We are moving all around the ce.
We're bringing you into a new area here.
It is the oral history and genealogy area.
I'm joined once again by Akron Burton,
the Executive Director and
Dan Geteman with the Executive
Director of the Reckoning Proje.
Talk a little bit about the work
that's going to be done up here.
So we are partnering with the
center to try to bring African
American genealogy resources to
the black community in Louisvil.
And in particular,
we have been collecting primary
source documents pertaining to
African Americans in the in the
period of slavery in Kentucky ad
in particular in Jefferson Coun.
Church records, baptismal records from
various churches in the Louisville area,
records of wills and the state inventories
from when people were enslaved,
and they're enslavers,
bequeathed them to the next generation.
And there's papers pertaining to these
black families in the names of people.
And then also,
we have found rich records
pertaining to African American
Civil War soldiers that mention
the names of their family membe.
So we're trying to put all of this in
a series of databases that wille
on computers here at the centerd
be accessible to people who wano
come here and find their their roots,
find that they're enslaved ancestors.
And so we're trying to give peoa
toehold into the past using technology.
That they can come here to the
center and utilize.
So that's, that's the, that's the vision.
It is a remarkable resource and
kind of touches on what we kickd
off the show with. It's the fut.
It's the way we're going to lean
about our past and we're in to g
this resource to the community.
Akram is tremendous.
Yes, I mean this is the place
where it's all going to happen.
I mean we're talking about
oral history and genealogy.
We need to go back.
There's a term in amongst the c,
it's called Sankofa.
It's a mythical bird and it's supposed
to be able to turn its head 360 degrees.
So when you say Sankofa is you t
look back in order to move forward and
this is what this is going to be about.
As you can see right now we
just have the furnishing,
we just renovated this place.
Now we're in the process of tryg
to get a computers and then we'l
begin to establish the database.
That Dan was talking about.
What a tremendous undertaking.
I think just to have that databe
alone is huge and I know you hae
a couple of workshops coming
up that you want to let people
know about that they can attend.
Absolutely. We have the first workshop
tomorrow, but I think Dan woulde
the best person to talk about t,
three of them coming out. So we're doing
once a month starting this Saturday and the
2nd Saturday of the of the months coming up,
so also in March and also in Ap.
There's going to be workshops
held here at the center conductd
by one of our staff members,
a woman named Denise Payton,
who's an African American genealogist
with 25 years of experience.
And it's all going to be to teach people
how they can build their family trees,
African American families, family trees.
And this weekend it will
be a very basic workshop,
so people don't need to have
any genealogical background.
They can just come.
Important
to note, you don't need a
background in that or or you kn,
have been doing it for years
or anything. You'll help people
get people started on their family tree.
Then next month we're going to
introduce people to these databs
that we're talking about that or
organization Reckoning Inc has t
together so they'll be able to d
through old family records that
date back to enslavement times .
Possible ancestors for them and
we're going to teach people howo
how to connect with those recor.
And then for our third workshop,
it's all going to be about using
church records and in particular
Catholic Church records.
The Catholic Church as well as y
other of the Protestant Church s
kept really good records of babs
who were baptized in the church.
And it will list the name of the
enslaved baby, their mother,
the enslaver, sometimes the fat.
And So what our organization has been
doing is going through all these
Catholic records for all the baptismal
records of all the Catholic chus
in the Louisville and and surrounding
county area and putting them on.
They're actually the beginnings of it
is online right now on our webs,
whichisreckoninginc.org.
And if you click on church reco,
you can explore the records of
the cathedral here in Louisvill,
all the the the African American
children who were baptized there
back in the early 19th century.
And also we have a church in Nelson County,
which was and still is a major
Catholic community,
as well as Washington and Marion counties.
So we're going to have all of this and
by the time we have this workshop in April,
we'll have all the data from ale
churches from basically central Kentucky.
And where can people go to?
Do you need to register for
the workshop or just show up?
No, it's free, open to the publ.
We we we want to, pardon me,
it's at 2:00 o'clock starting tomorrow.
We want the general public to ce
in so that they can begin to see
what it is we're trying to do.
We're trying to build capacity.
This will be probably our
fifth genealogy workshop being
done over the last four years.
And it's all been part of leadig
towards the development of thisl
history and genealogy center. A,
Dan, thank you both so much.
All right, coming up,
we're going to wrap things up on
the show and give you a preview
of what's happening next week.
Stay with us.