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After a flood Guidelines for Taking Care of Your Personal Heritage Resources for Conserving Flood Damaged Photos, Antiques and Heirlooms As I sit here in Durham, NC watching the news and see the tremendous damage left behind by hurricane Matthew, my heart goes out to all the victims.  The loss of life here (26 so far have been reported by abc11news), in the Caribbean (over 800 in Haiti alone) and in other areas is disastrous.  I am saddened by the stories of people who have lost so much.  The news tells us of also about the loss or damage to a lifetime of memories. Family photos, antiques and other heirlooms suffer water damage after a flood.  If this is your situation or you are helping victim, this blog is for you. When homes are flooded and lives upended, treasured possessions like marr ...

September 13, 2016 – DURHAM, NC – Summer was at an end and My Roots Foundation brought together a 40-year-old family business and a group of young girls for an extraordinary experience.   The girls are with a non-profit group called The Creative SWAG.  These kids, about 18 girls, all live in a government housing project in Chapel Hill. They love their community and they volunteer on a regular basis to help elderly women at a local nursing home.  They get together for study time and encourage each other to do well in school and to give back to their community. My Roots Foundation is joining with Creative Swag to teach the girls how to collect oral histories and preserve some of the stories they hear at the nursing home.   Earlier in the year we interviewed B-Bar Farms about their ...

This photo collage represents my grandfather, Ned Felder. It shows a newspaper clipping about him, his 48-star flag, and his Presidential Memorial Certificate presented to my grandmother by President John Kennedy.  Born 2 days before Christmas 1894, grandfather, grew up in Alachua County Florida.  When he was 19 years old, World War I began in Europe.  By early 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued a declaration of war.  The call to duty was seen as an opportunity for African Americans. The Black press framed the war as a struggle for African American civil rights; an opportunity to demonstrate patriotism and their place as equal citizens. “Let us have a real democracy for the United States and then we can advise a house cleaning over on the other side of the water,” the Baltim ...

You may have heard of the hardships of our parents’ upbringing and the struggle for an education. You know the stories; the ones that start with ”I used to walk 50 miles to school – up hill – both ways – in the snow – in Florida, just to get to school.” Well, it’s good to get the REAL story of our ancestors lives; and we can. For me, it was not that difficult. My mother saved everything, so thanks to her I have old report cards. These are revealing since they not only give the grades, I so richly deserved in elementary school, but are a treasure trove of teacher commentary on my character, work ethics, personality, and temperament. Yeah! It’s all in there. Raw and uncensored. I think the current legal system might offer some protection against this today.   The other ...

Everybody needs a day when you can stop being the regular you, and you can be a cowboy for a day.  B-Bar Farms has been helping a community connect with a past, an animal, and a soul.     Nestled in the woods of Northern Durham/Eastern Orange County is a family owned farm with cows, chickens, a goat, a dog and yes – horses. The perfect get away from the everyday life, in what has now become one of the top places in America to live – Durham, NC. Out here you can comb and groom and ride the horses and commune with nature. It’s the kind of get away we all need every now and then. B-Bar Farms has been providing an intimate get away for over 40 years.     This year for Father’s Day my daughter helped me calm my soul with a horseback ride.  Horses are a way for me to connect ...