Ancestor's Footprints with Bernice Alexander Bennett

  The Todd’s telling our Story from Virginia to Kentucky. Underwood vs Underwood’s Executor, 1830, Federal Records, United States Circuit Court Records, 5th Circuit Court, obtained from the Library of Virginia’s Manuscripts Collection in Richmond. The library is a wealth of knowledge and you can find books, periodicals, reference material and if you look real hard, you will find your ancestors han...

  Public historian David E. Paterson studies people who lived in nineteenth-century Upson County, Georgia, especially those who experienced slavery and Reconstruction. A civilian employee of the US Navy by day, he spends his leisure hours researching and writing local history.  David has helped manage the Slave Research Forum at AfriGeneas.com since about 2001.  David emigrated to the U.S. in 1958...

Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston For black women in antebellum Charleston, freedom was not a static legal category but a fragile and contingent experience. A deeply researched social history, Forging Freedom reveals the ways in which black women in Charleston acquired, defined, and defended their own vision of freedom. Drawing on legislative and judi...

Reclaiming Grimes: Author of the First Fugitive Slave Narrative Oakland, California native, REGINA E. MASON, has spent fifteen years authenticating the pioneering narrative of her direct ancestor William Grimes—author of the first fugitive slave narrative in American history.   Not only is she the gate-keeper of her family’s history, she is also coeditor of the new edition of her forefather’s book...

  Dionne's search for her family history began at age 12, when she asked a simple question: Grandpa, are you white?  Her grandfather’s answer sent her on a lifelong journey to piece together a family story and reveal a not uncommon but often untold part of American history.  His  grandparents were a slave named Tempy Burton and her master, Col. W. R. Stuart. Three decades after she first learned o...

Who Owned Solomon? A Case study of 19th Century African American Research– Many African American researchers struggle to break through the brick wall of slavery.  This discussion will look at the strategies used by Janice Lovelace to identify her ancestors’ slave-owners through the use of military, land, probate and court records. Janice Lovelace, Ph. D. a genealogist who primarily lectures and wr...

Prior to the Civil War, Alexandria, Virginia had a large freed African American and slave population who contributed a lot to the community and to the United States.  Each one of these groups helped build Alexandria, Virginia through their skilled labor, involvement in politics, teachers, churches, businessmen and etc. The history of Alexandria, Virginia cannot be told without including these Afri...

Did you know that the majority of Freedmen's Bureau records are now digitized and available online for free, as well as the records of other institutions that served newly-freed African Americans during Reconstruction? Angela Walton-Raji and Toni Carrier have built a new website called "Mapping the Freedmen's Bureau - An Interactive Research Guide" (www.mappingthefreedmensbureau.com) to assist res...

  IT's COMING - October 1st: A Place Called Desire Kickstarter Campaign Join Producer Leonard Smith of LS3Studios.com for a discussion about a unique project to chronicle the story of an African American community located in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana called Desire.  Leonard Smith has worked tirelessly to interview residents of this community to capture the essence of what it m...

  Join Genealogist Jim W. Petty for a discussion of his research on Black Slavery Emancipation Research in the Northern States and learn about the four categories of records that provide genealogical data on enslaved people in Northern states before the Civil War. Beginning in 2010, Jim became interested in African American Genealogy Studies upon following client genealogy into the Slave culture o...

Join my special guest Phyllistene Lawson for a discussion of her book Quilt of Souls. Quilt of Souls is a memoir that represents the author's childhood, her loving grandmother, and an old, tattered quilt that tells the untold stories that have long since been hushed. A quilt sewn with the used clothing of her grandmother's loved ones. Each piece of fabric woven into the quilt tells stories of how...

Leslie Anderson will discuss how to apply the classic strategy of information gathering to your research so that you can write a robust family history. She will explain how customized timelines, resource guides, and locality guides can help you with your writing. Leslie's research began with one question: "Where was my great -grandfather born"? The answer (and the analysis) culminated in an articl...

  Leslie Anderson will discuss how to apply the classic strategy of information-gathering to your research so that you can write a robust family history. She will explain how customized timelines, resource guides, and locality guides can help you with your writing. Leslie's research began with one question: "Where was my great-grandfather born?" The answer (and the analysis) culminated in an artic...

Doreen's Jazz New Orleans is a group whose primary interest lies in spreading the culture and traditional music of New Orleans all over the world, through performances and education. Doreen Ketchens, the leader of the group, has been called "Queen Clarinet", "The female Louis Armstrong", and “Lady Louie” by critics who have heard her perform. She has performed with Ellis Marsalis, Jon Faddis, Trom...

Join the Officers of the Annie Malone Historical Society for a discussion about the legacy that has been the driving force in our Black hair and beauty culture today. The purpose of the Annie Malone Historical Society is to give proper recognition to a pillar of history.  To share the story of extraordinary vision, dedication, commitment and success that was the life of Annie M.Turnbo Pope Malone....

 Property Rights and Wrongs: African-Americans at the Courthouse with The Legal Genealogist From being treated as property to having their property stolen by those who used the law against the freedmen, African Americans' experience at the courthouse had only one bright spot: it created records for the genealogist-descendants. A Certified Genealogist with a law degree, The Legal Genealogist Judy G...

Many Americans of African descent have thought that connecting with their African kin was next to impossible, yet Carol Hector-Harris has done just that. Not only did she visit Ghana but she also met relatives. She is the fifth great-granddaughter of Africa-born Quock Martrick, who served in the Revolutionary War with George Washington in New York. She found Martrick's family, HER FAMILY, in Big A...

Join author, Daniel J. Sharfstein for a discussion of his book and research - The Invisible Line - Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White. Defining their identities first as people of color and later as whites, these families provide a lens for understanding how people thought about and experienced race and how these ideas and experiences evolved—how the very meaning of...

Join Antoinette Harrell for a discussion on Modern Day Plantations. Most people tour plantations to learn about life in early times. Antoinette Harrell has conducted research on peonage and involuntary servitude for the past twelve years and has visited several plantations throughout the Mississippi Delta where people have lived for generations without leaving. In addition, she has interviewed sev...

Have you had your autosomal DNA tested and now you are confused?  Allow Diahan Southard to explain how you can organize, analyze and understand your results. In the year 2000 Diahan Southard found herself in the right place at the right time.  As an undergraduate in Microbiology, the laboratory she had been volunteering in was headed to Egypt to collect more samples for genetic study from an aband...

Rebroadcast A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, published by Harvard University Press, examines the phenomenon of racial passing in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present. Allyson Hobbs is an assistant professor in the history department at Stanford.  She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and she received a Ph. D. with distinction from the...

Do you know about the African American 371st Infantry of World War I that fought in France?  Did you know that Sonya R. Hodges has dedicated her life to research and honor the men who fought in World War I to honor the memory of these dedicated soldiers? Please join Sonya R. Hodges-Grantham and Douglas Culbreth for a discussion of the role played by the African American 371st Infantry Regiment in...

Have you searched for records and finally found that special person you have been looking for?  So what?  What does the record tell you?  Is this all that you need? Join Dr. Shelley Murphy, aka "familytreegirl" for a discussion on the "SO WHAT" concept?  "So What" is a concept used in the Midwestern African American Genealogy Institute to help analyze genealogical records and resources. The goal i...

Tonya M. Hull has been researching for 30 years. She is a genealogical researcher, lecturer and writer. She was the lead researcher for the PBS series it’s A Family Reunion, Co-Author of “African Americans of Giles County”.  She has served as president for a local genealogical society. She is currently studying to become a certified genealogist.  Antoinette Broussard has contributed biographies to...

Explore the new Genetic Genealogy Standards ( www.geneticgenealogystandards.com), GEDmatch.com, and genetic genealogy in general with Blaine Bettinger, Ph. D., J.D. Blaine Bettinger, Ph. D. (Biochemistry), J.D., is an intellectual property attorney in Syracuse, New York.  In 2007 he started The Genetic Genealogist blog, one of the most respected and easy to understand of the blogs on this topic. H...