I Got An Article Published In a Genealogical Society Journal!!

This morning I received an email from Ginger R. Smith, editor of The Trading Path, the journal of the Durham-Orange Genealogical Society, with the link to their latest issue. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

On February 25, 2015, I wrote the first of three blogposts about the slaves of my ancestor James Sims. Ginger, who blogs at Genealogy by Ginger, was the first to comment:

Hi Cathy, This was a great post about how you can learn the names of slaves held by our ancestors, which can be valuable information for the descendants of those slaves. I was wondering if you would be interested in submitting this post (and part 2?) as an article in our local genealogical society journal called The Trading Path? I am doing a special section on African American Research and I would like to include your post because it illustrates the various resources used in learning the names of slaves….If you are interested, please email me…. I would love to hear from you. Ginger R. Smith

And oh what a comment! It came as quite a surprise. She’d only read the first part and did not even know how many parts I had planned.

Black History Month: The Slaves of James SIMS, Part 1

Black History Month: The Slaves of James SIMS, Part 2

Black History Month: The Slaves of James SIMS, Part 3

I waited until after the last post to email Ginger. I thought it might be too much for a newsletter and left the decision to her. She wrote back:

Your blog posts are exactly what we are looking for to publish in the Durham-Orange Genealogical journal, The Trading Path. You use a great combination of your own personal family history and primary documentation to tell a story about both your own family members and about the lives of the slaves who lived with your family.

By the time that she got back to me Schalene Jennings Dugatis had already started the Slave Name Roll Project. The resonance of my blogposts and Schalene’s project was unbelievable. True A. Lewis of NoTe’s To MySelf and several other bloggers who descend from slaves were very encouraging about everyone who was getting involved. What could I do but allow my article to be published in The Trading Path?

Thank you so much Ginger R. Smith!

This morning I saw “The Slaves of James Sims” in print. What a fantastic feeling! Imagine my amazement as I skimmed through The Trading Path and saw Schalene and Slave Name Roll Project mentioned. And, after a closer look, I was thrilled to see my blog sister True A. Lewis also had an article published in the same issue about her paternal great-grandmother, a daughter of a slave. Please take a moment to visit her blog and read about her Grandma Eddie.

This is a first for me and I had to write about it! I got an article published in a genealogical society journal!!

© 2015 Cathy Meder-Dempsey