Clayton Library Friends May General Meeting

Updated 5/17/2024:
Due to Thursday's severe weather in the Houston area, all Houston Public Library locations are closed until Monday, May 20. This meeting will be virtual only and held on Zoom. Please register your online attendance below to obtain login instructions.

The meeting will consist of a brief business meeting followed by our guest speaker.

Program Title: All God’s Children: The Enslaved and Their Owners, Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church (1801-1829), Jessamine County, Kentucky

Janet Miller always believed that her ancestors came from small, rural Protestant congregations that did not keep records. Recently, though, while searching for information on Lafon family members, she decided to look at the transcribed minutes of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church online at FamilySearch. It was nice to find a Lafon mentioned—Anna, her likely fourth great grandmother who had joined the congregation in the summer of 1811. But then, on the same page were other familiar names: Singleton, Waller, Haydon, Barkley. And then she noticed that slaves were mentioned, first names only—Harry, Cato, Charity, Dolley—who were either joining the Church or being baptized. What started on a whim with the expectation of finding nothing of consequence, soon became a full-fledged hunt for family ties to the history of Mt. Pleasant Church and the Church’s ties to early American history, by way of the “Travelling Church” and the “Siege of Bryan’s Station.”

Janet’s personal journey into genealogical research began in the fall of 1992 when history professor Dr. Riley Froh challenged Janet and her much younger classmates to record their family stories. Writing the class paper, “Why Me Lord, Why Texas?” resulted in Janet’s first introduction to the magic of the Clayton Library in Houston and to the classical research tools of the day: the Soundex system, manual microfilm machines, books, books and more books, many arranged by state, county, author. Starting at the Clayton with “Why Me Lord...” and returning here some thirty years later with “All God’s Children...” became like a pair of bookends between which Janet claims to have learned so much. And yet, as she continues to be surprised and delighted to find ancestors in unexpected places, she realizes that there is so much more to learn.

Registration is required for either Zoom or in-person attendance. You do not need to be a member to attend the meeting.

Register:
Click to register for Online Attendance

Handout:  Janet_Miller_Handout.pdf