If, like me, you are perplexed about what happened to the Fourth Anniversary Update, I can only say that life, particularly home repair,  sometimes intervenes to slow us down and that time flies. Nonetheless, I am happy to report some progress. So,  continuing in the spirit of a one-and-only “bi-annual holiday letter” (with the holiday being Juneteenth), here’s what’s been happening:

1. A new site image, which you can see at the top of each website page, including this one. It replaces the pertinent, but less dramatic, map of the Ganges landing place in Philadelphia.   The new image is a detail taken from a copy of a work by Scottish artist Joseph Noel Paton (1821-1901). Titled Capture of the Slave Ship, it appeared in the 1865 volume of The Sunday Magazine. It is the first image I have found that captures a moment of liberation at sea like that performed by the USS Ganges.  The full image and citations can be found at the end of the About section.
2. A new profile for Samuel, aka, Mundo, Ganges who absconded from his master, Jonathan Schofield of Upper Dublin in 1808, only to reappear twenty two years later as a free black in New Orleans!
3. A new, comprehensive, profile for Furry/Curry Ganges of Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pa.. Curry left an extensive paper trail in census, land, tax and church records. Fathering 13 children, he appears to have lived continuously in Tredyffrin from as early as 1820 until his death in 1858. It is highly unusual for one of the First Ganges to leave such a wealth of records.  The primary source research took a considerable amount of time to complete, followed by a correspondingly lengthy writing of the profile. Among the surprises I uncovered is Curry’s connection to the first ship the American Colonization Society sent to Liberia in 1820.  Most astonishing is the possibility that the stone house where Curry lived — and may have had a hand in constructing — still stands fewer than two miles from my home in Radnor. Further research will be required, but I find the possibility intriguing.
4. I had an opportunity to appear on the ever-upbeat Shamele Jordan’s “Genealogy Quick Start”. We talked at some length about the primary records used to construct Lahy/Levi Ganges profile. You can watch the discussion here.
5. A shout out to Morgan Lloyd and Michiko Quinones, who generously allowed me to tell the story of Levi Ganges on one of their walking tours for the “1838 Black Metropolis“. This project seeks  “to reclaim, rewrite and restore suppressed or forgotten Black Histories”, based on the 1837-38 census of the black community in Philadelphia.
6. A thank you to David Barnes and the Department of History and Sociology of Science at Penn, who graciously granted me a courtesy appointment so I could, among other perks, USE THE PENN LIBRARY.
7. Also, a  thank you to Ken Johnston, Walking Artist ( https://ourwalktofreedom.com/ ),  for including a discussion of the Ganges during his walking tour in Kennett Square on June 17th. 
8. Finally, an acknowledgement of my colleague, Patricia Henry, who died on May 4th and provided me with much needed assistance on the research that resulted in the profile of Furry/Curry Ganges.

There is still plenty of material in queue for future web site updates. This includes the story of William Ganges, indentured to Richard Thomas Esq. who appears to have served in one of the few all-black regiments in the War of 1812, right here in Philadelphia;  the story of Caesar Ganges who conducted a successful (chimney) sweeping business in the city; documenting a Philadelphia Federal Court case that resulted in the freeing of enslaved  Africans even before the Ganges (with a family connection to the President’s Bush); completing several background sections that have been sitting unfinished for too long. That’s a lot, but I remain committed to telling the story.  As always, watch this space and, if you are so inclined, write me.