Moving Forward

Paperdoll Journal 

September 2018

I'm hoping you're reading this post after having a fantastic summer full of documented memories for generations of family history research! For me, I am feeling great after a summer full of new discoveries on several research trips and establishing the template for the design, format and structure of Paperdoll Journal. Thank you all for your support, feedback and cheer! Moving forward is my fall theme while  exploring my genealogy and family history leading to the Great Migration. ​~ Lisa

Great Migration:
​The African-American Exodus North

'In the 1920s, Harlem's African-American population exploded — with nearly 200,000 African Americans inhabiting a neighborhood where there had been virtually no blacks 15 years earlier. Above, a Harlem street in 1942.' NPR

The photo above reminds me of my grandmother's oral history describing 125th street in Harlem on Sunday after church. People strolled up and down in their Sunday's best, meeting and greeting one another. My aunt, my grandmother's sister, had a general store where people would come in and leave messages for people on a board. "This is how many people stayed in contact with each other," said Nana. My grandmother and her sisters moved up to NYC from Atlanta, GA and Omaha, NE.

LISTEN

Listen to Fresh Air: NPR, Hosted by Terry Gross interviews Isabel Wilkerson,  author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.

Black Family History
Library Picks

Building a personal library with select titles has helped me with a better understanding of my family history and genealogy research. At times. I get an aha moment when reading some public history that sheds light on an ancestor's public records. It's a chilling experience to say the least. One of my favorite titles is The Warmth of Other Suns.

READ

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