The Ellen Payne Odom Genealogy Library Family Tree
The Family Tree - February/March 2003
Wee Snippets (5)

Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer's Project now online
From 1936 through 1938, the Federal Writer's Project of the WPA collected more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black and white photos. These were microfilmed in 1941 and assembled into a seventeen volume, "A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves."
These autobiographical accounts were complied in seventeen states and most are first person accounts of slave life giving their own impression and reaction to their bondage.
The Library of Congress has made the collection available online. More than 200 photographs are being made available to the public for the first time. The collection can be found at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sn.html/
Thanks to The Live Oak, PO Box 20417, Oakland, CA 94620-0417.

Thank You

All my life I have wondered
about my ancestors
Who were here long before I
was a tiny baby 'neath
My dear mother's heart.
I have wondered.
And I've wandered
In the foggy mystery
As mysterious
As the far away stars
Are and were to child eyes.

The talk so strange
Of my ancestors
And grandparents seem to flow
Past me as a lazy river goes
Always near me now
Where ever I may be.
And this ever present voice of the ancestors
Speaks above the waters
Rushing to the sea.

"Hurry. Hurry."
"Your not a child anymore!"
"Come and Solve the mystery!"
"It really wasn't that long ago
That we were here."
Now with the help of genealogy,
And lovely people working for us
This world's a better place, dear.
Barbara Nichols

Thanks for Valentines Marie Henderson
Marie Henderson sent us some lovely Valentine's to use at our Braveheart Scottish Weekend 2003. We decorated Friday night using the Valentine's theme since the event fell on Valentine's Day...and the Valentine's sent by our readers really enhanced the tables!
Thank you, Marie!