Announcement: AFoF Mentioned in Sharon Tate Moody’s TBO.com Genealogy Article!

Many thanks to Sharon Tate Moody of Tampa Bay Online (TBO.com) for her mention of A Friend of Friends in her April 18th, Opening Up About Slavery, genealogy feature!

AFoF will turn one month old tomorrow and I must say, the manner in which the genealogy community has embraced the AFoF model has been REMARKABLE!

From Sharon’s article, to the faithful Friend of Friends Friday contributions of Leslie Ann’s Ancestors Live Here blog, to Greta’s Genealogy Bog’s new Black History page, to posts like Carol’s Reflections From the Fence ongoing Slave Names & Chancery Cases — the community continues to show its support of this vehicle to provide personal/family slave data to African-American researchers.

However, let’s be clear, in order for AFoF to be effective, the contributions must continue AND the community as a whole must contribute. The responsibility for sharing slave data doesn’t fall solely on the shoulders of the descendants of slave owners.

NO ONE encounters more slave data than the African-American descendant researching his slave ancestry. The responsibility to be contributors and not recipients only rests with all of us — AFoF was always intended to be a [full] community effort.

So please everyone, remember how thankful you are when a Random Act of Genealogical Kindness helps to move your research ahead, and be diligent in returning that kindness.

Again, thanks to Sharon and all the GeneaFriends who work hand-in-hand with us to make this effort valuable to the research community we share.

The healing continues…

Luckie.