St. Paul's Pilgrim Baptist Church celebrates 150 years

Sasha Aslanian, a reporter from Minnesota Public Radio, has a wonderful story today about Pilgrim Baptist Church. The church is celebrating 150 year of existence. It was founded by former slaves.

Sasha relates ". . . Robert Hickman, an escaped slave from Missouri who 150 years ago led slaves traveling north on the Underground Railroad, a physical and spiritual migration that Pilgrim Baptist celebrates this month."

The name Hickman is definitely a recognizable one in St. Paul's black community. Unfortunately, when they arrived in St. Paul, members of the group were forced to separate with some going to different places in Minnesota. This sad occurrence may have solved a research mystery for me.

 " In 1866, Pilgrim Baptist Church moved to a permanent home in downtown St. Paul, making it the first predominantly black church in Minnesota. Church members celebrated with a baptism on the shore of the Mississippi."  Today the church is located on Central Avenue in St. Paul.

Robert Hickman, a 39 year old preacher is listed on the 1870 census of St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota (page 15/1097, line 6). The census entry states he was born in Missouri. Here is a view of his household on that census from Ancestry.com.

 Please click here to read the great story on MPR's website.

For more on Robert, read this website www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/hickman-robert-t-1831-1900

Last post for Black History Month

By chance this morning I came across a wonderful Minnesota Black Newspaper Index. It was compiled in 2002 by Brendan Henehan. He wrote: "This is an informal index of newspapers that I have compiled over the past several years. It is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of topics. I have looked at each of the newspapers listed in the Newspaper Key of this index, quickly scanning them for topics of interest to me. You’ll notice particular passions of mine: baseball, media and the law. Yet I have tried to be general in my interests as well. Each of the papers listed in the key are available at the Minnesota Historical Society except for the New York Age, which is available at the University of Minnesota’s Wilson Library."

He indexed 15 newspaper titles and the index is on the Minnesota Historical Society's website. The index includes a key to the newspaper titles that are abbreviated in the index.

I found several items I want to check based on my own research and lecture interests:

Adams, J. Q.: Founder of St. Paul Afro-American League, AP 11-9-1889 p1 c2
Advertisement:  Wanted: 10 good colored families for N. Dakota TCG 1-17-1920 p1 c3
WPA: Transient camp in Mendota has 108 Black men MSP 3-6-1936 p1 c6
WP:A Twin Cities survey of Blacks TCH 4-4-1936 p1 c5
Bundrant, J. W:. Forms Black World War I unit TCS 4-14-1917 p2 c2
Carey, Talmadge: To wed Theresa Ray 8-8 at St. Peter Claver MSP 8-10-1945 p7 c3
Carey, Talmadge: Photo of wedding to Theresa Ray MSP 8-24-1945 p3 c3
Carter, Charles: Former slave dies, came to Mpls in 1883 TCL 8-24-1940 p2 c5
Goins, Homer Former St. Paul officer dies at 42 TCH 8-27-1932 p4 c1
Goins, Homer Obituary of former St. Paul police officer TCH 9-3-1932 p1 c2

And that's just the beginning of the articles that interest me!

Ancestry.com marks Black History Month

This press release was just sent by Ancestry.com. 

Ancestry.com Marks Black History Month with 250,000 New African American Records

Nearly 35 Million Americans Can Find an Ancestor in the World’s Largest Online Collection of African American Family History Records

PROVO, UTAH (February 1, 2011) – In honor of Black History Month, Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, today launched more than 250,000 new historical records documenting early African American family history. The five new collections span more than a century and contain important details about the lives of African Americans who bravely fought in the U.S. Civil War, document the transportation of slaves to and from the prominent slave ports of New Orleans and Savannah, GA, and include poignant first-person accounts from former slaves. 

Virgnia: Black or Indian?

Some Virginia researchers may already be aware of this, but for others this information may explain some difficulties as you research vital records of Native Americans and African Americans in that state.

Walter Ashby Plecker was the first head of the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics and served from 1912-1946. He did some beneficial things such as "great strides in educating midwives, inventing a home incubator, and prescribing home remedies for infants. His efforts are credited with an almost 50 percent decline in birthing deaths for black mothers."

Unfortunately, he also believed that American Indians and African Americans had no separate ethnic identity and set about to reclassify Indians as colored. He actually changed the designation on some vital records from Indian to black. He also decided that anyone with even a little bit of black ancestry would not be allowed to pass as white and brought about changes on their vital records based on information that he said his office had gathered.You can read more about Walter Plecker at the Library of Virginia's Virginia Memory project. That page lists some article for further reading. Also check out this link for a disturbing 1942 letter from Plecker to local vital records registrars.

Thanks to Brenda Hudson of Florida for telling me about this during last week's NGS Conference. It does affect some researchers trying to do a good job of researching and documenting their forebears.