by Sharon Hall | Feb 28, 2026 | Digging History, Digging History Magazine, Services, Special Offers
As genealogists we have all come across terms which are unfamiliar for one reason or another. Many times the word or terminology is obsolete, or it might mean something altogether different in the twenty-first century. Such was the case as I was recently researching...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 21, 2026 | Digging History, Digging History Magazine, Services, Special Offers
If you’ve researched Southern slave-holding ancestors, you may be aware of the term “manumission”. If not, it simply means the act of freeing one’s slave(s). As such, manumission differed from emancipation set forth by government proclamation, Abraham Lincoln’s 1863...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 19, 2026 | Digging History, Digging History Magazine
For all my genealogy and history-loving friends . . . I discovered this documentary through Crista Cowan’s (“The Barefoot Genealogist”) podcast. If you’re a fan of Finding Your Roots on PBS, you will love this documentary which highlights an...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 14, 2026 | Digging History, Digging History Magazine, Services, Special Offers
The premise may seem unbelievable, given what our history books have always taught us. It is true – there were free men and women of color who owned slaves. The question is, why would someone previously enslaved choose to enslave others? In 1790 in the St. Phillip’s...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 7, 2026 | Digging History, Digging History Magazine, Services, Special Offers
Seawillow Seawillow is a rather lyrical and poetic sounding name isn’t it? I ran across this name while researching a friend’s African American ancestry. Where in the world did this name come from? Wouldn’t you just know – there’s a story behind it! A search for the...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 3, 2026 | Digging History, Digging History Magazine, Services, Special Offers
I was recently reviewing stats for the blog, a gauge of how effective my recent return to regularly posting articles has been. I saw a stat for an article I wrote in 2018 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of becoming a self-employed entrepreneur (originally...
