Were Your Ancestors Homesteaders in the Louisiana Florida Parishes?

East Baton Rouge Parish Library Digitizing Funeral Programs from Richardson Funeral Home, Inc. Amite.

Kay Hurst and Melissa Eastlin
EBPL-Photo
Credit: Dr. Antoinette Harrell

The African American funeral programs contains a wealth of information about the deceased that gives insights into their lives. The funeral programs contains their name, date of birth, date of death, parents names, maiden names of women who were married, occupation, education and civic duties and organization affiliation, names of their siblings, and children.  Valuable information  is provided in these programs that can be a great help to anyone researching their family history. 

In sharing some of the Watson funeral program with  award winning author, radio talk show host, and genealogist Bernice Bennett, she discovered information about her family history and learned about her ancestors on her grandfather side of the family. "These are my relatives on my grandfather side of the family. Bennett explained to me." Each of the people on the Watson funeral programs and funeral home books are in my family tree. 

Kay Hurst, Research Specialist at the Genealogy and Special Collections Department at the EBRPL, sent an email requesting me to meet with   them about the collection. They read the article published  in the Advocate newspaper "Segregation erased generation of  Black history. This Louisiana funeral home rediscovering it." During our meeting they told me that they would gladly digitized the collection and return the originals copies  back to me. Because Richardson Funeral, Inc. Amite has a collection at the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies, I thought it would be best to consult with Dr. Samuel Hyde, the Center Executive Director before I make any decision concerning this collection. He informed me that was alright to get them digitized. I was hoping that he would agree with this process.

East Baton Rouge Parish Library collection is a collaborative effort between the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Special Collection  Department and numerous community contributors to collect preserve and make available this unique resource.

Any archivist's greatest concern during a natural disaster is the loss of historical materials, rare books, audio, video, and photographs.  The Georgia Public Library Service new collection features more than 100 years of digitized African American Funeral programs. The San Antonio Public Library, Texas has a digitized African-American Program Collection. The African American Funeral Programs Collection at the East Baton Rouge Parish. I'm glad to see that this digitized process is happening Louisiana,

Thomas Cook
EBPL: Photo Credit: Dr. Antoinette Harrell

Richardson Funeral Home, Inc., Amite, Nurturing Our Roots Media and Dr. Antoinette Harrell has become a contributors to the preservation for funeral programs at EBPL. Digitization of this collection provides access to the funeral programs of several of the Florida parishes and other parishes in Louisiana to anyone worldwide who are searching for genealogical and historical information through the use of digital technology. In collaboration with my brother Thomas, we gathered the funeral programs and took them to the East Baton Rough Parish Library Special Collection Department for digitization preservation. It will take Kassandra and Kay approximately one month to digitize the collection.

It took me two days to alphabetize 590 funeral programs. I also created a database of the funeral programs for Richardson Funeral Home, Inc., Amite,  The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies, and the East Baton Rouge Parish Library. Creating this database facilitates a faster processing of the collection. I would definitely say it's my passion and a labor of love. 

Please see the link below for the African American Funeral Program EBRPL:

https://www.ebrpl.com

https://batonrougedigitalarchive.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16340coll17

Isaac and Mariah Harrell of East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

Top Left: William Harrell, Sr. Bottom Left: Isaac Harrell, Jr.
Top Right: Johnny Harrell: Bottom Right: Joseph Harrell
Isaac Harrell in the center.

Last week a woman name Carolyn August- Robinson contacted me about her East Feliciana Harrell family.  Her grandfather Isaac Harrell was born circa 1892. Isaac's mother was named Catherine, she married a man name Ripley Flowers who listed Isaac as his stepson in the 1900 U.S. Census. 

A brother by the name of James E. Harrell was living in the household. James was born in 1894. 

In 1910 he was living in the Police Jury Ward 7th, East Feliciana, Louisiana.  He was recorded as a mulatto and was a farmer by occupation. He was married to Mariah Jefferson Harrell.  They were the parents of Catherine, Emma, Leola, Viola, Mary Ella, Florence, Joseph, John, Isaac and Elizabeth Harrell.

In 1920 Isaac and Mariah were living in New Orleans, Louisiana at 5763 Dauphine Street. He worked as a laborer at a saw mill. In 1930 the family was living at 5431 Urquhart Street. Isaac was longshoreman working on the docks.

Their son Joseph was killed in a train derailment in 1947 on his way home. Once Isaac and his wife left the small town of Clinton they made New Orleans their home. Many of their descendants still live in the New Orleans today. I heard that there were Harrell's who lived in the ninth ward in New Orleans other than my Harrell family. Now that I'm making a connection with other Harrell's who came from Clinton it may help me find my maternal great grandfather Alexander's brother and sisters offsprings if there were any.

The Harrell Sister

Just this past week  family historian Karran Harper Royal and I went to Clinton to help New Orleans Police Officer Stephen Harrell, Sr. connect to his Harrell roots in Clinton. Now we're connecting with Carolyn to connect with her Clinton roots.

In 1802 Hezekiah Harrell was sent as early as 1802 by his father, fat old Levi Harrell of Charleston District, S.C., to explore the southern wilds for a home large enough for his "old folks," the littles one, the slaves and herds. Hezekiah, having obtained a liberal Spanish grant.  Fat "Ole Levi," other family lines are  Smith, Bacon, Chance, Robinson, Hobgood, Little, Cassel, McNeil and Hunt. They all lived in East Feliciana and Amite County, Mississippi in the early 1800s.  I've been to the clerk's office in Amite County, Mississippi many time looking at the slave inventory and succession records of Hezekiah. Now that I know the lineage of Isaac and Beauregard Harrell, I would like to find their ancestors who were slaves to find out if they were related to my maternal great-great grandfather Robert Harrell.

Carolyn August-Robinson

One thing that fat old Levi told his son Hezekiah is not to sell any of his slaves. Hezekiah honored his father wishes and kept the enslaved African together on the the Harrell plantation.  I hear people with the last name Harrell talk about their Clinton roots.  I think its time to use DNA to find out if we're related once we hit a brick wall and our research can't go any
further.

So many of us with the last name Harrell want to know how history and more about our ancestors, who were they, where did they come from. Who are their children? Where did they go after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed granting the former slaves their freedom. I very grateful for social media networks, because we're sharing photographs and family stories.

Carolyn informed me that she and Stephen are friends on facebook and she was trying to find out if they're related.  I think we'll  get some answers very soon. If you're a Harrell with ancestral roots in East Feliciana Parish, Amite County, Mississippi, St. Helena Parish, Tangipahoa Parish and Orleans Parish, and you would like to share your Harrell family history please email me at afrigenah@yahoo.com., Karan and I would like to hear about your history and we're still searching for the descendants of Alexander and Dinah Harrell.

Isaac Harrell, Jr.
Son of Isaac and Mariah Harrell

Nurturing Our Root and African Roots Television Programs

Producer and Host Antoinette Harrell is pleased to announce beginning November 2013 Nurturing Our Roots and African Roots Television Programs will be featured on Access Producer Network (APN). You will be able to watch full episodes of both talk shows. The award winning host has interviewed an array of family historian and genealogists ranging from Leonard Smith III,  LS3 Studios, LLC an award winning multimedia production company that offers a variety of services that include images and audio editing, Bernice Alexander Bennett Blog Talk Radio host of "Research at the National Archives and Beyond." Antoinette's show " Nurturing Our Roots Talk Show" has been featured on Nightline News and in many other media publications

She has engaged in conversations and discussions with many authors and other people who has travel and lived in Africa or people who are just conducting genealogy research. She is grateful and very appreciate for the professional services of NOA-TV for helping her to bring her television shows online.

African Roots with host Antoinette Harrell

Nurturing Our Roots with host Antoinette Harrell