Coming this week at GeneaBlogie!

Light One Candle

This Peter, Paul and Mary piece is a secular bit which has become popular for Chanuka and other festivals.

Light one candle for the Maccabee children
Give thanks that their light didn’t die;
Light one candle for the pain they endured
When their right to exist was denied;
Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice
Justice and freedom demand;
light one candle for the wisdom to know
When the peacemaker’s time is at hand!

chorus:
Don’t let the light go out,
It’s lasted for so many years!
Don’t let the light go out!
Let it shine through our love and our tears!

Light one candle for the strength that we need
To never become our own foe;
Light one candle for those who are suff’ring
The pain that we learned long ago;
Light one candle for all we believe in,
That anger not tear us apart;
And light one candle to bind us together
With peace as the song in our heart!

(chorus)

What is the memory that’s valued so highly
That we keep it alive in that flame?
What’s the commitment to those who have died?
We cry out “they’ve not died in vain,”
We have come this far, always believing
That justice will somehow prevail;
This is the burden and This is the promise,
This is why we will not fail!

(chorus)

Don’t let the light go out!
Don’t let the light go out!
Don’t let the light go out!

O Holy Night

This is my favorite religious carol and Nat king Cole does it best!

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O’er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

My favorite Christmas song of any sort. I first heard it in 1965. Darlene Love’s most enduring hit. In the following clip the 71 year old singer does it just like she did 45 years ago!

The snow’s comin’ down / Christmas
I’m watchin’ it fall / Christmas
Lots of people around / Christmas
Baby, please come home

The church bells in town / Christmas
They’re ringin’ a song / Christmas
What a happy sound / Christmas
Baby, please come home

They’re singin’ ‘Deck the Halls’
But it’s not like Christmas at all
I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year

Pretty lights on the tree / Christmas
I’m watchin’ ‘em shine / Christmas
You should be here with me / Christmas
Baby, please come home
Baby, please come home
Baby, please come home

They’re singin’ ‘Deck the Halls’
But it’s not like Christmas at all
I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year

If there was a way / Christmas
I’d hold back these tears / Christmas
But it’s Christmas day / Christmas
Baby, please come home / Christmas
Home / Christmas

Baby, please come home / Christmas
Baby, please come home / Christmas
Baby, please come home / Christmas
Home / Christmas

Baby, please come home / Christmas

• What responsibilities are involved on the part of the researcher when locating names of slaves in a record?
• Does it matter if the record(s) are related to your ancestral lines or not?
• As a descendant of slave owners, have you ever been pressured by family not to discuss or post about records containing slave names?
• As a descendant of slaves, have you been able to work with or even meet other researchers who are descendants of slave owners?
• Have you ever performed a Random Act of Genealogical Kindness involving slave ownership records? Or were you on the receiving end of such kindness?

Although I am the descendant of slaves and slave owners, I’ve never ben privileged to receive salve ownership records from any slaving-owning descendant.  That is one area about which I have been disappointed in my research.    I’ve come close, though.

One family in my paternal line is the Sanfords of Milam County, Texas. William “Billie” Sanford was born  a slave in about 1809 in Virginia.  He is my 2d great-grandfather.  He was owned by a member of the extended Sanford families who lived in Virginia at that time; most probably James Sanford (1769-1849).  When James Sanford moved his family to Tennessee inm the 1820s, they apparently took William with them.  James Sanford died in  1849 in Williamson County, Tennessee.  His son Reuben Sanford, had died three years earlier, also in Williamson County, Tennessee. Upon James’ death, it appears that his daughter-in-law, Mary (“Polly”) Wood Sanford, took charge of the family property, including the slaves.

In about 1854, Mary Wood Sanford relocated the family to Milam County, Texas, taking the slave William with them.  (A cousin of mine told me  recently that the story is that William walked from Tennessee to Texas pushing a wheelbarrow in which sat some of the Sanford children.)

In Milam County, Texas, William was the property of Rueben Henry Sanford, the sixth child of Mary and Reuben.

I’ve been in contact with several members of the white Sanfords, but none were direct descendants of Rueben and Mary.  They have all been very cooperative and we have helped each other solve problems in our respective research.   I’m glad to have found them.  However, I would love to find direct descendants of Reuben and Mary Sanford, who may have ownership documents or who may have heard stories about William.

Reuben Henry Sanford died on 30 Jun 1910.   His former slave, William Sanford, lived until 20 November 1916, when he died at age 106.  He was described by one source as “the oldest colored person ever to die in Milam County.”  His death certificate states in no fewer than three places that his cause of death was “old age.”

A family member described William to me as having been nearly seven feet tall and weighing more than 300 pounds.

Recently, I was in brief contact with a woman whose ancestors held part of my wife’s family as slaves.  I asked if she had  heard the story of the slaves’ daring escape during a Civil War battle.  She said she had not heard the story, but that she was veyr sorry for the things that those particular slaves had endured.  She seemed regretful but not surprised that her ancestors owned slaves.  I let the matter drop, but now wish I could engage with her a bit more.

I haven’t been fortunate enough to locate any other descendants of slaveownwers relevant to my research. (I do know, for example, that Reese Witherspoon is a collateral descendant of Boykin Witherspoon who held some of my ancestors in bondage.)

I think this budding dialogue between descendants of slaves and descendants of slave owners is a mightily important step for American genealogy and history. It’s time the whole story be told, in all its sorrow, cruelty, complexity, and ambiguity.  That’s the only way we’ll all understand ourselves as Americans who value openness and truth.

I’ve been inspired by the example of Luckie and others to reach out myself to the descendants of those who held my ancestors in bondage.

We will be on hiatus until about March 12.  I’m having some surgery at a local hospital, and should be recovered by that time.  In the meantime, please enjoy some posts you may have missed under  The Best of GeneaBlogie.  The link is located just to the right.

Earlier today, Brig Gen Mary J. Kight became the first African-American woman to command a state National Guard organization.  She was sworn in as Adjutant General of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.   She now heads California’s 21,000-strong Army and Air National Guard organizations, the largest in the nation.

I had the great privilege of serving at the California Air National Headquarters as a lieutenant colonel and colonel while Mary Kight, at the same ranks was with the 144th Fighter Wing at Fresno.  I heard about her before I met her.  The respect she garnered around the headquarters back then (the mid- to late 1990′s) made it clear that she was an up and c0ming future leader.

General Kight holds masters degrees from Gonzaga University and the Air University.  She also graduated from California State University, Chico, and Monterey Peninsula College in our mutual hometown of Monterey.   A former aircraft maintenance officer, General Kight has had a variety of assignments in the Air Force and Air National Guard over the past thirty-six years.  Since 2004, she has visited a number of the more than 32,000 Californians who have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I last visited with General Kight last September at the retirement ceremony of a mutual acquaintance at Travis Air Force Base.  Gracious and friendly as always, she certainly didn’t let on that she must have known that she would soon make history again.

I salute and congratulate you, General, for your well-earned appointment!

Brigadier General Mary J. Kight

Adjutant General of California

effective 2 Feb 2010