Help Connect US Black Heritage Notables March 2024!

Question

All of these U.S. Black Heritage Project Notables, born in the month of March, need to be connected to the Global Family Tree.  Can you help by adding profiles of family members until a connection to the Global Tree is made?

The current tree size as of 25 Feb  and CC7* as of 29 Feb  is shown for each profile.  During the month of March we will update the sizes weekly for those still unconnected so we can all see any progress made.[Numbers in red are CC7 on 13 Mar, tree size on 10 Mar]   Even if a connection is not made, adding even a single profile to a family is helpful and appreciated!

The ten notables selected for this month, in order of their birthdays, are:

4 Mar:  Garrett Morgan, inventor, CC7: 22, tree:23   CONNECTED!!

5 Mar:  Bessie Stringfield, “Motorcycle Queen of Miami”, CC7: 11  23, tree:9  21

12 Mar:  Al Jarreau, singer and musician, CC7: 7, tree:8   CONNECTED!!

14 Mar:  Wes Unseld, basketball player and coach, CC7: 1  28, tree:1  29

14 Mar:  Shirley Scott Turrentino, “Queen of the Hammond Organ”, CC7: 15  21, tree:15 21

17 Mar:  Billie Yarbo, actress, CC7: 3, tree:4

18 Mar:  Wilson “Wicked Pickett”, R&B, soul, rock singer, CC7: 4, tree:5   CONNECTED!!

18 Mar:  Marguerite Ray, 1^st Black soap opera regular, CC7: 2, tree:3  CONNECTED!!

20 Mar: “Sister Rosetta Tharpe”, gospel singer, CC7: 4  100 , tree:5  72

26 Mar: Teddy Pendergrass, singer, CC7: 1, tree:1  CONNECTED!!

Bonus (unknown birthday): Mary Cordelia Montgomery Booze, first Black female on Republican National Committee, CC7: 50,  tree: 50

If you want to add family to a living Notable, please create the family profile first and send me a request to link the two profiles.

As always, please add the {{African-American Sticker}} to any profiles of African-American people, and if you add photographs, make sure they're in the public domain.

For more unconnected USBH Notables profiles, and up-to-date links to this post and the current USBH Connection Challenge, check out the US Black Heritage Connectors Page.

*Tree sizes do not include private profiles or profiles connected thru the private profile.  CC7 does include private profiles, but may not include all profiles in large or extended trees.

Comments

If anyone wants to jump on Wes Unseld it should be pretty easy to at least add family; they are in 1950 census and his father's grave is here with links to other family:  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210696251/charles-dorsey-unseld

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Thanks, Katie! I'm a big basketball fan and was going to work on Wes Unseld. This will give me a great start!

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thanks Kristen, it was a big family so hopefully lots of possibilities.  also thanks for your terrific work on our USBH bios, it is SOOO appreciated!

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It's my pleasure! I love working on the bios!

Answer 1

Nice list, Katie, here's hoping for connections! I'll work on Pendergrass.

Comments

Thank you Denise!

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I was beginning to lose hope but Teddy Pendergrass should now be connected through his aunt Martha's marriage to a Levi S. Wise, Sr. down through a daughter from his first marriage. WT has several parallel lines to branches of Teddy's family going way back that I hope will come together and connect in time.

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Nice work Denise! I'm excited that we already have 3 connected this month.

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Me too, I'm working a little on Marguerite Ray adding some profiles up to one that looks to fit the family though it's not connected to the tree but at least getting her some family along the way for now till we can find a path.

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Marguerite is now connected!

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oh my gosh, this is a banner month for connections already!  i had added some fam to Bessie Stringfield's husband I think.  feel free to add more or I'll eventually circle back.  Billie Yarbo appears to be harder than I thought when I put her on the list.

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That it is! I've got a couple of busy days this week but will keep checking as I can. Yarbo is tough not much concrete to go on.

Answer 2

I think that I got Garrett Morgan, Sr. connected through his second wife's family.  We'll see when the system updates.

Answer 3

And I think that I got Al Jarreau through his second wife Susan Player.

Comments

You're on a roll Roger this is wonderful congrats on Morgan and Jarreau!

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Fantastic Roger!!  Two in one day is incredible.  I hope it bodes well for this group of March bdays,

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I just realized also Roger that both Al Jarreau and Garrett Morgan were on WTs 5-stars list, which is based on popularity of the profiles, so even more awesome to have them connected!

Answer 4

I'm looking into Wilson Pickett. There's not a lot done on him previously on FamilySearch or Ancestry, so it might be slow going, but hopefully it will lead to some branches not previously explored and maybe an unexpected connection. We'll see...

Comments

Thanks, Scott!

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Yay Scott, appreciate it!

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Scott, I think I found an aunt Ola Pickett. Take a look:

Ola Pickett

Answer 5

I took a break from the USBH 1880 Census Project and too a look at Wilson Pickett

I think I found a aunt Ola. If that is good, there are a number of people that can be connected.

Please take a look and see if everything checks out.

Thanks, John Stewart

Comments

thanks John!!  appreciate the sleuthing!

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You're way beyond me, John! I hadn't even gone as far as his brothers and sisters and was just struggling to determine if they were still living, or deceased, or married, or had children, or that basic info. If she matches up well with the family, then I'd say you're on the right track!

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I believe the brothers and sisters I've added were the only ones I could confirm as deceased. I did some backtracking as well to see if any of the living ones had marriages that might lead to additional research, and nothing jumped out at me, but I might revisit that later. Of the few that are deceased and married, I'm going to get their deceased spouses added (at least one is not deceased yet), and see if there's anything that pops up in that direction. At least one and maybe two have some promise of extended family. We'll see what happens. If that doesn't pan out, I might join you on the next generation up.

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Wilson Pickett should be connected once the links update tonight.

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If someone wanted to spend a bit of time inputting profiles, my guess is that we could build a fairly large tree from his family and their connected families. I need to move on to some other things, but in my meanderings, I stumbled across quite a few solid related families that I just didn't have time to explore as they didn't seem to be leading in the direction of a connection.

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That is great, I added great grand parents Haynes Alexander and Harriet Pope, along with some of their children yesterday. Haynes and Harriet were born into slavery in Autauga Co, AL. In 1860 there were three Alexander slave owners, and two Pope slave owners.

That is a whole other project!

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Added grandparent Shepard Jackson today. 1950 Census is the key. Feel free to have at it, looks like a number of people could be added.

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great work Scott and John!   Y'all got him from a CC7 of 4 up to 67 already too, wonderful!

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I think we have Wilson Pickett's Maternal Grandfather now. I am not 100% sure about his spouse, there may be two. Census records are confusing, and there are lots of childre,

Also, This tree on Ancestry has some clues which need to be looked at.

My guess is all of his lines descend from someone born into slavery.

I am really booked for the next few days, hopefully someone wants to jump in!

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He's showing connected today.

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Cool, We could probably raise his count by a lot by the end of the month.

Answer 6

I love Teddy Pendergrass voice so sexy. I will look into his after Roots Tech. And may look into Wilson Pickett"s profile.

Comments

Thanks Anne, any help is wonderful!

Answer 7

I will try to connect Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Excited!

Comments

She has a family historian in her family. A wonderful article here! https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/a-black-woman-pioneered-rock-and-roll-sister-rosetta-tharpe-and-the-retrieval-of-her-legacy-faa7f5ec57f2

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thats a great article!  Thanks for working on Rosetta!

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wow, you've really expanded Rosetta's CC7!

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thank you Katie! I'm realizing I may need to be content with expanding the CC7 - tree connecting feels elusive. It is a very fun hole to have fallen down though!

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expanding the CC7 is a big win by itself!  I have literally spent months trying to connect someone, and other times just 15 minutes.  A lot of it comes down to luck.

Answer 8

Hi Katie, I devoted my WT March time largely to Sister Rosetta as a way to become a better Wikitreer (still feeling new) and would love to check in on some of the things I've learned and some of the places I'm uncertain. Is there a good place to talk about that (not that sure about best uses of G2G too!) ? Like, maybe there's a better strategy for finding connections for Black notables than mine. And maybe I should have had a goal of trying to connect more unconnected branches, a way to prioritize the work. And feedback about the profiles I made would be great too...I learned so much. Just using the end of March as a little marker to check in. Thank you!

Comments

Hi Jennifer,  you have done an absolutely amazing job expanding Sister Rosetta's tree!  Don't be discouraged about not making a connection yet.  Eventually it will happen, by you or someone else, and the profiles you created will have made that happen.  I'll send you a private message and perhaps we can arrange a one-on-one discussion and review.  Meanwhile, don't know if you've had a chance to look at our USBH Connectors page; I've put my thoughts on connecting tips there.  If anyone wants to share their tips I'm happy to add them there.