The Stringed Quartet

I began playing the Viola in 6th grade and played until my sophomore year in college. My, how I miss those days. I participated in various orchestra activities including several quartets. This is a photo of a quartet comprised of (left to right) Arnaz, who played cello; Mrs. Jeraldine Herbinson, my first string teacher on violin; Me (Drusilla) on Viola; and Cathy, on violin.

Arnaz, Cathy, and I were in high school (between 1978 and 1981) during the time of this quartet. Cathy and I met in 7th grade and after that time attended the same schools; Arnaz attended another school in our city, but we would see him in city wide orchestra activities, or events such as this, when we played as a quartet. Although Mrs. Herbinson was our (Cathy and I) string teacher from elemementary school, we still saw her throughout our school days at orchestra activities and events such as the day we played in this quartet. Mrs. Herbinson was probably Arnaz's string teacher sometime during his school days, but I do not know for sure.

I believe that we played at a local church on the day that this photo was taken.

Kreativ Blog Award

I am honored to be one of the recipients of the another “Kreativ Award.” Earlier this year, I also received this award. Many thanks for my current nomination go to my fellow Bloggers: Cheryl of Heritage Happens, Russ of Heritage Happens, Mavis of Heritage Happens, and Felicia of Our Family As A Whole, and Darlene of My Colored Rootsfor selecting me for this award.

As a recepient of this award, I am required to write seven things about myself.

1. My favorite Microsoft Office software is PowerPoint.
2. I have a weakness for chocolate and other sweetness.
3. I learned to play the Viola (like a violin) in 6th grade, and played though my sophomore year in college. I hope to begin playing again one day.
4. My favorite fruit is banana.
5. My favorite color if Fushia.
6. Besides genealogy, I also like to read, travel, and crochet.
7. I am a Genea-Holic and am proud of it!!!!!!
8. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.

I have added the "Kreativ Blogger Award" logo to my blog and have also placed links to the person(s) who gave me this award in this posting.

Additionally, as a recipient of this award, I am required to nominate seven other blogs. Below, is a list of my nominations for the “Kreativ Blogger Award.”

1. Steve’s Genealogy Blog by Stephen Danko
   


2. Life From The Roots by Barbara Poole
   


3. African Roots Podcast by Angela Walton-Raji
   


4. The Blessedness of Believing by Linda Meadows
   


5. Genealogy – Photograph – Restoration by George Geder
   


6. Genealogy Tip of the Day by Michael John Neill
   


7. The Professional Descendnt by The Professional Descendant

Finally, I will leave comments on each of these blogs.

Thanks again to Cheryl, Russ, Mavis, Felicia, and Darlene for your nominations. I am honored to be included in a group of such Great Bloggers.

Educating Yourself in Genealogy

Educating yourself in genealogy is essential to your success in “Finding Your Folks.” As you progress on your genealogical journey, you will need to continually develop your research and methodology skills. For the past 15 years, I have continually educated myself and developed my genealogy research and methodology skills by doing the following things.

• Reading how-to genealogy books, pamphlets, published and unpublished family histories, magazines, and Internet articles or blogs. Many of these resources were found at my local public library.


• Watching genealogy and historical VHS videos, DVDs, and online videos. I found some genealogy and historical VHS and DVDs at my local public library. I have also discovered genealogy and historical videos on online websites such as YouTube and Roots Television.


• Attending workshops and conferences, both local and national. Workshops and conferences are not only a good source for information, but are also a place to meet and network with other genealogist who share your common interest.


• Taking genealogy classes (online and face-to-face). Some colleges and universities offer face-to-face or online genealogy courses. I haven taken online courses through GenClass. There are also other Online and Home Study Courses offered by various organizations.


• Joining genealogy societies. In my local society, we have monthly speakers whose lectures enhance my knowledge in various historical and genealogical topics. Other societies, whose meetings I am not able to attend because of distance, provide newsletters and journals which further my knowledge in history and genealogy.

Angela Walton-Raji of African Roots Podcast and The Beginning Genealogist website shares her thoughts on “Educating Yourself” in one of her latest videos.

The Beginning Genealogist Website and Videos

In response to a myriad of questions that she has received from persons who are just getting started researching their family history, Angela Walton-Raji of African Roots Podcast has created a new website and videos called The Beginning Genealogist.

Videos created for new genealogists can be viewed either from the The Beginning Genealogist website or from the AYWalton YouTube channel.

Thank you, Angela, for taking the time to create this Beginner Genealogist website and videos.

My Colored Roots Blog

Today, I’d like to introduce you to the My Colored Roots blog by my blog reader, Darlene. I have noticed Darlene’s comments on my blog for a while and was fortunate to meet her at the International Black Genealogy Summit a few weeks ago. She also attended my “Power of Blogging” workshop at the conference.


I featured Darlene in my blog posting Unleashing Your Inner Afrocentric.


Congratulations to Darlene on entering the blog world and I wish you much success in your future blogging endeavors.

Life From the Roots Blog

Today, I would like to introduce you to the Life From The Roots blog by my online friend, Barbara Poole. Barbara has been a bit shy about introducing her blog, but it is an outstanding and attractive site. I especially like her posting entitled My Scrambled Eggs which talks about research of her SCHRAMBLING OR SCHREMBLING family.

Barbara and I have known each other online for about three years and we met face-to-face in 2007 when I attended a genealogy conference in her area. (For more on this meeting, read posting on The Excitement of Meeting Online Friends.

Congratulations to Barbara on the success of your blog and I look forward to reading more exciting postings.

Unleashing the Inner Afrocentric-Wearing African Attire

Many of the conference attendees of the International Black Genealogy Summit "unleashed their inner afrocentric" by dressing in various African styles during the conference activities. Darlene, one of my faithful blog readers, whom I met for the first time at this conference, wore this beautiful African styled ensemble with a bright yellow head wrap on Saturday.

Darlene is beautifully dressed in brown/tan/yellow earthtone colors with a dark brown short sleeve shirt and a earthtone colored wrap skirt. The bright yellow head wrap brings out the colors in her blouse and skirt.

Here is a back view of Darlene's head wrap. I sat about two rows behind her in the "Genealogy File and Time Management" workshop conducted by Shelley Murphy.

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"I like your head wrap,"

I said to Darlene after the workshop ended.

"I got the idea from your blog," she told me.

As a blogger, that made me feel good to know that my blog posting had positively influenced someone. I recognized the style of Darlene's head wrap from a video I had viewed on YouTube , however, I did not post that particular video on my blog. I did, however, post three videos on "How to Tie an African Head Wrap". It was these videos that gave Darlene the idea of wearing a head wrap and African attire to the conference.

"After reading your blog, I searched for more videos and found the
TheTonyaTkoShow ," Darlene also told me.

She wore the head wrap style demonstrated by Tonya in the video below.

3 Ways to Unleash Your Inner Afrocentric: Parts2: Head Wrap

For other Afrocentric videos by TheTonyaTkoShow , visit the links below.

3 Ways to Unleash Your Inner Afrocentric: Part1. Dress

3 Ways to Unleash Your Inner Afrocentric: Part3. Ethnic Jewelry

Images From the International Black Genealogy Summit

Terry Ligon did a fantastic job putting together a video of images from the International Black Genealogy Summit.

It's a Small World!

On this past Sunday, I struck up a conversation with a woman inside the Hilton Hotel in Ft. Wayne before leaving for the airport. We had just attended the International Black Genealogy Summit and were all waiting for the shuttle when I discovered that she was from my father's hometown in Emporia, VA located in Greensville County. The lady lives in another state now. I don't remember how the conversation began--I think she may have asked where I was from and what places I research.

While we were on the shuttle, we talked more about the Emporia connection. During the conversation, I pulled out my cell phone and called a cousin (Carolyn) who is a lifelong resident of Emporia. My cousin asked me questions about the lady's family and I couldn't remember all of the details because I had put my notebook in my briefcase. So I handed the lady (Ethel) my cell phone. Cousin Carolyn and Ethel did not know each other, but both of them knew a lot of the same people from Emporia. Everyone on the shuttle had attended the conference and we all laughed as we listened to Ethel talking to my cousin Carolyn as if they had known each other for years.

Ethel's ancestors and my ancestors attended the same churches (Shiloh Baptist and Antioch Baptist.) One of her family members was also the community barber.

I'm looking forward to discovering more about the relationship between these two families.

Thank God for cell phone technology. Instead of waiting until I got home to call my cousin, I was able to use this technology to call her while Ethel was on the shuttle with me. Nothing replaces seeing her smiling face and hearing her excited voice as she talked to my cousin like they had know each other for years.

Power of Blogging Presentation

THE POWER OF BLOGGING PRESENTATION

International Black Genealogy Summit

Friday, October 30, 2009

Allen County Public Library Room

Fort Wayne, Indiana

PRESENTATION SUMMARY: Workshop will demonstrate the basics of blogging, ranging from the technical aspects of blog creation, publishing and upkeep, to ways to steer traffic to a blog.

Here, I showed my blog awards section of the Find Your Folks blog.

Here, I demonstrated adding a photo to a blog entry.

They all seemed attentive and interested. I was pleased with the turnout for this workshop. Only two attendees had blogs; the rest were interested in learning what blogging was all about.

One Last Morsel of Research

I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to take one more look before leaving town.

Conference attendees of the International Black Genealogy Summit took advantage of the extended Sunday hours (8 a.m - 5 p.m.) of the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Room. I squeezed in a few moments to gather one last morsel of research at the library prior to leaving for the airport. My research focus was on Allen Pair (abt. 1843-aft. 1915), who was a slave in Greensville County, Virginia. By 1880, he moved to Leavenworth, Kansas. (I will discuss my research findings later).

I was not alone in taking advantage of the Sunday hours of the library before leaving the city of Fort Wayne. The ladies in these photos (Cristal, Janis, and Angela) also took advantage of the extended hours and we had lots of fun taking photos with our cell phone cameras and exchanging genealogy busines cards. As you can see from the piles of books on the table and cart, there were quite a few resources at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Room.

Thanks to the staff of the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Room for all of your hospitality and assistance.