Recording Available – Linked Descendants: African American Genealogy Prior to 1870

We were fortunate to have Sharon Leslie Morgan, founder of Our Black Ancestry, join us for a lively and informative workshop titled Linked Descendants: African American Genealogy Prior to 1870. The workshop, part of the Lunchtime Lectures from the Cambridge Room, was recorded on April 8, 2021.

The following is a description of the workshop and a short bio of Sharon Leslie Morgan:

Linked Descendants:  African American Genealogy Prior to 1870
Join us for a workshop with Sharon Leslie Morgan, renowned genealogist and founder of Our Black Ancestry, as we delve into African American ancestry before abolition.  Researching African American families prior to the 1870 Census is a challenge that may be overcome by finding linked descendants – or the white families who enslaved most of the Black population.  Learn new research techniques and use genealogy as a tool for confronting slavery and heal. 

Sharon Leslie Morgan is a writer and genealogist. She is the founder of Our Black Ancestry, an online community dedicated to providing resources for African American genealogical research, preserving historic materials and properties, and promoting healing of wounds that are the legacy of slavery.

Morgan is the co-author of Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade. She is also a contributor to Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race & Reconciliation, and The Little Book of Racial Healing: Coming to the Table for Truth-Telling, Liberation, and Transformation.  In 2019, Morgan received the prestigious James Dent Walker Award from the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society. 

A staunch advocate of racial justice, Morgan has taken STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) training at Eastern Mennonite University and is actively involved with Coming to the Table, an organization that promotes linkages between descendants of people who were enslaved and descendants of the families that enslaved them for the purpose of healing from the trauma of slavery.

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Register for Linked Descendants: African American Genealogy Prior to 1870

Date & Time:
April 8, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Linked Descendants:  African American Genealogy Prior to 1870
Join us for a workshop with Sharon Leslie Morgan, renowned genealogist and founder of Our Black Ancestry, as we delve into African American ancestry before abolition.  Researching African American families prior to the 1870 Census is a challenge that may be overcome by finding linked descendants – or the white families who enslaved most of the Black population.  Learn new research techniques and use genealogy as a tool for confronting slavery and heal. 

Sharon Leslie Morgan is a writer and genealogist. She is the founder of Our Black Ancestry, an online community dedicated to providing resources for African American genealogical research, preserving historic materials and properties, and promoting healing of wounds that are the legacy of slavery.

Morgan is the co-author of Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade. She is also a contributor to Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race & Reconciliation, and The Little Book of Racial Healing: Coming to the Table for Truth-Telling, Liberation, and Transformation.  In 2019, Morgan received the prestigious James Dent Walker Award from the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society. 

A staunch advocate of racial justice, Morgan has taken STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) training at Eastern Mennonite University and is actively involved with Coming to the Table, an organization that promotes linkages between descendants of people who were enslaved and descendants of the families that enslaved them for the purpose of healing from the trauma of slavery.

Genealogy and Local History Workshops at the Cambridge Public Library

Please join us for virtual Lunchtime Lectures from the Cambridge Room, happening every Thursday from 12-1 pm.  Click on the links below for more information and to register.

April 1: Who’s Little Joe:  Photo Detecting 101

April 8: Linked Descendants:  African American Genealogy Prior to 1870

April 29: The Forgotten Irish of Mount Auburn Catholic Cemetery

May 6: Preserve Your Family Treasures

May 13: American Treasures from the Cambridge Public Library’s Archives and Special Collections

May 20: Buns, Beards, Bodices and Bustles:  Understanding Ancestors Through Clothing

June 3:  Getting Started in Irish Family Research

June 10:  Interview Techniques to Tell Your Family’s History

June 17:  Healing the Historical Trauma of Slavery through Genealogical Research

A Teenager Was Bullied. His Ancestors Saved Him – The New York Times

Dennis Richmond Jr. dove into his family history at an early age and was fascinated by the ancestors he discovered. From the New York Times (26 February 2021)

In March 2008, Dennis Richmond Jr. watched “Roots” with his father, and it changed his life. It was a Sunday, the Richmonds’ day for leafing through family photographs in their apartment in Yonkers, N.Y., looking at relatives going back about a century. “Roots,” Alex Haley’s semifictional account of his family’s journey from West Africa, posed a challenge: How far back could young Dennis trace his own ancestors?

After watching the mini-series’ first DVD, he ran upstairs to ask his mother about the names of her relatives. Then that evening, Dennis, a studious 13-year-old, went on the family computer and found a 1930 United States Census entry for his maternal great-grandmother. The listing included the name of her father, Brutus Bowens, born in 1889 in South Carolina.

Brutus!

“That just did something for me,” Mr. Richmond said. “That’s where the story begins: St. Stephen, South Carolina.”

Mr. Richmond, now 26, a writer and substitute teacher, is the kind of person who begins sentences, “I was born in 1995,” or “My father was born in 1955.” When he thought about his grandmother having parents, who in turn had parents, he was floored. “It blew my mind,” he said. “The seed was planted. And I’ve been steadfast ever since.”

Read more of this fantastic New York Times Article.

Tips for Researchers: AfriGeneas

AfriGeneas is a website devoted to African-American genealogy, to researching African Ancestry in the Americas in particular, and to genealogical research and resources in general. It is also an African Ancestry research community featuring the AfriGeneas mail list, the AfriGeneas message boards, and daily and weekly genealogy chats.

To search the Afrigeneas database, click here:  http://www.afrigeneas.com/search.html.

To see a listing of all Cambridge Public Library e-resources for genealogy and local history, click here:  http://www.cambridgema.gov/cpl/eLibrary/genealogyandlocalhistory.aspx.