Our Ancestors Were Messy - Coming Soon: A Love Story for the Ages (Mar. 12)

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Host Nichole Hill shares listener mail, an update for the Household aka the donor community, and a sneak peek at next week's episode.To learn more about the show and keep in touch, check out https://ourancestorsweremessy.comTo access bonus content and support this independent production visit  https://ourancestorsweremessy.supercast.comTo stay in touch email [e-mail] or follow the show @ourancestorsweremessy on InstagramTHE A-TEAMThe show is hosted by Nichole Hill (https://www.nicholelhill.com/)Executive Producer A.A. HernandezStory Producer Martina Abrahams Ilunga (@m_tina)Research Producer Chioke I'Anson (https://www.chiokeianson.com/)Story Editing by Shonte Hill Show art by Aseloka Smith (@naturallyherown)    Episodes release bi-weekly. 

Hello, everyone. It's me Nicole Hill. Your host of our ancestors were messy. I'm back again this week with another little minisode. That's what I'm going to call these updates that come on the weeks in between full episodes. And they're going to be brief. So let's get into it. Today I'm going to share some listener mail and update for the household and a preview of next week's episode. So to start, listener mail. Y'all. So many of you have left reviews and comments and ratings. on Apple and Spotify and YouTube. Some of you all have found me on LinkedIn. Left me messages there. Followed the show on Instagram. Left messages there. My friends are live texting as they listen. Shout out to you, Sarah.

I'm blown away. Thank you so much for sharing your listening experience with me because it is so fun for me. I want to share one of the letters that I received answering this question that I threw out at the end of episode one called Stings for our enemies, honey for our friends. In that episode, I wonder why there are so many wealthy black folks in PG County, Maryland. And this writer offers a theory. She says, hey there, I love the first episode. Thank you. John Coulin and I go back to our days at NPR and you two sounded great together.

Thank you. As a fifth generation Washingtonian, part of why D.C. is Chocolate City is that Maryland had the largest population of free black folks before the Civil War. And that while Maryland was in the Union during the Civil War, it actually allowed slavery. It was part of a compromise to keep it in the union. So I'm thinking that a lot of folks came to the capital at that time. And that's from Alicia Montgomery or Alicia Montgomery. I'm sorry if I'm saying it wrong. And she links to an article, a 2011 article in the Washington Post titled for Freed Black

Folks in the Civil War, Washington was a city of contradictions. And that's all about the population of free black folks, which Lucinda Seton came from. So you should definitely check that article out. Thank you so much for the additional research. If you have any additional information about anything that I share on the episode, I want to hear it. If you have messy ancestral history that you'd like to share, I want to hear it. You can email me at our ancestors were messy at gmail.com. You can find me on Instagram, leave a review, leave a comment, find me on LinkedIn if you want to, whatever.

The DMs are open. Okay, next step. This is a message to the household. This is the donor community that signed up at our ancestorswemessy. to support the show and also access additional bonus material. On your feeds today, you will find such a long director's commentary for last week's episode. I really wanted to keep them shorter, but there was so much that I had to leave out of Oscar's story.

And there's so many little historical tidbits that I wanted to share that there wasn't any time for. So I just sat down and I went through the script and I said everything that I had to cut and shared points that Ray made that weren't included. and basically created like a Snyder cut of the Oscar episode. But I was just having a really good time sharing. So I hope you enjoy listening. I also included a messy story from Ray and a debrief with my family after they heard the episode for the first time. They're the first people to hear it.

And I might add a few little more surprises in there for you as the week goes on because I love this story and I appreciate your support. If you would like to support and access all this bonus material, you can sign up at Our Ancestors We're Met. messy.supercass.com and join the household today. Finally, for everyone, here's a sneak peek of next week's episode. It's coming out on Wednesday. I hope you enjoy. The Secret Adventures of Black People Presents. Our ancestors were messy.

Okay, we're all archivist. Today, two future ancestors sift through archives to find the perfect love story. Ideally, it'll be timeless. It'll have some message that the judge. children, the citizens of 2030, will be like, thank you so much. It's all so clear to me now. Okay. This is what we're looking to do.

Oh, I love this. The only question is, can they agree? I'm biased, but I would say my story. You don't say. I do say. This episode stars, podcast hosts and producers, Zakiah Gibbons. How do I say this without completely putting all my business out there? Emmanuel Jocci.

Different, raised, different time, but it's giving Mr. Wickham. You know what I mean? and Nicole Hill. What do you think the story's saying about love? This is Our Ancestors Were Messy, a show about our ancestors and all their drama. I just got married last night.