This week, explore two stories concerning WWI Medal of Honor recipients, secret gems hiding in well-known places like the Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square, a few of the 200+ synonyms for being tipsy published by Benjamin Franklin, and much more!
This week, explore Pitcairn Island, a new online index to Oklahoma births and deaths, slang, Barack Obama Plaza, and a project to mark the 100th anniversary in 2016 of the start of the first Great Migration.
In this week's Roundup: Discover Central Park before it was Central Park, when the site housed a village where African-Americans "had a rate of property ownership four times as great as New Yorkers as a whole". Also enjoy the story of the 75th baby in his family to wear a baptism gown made from his great-great-grandmother's wedding dress!
This week: old wedding photos recreated, preserving the smell of history, raise a glass at 10 of the remotest bars on the planet, the cave where Nat Turner hid, and more.
Lots of inspiration this week! Start with a look at a memorial which had as its genesis this thought: "The character of a nation as a people of great deeds is one, it appears to me, that should never be lost sight of." Explore the story of Lucy Lee Shirley, a woman who transcended the shadows of slavery and domestic abuse and who, among other things, was able to educate herself and her family and leave her children more than $23,000 in today’s money; check out the update on the DNA of long-lived Italians which was previously reported as stolen, and more.
Lots of goodies in this week's Roundup! British celebrities highlight their "refugenes" in an effort to help refugees. We also have two stories around DNA, two stories in which blacksmiths play a part -- one forging awards from pieces of the Statue of Liberty and the other performing marriage ceremonies(!) -- two stories about segregation in cemeteries, and more.
In climbing the branches of Lin-Manuel Miranda's family tree, I found myself following the trail of an early nineteenth century, interracial love story, peppered by war and rebellion, all interwoven with a decades-long struggle to outrun slavery that began in Virginia and ultimately unfolded under a handful of flags even though most of it occurred in one place – Nacogdoches.
The goal of The Preservers of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery, one of the Q2 2016 Seton Shields Genealogy Grant recipients, is to restore and preserve a historic African American burial ground. The grant will be used to assist in repairing a damaged grave marker.
This week, explore a unique town in Ohio founded by a freed slave from Virginia as well as a treasure trove of Civil War photos, get a genealogy lesson from Michelle Obama, and learn what one community did to remember unclaimed persons.
This week, a look at the burial site of George Washington's grandma, some of the individual stories of unclaimed persons in New York City, keeping the memories of loved ones alive, and much, much more!
