Comments on: More About Slave Records on Ancestry

By: ELENORA GILLIARD MCGHEE

ELENORA GILLIARD MCGHEE — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:06:12 +0000

i am trying to find out more about my ancestor from the charleston county of south carolina during the slavery time. in the mt pleasant section

By: larry

larry — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:32:36 +0000

try to find mt familys history and i am try to figure out how to work on census from my fmaily name thank you larry

By: Mary Beth Marchant

Mary Beth Marchant — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:50:43 +0000

Regardin the comment about Texas records, Texas has more online digital records than any other state, bar none. You just have to know where to go. Republic Claims Records and Confederate Pension records are there. My great grandfather was born in Louisiana and if Louisiana has any thing like on line in a digital format, I cannot find it.

I too am pleased about the new records because of the inclusion of the Confederate Pension records for Georgia.

By: Roslyn Mayo

Roslyn Mayo — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:07:07 +0000

Dear Lisa, Thank you for all of your enthusiams. It makes me fell excited to know that some one is doing a difficult job. I do wish Texas and other state were as Fortunate as Louisianna. I did find one relative from St. Lucy Barbados and was thrilled. I had heard from relatives about this Island they came from, but never had a name until now. I know i am a decendent of slaves, Americian Indians and understand their and my hardships, but I just want to find my people. To do this I’ll have to endure their brutality and be proud of the legacy they left me, my children and grandchildren. I am a senior person and I am in a rush to find as many records as I can.
Thank You very much,
Roslyn

By: Reed

Reed — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:59:30 +0000

Dear Lisa,

First of all, thank you to Ancestry for making such valuable records available online. I am sure they will prove useful to many researchers as they work to piece together the histories of families and individuals enslaved in North America and the Caribbean. The compilers of these records deserve great credit for their efforts to collect and organize this important data and further illuminate this tragic period in our nation’s history.

I’m sure you will agree that these are no ordinary records. They represent more than a big genealogical “find.” They are the records of decades of human suffering and oppression, and require the same thoughtful consideration as records of other eras of government-approved, systematic, planned and documented brutality against our fellow humans, such as—for instance— the Native American removals of the nineteenth century and the Holocaust.

With that in mind, might I suggest a more scholarly, and less “gee-whiz” tone for your remarks? I think phrases such as “Wow, what amazing details about the slaves in this collection!” and “Check out these wonderful new records when you get a chance”—while understandable in other genealogical contexts—show a lack of empathy for the memory of the enslaved men, women and children that these documents record.

Thank you.

—Reed