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Friday, February 17, 2012

Priscilla's Coming Home!!!

 

Priscilla: The story of an African slave


By Leslie Goffe 
BBC News, New York
Using a rare and unbroken document trail, scholars have succeeded in tracing a 10-year old girl from her kidnap in Sierra Leone 249 years ago to her life on the plantation in the United States where she was taken, forced into slavery, and re-named Priscilla.


Thomalind Martin Polite in Sierra Leone
Thomalind Polite travelled to Sierra Leone, where her ancestor was kidnapped
Most amazing of all though, researchers have identified one of Priscilla's modern day descendants, great-great-great-great-great granddaughter, Thomalind Martin Polite, 31, who lives in South Carolina, not far from the plantation where her ancestor was a slave.




Priscilla's extraordinary story is featured in a major exhibition currently showing at the New York Historical Society, Finding Priscilla's Children: The Roots and Branches of Slavery, which can be seen until 5 March, 2006. Earlier this year, Priscilla's descendant, Thomalind, a speech therapist, made an extraordinary "homecoming" journey to Sierra Leone at the invitation of that country's government. She met President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and other top national leaders, and was given an African name in a moving seaside ceremony. Sierra Leone's most popular music group wrote a song in Ms Polite's honour: "Rush with the message, go tell it to the people, open the gates, Priscilla's coming home."

 Cont:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4460964.stm

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Thursday, February 16, 2012

David Stick: The Creation of the Outer Banks History Center

 


David Stick first came to the Outer Banks with his parents in 1929. His father was the renowned outdoor illustrator Frank Stick. His mother, Maud, was often a model for Frank and other artists. David's natural curiosity about North Carolina's untamed coast led him to explore the region, its history and peoples, fostering a lifelong passion for research and writing. He is the author of several books including Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast, The Outer Banks of North Carolina: 1584-1958 and Roanoke Island: the Beginnings of English America.

David Stick, ca. 1987Throughout a long career as writer, historian, and community activist, Stick had amassed a very large collection of primary and secondary research materials, with emphasis on the North Carolina coast. In July 1986, Stick donated this personal library, an extensive private collection of North Caroliniana, to the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources and it became the core around which the Outer Banks History Center was built. Throughout the years, the History Center has continued to add print, non-print and non-textual items to its initial collection.



Cont.
http://www.obhistorycenter.ncdcr.gov/history.htm

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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Pocahontas- Mischief and Joy

Native American princess Pocahontas was born around 1595 near Jamestown, Virginia. She first met English settlers in Jamestown Colony in 1607. Pocahontas and John Smith developed a friendship. She gave food to the colonists and warned them of an upcoming attack. When Smith left the colony in 1609, Pocahontas ended her support. In 1613 she married John Rolfe in the first U.S. mixed marriage.

Profile (born 1596, near present-day Jamestown, Virginia, U.S.—died March 1617, Gravesend, Kent, England) Powhatan Indian woman who fostered peace between English colonists and Native Americans by befriending the settlers at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia and eventually marrying one of them. Among her several native names, the one best known to the English was Pocahontas (translated at the time as “little wanton” or “mischievous one”). She was a daughter of Powhatan (as he was known to the English; he was also called Wahunsenacah), chief of the Powhatan empire, which consisted of some 28 tribes of the Tidewater region. Pocahontas was a young girl of age 10 or 11 when she first became acquainted with the colonists who settled in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1607.

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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Family Tree DNA now accepting 23andMe raw data uploads


By Janet Crain

Those of you who have tested at 23andMe may now upload your raw data to Family Tree DNA to be converted to Family Finder. If you tested at the V3 platform it will cost $50. Really a good deal as Family Finder is usually $299. It is a special price and won't last long. The conversion is not a perfect match as some snp's are different but with over 900,000 snp's to compare there should be plenty. 

If you tested at the V2 level it will cost more. The way I understand it, you pay your $50. Then when you upload it will say you don't have enough snp's and you will then be offered a $109. special price for the Family Finder test. That is also a really good temporary price. 

Is it worth it to have both? I think it is. You will need to download your raw data and unzip it before you upload.

If it uploads successfully you will get this message:

"Congratulations! The results file you uploaded was determined to be a V3
File with more than 900,000 SNP results. Please note, uploaded results files
Are batch processed once a week. You will be notified by e-mail when your
Results file has been processed.

After your results file is processed you will be able to enjoy the many
Family Tree DNA features and order additional tests to uncover more about
Your ancestral origins."



There was a glitch earlier but everything seems fine now.

By CeCe Moore 
The time has finally come for all of you who have been waiting. Family Tree DNA is now accepting raw data uploads from 23andMe. If you are already a customer of FTDNA, sign into your account from the home page and order from there to avoid creating a duplicate account.  If not, go to the product listing and scroll down to "Transfer Relative Finder" and order from there. They are offering an introductory price of only $50 to 23andMe customers with v3 results for both new and existing FTDNA customers. A discount will be offered to 23andMe customers on the v2 chip via a coupon code after an upload verification of the raw data file.

Transfer options are:
Option Price Project MembershipMatching
FTDNA Kit Import (V2) $50+$109 = $159 Yes Retest
FTDNA Kit Import (V3) $50 Yes Database Import
New Customer Transfer (V2) $50+$109 = $159 Yes Retest
New Customer Transfer (V3) $50 Yes Database Import



Cont:
http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/2012/01/family-tree-dna-now-accepting-23andme.html


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