Research

1. Two ‘last’ slave ships

MOBILE, Ala. — The fog lifted just in time, and the late afternoon sun cast the river in copper. At the dock, Ben Raines waited in his 22-foot skiff. “You wouldn’t have been able to see anything an hour ago,” Raines said. The fog was gone, but Raines knew the white curtain would fall again as the sun set. Just enough time for a trip to the present and past.

Raines is in his early 50s, a splash of gray in his dark beard. He’s an investigative journalist, author and filmmaker. He also does boat charters on the side, taking visitors beyond Mobile’s paper plants into swamps known for their ghosts and ghost ships.

Raines calls the Mobile-Tensaw Delta “America’s Amazon.” It has hundreds of freshwater fish species and 18 different types of turtles. Few systems in the world have such biodiversity hidden in the eddies and canebrake, he said. Few places have kept so many secrets in those same tawny currents and reeds.

Last year, Raines published “The Last Slave Ship,” a book about his search for the Clotilda, which is fast becoming one of the most infamous ships in American history. In 1860, the schooner smuggled about 100 captive Africans into Mobile Bay, this despite a law in 1808 banning the importation of enslaved people. Soon after, the Clotilda’s captain burned and sank the ship, perhaps to conceal the…

Comic book writer visits BG

The BGSU Department of English creative writing program will host two public events with freelance comic book writer Marc Sumerak on Monday.

A presentation and book signing event will take place from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in University Hall 307. Books will be available for purchase at this event. There also will be a Q&A session with at 4:30 p.m. in Prout Chapel.

Sumerak has spent over two decades crafting story content for some of the most celebrated brands in entertainment, including Marvel, Star Wars and more. His work has appeared in numerous books, comics and video games. Sumerak graduated from BGSU in 2000 with a bachelor of fine arts in creative writing and is eager to return to campus to share his experiences with the next generation of storytellers.

Baseball card collecting is Exchange Club topic

Kevin Savage, who grown his childhood hobby into one of the major baseball card and sport memorabilia businesses in the country, will speak to the Exchange Club Tuesday.

His company, Kevin Savage Cards located in Maumee, is an internet-based business that caters to serious collectors and specializes in older vintage material, and boasts an inventory of millions of cards and other sports collectibles.

Widely considered an industry expert, he has written hundreds of published articles about card collecting, baseball card shows, and card values.

The Exchange Club meets at noon at the Bowling Green Country Club. Guests are welcome. Cost of the…

Gore’s library users will be able to borrow books, magazines, DVDs or audio books for free for the next three months in celebration of the district’s new library opening.

After moving 30,000 books to three different locations, the $7.7 million library opened in its new permanent home on Friday.

The event not only marked the end of two years’ construction, but four years since library staff were forced to relocate from their building in the heritage precinct.

The building was officially opened by Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan.

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“In 2020, the Government made the best of challenging times and used the downturn in tourism as a chance to upgrade infrastructure. Just a couple of years later, we’re seeing the results of these investments,’’ Allan said.

“Libraries are the touchstone of every community, and this library will serve generations of Southlanders to come.’’

Gore District librarian Lorraine Weston-Webb said staff were excited about welcoming customers into the new, spacious building.

Set over two floors, the new library has dedicated areas for children…

A Florida woman named Maria Telles-Gonzalez was found dead in South Carolina’s Lowcountry region in 1995, but it took decades before modern genealogy testing was able to help detectives identify her remains.

Even since they did in December, they’ve been unable to locate two persons of interest in the case, which remains unsolved.

The saga has unfolded in the same region where Alex Murdaugh, 54, is now convicted of killing his son and wife. 

Murdaugh exerted influence over the prosecutor’s office there for years while allegedly stealing millions from his family’s law firm and defrauding his own clients as dead bodies piled up around him.

UK TIKTOKERS REVEAL PAUL MURDAUGH IN 2017 BAHAMAS VIDEO, STUNNED TO DISCOVER HIS DEMISE

The Murdaugh family, prominent in the region through their private law practice and decades-long control of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, attracted national attention in the wake of the double murders of Murdaugh’s wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at Moselle in 2021, for which Alex Murdaugh has recently been sent to prison for life.

He gunned them down near the dog kennels

The market for genealogical goods and services continues to be highly fragmented, with various businesses offering unique services and regionally-focused websites.

Leading companies in the genealogy products and services market are expanding their online presence and introducing new, cutting-edge services in an effort to attract more customers.

Consumer awareness of the advantages of preventive healthcare is causing it to gradually take centre stage. Given that it offers a potential method for diagnosing rare diseases, genetic testing is crucial for preventative healthcare.

By examining the intricate genetic makeup of the population, it is demonstrating promising potential for precisely forecasting the likelihood of contracting a specific disease.

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How Genealogy Products and Services Providers Widening the Scope of Application?

To increase the size of their customer base, providers of genealogy products and services are diversifying into a number of new industries. It is becoming more popular to use genetic and family history testing to provide customised services in a variety of areas.

Genetic testing is being used by businesses like EpigenCare and SkinGenie to create skin care products that specifically compliment a person’s genetic composition.

On the other hand, Houston-based Pheramor uses genetic testing to help people choose mates who…

The dead man’s soul reunited with its maker long ago. Researchers now hope they can return his body to his family. In the process, they have brought to life a new understanding of a Gullah-Geechee community that lived on the shores of Winyah Bay in the decades after the Civil War.

But the currents that carried the body of a young Black man to the shore of South Island sometime around the turn of the 20th century are shifting and threaten to erode the tangible evidence of that community before it can be fully documented.

“No one thought about African-American land ownership here,” said Jodi Barnes, Heritage Trust archaeologist for the state Department of Natural Resources, as she looked over the bay about two and a half miles from where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. “This was something that they built.”

Old maps of the area label it as a fishing village. It is now part of the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve, 24,000 acres on the south side of the bay that its namesake gave to the state in 1976.

“Natural and cultural resources, especially on South Carolina’s coast, come all meshed into one,” said Jamie Dozier, who heads the Yawkey Center for DNR.

It was in the fall of 2017 that those resources came together in an unexpected way. A fisherman pulled up along the beach at South Island to collect some fiddler crabs for bait. He found a human…