Join US Black Heritage Connecting Challenge--March 2023 [closed]

Question

      US Black Heritage Project's

        Connecting Challenge

       We're off to a great start!

 We met the US Black Heritage Project's goal of reaching 150,000 African-American profiles in the year 2022 early! Now we're well on our way to hitting our 2023 goal of 250,000 profiles and we'll help reach it by continuing the Connecting Challenge. It is similar to the WikiTree Connect-a-Thon with a few exceptions. Please read our challenge space page for all the rules.

Who can participate? Any WikiTree member who has upgraded from guest and has signed the honor code. 

Start/End: This Challenge is a month long. We begin on the first of each month and end at midnight EST on the last day of each month.

A participant sticker will be available to all members who join in for at least one of the months. Special stickers will be awarded to all participants who create at least 25 profiles in a month. A Winner's sticker will be given to the top contributor each month.

To Partipate:

• Read the rules please!
• Click on the "answer" button below my name on this post to declare you want to participate.
• Start with an existing profile and create a family member attached to that profile. Keep adding as many family members up, down, and sideways on the tree as you can. Each new profile is one point.
• Make sure the research is correct! Use primary documents to find and prove relationships.
• Add the {{African-American Sticker}} to any profiles of Black Americans who lived in the USA, so the project can keep track of the profiles and honor their heritage.
• Add at least one strong source to every profile.
• Use the Challenge Tracker to keep track of every new profile you create for this challenge. It will count the total for you automatically. If you discover you forgot to track some, you can list them here to count.
• Repeat.
• If you are working on enslaved ancestors, every new slave profile you link to a slave owner using the USBH Project's guidelines, counts as a connected profile. See the Heritage Exchange Portal for more information.

Have questions? Please ask.

Only have time for a few profiles? Please join us! Every contribution gets us closer to our goal.

Do you need some profiles to get you started? 

• Check out the Project's "needs profiles created" category. (this means a source exists on that profile with family named who need profiles created)
• Check out the project's managed profiles list (notables). (look for notables who need family added)
• Look at our Family Tree Size of One category. These people desperately need family added. 
• If you know how to process slavery documentation, check out the "needs slave profiles created" category.

If you are already on the WikiTree Discord server, you should have access to the US Black Heritage Connecting Challenge channel. If you can't access it, please send me a message.

Thanks for growing our tree!

---

• Our February Challenge total: 5295
• Total count of profiles as of February 26: 182,406 
• February Winners: Kate Schmidt, Emma MacBeath, Nanette Pezzutti, Karen Lowe, Miyako Jones

Answer 1

Our numbers are looking great! Keep up the great work. I have several families I"m currently working on, so I'll keep expanding them this month.

Comments

Hi Emma,

About a week ago there was a short video about Isaac Johnson that aired on a local television station and was made available online.  That inspired me to create a profile for Isaac - Johnson-133696 - and his wife, Theadocia Allen, and their family.  I am still working on adding profiles.

Many years ago I read Isaac Johnson's 1901 book, Slavery Days in Old Kentucky, that tells the story of his childhood.  It was reprinted by our local St. Lawrence County Historical Association in 1994.  As an adult, Isaac became a master stone mason and built several important public buildings and bridges in our area.  One of them is the old Waddington Town Hall, featured in the video.  This morning I went by this historic building and also crossed the stone-arch bridge at Chamberlain Corners on the way.

Best wishes,

Bill Hull

---

Thanks for creating that profile and his family! I added a couple of categories and the {{African-American Sticker}} Can you make sure his family has the sticker too? It's the only way we can find and count our profiles. Thanks!

---

Hi Emma,

Thanks for your reply.  Actually, I would rather not label people with the sticker, although I will leave the one you placed on Isaac's profile.

Last night I had the unexpected pleasure of attending a performance by the Laurentian Singers at the old Waddington Town Hall.  This was the second time I have attended one of their performances at this historic building.

The Waddington Museum has now been moved to the old town hall, and they have a chair that Isaac Johnson made and gave to a friend.  They also have historic photos of the town hall and a photo of Isaac's family.  If possible and with their permission, I will scan the photo to add to the profiles.

Bill

---

Hi Bill, the sticker is a standard for all profiles with Black heritage on WikiTree and they only way we can find them. It has been approved and very much liked by descendants who also add it to their own profiles. If you don't add the sticker to the profiles, they don't get counted and they don't show up in any of the reports we run to help us with our work.

---

Hi Emma,

If descendants of Isaac Johnson wish to add the sticker to their ancestor's profiles, that is fine with me.  When Isaac's book, Slavery Days in Old Kentucky, was reprinted in 1994, local historians contacted some of Isaac's grandchildren or great grandchildren, and the historians were asked not to divulge their identities.  I will honor that request as well.

There was a woman from a prominent family who grew up in Ogdensburg that was in the same age group as Isaac Johnson & Theadocia Allen.  I don't know if she ever met the couple.  This woman married and moved away, was widowed at a young age and inherited a huge fortune.  Acting as a wonderful philanthropist, she donated the major funding to establish the Eugenics Records Office at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island.

According to Wikipedia, the mission of the Eugenics Records Office "was to collect substantial information on the ancestry of the American population, to produce propaganda that was made to fuel the eugenics movement, and to promote the idea of race-betterment."

For myself, I truly believe in the words of Han Suyin:  "There is only one race - the human race."  Therefore, I stand firm on my objection to applying these labels.

Bill

---

Hi Bill, 

After reviewing your comments above, I feel I need to share with you my thoughts as an African-American and the mission of the US Black Heritage Project. First, the sticker is not a label, but rather a badge of honor and pride of my heritage. Second, our mission is to connect the African-American descendants with their ancestors. Which is why we need the heritage sticker added to the profiles. This has nothing to do with the eugenics movement or any other propaganda. You may be lucky enough to know your families history, but I, like many others do not know who our ancestors are beyond the 1870 census if they are not documented in the history books. Yes, we are all members of the human race, but with varying ethnicities with exciting stories of our cultures and beliefs, which have shaped this nation. We are examining the past, not looking to change the future. As members of the human race, it is interesting to learn how are we connected. By the way, you and I currently share 25 degrees of separation through 5 family branches. As I continue my research we may become even closer or even discover we are cousins! That has nothing to do with ethnicity. It is what it is!

That being said, I would appreciate you reconsidering your objection to adding the heritage sticker to the profiles of African-Americans so that we can all share in the joy of discovering our ancestors and learning our heritage!

Warm regards!

---

Hi Denise,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights.  This is a difficult issue for me, as I grew up in a very racist culture in Ohio and have been fighting against the indoctrination all of my life.  Fortunately, my parents were the least racist people I knew back then.  Over the years I have met and made friends with some wonderful people from all over the world, and many Americans with varied ethnic backgrounds.  This has helped tremendously.

I still do not wish to label people, and that is my objection to using these stickers.  Another issue:  Isaac Johnson would have been considered "mulatto" as his mother was from Madagascar, and his father from Ireland (although possibly of Palatine German ancestry).  Isaac's children would have been labeled as "quadroons" in years past, and some of his grandchildren as "octoroons."  Obviously, I do not want to continue such a cruel system.

Lastly, I just listened once again to a wonderful 12-minute speech given by Paul Robeson at Peach Arch Park, Blaine, Washington, on 16 August 1953:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLCndkx1e10

Toward the end he shares his thoughts about the people of the world, with which I concur.

Best wishes,

Bill

---

Bill, we have found the more we have worked with these profiles (our count is now over 183,000), the more we have discovered that heritage is far more complex than Americans think. In other words, African-Americans aren't just African and many people who think they're only European (white) have African heritage that was lost when a family felt the pressure to pass as white.

This is one reason we like to honor all the heritage we can on these profiles. Please don't see it as a label, but a celebration instead. My own profile currently has 8 heritage stickers. The family you mentioned that also has Irish heritage? We would add the African American sticker to that family and the Irish Roots sticker so people can see the full scope of their family roots and be able to celebrate it.

---

Hi Emma,

Thanks for your additional thoughts.  I appreciate your efforts to celebrate the heritage of various people, but I still do not wish to add the stickers.

I did want to mention that a month or so ago I discovered through WikiTree that my grandfather, George Clements, was a 6th cousin to W. E. B. Du Bois, and that was very exciting to learn.  Back in the late 1990s, I attended a talk by David Graham Du Bois (step son of W. E. B.), and learned some new things about our country and our news media in particular.  That talk was held at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.

Maybe five or six years ago I attended a talk at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, by Angela Davis.  I was pleasantly surprised that she had a full house (as I didn't think too many younger people would know who she was).  A week or so ago I found out that she is probably related to me through the family of William Brewster of the Mayflower.

All for now,

Bill

---

I’m adding! I hope it’s helping

Answer 2

I will get some profiles added.

Comments

Thanks, Terry!

Answer 3

I'll work on this

Comments

Thanks, Katherine!

Answer 4

I'm in for this month!

Comments

Thanks, Dallas!

Answer 5

I'll add some McNabs.

Comments

Thanks, Cossy!

Answer 6

I'm in too!  Can't stay away.  So many profiles to do, so little time...

Comments

Thanks, Bart! Yes, SO many profiles...

Answer 7

Hi, I'm in for March! Makes a restful break from gardening clean up :)

Comments

Thanks, AM!

Answer 8

Count me in

Comments

Thanks, D!

Answer 9

Please add me. Thanks.

Comments

Thanks, Miyako!

Answer 10

I’m in, thanks!

Comments

Thanks, Elaine!

Answer 11

Hi Emma, I'll work on more profiles this month. Sue

Comments

Thanks, Sue!

Answer 12

I'm with ya, thanks Emma!

Comments

Thanks, Denise!

Answer 13

I am in!

* { background: #36393f !important; color:white !important;}

Comments

Thanks, Lisa!

Answer 14

I can do a few this month.

Comments

Thanks, Richard!

Answer 15

I’m in! (Ps… what is the name of that category for a profile with only one person?) xox

Comments

Hi Charles, here it is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:US_Black_Heritage_Project,_Family_Tree_Size_One

---

Thank you! You’re the bestest ever! Xox

---

Thanks, Charles! And thanks D for the link.

Answer 16

I will.  I'll be working on the family of Christopher B. "Stubb" Stubblefield, founder of Stubb's BBQ. (Notable)

Comments

Oooh, fun! Thanks, Randall

Answer 17

Looking forward to getting back into this, now that RootsTech is over.

Comments

Thanks, Amy. Welcome back!

Answer 18

I'm participating this month.

Comments

Thanks, Natalie!

Answer 19

I will participate.

Comments

Thanks Chandra!

Answer 20

Please count me in!

Comments

Thanks Suzanne!