Honoring Ancestors of Color in our Genealogy Research

While we cannot change or erase the stormy history of our country, this day honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a good time to reflect on what we can do to right some of the wrongs of the past and to learn more about members of minority groups that have been long overlooked. To that end, we want to share some stories and websites that might help you learn a bit more about our ancestors of color.

Place Name Changes

Many place names in our country carry scars of the past. In days when it was acceptable to refer to minority groups by what have become racial slurs, our country was peppered with place names that are now deemed offensive. During the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. Department of the Interior began to rename places with racially insensitive slurs to African Americans and Japanese Americans. Most recently, the department has begun renaming locations in many states that refer to Native Americans. The target of name changes made this fall are those labeling Native American women as “squaws.” Although originally a generic word for “woman,” it has, over time, morphed into what one tribal leader called a “racially insensitive and offensive name.” As a result, nearly 650 locations in California, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas are getting new names.

The government entity working with the Department of the Interior to approve and standardize the changes is the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Created in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison in response to the hodgepodge of western locations that exploded in the years following the California Gold Rush, the board’s job is to provide consistent spelling and standardization on maps, charts, and other documents created by the federal government. This board keeps a database of place names and will ensure that all the old names are removed and new ones with consistent spelling appear on government documents in the future. Their website has quite a bit of helpful information on the names of U.S. locations and how they are chosen, and it's well worth a read. Find the website link below.

You can read more on the name changes in an Associated Press article: https://apnews.com/article/native-americans-climate-and-environment-government-politics-004fa29f3967ae7ab74958a61fda02d2

Read more about the U.S. Board on Geographic Names here: https://www.usgs.gov/us-board-on-geographic-names

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African American Collections at the State Historical Society

The State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO), located in Columbia, Missouri, has an outstanding website that grows better all the time. If you have Missouri ancestors, you will want to familiarize yourself with their website, if you haven't already done so.

Not only do they have the largest collection of Missouri newspapers in the state, but their three collections that relate to African American history are so comprehensive, they should be of interest to everyone. Missouri was a deeply divided state during the Civil War. Although officially a “border state,” there were many areas in the state with enslaved people doing forced labor, areas of strong Confederate sympathy, and other areas of solid Union support. Naturally, conflicts arose throughout the state because of these disparate groups. On the SHSMO website, you will find three searchable collections that will keep you researching (or just exploring because they are so absorbing) for many hours. Check these out . . .

State Historical Society of Missouri: https://digital.shsmo.org

Missouri Slave Documents: https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/p17228coll1

African American Experience in Missouri: https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/aaem

American Civil War in Missouri: https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/amcw

As we honor our ancestors by researching their lives, most family historians also want to learn about the times in which our ancestors lived. We respect and love them more for the hardships they endured that paved the way for us to live as we do. While we cannot undo the wrongs done to them, we can document their lives, share their stories with others, and, perhaps, take whatever steps we can to make the world for their descendants a better place.