Are you headed to one of our incredible beaches this weekend?  Then why not share your Delaware beach photos with us for our latest online exhibit. Not many people send postcards anymore.  With today’s technology we send pictures from our phones. We’d love to see what was happening at the beach and around Delaware at the official kickoff to summer.  Hope to see your pictures soon!

A native of Milford, Tom Summers is a 13^th generation Delawarean and has been with the Delaware Public Archives for more than 20 years.  Currently the Manager of Outreach Services, Summers has conducted more than 500 tours of the facility since it opened in 2001.

Come on a tour of the Archives and learn what popular phrase has its origins in the type of documents seen in the photograph.

George Luther Caley was a well-known genealogist, author, local historian and an avid postcard collector. During his lifetime, George supported many causes to preserve and share history on the Delmarva Peninsula. He and his wife, Irene, were Friends and volunteers at the Delaware Public Archives. When George passed away in 2005, the future of his life’s work was uncertain.  Irene Caley generously donated George’s collection of Delaware and Delmarva postcards to The Delaware Public Archives to ensure public access to the images and for long-term preservation. View Collection

Postcards are a charming relic of a world without digital cameras and mobile internet. With the tap of a finger, people are now sharing their images in real time. Smartphones and social media have changed the way we tell our stories. Postcards have been replaced by photo text messaging, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, just to name a few.

Share your stories, adventures and everyday life with us as we build a collection of digital images of life in Delaware. Upload your images to our Facebook page, use #PostcardDE on Twitter, or email us at: PostcardDE@state.de.us. We’ll add your images to our Flickr album and we might even feature your images as part of our exhibit. Don’t forget to include your name and where you took the photo – just like a postcard! And of course, don’t send us anything you wouldn’t send your mother.

These three sites were selected to highlight Delaware’s colonial and industrial history as well as Delaware’s role as the first state to ratify the Constitution. Get to know Delaware’s first National Monument a little better by checking out some of these images from our holdings. Celebrate our new national designation by visiting these historic sites soon.

For more pictures of the national monument sites, explore the Delaware Public Archives Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151597675286995.1073741825.315035576994&type=1&l=9e1320e363

The first program, entitled Tips and Techniques for Using Technology in Genealogy Research, features Ms. Jordon as she presents how family history research techniques remain unchanged, but can be more successful with the addition of today’s technology.   This session will cover organizing information on computers and mobile devices, using lineage software, storing in the cloud and other tips to maximize one’s ancestral search.

For the second presentation, Using Ancestry.com to Find Your Family Roots, Ms. Petersen will be exploring the popular genealogical website to show researchers how they can use the program to gather important information about their ancestry and make contact with other genealogists worldwide who may be related and want to share their research.

Shamele Jordon is a researcher, lecturer, and podcaster.  Her biographical highlights include being a researcher for the PBS series Oprah’s Roots: African American Lives Special and African American Lives II; former president of the African American Genealogy Group in Philadelphia, lecturer at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research in Birmingham, Alabama, and board member of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania.

Sabrina Petersen currently serves as the Director of Global Imaging for Ancestry.com.   A professional genealogist, she is a member of the National Genealogical Society and Association oProfessional Genealogists. Petersen has contributed works to Ancestry Magazine and her lectures are part of the “Know Your Records” series at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and College Park, Md. Her areas of expertise include Mid-West research), NARA research, and online research.

The program is free to the public.  No reservations are required.  For more information, contact Tom Summers (302) 744-5047 or e-mail thomas.summers@state.de.us.

This week the Delaware Public Archives officially opened our new exhibit entitled, “Houses of Worship: The African American Experience in Delaware”. Governor Jack Markell made an appearance and even signed a proclamation declaring February, African American History Month. The opening of the exhibit felt more like a celebration than just a simple meeting. A powerful opening prayer began the event, a choir sang beautifully, and all those who attended could swear they heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through the vocal cords of Reverend Moore. After the presentation ended, the guests were treated to light refreshments and were then welcomed to view the exhibit. The exhibit features key figures in the African American religious movement in Delaware. It is an amazing story of how the independent African American Church began in the First State and we here at the Archives are proud to help pass it on. Come help us celebrate this great piece of history that is not just African American history, but Delaware and even national history all this month at the Delaware Public Archives. Visit our Website for links to hours of more information including eBooks, Documents, and Multimedia.

John Wesley, in his vision of the Methodist Episcopal Church, established a denomination in which all human beings were considered equal. When his disciples Francis Asbury, Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Coke came to America to convert the early Americans to Methodism, they included the plantations and the slaves as part of their circuit rides.

Slaves accounted for 25 percent of the converts to early Methodism. This story of early African-American preachers such as Richard Allen, Peter Spencer, Absalom Jones, “Daddy” Moses and Harry Hosier riding from camp meeting to camp meeting and then creating some of the great Methodist denominations of today is a part of history that is studied and celebrated.

A native of Delaware, Syl Woolford is a graduate of Delaware State University and Rutgers University.  Recently retired from a career in accounting and sales, Woolford’s interest in history began with researching his own family history.  He traced his mother’s family, the Saunders Family, for 200 years in the city of Newark, Delaware.  Most recently, Mr. Woolford has traced the Woolford side of his family back to Dorchester County, Maryland and made a connection with Harriet Tubman’s legendary efforts in freeing slaves in Dorchester County.

The program is free to the public.  No reservations are required.  For more information, contact Tom Summers (302) 744-5047 or e-mail thomas.summers@state.de.us.

Syl Woolford

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