Daughter Dialogues

Announcing the end of season two, Daughter Dialogues will return on Thursdays in September (postponed until February 2022). This episode includes observations in review of season two, listener comments, podcast statistics, announcements of live virtual events to interact with the Daughters, and a season three preview. Hear the status of breaking the series into seasons and pace of the research project; common shared experiences among the Dialogues, new! from season two: bold women, connecting with African ancestors, American Indian heritage, universities built on labor of ancestors, influence of Roots by Alex Haley on Daughters, setting records straight, mismanagement of records, Daughters not believing they would have a Revolutionary War ancestor, Civil Rights and segregation struggles, letters to military men who then became a husband, Daughters breaking color and gender barriers, Daughters as survivors, Confederacy insensitivities, being nervous about joining the DAR in the South, Daughters being voted upon with black balls and white balls, election and health and racism pandemics in 2020 causing some Daughters to not record oral history, chance encounters; additional experiences in common with season one: white men with black women who were often enslaved in 1700s and 1800s providing a different narrative of how white men took care of their black families and passed down their property to them, white women with black men in the 1800's, colorism and complex struggles with racial identity because of color of skin, rejection or denial by white descendants of ancestors, black Daughters connecting with white descendants of their ancestor’s former enslavers, dual family, or shared common ancestor, members of the U.S. Colored Troops, people of color owning slaves, free people of color; season 2 publicity on Chicago and Quincy, IL radio, NM radio, Cheddar TV, ABC & NBC News Washington D.C., Washingtonian Magazine, geeking out on numbers; Daughter Dialogues downloaded nearly 17,000 times, placing it in top 40% of podcasts among 30+ million episodes available; listeners on every continent except Antarctica; top cities and countries in which listeners are located; announcing season 2 Dialogue with the Daughters Live! in August 2021 during which listeners will be able to meet the Daughters and ask questions live; season three preview: meet a black Jewish member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a descendant of a American Indian female patriot. August 5, 2021 update: Season 2 Dialogue with the Daughters Live! is postponed until January 2022 and the subsequent return of Daughter Dialogues for a Season 3 is postponed until February 2022 due to the passing of Robert Raney, on August 3, 2021, father of the host Reisha Raney.
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Charlotte shares stories about her white great-great-great-grandmother who had a child with a black man and descended from Revolutionary War patriot William Lindsey Durham whose grandson is the namesake of the city in North Carolina; and her Welsh ancestry, descending from free people of color of Chatham County, North Carolina who trace back to patriarch Moses Myrick of Wales. She talks about growing up in the small close-knit community of Pittsboro, North Carolina; dropping out of NC A&T and enrolling in a pharmacy technician program at Durham Technical Community College; joining the U.S. Navy where she learned air traffic control; the strain of being in the military on her marriage; earning a bachelor's in Computer Information Systems; her career in clinical trials working as an associate director at a major pharmaceutical firm managing reported adverse events; meeting her second husband in the Navy; traveling to Anglesey, Wales with white American genetic cousins, after having only met online, that descend from Moses Myrick; Welsch townspeople assuming her white husband was a Myrick instead of her; visiting Bodorgan Hall, where the Welsh hosted a garden party for descendants at the Myrick estate; wanting to know more about her European H1 haplogroup and her hair since she was always questioned about her unusual combination of having brown skin with long silky hair; discovering three Revolutionary War patriots starting with her great-great-grandmother Luevinia’s death certificate, that named her mother Mary Pendergrass, who was white, and father Abe Horton, who was black; Mary's mother Martha Durham, descendant of Revolutionary War patriot William Lindsey Durham; not learning in school that there were free people of color prior to the American Revolution and instead only learning about slavery and the Civil Rights movement; joining DAR to document her family history; her patriots Matthew Durham (William's father) and “Chatham John” Pendergrass, ancestor of Mary's father; her frustration due to the individual submitting her DAR application not including her supporting documentation explaining the nuances of being a black applicant with the unusual circumstance of Luevinia being the child of a white woman and a black man, causing a delay in approval; Luevinia marrying a black man Rob and the couple residing on Pendergrass property in Orange County, North Carolina; Rob holding a great deal of land; enjoying DAR's outreach to veterans; the importance of representing people of color to which DAR is also of service; accepting DAR amends with Marian Anderson; her DAR membership providing validation since her family was here before the American Revolution, “I cannot be told to go back to Africa, our history is messy but that's what makes us Americans"; serving as a chapter officer; having a different outlook knowing she descends from a white woman; having a "Reese Witherspoon chin" like Luevinia; connecting with a white Pendergrass relative but descendants of Luevinia's white half siblings not being interested; searching for Luevinia's black brother Madison; "it's funny how we are at each other's throat with the unrest...we are all related". Read Charlotte's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
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Author of the biography that inspired Self Made, the Netflix series about her great-great-grandmother Madam C. J. Walker, an entrepreneur, philanthropist, activist and hair care industry pioneer, A’Lelia Bundles talks about her direct lineal descent from two Revolutionary War patriots through her biological grandmother Fairy Mae Bryant who was adopted by A’Lelia (nee McWilliams) Walker, the only daughter of Sarah Breedlove (Madam C. J. Walker), and became known as Mae Walker. A’Lelia shares stories about how her ancestors, who descended from American Revolution soldier Ishmael Roberts, were pioneers that migrated from North Carolina to Indiana and created free people of color settlements in the early 1800s; and her connection to Revolutionary War patriot Thomas Archer. She discusses her family’s multi-generational use of the name "A'Lelia"; her great grandmother A'Lelia Walker; growing up in a new black suburb of Indianapolis and attending predominantly white schools; her mother (A’Lelia Mae Perry Bundles) attending Howard University and taking the position of vice president of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, continuing the legacy of producing cosmetics and hair care products for black women; her father’s success as the president of Summit Laboratories hair care company; the family’s expectation for her to have her own identity and accomplishments; her experience as a student attending Radcliffe College and graduating from Harvard; losing her mother while studying journalism as a graduate student at Columbia University; the journey to writing about Madam C.J. Walker; experience working as a black woman in the newsroom in the 1970s and highlights from her career at NBC covering the Atlanta child murders and Jesse Jackson, working at ABC on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, and then as deputy bureau chief in Washington, DC; her independence working as a speaker and author; making one her first speeches at her grandmother Mae’s alma mater, Spelman College, armed with personal advice from Roots author Alex Haley; assuming board positions with the National Archives Foundation, Columbia University, and Radcliffe College; receiving an Emmy and the Gold Baton award; being recognized by the NY Times for On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker; her decades long relationship with her significant other; losing her father and both brothers within twelve weeks of each other; changing her impression of the Daughters of the American Revolution after learning of the society’s black members; joining the DAR despite having a complicated sense of patriotism; her expectation for America to move toward a more perfect union; and defining "Real Americans" to include people of African descent. Read A’Lelia's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
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True talks about her family legacy of four generations of firstborns, with her being the first woman, serving in the U.S. Armed Forces; joining the U.S. Army despite her “mom” (grandmother) and birth father feeling that women should not be in the military but with the support of her "dad" (grandfather), the ultimate decision maker; becoming a food service specialist like her birth father; serving for seven years in Korea and Egypt until her military career was cut short because of a rare autoimmune disorder; being in the National Organization of Rare Disorders and near death in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three months; wanting to learn more about her ancestry due to her illness; attempting to join the Daughters of the American Revolution in Kentucky but chapter members using a brown box with white and black balls for a secret vote to accept or deny her, being “accepted” but members non-responsive thereafter; not feeling connected to her white Revolutionary War patriot "Yohan" Nicholas Barrick but instead, the documentation of her black ancestors speaking to her; eventually feeling connected through her patriot's service, reinforcing her service as a soldier in the Army, and their both being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice; and feeling overwhelmed that her white patriot is receiving recognition through her research as a woman of color. She shares oral history about growing up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, born the day before Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, to a young white mother of German descent from four generations who lived in PA back to her Revolutionary War patriot, and to a black father from Florida, an Army Vietnam veteran who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, when interracial relationships were not accepted; being legally adopted by her black paternal grandparents from Alabama, unsure if her maternal grandfather was aware she had a black father; her adoptive grandparents’ four children feeling like siblings instead of aunts and uncles, her father feeling like a big brother; having a child as a teenager with a mixed race high school sweetheart; attending community college to study pre-med; divorcing in her early twenties with two children and losing her job with the Pennsylvania State Lottery; her grandfather serving in WWII Normandy, her son serving in Iraq and Afghanistan; settling in Fort Knox, KY; co-hosting an online genealogy show; watching Roots with her grandparents who talked about their enslaved grandparents including enslaved paternal great-great-grandfather Ike who had three wives and 23 children; her mother not knowing her family history, taking a full mitochondrial DNA test which led to her Revolutionary War Patriot who served as a private in the militia in PA; discovering her patriot's service from his pension record; always being told that she came from nothing because she was black but then discovering her patriot ancestry, feeling disbelief that she qualified for DAR; being on a genealogy show which turned into a program with two white DAR members helping prepare her application; feeling confirmation, disbelief, anger, and pride when learning of her patriot; exercising her birthright to join DAR, standing in proxy for future grandchildren; joining a PA chapter with her mom since she was not embraced by two KY chapters; during the DAR national convention in Washington D.C., randomly ending up in a taxi full of KY Daughters who convinced her to join their chapter then feeling right at home; serving on the Volunteer Information Specialist committee; "I am the definition of America"; DAR means having a sisterhood; "DAR is doing what they say they are going to do to not discriminate against race, creed or color".
Read True's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
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Shelley tells about her journey from surviving as a high school drop-out, victim of domestic abuse, and a young single mother to earning her doctorate and becoming a University of Virginia researcher, investigating president Thomas Jefferson’s beloved university and the enslaved laborers who built it. She talks about growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan; her fervent love of the military and dropping out of high school out of anger since she was not allowed to graduate early to join the Army; living on her own since the age of 16; completing her bachelor's degree after 28 years; earning a master's and doctorate while working full time; her children’s father being killed by his nephew over a drug deal; leaving a violent relationship; the stressors that living with a mother-in-law afflicted with Alzheimer’s had on her later marriage; being forced to identify as either black or white when living in the South after not having color lines in Michigan and Hawai’i; the shock of learning about her slave ancestry and mixed race heritage; realizing her family makeup reflects American history; the emotional impact of researching Thomas Jefferson's enslaved laborers; her Ancestor Calvin Davis, a radio gunner passing for white, who was killed in a WWII plane crash during a 1941 bombing run in Meresburg, Germany; her black ancestor who owned slaves- James Roper, the son of a slave and Nicholas Roper who left everything to his mulatto son including slaves; half of James's kids deciding to pass for white and their descendants’ reaction when they learn of their black ancestry; mission to find great grandfather William Michael Murphy; Revolutionary War patriot John Boyer and meeting white descendants; ten years ago, thinking DAR was a whites only organization and not knowing about black patriots and members; working on getting seven additional patriots approved by DAR; joining the DAR and serving as chair membership chapter; “my folks helped lay the foundation of this country”, “we’ve served”, “we have to tell these stories”. Read Shelley’s biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
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