History
Freedman’s Bank Records Open New Doors, Reveal Much
The Freedman’s Bank, a distinct entity from the Freedman’s Bureau, was established by Congress on March 3, 1865. The bank’s official name was the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. The bank’s purpose was to assist African-Americans recently freed from bondage to adjust and thrive economically. It had branches in 16 states and the District of Columbia, where former slaves, black …
September 5, 2009 Saturday at 9:41 am
John Hope Franklin, 1915 – 2009
One of America’s greatest historians, John Hope Franklin has died at the age of 94. Born on January 2, 1915 in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, a place so small it seems to have been overlooked on the 1920 census, he was the son of Buck Colbert Franklin and Molly Parker Franklin. His father was one of the first black lawyers in Oklahoma, …
March 27, 2009 Friday at 8:26 pm
One Drop
A GeneaBlogie Book Review Bliss Broyard grew up in the wealthiest part of Fairfield, Connecticut, one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. She lived a life of privilege as one of two children of New York Times book critic and essayist Anatole Broyard. Her handsome, witty father was well-known in literary and social circles. But Bliss would find out …
January 27, 2008 Sunday at 2:29 am
Genealogy: Art or Science? A Thought
. . . [G]enealogical narratives . . . often take a form that deserves to be denominated as literature. The best genealogies are artful and achieve the status of consciously crafted art. Donald Harman Akenson in Some Family–The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007)
December 10, 2007 Monday at 8:10 pm
