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Months ago, at the request of a user, uencounter.me introduced a genealogy pin under its "pin types" Since then, we have watched history unfold across the globe with stories of ancestors, requests for information, and wonderful old photos of lost eras. Genealogy is a passion, a past-time, an art, a profession, and a billion dollar industry. More importantly, it is a society dedicated to uncovering history and defining existence for those who can no longer share stories or experiences for themselves.

From CSI to The Maury Povich Show, DNA and DNA testing has become a part of American popular culture. But what is DNA?\nIn simple terms, DNA is a string of proteins that contain coded blueprints for our bodies. It tells our bodies how to grow. We inherit our DNA from our parents, which is where its genealogical value comes in.

I came upon this wonderful news story on DallasNews.com about Pellham, Texas, a small Freedman community that's fighting hard to preserve its legacy for future generations.

This next award is long overdue.  The second winner of the ThinkGenealogy Innovator award is Legacy Family Tree version 7.  When the innovator award is presented for software innovation, it is for a specific feature.

This column previously addressed the importance of the 1870 U. S. census in African-American research. As noted in that article, this was the first federal census after the end of the Civil War, and therefore the first record group to record personal information about former slaves nationwide. It was not, however, the earliest record group to do so in many localities. Many similar record groups were created that provide information about former slaves between 1865 and 1870.

This column has previously focused on African-American genealogy blogs, in the articles Shout-outs to African-American Genealogy Blogs and More shout-outs to African-American genealogy blogs. A third edition soon forthcoming will spotlight several new genealogy blogs. The responsible genealogist, however, would be advised to learn more about United States history, including how it affected African-Americans. History blogs are a vital source for keeping up with current perspectives as well as newly available historical resources, many of which may provide genealogically useful information.

When the 1860 federal census was collected and enumerated, slavery was still legal within most of the states south of the Mason-Dixon line. The 1860 federal census enumerated only free people of color in its population schedule; slaves were enumerated namelessly on a separate schedule, identified only by slave owner, age, gender, and color.

During the struggle for civil rights, many brave men and women sacrificed their lives to improve the lives of Americans of all races. Unfortunately, because of lingering institutional racism in the South, the murders of these civil rights workers were not all investigated to their fullest, and quite a few went unsolved. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently announced its "Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative," to try to identify the next-of-kin of some of the victims of these cases.