Boddie Family Papers

Wednesday July 20, 2016 - I went back to MDAH to continue my research.  I made copies of several letters from the Boddie Family papers that mention a John Boddie.  The main document that I was interested in was the family genealogy.  It lists several generations of the Boddie Family and most of them were slave owners. Many had large plantations in states across the U.S.

After printing the copies I began searching for John Boddie's will on microfilm.  The documents on the reel were in very poor condition some illegible.  The wills during that time were handwritten in books.  It is unlikely that any of the original documents are available. I was able to find his name in the index but the page number was unreadable.  So I had no choice but to go through each document on the spool and pray that I would find it and the one I needed would be readable. 

I took a lunch break with my sister who works downtown and came back and continued looking.  I got near the end of the reel and backtracked trying to find dates that were near his death.  My perserverance paid off. Around 2:30 I found the document.  Thank God!!! I was so relieved. I thought it would take me days to find it.  I was concerned that a portion of the page was very dark and the writing was faint.  I spoke with one of my former students who works at MDAH William Thompson (married to Laronda Fisher CS major from Tougaloo).  He suggested we use the scanner equipment to get a better image.  We had to wait for another patron to finish before we could use the machine.  It made a big difference. I printed several copies and different sections of the document individually.

My big find was a reference to some of his slaves.  He leaves instructions to give certain ones money for the rest of their lives.  This is exactly what I was hoping for.  The next step is to find out more about the other slaves and the property.  Tomorrow I will be looking at the tax rolls and deed books.