Friday, October 24, 2003

Louis Diggs Named Activist of the Year

Louis Diggs was named Activist of the Year by hometown newspaper The Catonsville Times. An article, profiling Louis and detailing the research, writing, publishing and educational activities he's undertaken over his long genealogical career, appeared in the Oct 22nd edition of the Times.

The prolific Mr. Diggs has contributed many Maryland records to AfriGeneas over the years including Blacks in the Baltimore City Directories and Runaway Slave Ads from Baltimore County. He has written six histories of African American communities in Baltimore County: It All Started On Winters Lane; Holding On To Their Heritage; In Our Voices; Since the Beginning; Surviving In America; From The Meadows To The Point. Information about his books can be found on his website, LouisDiggs.com.

Read the full article.


Posted by Webguru on 10/24/03 at 2:54 pm EST

Saturday, October 11, 2003

IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
Del Jupiter Honored as a Local Visionary

This month's SPOTLIGHT shines on Del Jupiter who will be honored as a Local Visionary by the National Visionary Leadership Project at an awards gala to be held on October 17, 2003 at the Kennedy Center. Del was selected and interviewed as a Local Visionary, an extraordinary elder, by an NVLP fellow for her pioneering contributions as a librarian, educator, historian and genealogist. Her interview will eventually be archived on the project's website.

Del Jupiter is a native of Pensacola, Florida and a fifth generation Floridian. She has an A.B. Degree from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and an M.S. in Library Science from Atlanta University. A retired school librarian, she became interested in her family stories about that great-great-grandmother, a slave who was allegedly born in Spain and brought to Florida during the Spanish rule. She decided to engage in genealogical research because of this interest. This research led to the discovery of her ggggrandmother in 1770 Louisiana.

Read her full profile.


Posted by Webguru on 10/11/03 at 5:14 pm EST

Friday, October 10, 2003

Chat with Larry Preston Williams: Oct 11th, 9PM ET

We will chat with Larry Preston Williams, an attorney, detective and security consultant, on October 11, 2003. Lynda Mathews will host the session that begins at 9:00 PM EST in the Dee Woodtor Room of the Chat Center www.afrigeneas.com/chat/. Mr. Williams will share his research techniques. His experience in finding 'lost ancestors' will help African-Americans in their family research.

Larry Preston Williams served as a member of the New Orleans Police Department's Intelligence Division - responsible for monitoring and locating 'missing' persons. Upon leaving the department, Mr. Williams joined the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office and of many duties, had to locate missing and reluctant witnesses and victims.

While a member of the police department and the DA's office, he attended and completed law school. He subsequently began to practice law, putting into practice his skills for locating witnesses.

In 1992 he began to research his family history and learned of the brother of his great-great grandfather who died in the late 1860s, leaving two daughters and a wife. Williams set out to locate the descendants of that brother and was successful in finding some family members.

As he began to do genealogies for clients, they would often ask him to locate relatives or descendants of relatives that passed for white. He was able to locate the living descendants who lived as white and were unaware of their link to African-Americans. So most of his missing persons assignments growing out of genealogy matters deal with descendants of African-Americans who chose to better their lives by leaving the Black community.

Williams is owner and founder of:

Larry Preston Williams & Associates, Ltd.
Detectives and Security Consultants
The Security Center
Suite 1112
147 Carondelet Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130-2501


Posted by Webguru on 10/10/03 at 5:20 pm EST