Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette 

JUNETEENTH RECOGNIZED NATIONALLY

 African Americans throughout the United States have been hearing about and in recent years have begun celebrating Juneteenth. While not conducted as universally or as large as in Texas, African Americans in several areas of the country including Oklahoma, Louisiana and Washington, DC are reported to now celebrate this unique Texas African American holiday.

 Juneteenth celebrates June 19th 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and read the Emancipation Proclamation. Celebrations since 1867 have featured picnics, parades, family reunions and other public and private events. Beginning in 1980 Juneteenth became a Texas state sponsored holiday.

 AMERICAN SLAVERY BEGAN IN 1619

 Slavery is mentioned in the Bible as being commonplace long before the birth of Jesus and is still being practiced in various parts of the world today. The American version of slavery, however, began as early as 1619 in Jamestowne and officially ended in 1865 at the close of the Civil War.

 Between 1777 and 1804 most of the New England and Middle Atlantic states banned or allowed for graduated emancipation of slaves. Beginning in 1808 the United States Congress banned the importation of slaves "into the United States or territories thereof". In 1863 President Lincoln orated his Emancipation Proclamation which, on paper, freed slaves in states that were in rebellion against the Union, but, not the states that remained in the Union. It was not until June 19, 1865, however, that the last slaves in what is now the United States were free of enslavement.

 During the early 1800s, the majority of Africans in America were enslaved. There were, however, free persons of color living in America from the beginning of the country onward. Some had never been indentured nor enslaved. Some had escaped enslavement, while others had purchased their freedom or had been emancipated by their owner.

 According to governmental statistics there were over 3.2 million slaves and 240,000 free persons of color enumerated on the 1850 United States census. In Texas that year there were 154,034 slaves and 397 free people of color.

AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCH SOURCES

 Researchers wishing to trace their African American heritage should begin by asking relatives at home about their ancestry. Once ancestors as far back as 1920 have been identified one should begin locating those ancestors on the censuses from 1920 backwards to 1870. These censuses are available for research free of charge at Clayton Library, 5300 Caroline in Houston's Museum District.

 Clayton Library also has a CD-Rom with signatures and Freedmen's Bank account information of former slaves and Union African American soldiers shortly after the Civil War. The library also has many of the published Works Project Administration's published Slave Narratives.

 Some informative websites popular with African American researchers are Afrigeneas at http://www.afrigeneas.com/ and the Library of Congress' African American Mosaic website at http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam001.html

 WASHINGTON, DC INSTITUTE

 The Dallas Genealogical Society announces The Washington D.C.
Institute, an in-depth, intensive study on researching in the Washington D.C. area. The courses will be led by two of the nation's leading genealogists, John P. Colletta, Ph.D. and Lloyd D. Bockstruck, FNGS.

 The Institute will be held 19-22 July 2001, in Dallas, Texas. Space is limited to 100 pre-registered students. No registrations will be accepted after
11 July 2001. Information is available at: http://www.dallasgenealogy.org

BEGINING GENEALOGY COURSE IN BELLAIRE

 The Bellaire Recreation Center located at Feris and Laurel Streets in Bellaire will sponsor a Beginning Genealogy course. Taught by Houston genealogical author Emily Anne Croom the course will be held at the BRC on Thursday July 5 and Thursday July 12 from 7 to 9 P.M.

 For further information and to enroll contact BRC at 713-662-8280.

NEWS FROM THE BOOKSHELF

 Paul Heinegg, author of Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia, has compiled a similar book, Free African Americans of  Maryland and Delaware From the Colonial Period to 1810. The newest volume is available for $48.50 postpaid, from the publisher, the Clearfield Company, 200 E. Eager Street, Baltimore, MD 21202.

 In Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware Heinegg has assembled genealogical evidence on more than 300 Maryland and Delaware African American families amounting to nearly 6,000 persons.

 This book is very enlightening and may become somewhat controversial. According to evidence accumulated by Heinegg most of these free Black families descended from mixed race children who were the progeny of white women and African American men.

 In many cases, according to Heinegg, many of those African Americans claiming descent from colonial Maryland and Delaware Native Americans are actually descendants of liaisons of white women and African American men.