Genealogy Adventures

Politics aside, Joseph found himself part of a group of African American expatriates who were encouraged by the Stalinist government in the 1930s to work in the Soviet Union building a society free of class and racism. And he tells a telling story with regards to the latter. The only experience of racism he ever experienced in the USSR was at the hands of fellow Americans, who were white, in a Moscow barbershop. Their white compatriots demanded that he and another African American leave. When Joseph relayed the request of the two gentlemen to the Russian barbers, the barbers insisted that the two white gentlemen had to leave, not even allowing the two men to wipe the shaving lather from their faces before being ejected

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://genealogyadventures.net/2015/08/19/black-in-the-ussr-the-life-of-joseph-jepthro-roane/

The August 1926 lynching of my second cousin twice removed, Raymond Arthur Byrd, remains one of my most-read posts. Every week. Thanks to Google Analytics, I've been able to monitor the reach with posts relating to Raymond's story. It doesn't surprise me that Black History/Studies academics have read it. I can gauge this from all of the readers accessing the original post from university computers (e.g. IPs associated with accounts like .edu and .ac.uk). The NAACP has certainly read it. As have journalists from CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC the UK's Channel 4, Italy's La Repubblica and the French newspaper Le Monde. It's also been read by people at Twentieth Century Fox. Its reach led to a British PhD student to get in touch with myself and one of Raymond’s descendants as part of her research into race issues in America.

This is a widely read story.This episode is also available as a blog post: https://genealogyadventures.net/2016/01/21/the-1926-lynching-of-raymond-byrd-part-ii/

19th Century Pennsylvania-born Quaker Josiah Harlan, Prince of Ghor (Afghanistan).  He’s my second cousin quite a few times removed on my mother’s side of the family. The more I read about him, the more I feel he’s a kindred spirit. Restless in the times he lived in, definitely a non-conformist – he was a man who was never going to be a 9-5 white-collar office kind of guy; although that was very much the world he was born into. A man who reputedly inspired the main character in Rudyard Kipling's story The Man Who Would Be King.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://genealogyadventures.net/2016/01/24/an-american-quaker-in-afghanistan-josiah-harlan-prince-of-ghor/

Researching my earliest African-descended ancestors and family in America has taken a decidedly left-field turn. Once again a foray into genealogy research has made me revise my knowledge of another aspect of American history. The subject matter? Quakers and slavery in the Colonial period and pre-Civil war period.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://genealogyadventures.net/2016/02/18/quakers-slavery-50-shades-of-grey-and-then-some/