My Genealogy Quest

The Stories of our Ancestors past

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January 2014

Wounds of Family History

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I decided today that I would try and write a blog about something that has been on my mind all week.  My challenge this week was going back to basics and really getting those details that may have been overlooked and making sure that I have all my source citations in place.  As I was confirming and verifying new data, I could not help but to think about my ancestors and how they endured many tribulations throughout their lives just like we all do.  It took me many years for me to understand that life is not always easy and you sometimes have to embrace and/or overcome life’s tribulations.

Growing up I always felt that I had got the short end of the stick by not being raised by either one of my parents.  Part of me buying into that was the fact that people constantly reminded me of it and would tell me that they felt sorry for me.  I took that to heart thinking that something was wrong with me and because of that I felt unworthy.  What I didn’t understand was that those things were out of my control and that as a child I am a product of what was inherited to me and that this would be my own wound that I would have to embrace and overcome in my life journey.  If you would have talked to me about this 10 years ago, I would have still been a mess and had not embraced my wound.  But, this week as I went through each and every one of my family members, everyone I know living and passed has had to deal with much adversity at some point through their lives.  Every person will carry a wound of some sort and many of us will carry the scars, but so much in life is the journey of how we heal.  I wish I could know all those stories of my ancestors and how they made it through.

So now I am pondering how do I cover the many wounds that I know of, as I am a descendant of all different types of family exploits.  How do you explain to people that you might be connected to them because of an outside relationship that someone had with another person?  I am not just talking about things that happened during slavery, but things that happened within the past 40 years.  Are there rules or a protocol in dealing with this in genealogy?  How much detail is too much to detail in telling your family history?  Should I just be a “transparent” family historian and let others draw there own conclusions?  I would love to know what others think.  Please leave your comments and suggestions below. 🙂

Reflecting on 2013 and Setting Genealogy Goals for 2014

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I must say that I ended 2013 off with a bang!  I have had two amazing genealogy things happen just in one day.  I have set some very lofty genealogy goals for myself in this upcoming year and I have also accomplished a few things this past year that I had not even set out to accomplish in the first part of the year.

One of my overall goals that I am continuing to work on is setting goals that I can accomplish even if that means setting them on a smaller scale first so that I can work towards the larger goal.  I think sometimes we fail to realize that we can accomplish many things, if we put a plan in place and and execute the plan methodically and as organized as possible.  I listened to a great audio book over the summer called “Chose yourself” by James Altucher and this year began my decision to “choose myself” on so many different levels.  My passion for genealogy was something I decided that I wanted to revisit and immerse myself in this forever addicting past time.  I always wanted to create a family website and I decided to take the plunge and just do it.  I watched a lot of videos on WordPress and how to build websites and shabang!  I did it!  I also had the great encouragement and resources of the many online community Facebook groups such as African American Genealogy and Slave Ancestry Research (AAGSAR), Our Black Ancestry and Technology for Genealogy.  I strongly recommend joining similar groups when you are on your quest for genealogy resources and support.

So although the website was a great success and accomplishment of 2013 I also had other genealogical successes.  One of the most important messages for me to convey to other African American family historians is that genealogy research can be done.  It may be more challenging, but it is possible.  That is one of the great things about being part of this growing community is that you are able to see the success of others and learn great skills.

I decided over the weekend to go back to the “genealogy basics” so that I can truly be methodical and consistent in my approach and make sure I am not missing anything.  I decided to go back through old records and notes that I did from over 10 years ago and see if there was anything I missed.  Sure enough there were some gaps on data I had not completely gathered between the 1870 and 1940 censuses.  There was also some contact notes that I had from connections I made from a distant great,great cousin.  When I talked to my great,great cousin Geraldine Jackson (Hogan) over 10 years ago she was about 80 years old.  I decided to google her to see if she was still alive and if there would possibly be any other cousins to connect with.  Unfortunately, when I googled her I found out she had recently passed per her obituary, but her obituary gave me the names of her kin.  Sure enough I searched via Facebook and already made a connection and many more to come.  Although one door closed, many more were opened up to connect with this family.

The 2nd thing I decided to do in going back to the “genealogy basics” was to start interviewing my family, starting with all my fathers living brothers and sisters.  The first on my list was my Uncle Buster who carries the namesake of the many Herbert Jackson’s that run through my family.  I would have to say that was one of the best phone calls I had all year!  My Uncle Buster is the oldest of all the kids on my fathers side.  We talked for about and hour and it was the most insightful information that I had ever learned about my uncle.  He told me about his service in the Korean War and how he was drafted and how he was one of the first integrated troops in 1952 as Harry Truman was the President who lead the integration of the military.  Uncle Buster stated, “race didn’t matter when you were in combat, that all went out the window when you are trying to survive”. He was a radio guy and the mountain he was on during battle was referred to as K4FM. He also discussed with me that he had a hard time proving his age when he was drafted because he didn’t have a birth certificate.  He was born at home and Dr. Dick (The physician that delivered him) never registered the birth so he had no birth certificate.  This seemed to be an issue at the time with many men who were drafted and enlisting in the military at the time because during the time of his birth most people were born at home.  The military ended up saying that he was born in 1934 but he said that was incorrect he was born in 1932.

See the following links about the Korean War integration:

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/desegblurb.htm

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/desegregation/large/index.php?action=chronology

Uncle Buster

When I was talking to my Uncle Buster, I got a completely different perspective on life that I was not initially seeking, but I am so glad for it.  He has opened the door for me to learn about about my fathers service as well as my other uncle’s service in the military.  What a great gift Uncle Buster has given to me.  I look forward to many more conversations with my Uncle and other family members.

This past year I also reconnected with an uncle on my mother’s side as well as made a connection with a cousin on my maternal side via Ancestry.com.  More blog posts to come from this side as I reconnect with family I have never known.

So 2014 is looking to be an exciting year with my new discoveries.  I hope you all follow and share with me your knowledge on my genealogy quest.  Happy New Year!

IJK

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