a people black as well as white. You might think of us as an Afro-Mulatto people, our genes recombined in that test tube called slavery.
For African American Lives, I’ve tested 21 African Americans, possessing a range of phenotypes—from a person who could “pass” for “white,” and whose father actually did, to people with darker and more traditionally African features, such as Don Cheadle and Chris Rock. Not once has any person tested turned out to be 100 percent African. Chris Rock, for example, is 20 percent European. Don Cheadle is 19 percent European. That straight black hair and high cheek bones on your grandmama’s head? Look at a Google Map of Europe, find Italy, then look straight north to England and Ireland, Germany and France. That’s where, in all probability, your ancestor’s hair texture and lighter complexion comes from, not from the rendezvous of a fugitive slave and an Native American compatriot, united in enmity toward a common enemy, sitting around a campfire, smoking a peace pipe and woofing on the white man.
Black roots are deeply and improbably tangled, inextricably intertwined with the history of slavery and the genes of the very Euro-Americans who enslaved our ancestors. In my personal case, geneticists floored me by revealing that not only did my father’s line go back to Ireland (we had thought this), but my mother’s did as well, which is very rare. (Only 1 percent of us descend from a white woman who slept with a black slave or former slave.) Not only that, but my own admixture shows that I am 49.4 percent European and 50.6 percent African, even though no one would ever mistake me for a “mulatto.”
The story of the paternity of Melvinia Shields’ children is all too common in the annals of American family trees. Among the guests in African American Lives, Quincy Jones (who is a direct descendant of King Edward I), Maya Angelou, Tom Joyner and Morgan Freeman all learned the names of the white male who impregnated their black female slave ancestor—unlike Mrs. Obama whose white ancestor remains anonymous. My paternal great-great-grandmother, Jane Gates, took the identity of the father of her children with her to her grave in 1888. But with DNA tests, we are closing in on this Irishman’s identity, almost a century and a quarter later.
What all this means is that in defiance of the law and social convention, and just what some “believe,” an enormous amount of “race mixing” has long been occurring in the United States. We as a society have been in deep denial about our heritage of interracial sexuality for just as long. Some of this sexual contact was voluntary, we now know: For example, Morgan Freeman is descended from white Alfred and black Celie Carr, who not only stayed together after slavery ended but lived together openly and are buried together in Mississippi. But most of it was coerced or violent or a species of rape, a reflection or a result of a profound imbalance of power. Because of a confluence of factors—the illegality of miscegenation, the prevalence of sexual abuse and rape at the root of these relationships, infidelity, guilt, shame and disgrace at an unwed pregnancy—both black people and white people had a certain vested interest in keeping these relationships in the dark, as it were.
The first lady’s family tree—and the social and sexual complexity it reflects—is quite typical of the family trees of a majority of African Americans. And we all have to be happy for Mrs. Obama that her ancestors—long lost—have now been found. There is a certain inexpressible joy in knowing from whom you have descended, knowing where and from whom and through whom you come from, no matter what their complexion or hair texture. Michelle Obama’s family tree enables all Americans to marvel at—and begin to accept—the very complexity of race relations in the history of this country, a complexity registered in our collective DNA, a complexity writ large on the very face of black, or mulatto, America.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is the founder and the editor-in-chief of The Root.
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Links:
[1] http://www.theroot.com/users/henrylouisgates
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html?_r=1
[3] http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~amciv/faculty/gates.shtml
[4] http://www.theroot.com/views/dark-and-lovely-michelle
[5] http://www.theroot.com/views/how-michelle-obama-passed-white
[6] http://www.theroot.com/views/black-president-white-hands
[7] http://www.theroot.com/views/black-mommy-white-me
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