Salute: African American Troops FT. Dix

We owe a deep gratitude to the African American Troops who served, protected and kept us safe. 

My Niece Tanya was kind enough to copy this image and send to me. My prayer is that someone somewhere will see this and recognize their grandfather, father, uncle, brother or even their next door neighbor. 

This photo came with no names but did have Ft Dix 1941. 

This is history at its finest and I salute all who have served.

I had to crop in sections

Salute!!!

The Salute goes on !!!

Until The "On" keeps On

And On!!

With Pride and Honor, Thank You!!!!

My Voyage Of Discoveries

I had just spent 5 days on a Genealogy Cruise that went to the Bahamas. It was hosted by the North Carolina Piedmont-Triad Chapter of the African American Historical and Genealogical Society and was billed Voyage of Discovery

We started out in Charleston South Carolina ready to go. Joyce McCollum, Me and Phyllis Grimes. The guy in the middle was the Uber driver who was hilarious and agreed to take a picture.

We met up with Joyce's ship-mate Naziah Hassan on board the ship who I got to meet for the first time. I later found out she is a New York-er living now in Phoenix. 

Next was that big body of water so calm and ready for us to debark and get ready for the speakers we wanted to hear.

I saw Our wonderful Coast Guard cruising along side us making me feel quite protected and at ease.

The Speakers that I listened to was Lamar DeLoach and his talk on Black Indians in the Carolina's.

 Tamela TenPenny Lewis who gave her talk on African American Fraternal Orders

Elizabeth Clark-Lewis and her Using Records to Document Enslaved Person's Heritage.

One of the Plenary Speakers was a fella by the name of William "Billy" Mitchell who is the Historian for the Apollo Theater.

This man had me in tears as he told his story of growing up in New York poorer than poor and rising up from getting sandwiches to the Apollo guests to being the Resident Historian. His presentation was full of humor and spell binding at the same time.  They call him "Mr Apollo" and will have a book coming out soon.

You can't go to any conference without networking. I met quite a few people with some interesting stories. Some of the people I met was on ship, walking along the beach where we had docked or standing in line buying gifts to bring back home.

No secret to any of my family but I love to go spend time at the casino.

They had one on ship so in my free time, I went and played the penny machine.

Next to me was two ladies who were there on a cruise for pleasure and not for the genealogy conference.

We started talking and I told them why I was on the cruise and found out that one of the ladies had taken a DNA test.

We introduced ourselves and found out they were cousins and their names were Vickie and Phyllis.

                                       I laughed and told them my name was Vicky

                                       My ship room-mate was named Phyllis.

That sparked a cruise friendship and also I got a chance to tell them about my aspect on genealogy and the importance of knowing your history.

I think I also may have convinced Phyllis to download her and her hubby's dna data to Gedmatch, and maybe just maybe Vickie will take a dna test.

I would really roll over if one of them matched me or my Arizona Genealogy buddy Phyllis.

After all how neat is this to sit next to two people who have names in common and laughed it up durn near the whole night.  It was the first time it has happened to me.

So knowing me and the way I think I looked up two names in the census and came up with this.

In the 1920 Louisiana Census there was a Philis Victoria born around 1872 living with her three sons and two daughters.

Source Citation
Year: 1920; Census Place: Police Jury Ward 1, Allen, Louisiana; Roll: T625_603; Page: 21A; Enumeration District: 17

Living above her is a Victor Victoria and his wife Dora who may possibly be another son of Philis.

Not to be undone in the 1935 Florida State Census there is a Victoria Phyllys widow born around 1893. This reminds me that some states did have state census every 5 years.

Source Information
Ancestry.com. Florida, State Census, 1867-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

The people above are not my people but who knows if their descendants showed up on my match list one of these days. 

Would I go on another Genealogy Cruise?

Yes, I would with the stipulation that it would have to be a much larger ship.

I ate too many motion pills and rocked and rolled to many times to keep my words of cuss down to a minimum.
The rooms were a tad to small for me but other than that its a big YEP!

Oh, and I would have loved to have seen  Family Tree Girl aka Shelley Murphy on board. I could have given her my TIMELINE!!!!

Oh well, I guess I will make another one for next year in Indiana at MAAGI .

I left the ship much richer than I arrived. Not with money but with knowledge, new friends and memories  which was my Voyage of Discoveries.

THE ESSENCE OF "S"

 
  

Strong: Mary Shadd;  Lawyer and Publisher

Who among us women exhibit strength

Without first knowing weakness

Who among us women are strong

Without being humble

Striking: Valaida Snow; Musician Extraordinaire

Words, not really
We grow through life's beauty
We learn throughout the length of time
We utilize our strength
While increasing knowledge fills our mind

Stalwarth:  Bessie Smith; Actress

We suffer, we laugh, we cry
We dry our eyes when necessary
Straight and tall we stand
Why, because we can?
No, because it's in the plan

Serene: Ellen Sirleaf; President of Liberia

When daylight brings the morning dew 
Winds whispering breezes flow
Lifting up the windows of our souls
Bringing forth our spiritual renew

Spiritual: Sojourner; The Truth For Women's Rights

           







We softly sing praises
Sometimes under our breath
Long ago songs of fellowship
Are those our memory raises
Old Time Religion 

Substance: Sloane Stevens; Professional Tennis Player

Songs of youth, hymns in church
Jesus loves me this I know
The tap tap of  feet
Waving hands
Up and down to and fro

Sublime: Roshara Sanders; Exec. Sous Chief, Combat Veteran 
     

           











Strong women raised us
The best they knew how
Not by happenstance 
Sometimes a blessing in disguise


Steadfast: Symone Sanders; Political Activist
                                     
 

                                         












And then we grew

Sixteen

By sixteen

Hey Lady In The Red Polka Dot Dress!

Who Are You Lady In The Red Polka Dot Dress?

Here we go again, as I try to make sense of my dreams.

Lady in the red polka dot dress why were you standing there talking to me with your back turned?

Since I woke up, I am trying to figure out who in the world you are.

I know that if any of my family were talking to me, I would surely know who they were. That includes my cousins in Texas, my sister in laws and anyone else I know, so who are you?

Lady in the red polka dot dress why did you point your finger to the back of you without turning around, then telling me to go to your house and look in the drawer.

What house, what drawer??? I don't even know you.....Maybe if you turn around and let me see your face.

Was it this type of  drawer?

Or did it look like this?

Lady in the red polka dot dress your hair is rather light brown with shades of blond or sandy red combed under  in a large roll.  The style was  really neat not a hair out of place.

Hey Lady in the red polka dot dress was your hair in the front combed into a bang?

You know, like my mama's hair with her bangs looking all cute.

Of Course I would not ever know because Lady, YOU DID NOT TURN AROUND!!!!

And by the way lady in the red polka dot dress, from the back it looks like that dress you have on is none like I have seen before. The ones ladies wear these days are rather sexy looking.

Of  course I am assuming that the dress is "not" sexy looking in the front because again Lady in the red polka dot dress, YOU DID NOT TURN AROUND !!!

Lady in the red polka dot dress you did not give me your address so that I could look in the drawer.

How did I get  there, and how did I know what drawer to look in?.... Because I DID mysteriously get there and I DID go in a drawer....Sheesh!!

Now I am really perplexed.......

Inside the drawer wrapped up in a baggy are numerous cd's that have Microsoft Word and  Excel plus it looked like Photoshop and few more I did not see.

Thats when I woke up!

In my thinking cap mode I tried to gather all the clues that may lead me to the gist of this dream.

Now I am not sure I can blame my elusive maternal 3rd great-grandmother on this one who just happened to be born in 1854 and they had not invented Cd's let alone Microsoft in that day and age.

So who is she and what is she to me?

I will eliminate my paternal great grandmother on this side because I just know she would not even think to wear a red polka dot dress and her hair is not that sandy reddish color.

I know that I owe Shelley Murphy a " somewhat completed" timeline that I should have submitted when I went to MAAGI (Midwest African American Genealogy Institute) in July of this year.

I wanted to do it in Powerpoint....sigh!

By the way, I did not see the Powerpoint cd  so I need to eliminate Shelley as the lady in the polka dot dress.  Besides  Shelley would not wear that kind of dress and is so much younger than that dress even portrayed.

I can't eliminate any houses because I never saw one inkling of a house I have ever been in or near in this dream.
Heck I can't even tell what the dresser looked like but I know it was a dresser because I pulled open the drawer.

Lady in the red polka dot dress I don't know whether I like you or not.

I know I need to purchase a powerpoint program so I can get Shelley off my back and get her a timeline  but you did not have to remind me.

Oh well, I wonder if tonight you will revisit me with a new chapter in this saga.

Lady in the red polka dot dress, I will be waiting and you better turn around so I can see your face or I promise you I will wake up before you even start playing your game.

Memorial

Draped in red white and blue

  

Salute!!!

I salute all those whose life was lost 

On this shore Continental called

States Of  America

After or before battle 

Revolution was not airy 
Musket balls, Caissons carried 
Marching troops over hills, through prairies
The sounds of blackened feet
Drums beat
No retreat

We were there weren't we Crispus?

If you could speak today

Page by page, lines one by one

History Books could tell

The farmers son, the widows

The wife, no more berries

 Left to bare the weight of the juice

Your choice I reckon would be

The Truth

We were everywhere 

Standing tall until the fall

Sliding on their belly 

On some hill

Sandy beach numbers 354

Blood shed, Massachusetts red

                                                                                                                                          

They say Dorie did not play

Oh no, no way, not that ill fitted day 

On that harbour, Pearls no where in sight

Just fight, 

Trained at home in Texas

Shooting squirrel and rabbits at night

It wasn't a row your boat kind of day 

Dedicated USS out West Virginia way

Not to be mistaken for weak ass men

Just ask

South Carolina, Tennessee Regiments

Companies A & B fighting

US Colored Troops 

Mustered in not out

Hankering to be free from tyranny

Thousands died

W.W.1 and W.W.11, Vietnam and Storm

Oh hell yes there was faithful Semper Fi

Buffalo Soldiers First Division Cav.

Bring us home was the cry

Tuskegee Reds

Ride on and Fly
Through the Airplanes of life
Adversities all the while
Marked we shall overcome 

Sketched and Etched 

Who answered the call

The Soldiers did
Solidly imprinted and fixed
Caught in the Vietnam Jungle 
In Nineteen Hundred Sixty Six
A California neighbor to all of of us
Brother Bruce's friends Jerry Thomas 

Henry Kuykendahl too

Rest in Peace  

Poem by me VDM......