Dowdells/Genealogy

So the oldest genealogy organization issued an apology for excluding African-Americans until 1972 👀.

So it should not comes as a surprise that brick walls were intentionally created to prevent African-Americans from discovering their ancestors not accidentally.

Towards a Fully Inclusive Genealogy Community - National Genealogical Society The National Genealogical Society (NGS) has prepared the following article to record racist and discriminatory actions and decisions the society made, that regrettably, were not welcoming and inclusionary to the broad cultural diversity of the United States. NGS has published extensive histories cel...

Dowdellresearch, LLC is thrilled to recently uncover two studies that focused on peeling back African-American ancestry. The owner of Dowdellresearch, LLC, Jacqueline Dowdell has long distanced herself from the rush to the Ancestry.com surname pedigree trees. The reason being was that many African-Americans were not included in the earlier databases used by ancestry.com.

This limited the African-Americans families from finding connections to other African-Americans family members. However by the 20th century, DNA testing and profiling were marketed as the answer to uncovering potential ancestors members. Those who have experienced the brick wall were excited about this tool for their family tree.

But the earlier trees issue was that some of these family trees were based on faulty sources that would create information that did not accurately connect to the original sources for actual family members.

Therefore, some African-American participating in the DNA testing required them to create a family tree in Ancestry.com. In the desire to avoid the actual documented research, some would borrow from other trees with the same surname in the hopes that the DNA result would fill in the blanks for their brick walls without building their very own tree.

For some this method would overwhelmed families with DNA links to unlimited potential for family members based on surname that included others outside of their designed family tree.

The problem not being addressed within the enslaved population, was that for the enslaved, surnames were used as a label—demarcation-as belonging to, as in property. Thus a commingling of various enslaved family members could come under one surname. And thus to unravel the enslaved family members there was a need for a method of research that placed African-American genealogy as "boots on the ground.".

This would require finding the location of enslaved ancestors before the 1870 records. This would require finding the geographic location of these enslaved ancestors and track their footprints to that location where these ancestors lived and some died. This was the type of family research that Dowdellresearch, LLC conducted in creating her family tree.

THESE groundbreaking studies for African-American families like Dowdell who have hit that 1870 brickwall are one step closer to the true ancestral connection. More importantly this study may prove to be more exacting than the family trees found on ancestry.com for African-American families focus on back to Africa.

In a Science article, written by Lizzy Wade in 2014, that the genome of African-Americans is over 72% Africa and only 24% European and .8 % Native Americans. That study alone, supports the need for a more focused inclusive study of the African-American population.

Ancestry® | Family Tree, Genealogy & Family History Records Ancestry® helps you understand your genealogy. A family tree takes you back generations—the world's largest collection of online family history records makes it easy to trace your lineage.

Rereading this is..it has some gems that I'm trying to pull out of this conversation.

🤣😂

Queen Elizabeth has left the building. It was in 1776 a battle to end British rule over 235 years ago here in the American colonies.

Who were the Black Irish, and what is their story? There are a number of different claims as to the origin of the term Black Irish, from the Spanish Armada to the Vikings. Did the Black Irish exist?

This post is to announce the winner of the Dowdell Family Crest Tshirt give away. I used an app to randomly select the winner.

Those who did the 3 steps:

Shawn Dowdell
Carolyn L. Dowdell-Black
Diana Scruggs
DJ Mellow Mike Dowdell
Veronica S. Dowdell

Thank you

The Winner is:

Carolyn L
Dowdell-
Black

Update; See her in the winning t-shirt in the comments 👇

Thank you

To the sponsor
Lisa Gaulden Dowdell

Congratulations and Thank you

To all who checked out the Dowdells/ Genealogy page

Thank you

For those who did not win and would like to purchase a Tshirt-please let me know by commenting below.

Roe vs Wade Overruled

I heard the news and was truly baffled that Roe v Wade had been overturned. One I couldn't believe YT women had not beaten their men in rejecting such a thought.

So after I read a FB post about the Roe v. Wade I reluctantly turned on the News to only hear conversations of blaming the black man better known as Clarence Thomas. Hold up folks, mThomas is only one Justice who didn't write the decision but joined others in the decision .

The News?

With the white women speaking on the News, I was still not assured as to what happened, so I pulled up the 231 page court ruling. I did not read it all, but I read Alito's opinion and Thomas' opinion to get a gauge on the issue.

Justice Thomas' opinion was short and brief. He stated in his opinion why he had written beyond his "I concur". Justice went on to explain in opinion, Roe did not layout a historical backing of the nation historical position on abortion. Because looking at the document itself it clearly did not speak on the issue of abortion. Justice Thomas is reading the document as the framer wrote it..adding nothing that is not in clear view. As far as Thomas was concerned the other former Justices was playing Willy-Nilly with their interpretations of life, Liberty, and property deprivation by inserting privacy into the Constitutional provision of liberty.

Justice Thomas expressed that this Willy-nilly interpretation of due process was flawed. And to attach the word substantive to due process was a stretch when it came to the true meaning of due process.

Justice Thomas was chastising the other Justices in their legal reasoning in framing their opinions in support of Roe v Wade. That's All.

So in essence Justice Thomas simply agreed with the decision with two words, I concur and used the rest of his writing space to go on a tangent.

So why they pointing the finger at Thomas?

He's still a black man.

I want to read some of the other Justices' opinions but I most definitely wanted to speak on Justice Thomas right away because he was doing what he was appointed to do protect the Constitution as an Originalist..painful to hear but that's his job.

Roe v. Wade was overruled in it reasoning but your State can right this wrong but will they?

This was my origin rendition of the family Crest about 4 years ago. It was clear to me that the Yt Family Crest did not represent the African/Americans Dowdells. After researching what the Crest represented in Battle for Yt folks, I deconstructed the Crest as for what would it represent to African-American Dowdells.

So this is what my image means: Our ancestors were chained and placed in the bottom of slave ships, brought across the waters, stripped of identity and possession. But through blood sweats and tears, lifting their head. They witnessed, some survived the inhumane voyage dealt to our people. Determined survivors persevered, believing all that was stolen would one day be recovered retrieved and restored. On Juneteenteeth, 1865 was a clarion call that our long suffering was about to change. Our crown and colors appeared as a reminder that we will return again to the generosity and wealth of Mansa Musa.

This is my new rendition of the Dowdell's Coat of Arm after I stripped a way the social structure of the Dowdell name.

ASE.

Dowdall's Coat of Arm

It is interesting as to the interpretation of the Dowdall's Coat of Arm. The coat of arms usually includes a shield, helmet and crest. At least to me, i question the representation of the Coat of Arm here in the United States.

It is written during military battles, the injured or dead knight could be identified by the crest worn on clothing, helmets and shields. The shields for some reason were painted with animals.

The coat of arm tradition would be passed down the male bloodline to his descendants. Somewhere the tradition attached itself to surnames. The surname were used to mark territorial possessions. This replaced the labeling of an individual by a certain feature of the person. The surname became more of a clan name to embrace others into the extended family territory who might share a common ancestor.

The Dowdall's coat of Arm colors, red and white could serves as simply a backdrop for seeing the design . However, it is written that white represent pureness and harmony. Hmmm, going into battle i wonder about that meaning.

The red as a background and the color of the birds, is opined to represent the suffering of the Irish Catholics. I could agree with that.
I would go on to suggest that the red represent the blood that was shed to protect the rights of the Catholics to practice their religion.

Finally, the bird to me represent the innocence of warrior fighting to the death against the persecution of religious freedom. I would think that feathers would adorn the helmet sense a bird was selected.

I do not know much (little to nothing) about heraldry but I'm putting this out there. But I believe that we as African-American Dowdell should crest our own coat of arms. We should use the colors of liberation, birds and feathers as our crest and helm for liberation from slavery.

I write often about Henry Dowdell leaving the south in the mid to late 1940's. Before Henry's arrival in Indiana, Rebecca Dowdell Stanley arrived in parts of Indiana. Rebecca inheritance included 21 enslaved. Rebecca is a descendants of James Dowdell. J.Dowdell died around 1853-1856. Rebecca would marry Rev. Augustine Olin Stanley.

In the 1880 census, we see a nineteen year old servant by the name of Queen Victoria Jackson, born around 1861. Was Jackson a member of the 21 enslaved inherited by Rebecca? Indiana did not allow enslavement but enslaved were smuggled into Indiana as indentured servants.

Stanley, Rebecca's husband would become the rector in 1879-1881 of Holy Innocents Episcopal Church. His wife Rebecca would die February 7 or 10, 1919 at the home of her son Rector James Dowdell Stanley. But her body was taken to Cincinnati, Ohio. This might explain some of the Dowdell migrations into Ohio,

It's interesting to note that Rebecca 's grandson James Dowdell Stanley II died in California. California was where family papers were retrieved from the trash. I wonder if these papers might have belonged to James Dowdell Stanley II.

[Fort Wayne Dowdell 1950 Federal Census Record]

Part2

The census taker didn't do too good on accuracy on these family name..smh

[Fort Wayne Dowdells 1950 Federal Census Record]. I had trouble posting this until I added the FB app👀

This video was made some years (8-10? )ago. I gave this to a few folks and yet to see it played at any gathering.

In this video you will many members of the Fort Wayne Dowdells, you will see descendants of the Alabama's Dowdell, you will see the renown gospel singer and DJ. Mckinstry served as the chair along with James Cleveland of the Gossip Award Show. McKinstry married one of Henry Dowdell' sister and she was known as the renown church hat lady. You will see countless friends and others from years past.

To the ancestors..ASE

Dowdell Movie 00 Henry and Sina Dowdell, Sr. children, family and friends. Henry and Sina moved from Alabama to Fort Wayne, Indiana. And of course a few friends are include...

So I spent many years researching the past of ancestors known and unknown. But My thoughts was that the would bring me into my remembrance of an era. So, i was truly disappointed that all my years of research could not be implemented with the 1950 United States Census!!!

How could my family disappear after spending years of me searching for them in the ledgers maintained by white people ? Did family choose not to response to the social structure of the census form after going north? They had only been in Indiana for a few years and trying to settle in in their new surrounding!!

Or were the family overlooked in the Census counting process? Did the landlords get the forms and not pass them on to the tenants?

I don't have the answers. I am thrilled to know that the 1950 Census was dropped digitally, making it available to all who are interested in genealogy. This meant you did not have to wait for information to be indexed by the big institutions that controlled the narrative.

Many of these institutions relied on the bigger institutions to do the hard work. But the big institutions are understaffed and working limited hours, including our Fort Wayne Library. [How can you build such a huge edifice and lack the funds to pay for a full staffing? CoVID has shown us big is not necessary better? You have that warehouse of records but everyone is online not coming to the library. I digress. ]

Understaffing of the bigger institutions in turn limit the smaller institutions access and have to wait or focus on smaller niche data.

Although it would have been great to gather the information, myself, for this page from the 1950 census we not there..it's not there. So I will be limited to snippets and pieces i will find from other documents, until the next census for 1960.

Let's do the math...71+72 =143 years old!!!!!

I will be an ancestor by then guaranteed.

I was so looking forward to 1950..carry on.

S/N. We who are familiar with the various surnames used by Henry (Papa), it clear that he wanted Dowdell for his children when they are later listed as Scott in the 1930 census. Papa reversed back to Dowdell in the 1940 census.

[Background Fort Wayne Dowdell Tracking]

From family memories and documents we know the Dowdells arrived in Fort Wayne between mid-1940 to late 1940, Thus finding Dowdells in the newly released would be a walk in the park. Not so fast, we are talking Indiana and more specific, Wayne Township, Allen County !!! Sigh..

So far I 've uncovered about 5 black families in my limited search. I thought with new technology, this reviewing of census records would be a whole lot easier and much simpler. I did.. until I remembered Indiana was not a good landing spot for blacks escaping slavery or later in their Midwest migration.

Indiana Constitution banned blacks. Later around 1850 they supported returning black fugitives to southern states Later when blacks were allowed in Allen county, blacks had to register themselves with some type of surety bond. Indiana would later support a back to Africa campaign..deep sigh.

From 1850-1870 probably a handful of black family lived in Allen County. So fast forward to the labor shortage in Fort Wayne we see the black population explosion in 1940 to over 2500 to over 5000 in 1950.

So finding them in the 1950 should be fairly simple..or would it be like the registration of blacks records disappeared? Smh

[ ] i will have to figure out how to get the year of marriage for each sibling listed later..
Fort Wayne Dowdells clan began to marry. At least 4or 5 of the of the sibling had married by the mid 1950.

came out in April 2023

Transcribing is in the work, so limited information is available: Primary sources will be found there.

1804 Gay street the house was torn down for urban development [date].

Julia's first child should be found in the 1950 Census at this address.

This is from the 1950 city directory: as you see the nuggets are where family worked and lived. This city directory shows they moved from 1804 Gay toward 2224 Gay Street:

Dowdell Edna M emp FtW State Sch
-Henry (Sina) salvage wkr Goodwill I
dustries h2224 Gay
-Henry jr (Mary L) asmbir Fruehauf
Trailer Co h2018 Smith
-John fcty wkr Fruehauf Trailer h18
Gay
-Robt fcty wkr IHCo r422 Buchanan
- Thos N emp Fruehauf Trailer r2224
Gay
-----------

2224 Gay Street- the house is now torn down. Growing upI have quite a few memories but the one I will put to this pic is me walking to kindergarten at Hanna School on Lafayette Street in 1956.

An untold story is lost forever.,

The greatest generation-Julia Dowdell


Julia's parents were born in rural Deep South Alabama. Henry (Papa)Dowdell Sr. (1901)was born to his mother, Rosa or Rosie Parish in Alabama. Papa would marry Sina (1908)(MaMa) Ward who was born to Johnnie (1862) and Angeline (Turner)Ward (1871 )1906 in Cunningham (Perry county) in 1926. Julia's parents marriage would take place 20 years after her grandmother''s marriage.

Julia was born in Alabama during the depression in 1933. She would leave the south behind As a memory around 1944-47. As a young child she would join a group of southern s who migrated from the Deep South and traveled to the Midwest-Fort Wayne, Indiana. Julia would travel with her father. Her mother and the other siblings would make this journey later.

Julia would leave the rural south to land in the urban center of Fort Wayne, Indiana. black community. This was so because Fort Wayne was not hospitable to black folks coming to the city. So black folks found themselves concentrated in certain parts of the city that was close to the former shantytown or Hooverville. These were area were homeless, wanderers and other s built cardboard replicate of housing for themselves.

Despite of all the obstacles put in place by Fort Wayne local leaders to prevent the newcomers from thriving, the family managed. Her father would briefly have a novelty shop on E. Wallace.
A few of Julia's brothers joined the Army after a little time in Fort Wayne and other members found work in laundries. They would become a part of the greatest generation for economic advancement. Tiny steps but some progress.

Matter of fact housing conditions for the black community would improve from apartment living to home ownership when the federal government offered to subsidize housing in Fort Wayne around 1937. The city still unwilling to provide housing turned down the funding because some of the housing would have to be offered to some in the black community

Black families made do the best they could while slum landlords offered houses turned into apartments or rented rooms to the newcomers. At one point it is said that Julia's family members all occupied an apartment at 1137 1/2 Hayden belonging to Julia's older sister. This was after the arrival of the rest of the family members.

A crack in the housing situation came 10 years later for black families. This time it came in the 1960's under the GI bill and urban renewal for desegregation of neighborhoods. Julia joining her parents would be a part of this relocation from one poor area of the city to another area that was now opening up housing because of white flight fueled by the GI Bill. The family would settle at 2308 South Hanna as the meeting place for family, friends and strangers seeking peace from those who traveled from south to north to find a new way of livin

Elizabeth Thomas Dowdell made a request to honor the faithful slave Pierce and others like him with a monument. Pierce was discovered patrolling the home to protect Ms Dowdell and her girls during the Civil War.

Ms Dowdell daughter, Letitia Dowdell Ross was a member of the United Daughters of the confederacy that placed a Boulder at Harper Ferry West Virginia some 170 years later on October 1931.

What is the take away from this post? The name Pierce, as an enslaved during that time.

In another post Maggie an enslaved to Letitia Dowdell, daughter of Elizabeth Thomas Dowdell.

Ms Hattie Glover was a midwife, maybe for 4 or more of Henry and Sina Dowdell, Sr. Children. Ms Glover lived only a few houses from Henry's mama Rosa among family names, Stark, Swain, Page, Pope, Scott and Page. I wonder what was Ms Glover maiden name as I am easily distracted by my latest find.

Hattie Glover is listed on the birth records of several of Henry and Sina Dowdell, Sr. Children, Rosetta and Henry.

Who is Hattie Glover and where did she live?

During the 1940's Fort Wayne was the second largest city in Indiana. Yet the black population was less than 10 percent. Fort Wayne's German, Irish and British stock fought hard to discourage providing housing and employment to blacks during this period. The housing conditions in certain section of Fort Wayne were so bad, that the federal government came in offering federal funds to build new housing but Fort Wayne said no, because some of the housing would have to go to black families.

It was not until the federal government offered money for military housing that Fort Wayne would build housing for the needy if they served in the military. But few black veterans would be eligible for the military housing because of the limited number of units and Fort Wayne long standard policy of discriminating against blacks. Employment opportunities were no difference for the community of blacks.

But dire situations would occur in order to meet the demands of fighting Hi**er. Fort Wayne had no choice but to begin hiring Women-White women because of labor shortage. It would not be long because of the labor shortage that blacks men and women finally could gain access into these factories suffering from labor shortage. Recruitment campaigns by struggling manufacturers struggling to keep its factories was a magnet for workers migrating from Alabama to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I'm sure many of these migrants were not immediately given work, so it's no surprise some of these migrants would become entrepreneurs to meet the needs of Fort Wayne growing black population.
Dowdell's Novelty Shop- I heard that my grandfather had a business in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I thought it would be Dowdell's shoeShine. Instead I found a novelty shop @922 E. Wallace in 1949

Chocolate City better known as DC once served as a major depot for the domestic slave trade. International humans trafficking into slavery to the territory was banned in 1808.

William H. William warehoused enslaved individuals in a holding cell known as the Yellow House for the demand of domestic selling of human slave trade. Once the numbers were high enough with enslaved individuals they were shipped off to the cotton fields of the southern states, or sent to the sugar plantations of Louisiana. Not only did the enslaved build the White House but they enriched many families who lived there during that demand.

Lewis Jefferson Dowdell of Georgia purchased a whole family from major General Thomas Sidney Jesup a resident of Washington, DC during this time period.
https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/yellow-house-dc-slave-trade

D.C.’s Slave Trade Ended Here, Next Door to the Smithsonian The “Williams Slave Pen” disgracefully existed from 1836 through 1850 as a prison for enslaved people awaiting transport to the American South.