African American Story Telling

Listen and learn as Susie PEELER (1861-1934) takes you back to a time when things of greatest importance were told through the art of storytelling. Pulling from her sack of stories, Ms. Susie (well, you can call her Aunt) will share a fist full ranging from Bible Stories, to Aesops Fables to southern folk tales with you and yours.
The presentation is designed for groups of all sizes.

Currently booking in the Pittsburgh area and Western PA.

Contact Autumn Redcross at 412-401-1574 for details.

Images of Bethlehem Steel

Photograph(s) copyright Shaun O'Boyle

Shaun O'Boyle poetically captures images of Bethlehem Steel, the site of death for my great-grandfather Walter PEELER (1879-1921.)

Rosa PEELER (a.1885-1962)

However Rosa PEELER (c.1885-1962) of Washington County, GA continues to elude me.

Rosa was married to Walter PEELER in 1902 by Reverend James Veal, where she gives her maiden name to be DIXON. She then has four children: Izora, Isadore, Douglas (Bick/Walter) and Amos James (.A.J.) before her husband dies tragically in a Steele Mill accident in Dauphin County, PA 1921. Rosa moves to Atlanta with her youngest son A.J. before eventually moving with them north to Philadelphia and New Jersey. All of her sons went north, however her daughter Izora remained in Washington County and married Miles ASBERRY.

Rosa died in 1962, and was returned home to Sandersville. She was memorialized at Marshall Grove Baptist Church, C.J. Jordan officiating. Interment was in the church cemetery. The Sandersville Progress obituary reads that at that in addition to her children and their spouses, she left a brother and two sisters.

Additionally, my cousin Mae Bell Azberry had been told me that her Grandmother Rosa had a younger brother named Ralph, and possibly a sibling in Florida who sent oranges. Mae Bell passed away this September.

She was also said to be kin to the WALKERS and the ARMSTRONGS. One census record claims that she is cousin to Susan VEAL. And I have been told that she worked a boarding home while in Atlanta with a woman named Sue. Her children' Social Security applications however give her maiden name as HALL and BUCK.

Washington County, GA Genealogy

African American Genealogist for Hire

Working remotely from my home in Western PA, I offer genealogical services including court house look-ups, census, wills and deeds, veterans records review, etc.... I am able to get clients started on their hunt for their roots through their family trees. I am also available for cemetery services such as collecting rubbings and light grave up-keep.
Please comment if interested.

Autumn Redcross
professional genealogy services

Digital Library on American Slavery

Search the Petitions

The Digital Library on American Slavery, a cooperative effort of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is a searchable database of detailed personal information about slaves, slaveholders, and free people of color. Designed as a tool for genealogists and historians, the site provides access to data collected from legal petitions filed from 1777 to 1867 in all fifteen slaveholding states in the U.S. This information documents where, when, and by whom slaves were owned, and provides insight into where, when, and how free people of color lived.

Click Here for the Digital Library on American Slavery

African American Civil War Memorial 10th Anniversary Celebration

10th Anniversary Celebration
African American Civil War Memorial
July 16 – 18, 2008, Washington, DC


Thousands of Descendants of the 209,145 U.S. Colored Troops who fought during the American Civil War will descend on the Nations Capital!!!!

REGISTER BY CLICKING HERE

Wednesday, July 16, 2008
· 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM -Tenting on the .old camp ground. . Tented Prayer Breakfast, Garrison School (formerly known as Camp Barker, Experience Living History)
· 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM -Workshops, & Displays

Thursday, July 17, 2008
· 8:30 AM - 10:00 PM - Arlington Amphitheatre Sunrise and Memorial Service, High Ranking Military Officer as Guest Speaker
· 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM - Capitol Hill Commemoration, Welcome by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and Members of Congressional Black Caucus
· 6:00 PM -SNCC Reunion, Book Signings & Historic Video Presentations

Friday, July 18, 2008
· 10:00 AM -12:00 PM - 10th Anniversary Wreath Laying at Spirit of Freedom Memorial
· 6:00 PM - VIP Reception
· 7:00 PM - Celebrity Descendants Gala Freedom Awards Banquet, Washington Convention Center, Congressional Resolutions presented to Pvt. Julius Cesar Tingman, USCT (Comedian, Chris Rock ancestor).
· Afro-centric, Historic Tours of U Street and Anacostia, East of the River

REGISTER BY CLICKING HERE

Visit our website at www.afroamcivilwar.org - or call Lyndia Grant, Project Director@ 202-518-3192
or Call the Civil War Museum @ 202-667-2667: Honorable Dr. Frank Smith, Founding Director


Shamele Jordon
jordonsh@jersey.net

Lest We Forget Black Holocaust Museum of Slavery

We cordially invite you to attend the official opening(s) of "Lest We Forget" - Black Holocaust Museum of Slavery. We have (2) locations, Philadelphia, PA (Port Richmond) and Lawnside, New Jersey. We will host an Open House at our Philly museum located 3650 Richmond St. Phila. Pa 19134, Thursday, June 26, 2:00- 6:00 PM


We will also host the Grand Opening of our Jersey museum located 327 White Horse Pike, Lawnside New Jersey, July 4th, 12:00 Noon - 4:00 PM.


Press Release and driving directions to both locations are attached. We are excited to finally be able to share our compelling collection of slavery artifacts and Jim Crow Memorabilia with you. Feel free to bring a friend and share this information with others. Hope to see you at either or both events. ~ FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ~


J. Justin & Gwen Ragsdale, Curators

Lest We Forget Black Holocaust Museum of Slavery (856) 427-4262 www.lestweforgetmuseumofslavery.com

conversations with the slave owning famiy

A few weeks ago I made contact with the descendants of my ancestors' slave owners. It was a fine conversation until they asked why I was inquiring about the PEELER lineage. When I responded with my belief that their ancestors probably owned mine, another voice on the line spoke up.
He doubted that Berry PEELER, a man of God, and Chaplin in the Civil War would ever have had slaves! His wife tempered his remarks explaining that most everyone had farms in the mid 1800's, in middle Georgia!
Good point.

Meeting David Wilson

Seems like a great program I missed.

‘Not the descendants of victims but victors’

Film traces one man’s journey to track down his family’s past in slavery

Request for Decesed Individual's SS Application

https://s044a90.ssa.gov/apps7/efoiassa/internet/SSA711.jsp

Who is Grandma Rose?

Grandma Rose:
Married as Rosa Dixon in 1902.
Listed in the 1910 census, 1920 and 1930 census' as Rosa PEELER.
She passed July of 1962 in Philadelphia, and was buried in Marshall Grove in Sandersville. Parents are listed as unknown, as well as her husband's name (which is careless). I'm starting to entertain the idea that 1. grandma Rose was an orphan, or 2. DIXON was her married name (maybe when was married before Walter).
I had picked up on her relation to Sussie VEAL--who appears with her in the Washington County, GA 1930 census as her cousin, and have ordered the death certificate on Sussie VEAL.
Will need to check further....
If you should have any information, or tips let me know.

Historical Christian University Archive Holdings

http://tarver.mercer.edu/archives/Holdings/EducationalInstitutions.pdf

Free Access to Civil War Research Database

Through April 30, 2008 there is free access to Alexander Street Press's Civil War Reseach Online Database Collections. No need to register, the information details & instructions for use are on this page:

http://alexanderstreet.com/resources/civilwar.access.htm

Alright, alright

Randolf, Ceily and their sons Solomon and Tump PEILER are all found in the 1880 census. While Soloman, and his new bride live with his parents, Tump lives next door to the widow of Berry PEELER.

The connection has now been well established that our last slave-owning family was the PEELERS who descended from Michael, Anthony and Issac. Their line landed in Philadelphia in the early 1700's. And then moved to North Carolina and onto South Carolina.

It appears that my Randolf was born in SC within the year of Berry's birth, and given to him as a child. When Berry moved from Union, SC to GA, he brought Randolf with him. Far later when Berry's son Issac moved from Hancock County GA to Wilkinson, he took my Randolf with him. Interesting Issac became a minister and appropriated land in Wilkinson County for the coloreds to worship.

It seems that following emancipation, Randolf then with his family returned to Hancock county, and worked the land of his former slave owners. Berry died intestate and Randolf appears on both sides of the balance sheet appearing as a part of the division of property in 1870.

New Findings

Recently have found my great-great grandfather "Tump" PEELER in the 1870 census. Unlike the latter half of his life where he is easily tracked by census in Washington County Georgia, he appears living in Hancock County.
It was only by going through the census of Division 117/48 line by line was I able to find him, as his last name is spelled PEILER, and his seemingly proper first name is used: Andrew.

In addition, possibly the mistress of his owner is living next door. His brother Soloman (who married the sister of his wife) is living near by. And his father Randolf, along with his mother, Ceily is also listed nearby.

Other tid-bits gleaned from this search is that Walter, my great-grandfather was not Tump and Sussie's first child--but their third. The mortality record of 1880 reveals an infant and a youngster of one year born to their household, who died.