The Third Annual Philadelphia United States Colored Troops Civil War Weekend will be offered on Friday and Saturday, April 2-3, 2011. This is the sesquicentennial of America’s greatest conflict, the 3rd USCT invites all to come to share and learn the forgotten stories of the most tumultuous period of our nation’s history.

The activities will be centered at Historic Fort Mifflin with events and related exhibits throughout the city. This event is being sponsored by the 3rd Regiment USCT Civil War Re-enactors, Old Fort Mifflin Historical Society, and Fort Mifflin on the Delaware. The goal of the event is to tell the stories of the African Americans during the Civil War, their struggles to serve, for citizenship, for equal pay, for good equipment and freedom.  We will tell these stories through plays, exhibits, music, demonstrations, interactive programs, videos, films, lectures and living history reenactors.

The Third Regiment was Co-host for the Grand Review celebration in Harrisburg on November 6th, 2010, drawing participants from 7 states. The regiment has also been placing 34 star flags at the graves of African American Civil War soldiers so people can remember where they are. This year will be especially busy with presentations and parades, because of the 150 year commemoration of the Civil War. The Association for the Study of African American History and Life has labeled the Civil War this years Historical theme.

At Fort Mifflin, Dr. James Johnson of Rutgers University will talk about Camp William Penn Civil War Training Camp. Citizen’s for the Restoration of Historic La Mott (CRHOL) Exhibit, on Camp William Penn will be on display. There are three sites participating in the 150 year commemoration of the Civil War April 2nd Weekend:

• The Mutter Museum will be providing a exhibit at Fort Mifflin on Civil War Medicine.
• The African American Museum of Philadelphia at 7th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia, PA with its Audacious Freedom exhibit and the special memorial to Pvt. Peter Butcher, an African American Soldier who served in the 32nd USCT’s during the Civil War. Admission: $10
• Grand Army of the Republic Museum and Library with a Robert F. Houston exhibit “On The Long Road To Freedom”. Located at 4278 Griscom Street in Philadelphia, PA 19124-3954. Admission: $5 . Open April 3, 2011 Only, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Fort Mifflin is located in Philadelphia Pennsylvania near the airport on Fort Mifflin Road. The Buildings date mostly to the Civil War era and were used during the war as a prisoner of war camp. USCT’s were not stationed here during the Civil War.

At Fort Mifflin, the AAGG (African American Genealogical Group) will staff a find your Civil war connections station.

Fort Mifflin

Admission: $6, Children under 12: $4

Schedule of Events 

Saturday April 2nd, Fort opens to public 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

10:00 am – School of the soldier, Fort Tours programs, plays and exhibits.

11:00 am – Voices of Freedom

1:30 pm –  Review of the Troops

2:15 pm – Dr. James Johnson  Camp William Penn

3:00 pm – Music of the Civil War era

4:00 pm – Viewing of the Movie “Glory” in the Bake Oven

6:00 pm – Fort Closes Taps   

April 3, Sunday Fort opens to the public 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

10:00 am –  School of the soldier, Fort Tours programs, plays and exhibits.

2:00 pm – Voices of Freedom

3:00 pm – Ladies of the Civil War

4:00 pm – Recover the Colors Taps

Friday, April 15, 2:00 – 5:45 p.m., followed by a reception

Join us for the Tenth Annual Conference of the Program in Early American Economy and Society that will be devoted to an exploration of this recent book by historian Lorena Walsh. This conference is free and open to the public but pre-registration is required.

Click here for more information and to register for this conference.

National Archives & Records Association (NARA) is having their 7th Annual Genealogy Fair from April 20 – 21, 2011 in Washington, DC. This year’s theme, Become Your Family’s Detective will include workshops and exhibits.

[The] two-day program showcases the Federal records located at the National Archives as resources for family history research. Speakers and exhibitors include National Archives staff, historians, and genealogy professionals. The fair provides information and guidance for experienced genealogy professionals and novices alike. 

Reservations are not required and the entire event is open to the public.

Also, be sure to check out their presentation, “Beginning Your Genealogical Research at NARA“ (Powerpoint presentation) with over 150+ slides. Download a copy here.

For more information about the Genealogy Fair, visit: http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/know-your-records/genealogy-fair/.

Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 10AM

Olivet Christian Church
14425 Old Courthouse Way. Newport News, Virginia.

TGS invites you to our Annual Election and Show and Tell ~ Genealogical Discoveries this Summer as we get together and share stories of what we did
with genealogy over the summer. Bring your summer projects and memories to share with us. All meetings are free and open to the public, come and join
us.

For additional info see the TGS web site at www.rootsweb.com/~vatgs.

For directions to Olivet Christian Church see ww.olivetcc.com/home.aspx?igid=29080.

Greetings All,

Please be reminded that we have our monthly General Membership meeting TONIGHT on Tuesday, November 9, 2010. As usual, it will be from 7 – 9 pm at Community College of Philadelphia’s West Philadelphia Regional Campus (4725 Chestnut Street).

We are excited that we will begin a 15 minute presentation from one of our seasoned members, long time genealogical researcher, and family historian, Ms. Othella R. Vaughn.  Ms. Vaughn will tell us about her book “Sankofa: A History of The Tribble Family.”

This will be followed by a Brick Wall Session. Questions have been submitted by members who are at a standstill with a particular aspect of their research.  We will choose several of these questions to help them move past their “brick wall.”

We look forward to seeing you there!

How many of us were taught this in American or Black History? The real question, are our children being taught items like this today?

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

A group of freedmen are pictured in “Freedman’s Village,” the black community built on land confiscated from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Arlington Cemetery was once site of a thriving black town

ARLINGTON Charter buses roll up to Arlington National Cemetery every day, depositing tourists who scramble uphill to see the eternal flame on President John F. Kennedy’s grave. People stream in all directions, toward the Tomb of the Unknowns or to remember at tombstones of loved ones lost to war.

Few, however, head downhill to a quiet corner near the Iwo Jima Memorial.  Down here, there are no memorials to ancient battles, no ornate headstones honoring long-dead dignitaries. There are only rows of small unassuming white tombstones, many engraved with names like George, Toby and Rose.

They are the only visible reminders that part of the nation’s most storied burial ground sits atop what used to be a thriving black town — “Freedman’s Village,” built on land confiscated from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Milton Rowe recently made his way slowly around the famous grounds with Wayne Parks. There’s nothing here now to tell visitors that freed slaves once lived here, but the two men say they feel a connection with this land because they can both trace their ancestors to Freedman’s Village.

Parks said he remembers his grandfather repeatedly bringing him to the cemetery as a child to explain the bond. Parks’ great-grandfather, James Parks, lived in Freedman’s Village and other locations around the cemetery after being freed from servitude to the Lee family.

“I was sitting on this wall gazing out over the cemetery, and all of a sudden, I got it,” Parks said. “Our DNA is intrinsically intertwined in this property, integrated in this property. The spirits of my ancestors continue to exist here in this property, so I find like my grandfather, I now come here for strength, I come here to commune with them.”  Arlington National Cemetery was established on land confiscated from Lee and his family in 1861 after the general took command of the Confederate forces.

The Civil War leaders of the Union buried soldiers’ bodies on the property in hopes that Lee would never want to return, and Parks’ ancestor dug the very first grave near the Freedman’s Village burial site.

The federal government turned some land about a half-mile north of Lee’s mansion into a town specifically for freed slaves who had nowhere to go.

At its height, more than 1,100 former slaves lived in a collection of 50 1½-story duplexes surrounding a central pond.

Although the town was supposed to be temporary, the freed slaves put up churches, stores, a hospital, mess hall, a school, an “old people’s home” and a laundry — to make a life for themselves.

“I think it would have very much resembled a town anywhere in America today with that population. They had the same needs as anywhere, and they sustained themselves by working,” said Thomas Sherlock, historian at Arlington National Cemetery.

Eventually, the village site, with a spectacular view of the nation’s capital and the Potomac River, became desirable for development. Despite impassioned protests from the freed slaves, the federal government paid the residents $75,000 for the buildings and property, and tore down the town in 1900.

Saving the city would have been a “gift to the American people to remember the struggles which seem like was a long time ago, but 150 years is not that long ago,” Sherlock said.

The only traces of Freedman’s Village left on the grounds are the lonely graves in Section 27 near the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Willis Attico

Life is a long lesson in Humility

James M. Barrie, 1860-1937