Alex Haley and Roots – A Saga Of An American Family
I first read Roots when I was in taking my college major. I was already familiar with American history and the genesis of the journey of the Blacks in the Americas. This book however, never failed to stir strong emotions inside me despite the fact that I do not even have the slightest associations with Blacks, on top of the fact that I live all my life in the Philippines. For me, this is one of the best indications that this book has something special in it that can touch anyone regardless of race, color, geography, nationality, and perception of the world. I was academically aware of the struggles of black Americans in the early years of slaver but there was no genuine feeling of sympathy for them. This book simply changed everything. It reversed by outlook towards the struggles of the blacks before and at the present. In other words, this book is worth every penny you can save to buy and read it.
The book is about the true story of a black family spanning six generations. The opening part of the story revolves around the life of a young boy somewhere in Africa. His name was Kunta Kinte and he lived in a typical Muslim African village. During the boy’s normal wandering in the nearby woods, he was captured by slave traders and was eventually sold to plantation owners in America. There he met Bell, his future wife. Together they produced a daughter in the name of Kizzy. The book in this part shows in gruesome details how families are broken up and separated by a simple misdemeanor or crime. In this case, Kizzy committed a crime and was punished by her owner by raping her and afterwards selling her to another owner. Kizzy was able to get through with her difficult situation and married another slave. The story continues until it reached the generation of Mathilda who gave birth to Tom. Tom turned himself into a fine blacksmith until the civil war released all slaves as free citizens. Tom married Irene and they had several children. One of them is Cynthia who marries Simon Haley. They are the parents of the author, Alex Haley.
Adored and criticized at the same time, Roots: A saga of an American Family will go down in American history as one of the most compelling and detailed narration of the life of black slaves in the past. Interestingly, Alex Haley had to pay $650,000 to Harold Courlander, the author of The African because of plagiarism issues. The interest on the book, however, continued to create a stir amid many accusations such as lack of historical data. For me, the book should never be taken as a totally accurate account since black history in America was never fully documented, especially the history of each family. The story of the book shows that history of individual black family was passed through word of mouth for several generations.
The most important of all was that this book was able to tell in detail the obstacles faced by blacks in America, and how it strengthened the lineage of each families in the process. It was a wonderful story on how to overcome seemingly hopeless situations.
It is as enjoyable to read as the Entertainment news can provide at present.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harvey_Russell
LDS Church Puts 200 Million More Records on FamilySearch
Friday, August 20 2010
By Prepared by LDS Newsroom
As the nation’s genealogical societies gather in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference this week to share tips and tricks for finding one’s elusive ancestors, there will certainly besome clamoring over an unexpected gift from FamilySearch, a world leader in historic records preservation and access. FamilySearch announced the addition of over 200 million new searchable historic records representing 18 countries to its online database. The new records were added to the hundreds of millions FamilySearch published earlier this year at a similar event in Salt Lake City, Utah. The number of records on the pilot site totals 700 million.
The latest deluge of records includes 53 new or updated collections from the United States and over 100 million new records from Europe, Scandinavia and Mexico. The United States collections include the 1910 U.S. Census and states’ birth, marriage and death records. There are 10 million new records from New Jersey and Michigan, 4 million from Tennessee, an amazing 41 million from Massachusetts, and many more from other states.
“Some time ago, FamilySearch committed to creating access to the world’s genealogical records online in a big way. Today’s updates are part of an ongoing effort to make good on those commitments,” said Paul Nauta, FamilySearch public affairs manager. “We have only just begun,” Nauta concluded. In the U.S., FamilySearch is currently focusing on digitizing and publishing online federal and state censuses and state birth, marriage and death records. When complete, the initiative will provide a definitive collection of U.S. genealogical resources for family history researchers.
In addition to the new U.S. collections, over 100 million records were added to FamilySearch’s international collections online — making it most likely the largest international genealogy collection online. The new international databases come from birth, marriage and death records and from municipal records. Go to FamilySearch.org, then click Search Records and then Record Search pilot to see a full list of the free collections. The records will also soon be available at beta.familysearch.org.
“What makes today’s announcement even more impressive is that FamilySearch uses predominantly a growing corps of volunteers to accomplish the task of digitizing and indexing the records for online publication. That’s also in large part how we can do it for free, how it can be done at no cost to the patron,” said Nauta. Currently, 350,000 volunteers worldwide log on to FamilySearchIndexing.org and use FamilySearch’s proprietary software to view digital images of historic documents of personal interest and type in the desired information. FamilySearch then creates a free, searchable index of the historic collections online for the public to use.
