Luckie Daniels, proprietor of Our Georgia Roots, a tenacious researcher and tech expert, has taken on the hosting of the first edition of the Carnival of African-American Genealogy. The theme for the first edition concerns slave research. Participants are asked to answer one or more of the following questions:
What responsibilities are involved on the part [...]
A Long-Sought Photograph, Discovered, Stirs the Pot
The photograph of my second great-grandfather was in a book titled Black Confederates (Pelican Publishing 2001), which its editors and publisher tout as a compilation of historical accounts, photographs and documents relating to blacks who served with rebel forces in the Civil War. Lewis LeJay (1835-1921) is described in [...]
Continue reading about Black Confederates: Inconvenient Truth or Racist-inspired Revisionism?
There are some ancestors I have given up any hope of ever seeing in a photograph. So it was with my second great-grandfather, Lewis LeJay of De Soto Parish, Louisiana. He was the husband of Syntrilla Brayboy and they were the parents of Sylvia LeJay. Sylvia married Richard William Gines, and they became my mother’s [...]
The African-American History Month presentation of the California Genealogical Society and Library has just concluded minutes ago. The meeting itself was a history maker.
A morning session consisted of a panel of eminent experts from the African-American Genealogical Society of Northern California. These top researchers were Electra Price, Juliet Crutchfield and Jackie Stewart.
Then, in the afternoon, [...]
1. Joseph Perry Micheau and Edna Julia Lewis were married on 27 November 1913, at St. Francis Xavier Church, in Carbondale, Illinois. They were married for 62 years before Joe died in 1975. On their 50th wedding anniversary in 1963, they received a special telegram from Pope John XXIII.
2. She was, at the end of [...]
Continue reading about Love Letters from Prairie du Rocher: Epilogue
Joseph Perry Micheau (born 23 Feb 1888, Prairie du Rocher, Illinois; died 15 Nov 1975, St Louis, Missouri) was a descendant of the French Negroes of Illinois–originally slaves from Jamaica brought to Upper Louisiana by French entrepeneur Phillipe Renault in the 1720’s. The Micheau family represent well the social and cultural lives of the descendants [...]
Continue reading about Valentines Day: Love Letters from Prairie du Rocher
During November, which is Black Catholic History Month, I wrote about the Knights of Peter Claver. A few days ago, I came across this badge from St Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in St Louis. St Elizabeth’s was a parish established especially for black Catholics by Fr. John Markoe and his brother, Fr. William Markoe, both Jesuits, [...]
Sometime after their marriage in 1913, Joseph P. Micheau and his wife Edna Lewis moved their family from Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri. According to Joseph’s 1917 draft card, they lived at 4210 Cote Brilliant and then apparently at 3128 Fair Avenue. The 1920 census places them on Fair Avenue. Later, however, [...]
Continue reading about Black History Month: A Strange Letter and an un-Fair Move?
Two years ago, when my little sister had her (ahem!) most significant birthday yet, I wrote about her, in what I think was one of my best posts ever. Now, two years later, as we slip into that time of life where we spend a great deal of time caring for our parents as they [...]
Continue reading about Happy Birthday to the World’s Smartest Sister!
“Claverism” observes 100th Anniversary in USA
Every Catholic and many a non- Catholic recognizes the name of the largest Catholic lay organization in the world, the Knights of Columbus. This is a group of “practical” Catholic men who do charitable acts. Indeed, over the last ten years, the “K of C” have donated more than a [...]
Continue reading about Black Catholic History Month: The Knights of Who?
