Voices From Our Past

A Genealogist's Nightmare...

2009-06-25T13:18:00.008-04:00

I have been working very hard for almost two years now on writing a book about my African American ancestors. It has been the most challenging and rewarding project I've ever done.

About a month ago, I decided it was time for self-publishing. I had all of the text and photos laid out, I had done four rounds of editing with various friends, and I was pleased with the final result. That day, though, some new historical records became available for free online: the Alabama Statewide Deaths 1908-1974. It was a gold mine!!! I found so many records I could barely handle them all. But then my heart sank as I searched through records for the Magruders and found this:

Name: Annie B. Lampkins
Death date: 26 Nov 1940
Death place: Tuskegee, Macon, Alabama
Gender: Female
Age at death: 46y
Estimated birth year: 1894
Spouse's name: Simon Lampkins
Father's name: George Mcgruder
Mother's name: Sally Fitzpatrick

I found out that the Annie Belle Magruder (Demps) in MY family tree, my great-grandmother, is not the same Annie Belle Magruder whose parents are George Magruder and Sally Fitzpatrick. I linked her to the wrong parents. I'm very fortunate that I caught this HUGE error two days before I was going to publish my work!

Now my challenge is to find the right parents for my great-grandmother. So far, with these newly available death records, I have narrowed down two Annie B. Magruders that are NOT my ancestor: Annie B. Magruder Lampkins, mentioned above, and Annie Bell Magruder Appleby, whose parents are Lazarus and Lou Magruder (also mentioned in my family history). I am pretty much at a standstill until I can find the right parents, but because of the missing 1890 census, it will be a miracle when I find them.

Musings on Father's Day

2009-06-21T22:56:00.007-04:00

"Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes." ~Gloria Naylor

I saw this quote and immediately thought of my grandmother, Nellie Booker Demps. During the last few months that she was in the nursing home, Jon and I would go to visit her. We took our laptop full of old photos of her family members, and we would show them to her. Even with Alzheimer's disease taking quite a toll, she remembered most of the names of the people in the photographs. Inevitably, we would come around to this photo:

And as soon as his face flashed on the screen, she would say, "That's my daddy, Joe Booker!" Even at 94 years old, he was still her "daddy." I don't know a lot about Joe Booker's life - mostly that he suffered the loss of his wife when she was only 34 years old - but he must have been something special to Nellie for her to speak his name with such love, almost 30 years after his passing.

Unfortunately, many of us don't have ideals relationships with our fathers. In fact, searching through my family tree for an especially good example of fatherhood revealed too many dysfunctional fathers! As I have searched for my ancestors, I have found that one thing is certain: fathers WILL be remembered. It is up to them to live their lives such that they will leave behind a legacy of honor and love. May all men have the desire to earn the love and respect of their daughters, sons, and wives, so that their names will be praised for generations after they are gone.

Black History Month Part 2

2009-02-27T09:03:00.004-05:00

"A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself." Malcolm X

Mae C. Jemison First African American woman in space (and possibly distantly related to me!)

Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the most visible advocates for non-violence during the Civil Rights Movement

Thurgood Marshall First African American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court

Oscar Micheaux First African-American filmmaker, sometimes called the "Cecil DeMille of Race Movies"

Judy W. Reed was the first African-American woman to receive a patent in 1884 for a hand-operated machine used to knead and roll dough.

Sojourner Truth Campaigned for the abolition of slavery, against capital punishment, and in favor of women's rights

Harriet Tubman Freed herself from slavery, then spent her life working to free others through the Underground Railroad

Madame C.J. Walker Inventor, businesswoman, and self-made millionaire before 1920

Booker T. Washington Educator, head of Tuskegee Institute, champion of economic empowerment for Blacks through work and self-reliance

Malcolm X Powerful civil rights activist and spokesman for the Nation of Islam until his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964

Just in time for the inauguration...

2009-02-05T00:24:00.007-05:00

...we are reminded that there is still, unfortunately, reason to be fearful and sad about the lack of progress in our society. At a time when there should be great growth and unity, instead there is an enormous surge in the number of people joining white supremacist groups and committing hate crimes. I have lived through hate crimes. My neighbors were white supremacists. We don't need more hate--we need more of our wounds to heal.

Suggested reading: The Hidden Wound by Wendell Berry. The most enlightening book I have EVER read on racism. You cannot hurt another person without hurting yourself.

Black History Month

2009-02-03T20:10:00.011-05:00

We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.

- Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) on founding Negro History Week, 1926

Black History Month (also known as African American Heritage Month) is a time to celebrate the historic achievements and contributions of African Americans to our society and our world. I remember growing up and learning about so many amazing African Americans who were positive role models for me, at a time when all we saw on TV were athletes and musicians. And that's pretty much all you see now, except that suddenly we have a Black president, which is practically a miracle.

This entry (and perhaps a few other ones) will be devoted to making known a few of the amazing Black Americans who have advanced our society, and historical events in which they have participated. I hope this is as fun for you as it is for me. :)

Marian Anderson Contralto performing classical reperatoire whose career included several European tours, performances at the New York Metropolitan Opera and at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

Crispus Attucks The first American to die for the Revolutionary cause

Benjamin Banneker Astronomer and mathematician who carved one of the first clocks in America out of wood

Ralph Bunche Recipient of Nobel Peace Prize and United Nations mediator between Arabs and Jews in Palestine in the 1940s

George Washington Carver Scientist, researcher, and educator at what is now Tuskegee University

Paul Cuffee philanthropist, ship captain, and devout Quaker who hoped to settle free African–Americans in Sierra Leone, Africa in 1815; also founded the first integrated school in Massachusetts in 1797.

Benjamin O. Davis First African American general in the United States Army and commander of the 99th fighter squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen

Frederick Douglass Abolitionist, orator, and writer who fought against slavery

Charles R. Drew Founded world's two largest blood banks and developed preservation of blood plasma

W.E.B. DuBois Author, critic, editor, scholar, civil rights leader, and founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Langston Hughes Author, poet, and world traveler during the Harlem Renaissance.

Thoughts on a 'Dream'

2009-01-19T21:48:00.009-05:00

"One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land." Even though Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was talking about one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, we are still facing these same problems today, what would be 144 years later. I am sad to say that today is the first time that I watched Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech in its entirety. But I am grateful that I watched it. It is powerful, and it is applicable to today. We should not be satisfied. This work is not finished. There is still inequality, police brutality, an increase in segregation in schools, an enormous economic and educational disparity between blacks and whites. My dream is Dr. King's dream, that one day people "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Our hearts must change.

AfriGeneas: From Africa to the Americas

2008-11-18T10:53:00.003-05:00

I stumbled upon an excellent resource recently for African American family history research: AfriGeneas (pronounced: A · fri · GEE · nee · as). Users submit information that they have on their family members into searchable databases, allowing African Americans to search Census records, death records and obituaries, marriage records, photos, and even some slave records for their ancestors. There are also discussion forums, places to list or search for family reunions, and a "Lunch Bunch"--an online chat group that meets Monday through Friday from noon to 1:30pm.

The best resource that I have found on AfriGeneas is the Surname Database. By typing in a surname, you can get a listing of all of the people who are also searching for that surname on AfriGeneas. I was able to make contact with a distant cousin who is related to me through my great-great-great-grandfather, Daniel Booker, by searching for Bookers in Alabama on AfriGeneas. What a miracle!

AfriGeneas is free to use, and you can also submit your own information for others to search. It is an excellent resource to help those of us with African ancestry "climb the 1870 'brick wall.'"

Check out AfriGeneas by clicking here.

It IS time for a change...

2008-11-03T14:29:00.007-05:00

Over the past two years, I have watched the presidential campaign somewhat closely. Tomorrow it will finally wind down to an end, and the country will know who our next president will be. I have thought much about my great-great-great-grandfathers, John Estill and Daniel Booker, who both waited in line to register to vote in 1866 after they received their freedom from slavery. They did not take for granted this sacred privilege to use their agency, and I have an opportunity to follow their example, 142 years later, by showing up at the polls to vote.

I will not bore you with my views on various political issues, or even announce in whose behalf I will cast my ballot. I will support the president no matter who wins and follow the laws of the land. But I am appalled at the the voter suppression that is rearing its head even to this day, targeting areas with higher percentages of minorities to try to keep them from voting. (Read about one instance here. ) In some areas, people have been making phone calls encouraging people to vote by phone, sending our fliers warning people that they could be arrested if they try to vote with outstanding parking tickets, or that because of the unprecedented number of new voters, they have extended voting to Wednesday, November 5th. These are all attempts to confuse people, and although voters do have a responsibility to educate themselves, many first-time voters may be swayed by this very illegal behavior. It is time for this to stop.

It does not surprise me that there is still so much racism, but it still does hurt.

Walmart taking Christ out of Christmas

2008-10-13T22:11:00.012-04:00

Grocery shopping in South Florida is not cheap. Lately, I have been lulled into shopping at Walmart because there are so many of them (there are four within a 5-mile radius of our apartment) and their prices are absolutely unbeatable. I don't agree with their business practices or the way they treat their employees, which is why I have tried to avoid shopping there for so long, but what do you do when food prices are going up and there is a recession?

This morning I went to Walmart to pick up a few basics, and I noticed that they had already put up the Christmas section. It is not even Halloween yet, mind you. But being the Christmas lover that I am, I decided to pick up the remaining pieces in my nativity set that I started last year. I bought figurines of the baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and some animals, and this year I wanted to finish it off with the wise men. I was pretty excited for my early Christmas gift to myself. :)

I want you to know that I went up and down those aisles TWICE. There were no nativity scenes. In fact, there were no references to Christ at all. None. I felt absolutely sick inside. I came home and searched to see if I had just missed something, but the online Walmart site only has four nativity sets now, and none of them are sold in stores.

But they did have a whole row of Hannah Montana tree decorations and stockings, in case you wondered.

According to an article by the World Net Daily, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights at one point back in 2005 launched a boycott on Walmart for "banning" Christmas. I think I will do some personal boycotting of my own. It may be a little more expensive, but I would like to choose to support an establishment that chooses to support my Savior, especially during a time of celebrating His birth.

Read more about the issue at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47330

Here's a tongue-in-cheek video about "Big Box Mart" for your viewing pleasure...

Big Box Mart @ Yahoo! Video

Reunion Photos and Presentation

2008-07-31T13:29:00.004-04:00

Here are links to the photos we took at the family reunion, as well as the visuals I used during my presentation. There are many, many more records than this, and we are updating the links on the right to make them easier to use. Have fun!

Family Reunion

Estell(e) Reunion Presentation Visuals

Family Reunion and Family Tree

2008-07-26T22:18:00.009-04:00

This has been an amazing weekend! Jon and I just spent three days with some of the best people in the world: the Estell(e) family! What a blessing it has been for me to do this family research, because it led me to find out about this family reunion and to meet hundreds of cousins I never knew about. We felt loved by everyone, and we look forward to seeing everyone at the next reunion in 2010!

Since many people at the reunion wanted to know more about how we are all connected, we have put up a family tree that should help with that. I will be working on it over the next few weeks, updating it with the information I got at the reunion, and the look may change if we can find a better-looking website. The "home person" (the first person the tree starts with) is my grandmother, Nellie Booker, and following her line up to John Estill will take you to any other Estell(e)s that you want to find. Enjoy getting to know the many, many Estell(e)s, and more!

Click image to access the Estell/Booker/Demps/Magruder Family Tree

Cemetery photos

2008-07-22T22:28:00.005-04:00

Family history and genealogy is a lot of fun. In our travels Kristen and I have photographed and transcribed memorials from many cemeteries. Here we share them with the world. I am licensing these photos and transcriptions under a Creative Commons Attribution License. This means you can copy them and use them for any purpose, as long as you give me (Jon Andersen) credit. Please drop me a note if you find your relatives in here, I'd love to hear from you! The original high-res photos are included here. Look under "named_photos" for the high-res versions.

Corinth Cemetery, Sycamore, Talladega, Alabama

(High-res download)

Wilson Cemetery, Winterboro, Talladega, Alabama

(High-res download)

Detroit Memorial Park East Cemetery, Warren, Macomb, Michigan

(High-res download)

Westview Community Cemetery, Pompano Beach, Broward, Florida

(High-res download)

St Hedwig Cemetery, Dearborn Heights, Wayne, Michigan

(High-res download)

Ayersville Cemetery, Defiance, Ohio

(High-res download)

Cole Cemetery, Shorter, Alabama

(High-res download)

30th Anniversary of Priesthood Revelation

2008-07-07T13:18:00.006-04:00

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes known as Mormon. Every now and then I get challenged about my beliefs--among them, how I can be black and be Mormon. I have been a member of this church for almost 10 years; I have attended the church in seven countries on three different continents, and in nine different states. I can say that I have never met more loving, warm, friendly, open, and accepting people anywhere than the Mormons. From the first time I set foot in one of their churches, I felt welcome, and it has been the same every Sunday ever since for all these years.

Every church has their history. This church is no exception. There are all kinds of theories out there about why the priesthood was not extended to all worthy men until 1978, and I don't agree with any of them. But what I do know is that the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness, along with the power to act in the name of God to administer the ordinances of the gospel, is available to all people on earth who seek it. I believe that we are all equal in the eyes of God and that we always have been, and everything is available to all of us to enable us to return to live with our Father in heaven again, regardless of our race. God loves everyone, black and white and Hispanic and Arab, Mormon and Catholic and Baptist and Muslim and Jewish. And He has invited all people to come unto Him.

So in honor of the 30th anniversary of the revelation on the priesthood, I have posted this video for your enjoyment.

The Tie That Binds

2008-05-14T10:53:00.006-04:00

Today is a good day. After much research and many phone calls and no luck in getting Interlibrary Loan to send me genealogical materials, I finally found a copy of Casey W. Arnette's The Tie That Binds: A History of the Alpine Baptist Church for sale. It just came in the mail. The next closest copies of this book are in Macon, Georgia and Auburn, Alabama (over 500 miles away), and now I have the information at my fingertips! What a blessing. So I would like to offer to do lookups for other people, because I realize how difficult it is to get a copy of this book. I am particularly interested in doing lookups for people who are doing research on African-American ancestors, but I will look up names in the index for anyone. My husband is also in the process of trying to contact the author/descendants to see if there is any way that this material can be digitized. (We would be happy to do it!) So if you have stumbled on this blog in search of this book and would like a look-up, post a comment with your email address and I'll do what I can.

Wasting time. . . or am I?

2008-04-18T13:30:00.005-04:00

I'm supposed to be going on a camping trip this evening, and since Jon is at work, I have the task of making the preparations for such a trip. Of course, I've never REALLY been camping, so my tendency is to overprepare. But then he sent me a link to itsourtree.com, where we can post our family tree and invite others who are connected to our family to also edit and add information in our family tree. . . .And now my camping preparations have gone out the window. Yes, I set out the tent and blankets and flashlights, and I have some warmer clothes ready to sleep in, but there is still the task of food, and that is the part that will take the most time. Yet I have been sitting here adding almost 200 names, and I am so excited to use the feature where it will just send off emails to my cousins to invite them to claim their spots in the family tree. :) I guess if I'm procrastinating on one responsibility, at least I'm doing something else that's positive. At least that's what I keep telling myself. :) Check it out: www.itsourtree.com

Gandy Dancers

2008-04-06T19:31:00.010-04:00

I have been doing research on my great-grandfather, Henry Lewis Demps, Jr., whose job in the early 1920s was to move railroad tracks back into place. These African Americans were sometimes known as "gandy dancers" for the tools they used and perhaps the movement with which they pushed the tracks back in place to the rhythm of the calls. Have a look...

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Compute Graphics

2007-06-11T22:40:00.000-04:00

Here is computer graphics!

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Flash movies of Hawaii

2007-06-11T21:23:00.000-04:00

Here's an old movie of our apartment in Hawaii, updated for the Facebook-era.

Get the Flash Player to see this movie.

AAU Ward

2006-01-02T22:51:00.000-05:00

Maren Hansen made an Alumni website for the Ann Arbor University Ward. I figured, why not register now, you never know when some old friend from the ward will loose our phone number (-;

The AAU Ward "Moving Crew".

Mom in the news

2005-05-29T23:10:00.000-04:00

Did you know that Mom was in the newspaper? Yep, well, she's probably been written up many times for plays, etc. Remember that dance number our whole family did, "Stretch marks", for her senior thesis at the University of Michgan? Well, I was googling recently and found it. Have a look-see: http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/nov/11-23-98/arts/arts5.html

Listen to mission music and farewell

2005-01-09T20:54:00.000-05:00

How about some more mission multimedia?

On P-Days, Elder Rose liked to play his Gee-tar. Shortly before the incredible Draper Zone was broken up by certain people going home, we recorded some music as a zone. Elder Rose wrote some wonderful music - "Shiloh" is particularly nostalgic, because it expresses his testimony of the Savior, and we performed it in a special missionary fireside of our own organizing. I'm proud of our rendition of "If You Could Hie to Kolob" - For the first verse, I am playing the accompaniment and singing all four parts.

Shiloh - Composed and sung by Elder Michael Rose (Elder Lassen vocals)
Ave Maria - Violin by Elder Gary Parente accompanied by Elder Jon Andersen
If You Could Hie to Kolob - Draper Zone accompanied by Elder Jon Andersen (instrumental only)
Composition 1 - Composed by Elder Michael Rose
Composition 2 - Composed by Elder Gary Parante

All of this audio was ripped from CDs. I ripped the mission farewell in iTunes into MPEG-4 audio format (m4a). I ripped Elder Rose's music in Windows Media Player into Windows Media Audio (wma). Those formats aren't the most portable and preservable, however; so I re-encoded them into the standard and well-supported MPEG-3 audio format (mp3) using Xilisoft WMA MP3 Converter (shareware).

Dancing Ryan Montage(s)

2005-01-03T02:03:00.000-05:00

I found some Old Timey movies of Ryan dancing. You really should watch them - Ryan has some sweet dance moves! He'll be a star at the single's dances.

To view the movies, you may need to right-click on the movie and save it first. You may also need to install a QuickTime movie viewer in order to view these movies.

The thumbnail images were captured in the QuickTime movie viewer, copy-n-pasted into Word, and then exported from Word as a web page.

P.S. StrongBad also likes to dance.

Kristen Mission Photos

2005-01-01T18:57:00.000-05:00

New photos of Kristen's mission, and also a chronological look at her early life...

If you'd like to print any of these pictures, contact us. We have higher resolution images stashed away.

The pictures were organized in Picasa on Windows (you can download it for free), and then exported to HTML.

New picture albums

2004-12-28T18:26:00.000-05:00

Vacation continues... And so we've organized and uploaded a bunch of pictures. Check them out!

If you'd like to print any of these pictures, contact us. We have higher resolution images stashed away.

The pictures were organized in iPhoto on my Mac, and then exported to HTML through the BetterHTMLExport plugin.

Hawaii Video Tour

2004-12-26T03:17:00.000-05:00

We figured out how to use my video conferencing camera to take movies for you! If you were here, we'd give you a tour of our place; but since you're not, here is a virtual tour.

P.S. Mom, these videos are for you. Now you can check on the living conditions of your son and daughter-in-law (-;

If you can't see the videos, try downloading and installing DivX. If that doesn't work, email me (-;

Wonder how I did it? These movies were taken with my Apple iSight camera, using the Boinx iVeZeen movie capture software. They were then recompressed to DivX using Bink Video's Rad Video Tools.