The search engines have fouind us...

Believe it or not, after not quite a month up and running (it was only on May 13th 2005 that we built and launched the website), one of the major search engines, Yahoo! has found us! As of Saturday June 11th, 2005, at about 10am Descendants of Mandi is now visible to Yahoo and all search engines that use Yahoo! as their back-end. This is a very recent development, because as recently as Thursday June 9th we were still not showing up on any search engines. It will only be a matter of time before the other major search engine Google finds us. If you want to test it out, go to the Yahoo link above and type in "Descendants of Mandi" or "Mandi Williams."

Doing so should produce a list that includes our website, usually wtihin the first 6 or 7 results. For me, that second search phrase is particularly exciting, because the peoples of many cultures, including many of the peoples of Africa, believe that if we remember our ancestors names, and call them by name, then they achieve a type of immortality. Remembered thus, our ancestors will stand with us in times of struggle, and support us in our times of greatest need. To quote one of the characters in the movie "Amistad" in these times of our greatest need, our ancestors must stand with us, because in that moment, we are the ONLY REASON THAT THEY EVER EXISTED.

To think that now, any time someone puts the name "Mandi Williams" or "Descendants of Mandi" into one of these search engines her name will appear...that should be especially satisfying to us...in a way, through the website Descendants of Mandi and the power of the Internet... it's as though the African girl who struggled to survive the Middle Passage and the horrors of slavery, still lives to share her story. That is powerful.

...new additions.

Today we added a couple of notes to Aunt Alversa's Historical overview of the Williams-Rivers Oral History providing external links to a really good web site about the South Carolina Slave Trade. Check it out if you haven't alreay done so. It really paints a graphic picture of just how bad a situation Mandi and all other enslaved people of the time found themselves in. Also, we have added a site about the horrors of the Middle Passage.

We've also added a guest book form to the comments page, allowing everyone (family and visitors) to post comments directly to the web site.

Site update is complete

I've just finished the June update of the Descendants of Mandi site. Several notable changes have been made.

Fixed the downloadable Family Genealogy form which is available on the Corrections Page.

The link was not functioning, but it now works

----> http://www.descendantsofmandi.com/W-R-Questionaire.pdf

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Several Sets of corrections and updates were sent in (Thanks to All!!!) Here are some of the families which have been updated:

Family & Pedigree reports of Mark David Anthony Lee have been updated.
(per Nicole Lee)

Miscellaneous changes under the Henning family.
(per Carma Henning)

Changes to the family of Eloise Williams.
(per Kenya Tolbert Tucker)

Miscellaneous changes under Alversa and Robert Lee.
(per Lisa Swift)

Slight modification of Dennis Williams Family and Personal Note Files .
(per Nicole Lee)

Addition of a Sources Page!!! Check it out.

New Tributes added to Family Tributes Page.

Comments from Nicole and Carma now included on the Comments Page.

And new historical notes have been sprinkled throughout...time to visit the site again...ciao for now

Eric J. Williams

Final changes in...

Changes came in from Cousin Kenya Tolbert Tucker for the Tolbert Family, just in time for posting in June. Thank you to everyone who provided updates.