Slaves and the Census

     I was raised believing that slavery was never right.  Slavery was a complete injustice to any human.  Clarence Darrow is a cousin to my family; a fact that is now researched and documented by my brother. Darrow was a strong man with even stronger beliefs in what is right and wrong.  He not only defended human rights and fought against slavery but his family also aided in those slaves attempting to make their way north thru the Underground Railroad with shelter, food and connections.

       Building the family tree thru Ancestry.com has been more than a just interesting, it has been amazing educational too.  Here is a prime example.

     I have never thought about how many countries allowed slavery.  In school we learned of the United States history that revolved around the slaves.  In elementary school, I participated in a singing program where we wore black on our faces and sang ballads like

Swing Low Sweet Chariot.  You know that would not be allowed today.  But it never crossed my mind how slavery was world wide.  I guess, in my research I have also found that the United States was one of the last countries, of any true size and power, to ban the ownership of another human being.  Shocking. 

     The diagrams below are the reason that I felt compelled to write this post.  The National Census right here in the United States asked many questions of each household.  Just as it does today.  Take a look at the questions and the dates of each census.  Now, if this isn't an eye opener, then thing about the fact that our  grand parents were standing at the door, with their friendly census taker, jotting down the number of 'free white' people lived in the house. 

     These records tell a lot more than the number and names of the household members.  Don't you think?

  

In the beginning -

     In the beginning?  That is what this is all about. Where do our ancestors come from?  What did they do?  Who do we look like?  Don't we all think about these questions at one point or another in our life.

     My mother, Nina Darrow Parrish, spent thousands of hours and that much more in dollars she didn't have to search our past; ordering copies of official documents and asking relatives for photos that she could copy.  Back in the  70's and 80's we didn't have the Internet to do our searching.  It took many hours at the library, scanning through micro-fish, to get info.

     My father-in-law, Ralph Finchum, got into it after a while, supplying my Mom with his family information, to the best of his knowledge.  After his retirement he made trips to Indiana where he could obtain much of the exact information needed.  I now have two relatives, from two families, bringing our past to us.

     Here we are over 20 years later and my brother, Ray C. Parrish, signs up on Ancestry.com, to take advantage of modern

technology to start the search once again.  Now the funny part of this is his motive.  He has a desire to prove that our family is not truly related to the famous attorney, Clarence Darrow.  Ray has his own site called the Parrish-Darrow Family Tree, where his doubts are squished.  But that is a different story and site.  I am taking his advise and have started this site in hopes of sharing the little bit of information that I have and to encourage family members to include their stories and information also.

     In many ways this is the beginning. The reality is, the journey began hundreds of years ago, and we can trace back to it.