My friend Luckie Daniels of Our Georgia Roots, has written another thought provoking Monday Madness post, this time to the African American Genealogy Community - Madness Monday: The Digital Divide Revisited ~ Tough Love For The African-American Genealogy Community. After commenting on Luckie’s post, I realized I had actually written my next post. Yes, I could have let that suffice, but I felt I needed to show my support for and belief in Luckie’s position here on my blog. So often, we sit back in the amen corner bowing our heads up and down in agreement, but never speak-up and take a stance. I wanted to echo Luckie’s sentiments. My comment to her did that, and posting it here reiterates it. There needs to be some serious changes in the African American genealogy community; those changes need to occur sooner, rather than later before we are standing in the shadows as the online genea-community moves forward.
Thank you Luckie for a very timely and long overdue post. How sad it was to hear people who have been researching their family history for years stand up in a meeting and ask for help, but they are not on the internet, don’t like, won’t do it. There are so any resources out there, and many connections to make, but you won’t find them in your living room or in the archives. Genealogy is changing, and the African American community of researchers must change with it. And, it’s not only in genealogy. As another comment so appropriately pointed out, we are missing a wealth of information and resources by not being a part of the online community. It is up to us to take advantage of what is there.
After Luckie’s post, Monday Madness: Open Letter To The Genealogy Community – Help Me To Understand!, many white researchers are now stepping up and sharing documents that might assist researchers in discovering more about their enslaved ancestors. The first Carnival of African American Genealogy is scheduled for March 19th. Look at all you’ve missed just in the last few weeks! How can you possibly take advantage of the opportunity to have access to documents that could help you make that long-awaited connection, or break down that brick wall, when you are not here-online and interacting with the genea-community? How can you ask others to help you, when you won’t even help yourself? Luckie has issued a challenge, this time to the African American genealogy community. It is a call to action that I hope our fellow African American researchers will answer-SOON. Let’s not be left behind.
(Darn, you’re not online, so you probably won’t get to read this, or any of the other posts that geneabloggers are writing every day. What a SHAME!!)
