A Tribute to Tangipahoa Parish Library Director Barry Bradford

Tangipahoa Parish Library is fortunate to have Barry Bradford as its Director. It is amazing what he has accomplished for the library under his leadership and vision. Under Barry Bradford's leadership, the Tangipahoa Parish Library has seen significant improvements in its services. Through his vision, the library system has implemented innovative programs, expanded its collection, and modernized its facilities. This makes it a valuable resource for the community. Various programs are available for children and adults. Barry actively seeks out new acquisitions and collaborates with publishers and authors. He has ensured that the library offers a wide range of books, e-books, audiobooks, and other materials to cater to the diverse interests and needs of the community. This emphasis on collection development has enhanced the library's role as a hub for learning and knowledge dissemination for all Tangipahoa patrons and beyond.  Every day, our libraries offer a wide variety of services to their patrons, from Ponchatoula to Kentwood. HeB has demonstrated strong and professional leadership. I wish to publicly acknowledge and thank him. His commitment to the library and the community has been unwavering, and his dedication has been an inspiration to us all. We are fortunate to have him at the helm for fourteen years that I can recall. His legacy will live on in the Library for years to come.  

The Drum Newspaper established a collection at the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies

Eddie Ponds
Preparing to donate his 
newspaper collection
Photo Credit: Antoinette Harrell

The Drum Newspaper has donated 235 papers to the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies through the Nurturing Our Roots and Untold History Foundation, LLC. Dedicated to Eddie and Carrie Well Ponds and their families, the collection is named after them. This is the fifth African American collection to be established under the direction of Dr. Antoinette Harrell, a local historian, and genealogist committed to African American history preservation in the Florida Parishes. 

These papers date back to 1992.  The Ponds family began publishing their own newspaper in 1986. Eddie and his wife Carol attended a lecture by Julian Bonds at Southeastern University. Eddie noticed that there were no news media covering the event. That was the day and event that helped the Ponds family establish The Drum Newspaper.The collection was well received by Keith Finley, assistant director of Southeastern Louisiana University's Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies. Historically, there has been a piece of history missing from the collections. 

You can take pride in knowing that Dr. Harrell is changing the narrative and working tirelessly to ensure that the history of African Americans in Florida Parishes is included in these collections at the center. There were several Louisiana Florida Parishes covered in the paper. Sharon, his daughter, joined us and talked about how she photographed for the newspaper. The newspaper was a family business that she witnessed her parents working hard to maintain for decades. 

Dr. Harrell was happy to see that he finally took the step to preserve the events, history, and stories of the people who wrote about for decades. His paper will help to fill in the missing pieces of history for African American people in the Florida Parishes. Dr. Harrell was pleased to see he took the step to preserve the events, history, and stories of the people he had written about for decades. In the Florida Parishes, his paper will help to fill in the missing pieces of history related to African Americans. 

Richardson Funeral Home, Inc, Amite Donated a Volume of Funeral Books for Preservation

Funeral Records

The secretary for Richardson Funeral Home, Inc., Amite contacted Nurturing Our Roots Media regarding a volume of books that we might be interested in for genealogy research. She explained exactly what was in the books, and Dr. Antoinette Harrell assured her that she would be there in thirty minutes to examine them. 1996 to 2012 is the start and end date of the volume.

The books contain funeral records as well as indexes. Among the information researchers can find are the deceased's name, race, date of birth, date of death, occupation, and parents' names. Furthermore, it indicates whether the mothermaiden name, the funeral date, interment information, whether she was married, and the information's name. 

The books will be part of the Richardson Funeral Home Collection at the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies.  Parallelto the donation of books, 590 funeral programs will be added to the collection. EBPL Special Collections Department is digitizing the funeral programs and returning the originals to Dr. Antoinette Harrell at the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies. The Richardson Funeral Home is the first funeral home in the Louisiana Florida Parishes to preserve such records.

http://www.southeastern.edu/acad_research/programs/csls/historical_collections/archival_collections/r_s/richardson_funeral_home/index.html

More African American Funeral Programs to Be Digitized at the EBPL Special Collections Department

Patsy  Johnson

I've had a busy week of preserving African Americans funeral programs at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Special Collections Department and conducting peonage research in the Mississippi Delta  made this week one of my busiest. Not to mention the many meetings I had scheduled. One of my meetings this week was with Patsy  Johnson concerning her collection of funeral and church programs. 

There are over 100 African American funeral programs in her collection from several South East Louisiana parishes: Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, St. Helena, East Feliciana, and Washington Parishes. A large number of the funeral programs were composed of members of her family, friends, and church family. Having thumbed through her collection, I made a recommendation to her about preserving her collection. In our conversation, I explained how important it is for her collection to be digitized in order to be preserved, and how I have partnership with the EBPL Special Collection Department to assist with the preservation of such collections. 

Patsy made use of this opportunity to ensure long term preservation to digitization. It was encouraging to know she understood how these funeral and church programs can be extremely valuable to the study of local history and genealogy research. I discussed with her how disappointed she would be if a natural disaster or other catastrophic event took place that could cause her collection to be damaged or destroyed. It is for reason like this, that we must consider alternative approaches to preserving our rich collections. 

Our meeting concluded with a plan of action for preserving her collection and making it accessible to other researcher through online digitization at the EBPL Special Collections Department. It is expected that the process will be completed within three months. 

Harrell Inspired Other Genealogist to Donate Their Research Materials

Harrell donating her 2017 collection

My family roots run deep in the Florida Parishes. When I first started researching my family history in the local libraries and university, I couldn't find any records, photographs, and any other genealogy resources outside of the parish courthouse and ancestry.  I know my family has been in the parishes since the founding of the parishes and contributed to the society they lived in. 

They owned their land, they built their one-room schools. African American people in the Florida parishes worked hard to own and maintain their own farms and some owned their own business. They served in the military and not one monument with their names listed can be found throughout the Florida Parishes.  "Why wasn't their contributions documented?" As I moved forward to pursue my own genealogy research as planned. I started collecting photographs, documents, artifacts and genealogical records from other African American families in the Florida Parishes, I had to find a repository to deposit the items collected. 

Bennett donating her family files

In 2012, I called the office of Samuel Hyde, Jr. Ph.D., Professor of History and Director, Center for Southeast La. Studies/Archives to set up an appointment with him to talk with him about the rich collections. After talking with Dr. Hyde, he informed me that he would be happy to archive the collections, and how   important it is to the history of the Florida Parishes. The collection  help fill in the missing pieces of history in the Florida Parishes as it relates to African American people. 

I asked my colleague Bernice Alexander Bennett a Maryland resident, who is the host of "Research at the National Archives and Beyond," author, genealogist, family historian to consider donating her family papers and research to the Center for Southeast La. Studies/Archives. She agreed to donate her collection to the center.  Bennett spends countless of hours researching civil war records for Louisiana color troops at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Martin & Royal looking at Harrell's
collection

Another genealogy researcher named Stephanie Quiette-Addison Martin, spent twenty-five years  researching and documenting the history of African Americans in the Florida Parishes, Martin has submitted work to Afrigeneas and to Christine's Genealogy website. She is also published in the "Louisiana Genealogical Register." Martin offered to donate her extensive collection to the Center for Southeast La Studies/Archives. She has collected over 10,000 names. Martin is the Manager of the African American Archives for  Louisiana.

Karran Harper Royal, co-host of "Nurturing Our Roots Television Talk Show," and Executive Director of the Georgetown University 272. Royal is a native of New Orleans and talks about the impact of Georgetown. 272 slaves were sold to benefit Georgetown University.

Words can't explain how delighted and happy I am to hear that these noted and reowned genealogists  and family historians will follow the lead and donate their collections to the center.  

Antoinette Harrell Collection at the Center For Southeast Louisiana Studies

The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies Special Collections

The Center for Southeast Studies
Genealogist Antoinette Harrell and Doris Lloyd

One of my favorite places to research is the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies in Hammond, Louisiana. My passion for genealogy goes beyond the scope of my own personal history. It's important to preserve and document the history of the communities.

The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies preserves and promotes the history and promote the history and the cultures of Louisiana's Florida Parishes, Southwestern Mississippi, and surrounding area through scholarly research, lectures and publishing. If you are conducting genealogy research, "you may want to visit the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies. You never know what  you may find that can help you with your genealogy research.

The Fajoni-Lanier Collection
The Center for Southeast Studies

I interviewed Dr. Samuel Hyde today and as always it is a pleasure to talk with him. We talked about so many topics as it relates to the Florida Parishes. My best friend Doris Lloyd  and my colleague Walter C. Black, Sr., went with me and we look through the Piney Wood and Fajoni-Lanier Photograph Collections. Although most of the photographs didn't have names on them it was good to look at the photographs of people who once lived in Tangipahoa Parish. The Fajoni-Lanier collection is mostly about the local  people. Looking at their faces, the clothes they wore,  and the images behind them say something about the photograph. The Harrell, Richardson, Gordon and Vining Family was fortunate to have a lot of old photographs of our relatives and ancestors.

I'm so happy to see that the collections was donated for preservation and not thrown away in the trash. Quite often this is what can happen when someone dies and family members go through their personal belonging. We must remember that we're throwing away our history.  Making the decision to donate your collections is preserving your history and the history of the community you live in.

I value old photographs and enjoy preserving them. Through the study of genealogy many people who live in St. Helena and Tangipahoa Parish has shared many of their photographs with me. With today technology its so easy to share with other family members and friends. Social media has allowed us to share precious memories, events and photographs of family members and friends instantly.

If you would like to donate your family collection and don't know where to start. Please contact "Nurturing Our Roots" for more information on how to preserve your family history.

 One of the main reasons that I preserve and donate my family history, photographs is because I want to preserve the family history and educate others in my family. I find it to be very important for my family and many of my family members appreciate it. Especially the younger people who want to know more about their family history. You can email me at afrigenah@yahoo.com.