African-Americans and World War I theme of Feb. 11 symposium

The National Archives at Atlanta (NARA) and the Metro Atlanta Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) will host an all-day symposium Feb. 11 with the theme “African Americans and World War I: Over There and Over Here,” part of its ongoing series called “The Enduring Chronicle.” Free. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m., lunch provided. Program from 10 a. m. until 3:30 p. m. at the National Archives, 5780 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, adjacent to the Georgia Archives. Seating limited, pre-registration required.

Scheduled speakers include Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr., professor at UGA, author of "Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War;" Dr. Pellom McDaniels, curator of African American Collections, Rose Library, Emory University and co-curator of the exhibit "They Came to Fight: African Americans in the Great War"; (see theycametofight.org); Dr. Jelani Favors, professor at Clayton State; William Durant with AAHGS, and Joel Walker, NARA education specialist, who will speak on records the facility holds. This is the first of many events this year related to the U. S. entrance into World War I and should be worth attending. To register, go to aahgsatl.org. For more information on the program check that website or call Joel Walker at 770-968-2530. For more on NARA see archives.gov/Atlanta.

TOPIC: RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA

On Feb. 4, the Georgia Archives will co-sponsor a program, "Reconstruction in Georgia: African Americans in Research and Records at the Georgia Archives." For more information, see georgiaarchives.org or call 678-364-3710. This seminar will help one understand the variety of records from the post-Civil War period of the 1860s and 1870s and how to find them within the Georgia Archives. Most of these cannot be accessed online.

TOPIC: FREE PERSONS OF COLOR IN GEORGIA

Michael A. Ports continues his series on the county Free Persons of Color rosters with "Georgia Free Persons of Color, Volume III, Baldwin, Columbia, Lincoln, Lumpkin, Taliaferro, and Thomas Counties, 1799-1865," "Volume IV, Chatham County, 1817-1863," and "Volume V, Richmond County, 1799-1863." These are great sourcebooks for this material, which has never been as accessible until these books were published. Each volume has a full-name index. Each county's original books vary in the amount of information given for each entry. They are available from the Genealogical Publishing Company in Baltimore; see genealogical.com or call 800-296-6687.