Research at the National Archives&Beyond

  What role did the Irish play in the Transatlantic slave trade? Were the Irish ever enslaved or slave owners? Join my special guest, Dr. Maurice Gleeson for a compelling overview of Ireland and the Slave Trade. Dr. Maurice Gleeson is a psychiatrist from Dublin who works in London as a pharmaceutical physician. He is an avid genealogist and has traced his Irish family tree back to about 1800 on half of his ancestral lines. Using DNA, he was able to get back into the 1600's on one line, and this inspired his interest in Ireland's involvement with the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Join Director, Charles Brown, Jr. and the Coordinators of the second Midwest African American Genealogical Institute of St. Louis, hosted by the historic Harris-Stowe State University for an exciting discussion of the courses offered over a three day period.  The faculty consists of individuals wth genealogy expertise with special emphasis on African American research strategies. The Institute will offer courses for the beginner, intermediate and advanced researchers to enhance their genealogy skills.

Join Director, Charles Brown, Jr. and the Coordinators of the second Midwest African American Genealogical Institute of St. Louis, hosted by the historic Harris-Stowe State University for an exciting discussion of the courses offered over a three day period.  The faculty consists of individuals wth genealogy expertise with special emphasis on African American research strategies. The Institute will offer courses for the beginner, intermediate and advanced researchers to enhance their genealogy skills.

Join Joseph McGill for a discussion on site in a slave cabin at the Hopsewee Plantation in Georgetown County, South Carolina. Since May 2010, Joseph McGill has spent a night in over 50 extant slave dwellings in the states of Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, all in an attempt to bring much needed attention to these often neglected structures.  Known as the Slave Dwelling Project, it has been successful in highlighting the stewards of properties that are doing all that is necessary to preserve, interpret, maintain and sustain these structures.  The project has also identified many structures that are in desperate need of restoration.  What started as a personal quest has now evolved into a not-for-profit organization.  The project’s popularity does not allow McGill to sleep in these places alone anymore.  On Thursday, May 29, 2014, McGill will spend the night in a slave cabin at Hopsewee Plantation in Georgetown County, SC, he will be joined by a high school group from Milwaukee, WI and their chaperons.  Join us to gain insight on the future of the Slave Dwelling Project and plans for the first Slave Dwelling Project Conference which will be held in Savannah, GA, September 18 – 20, 2014. www.slavedwellingproject.org

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 World War I to honor the memory of these dedicated soldiers. The 371st Infantry Regiment, an African American unit of mostly South Carolinians came from small towns like Sandy Springs, Anderson, Edgefield, Ninety-six and Laurens. The 371st was permitted to fight, after disembarking from their troop ship at a tiny French village in April of 1918 after learning that they had been transferred to the French army.  The 371st was given French equipment, and had to turn in their prized Springfield rifles for French rifles. The unit was reorganized to fit the French army structure and spent the spring of 1918 training in French tactics, communicated via interpreters. That summer, the regiment was put into the line to relieve exhausted French and allied Italian units.   Sonya Renae Hodges- Grantham is a mother, grandmother, genealogist, author, graver, historian, and researcher, with a motto of "Get The Job Done and Get It Done Right". She is the Founder and President of the World War I - 371st Historical Society. She is  also the Founder of Cornbread Jubilee, an annual event that is held in honor of the corn crop, agriculture, and farming and Co-Founder of the Veterans Formation (1993) Columbia, South Carolina.  She is sole Restorer/Curator of Childs Cemetery in South Carolina and has also authored two books.  

Part 2 David Wellington will share his twenty-eight years of research of discovering  his roots from slavery to freedom and how this discovery has brought about a Sense of Healing, Love of Family, Education, Liberation, and Unity. David Wellington is working with the Prince George's Afro-American Historical and Genealogy Society to celebrate the emancipation of Maryland slaves scheduled for November 1, 2014. He has been a docent for the Mary Surratt House Museum for a year. He also spoke at the first celebration of the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC in 1998 and lectures about his USCT Civil War Great Grandfather Pvt. Frank Worthington. Frank Worthington was born a slave in 1842 on a plantation in Pitt County, North Carolina.  He was owned by Isaac Worthington.  Frank escaped from slavery and on December 13, 1864, he joined the United States Colored Troops of the Union Army in New Bern, North Carolina.  Private Worthington served honorably through the remainder of the War in Companies B & E of the 14th Regiment United States Heavy Artillery. 

Part I David Wellington will share his twenty-eight years of research of discovering  his roots from slavery to freedom and how this discovery has brought about a Sense of Healing, Love of Family, Education, Liberation, and Unity. David Wellington is working with the Prince George's Afro-American Historical and Genealogy Society to celebrate the emancipation of Maryland slaves scheduled for November 1, 2014. He has been a docent for the Mary Surratt House Museum for a year. He also spoke at the first celebration of the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC in 1998 and lectures about his USCT Civil War Great Grandfather Pvt. Frank Worthington. Frank Worthington was born a slave in 1842 on a plantation in Pitt County, North Carolina.  He was owned by Isaac Worthington.  Frank escaped from slavery and on December 13, 1864, he joined the United States Colored Troops of the Union Army in New Bern, North Carolina.  Private Worthington served honorably through the remainder of the War in Companies B & E of the 14th Regiment United States Heavy Artillery. 

  Fathers of Conscience Mixed-Race Inheritance in the Antebellum South   Join Author Bernie D. Jones for an engaging discussion about her book - Fathers of Conscience - Mixed-Race Inheritance in the Antebellum South.    Fathers of Conscience examines high-court decisions in the antebellum South that involved wills in which white male planters bequeathed property, freedom, or both to women of color and their mixed-race children. These men, whose wills were contested by their white relatives, had used trusts and estates law to give their slave partners and children official recognition and thus circumvent the law of slavery. The will contests that followed determined whether that elevated status would be approved or denied by courts of law. Jones is Associate Professor, Suffolk University Law School.  She is a graduate of the New York University Law School and the University of Virginia Department of History.   

Join Sarah Abel for a discussion of her research in genetics and identity. EUROTAST is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN), supporting a new generation of science and humanities researchers to uncover and interpret new evidence on the history and contemporary legacies of the transatlantic slave trade. The network will be running for four years from 2012 to 2016, and will enable 13 PhD researchers in history, archaeology, social anthropology and population genetics to work collaboratively across disciplines to provide new perspectives on this history. The research will focus on three themes: Origins, Life Cycles, and Legacies, which they hope will not only lead them to further detail the slave trading system, but also help demonstrate how slavery fundamentally shaped the cultural and biological experiences of people of African descent around the world. Sarah Abel is a British PhD researcher, based at the International Centre for Research on Slaveries (Centre international de recherches sur les esclavages, CIRESC) in Paris, France. Abel specializes in the history of slave resistance and race relations in Latin American and Caribbean.  Overall, her research aims to look at how the rise in public access to genetic technologies and data is changing the ways in which we think about personal identity, ancestry, and 'race' in different parts of the Atlantic world today.

  Are you struggling to get your book written and published?  Let Anita Paul, better known as “The Author’s Midwife”, get you moving on the right track. Through her Write Your Life program, new authors overcome the struggles of writing, publishing, and marketing a book ... and learn how to leverage that book to achieve success.   Known as "The Author's Midwife," Anita Paul coaches and mentors corporate professionals and successful entrepreneurs to become published authors. Through her Write Your Life program, she shares strategies for writing, publishing, and marketing a book ... and then leveraging it to upsell your expertise.   A 20-year veteran of the marketing communications industry, Anita started The Write Image in 1997. A corporate communications company, The Write Image develops marketing and public relations programs for mid-size businesses and organizations. She uses her extensive planning, organizing, and strategic marketing skills to help clients develop effective communications strategies and public relations campaigns throughout the U.S.  

  FamilySearch is a nonprofit family history organization dedicated to connecting families across generations. FamilySearch believes that families bring joy and meaning to life. Merrill White was born and raised in Sparks, Nevada.  He graduated from BYU with a BA in History and Minor in Music.  Has worked for FamilySearch for 14 years and is currently a Product Manager for the FamilySearch Discovery Center initiative. Robert Kehrer worked for 12 years as a molecular geneticist identifying disease genes by building very large family pedigrees. He has an MBA and worked for 7 years at Apple managing strategic alliances and driving market strategy in the sciences. For the last 7 years Robert has worked for FamilySearch as a product manager in the Family History Library, overseeing the public APIs, and managing the development of FamilySearch.org beta. He is currently the senior product manager of search technologies for FamilySearch.    

Genealogists tend to think of slavery as a southern issue only. Not so: slavery existed for decades in northern states as well. And freedom didn't come easy -- the law often provided for only for gradual manumission, and freedmen themselves were often unwelcome in the north. Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL The Legal Genealogist

"The Robbins Family at War" - it is about a Native American family who lived through colonial wars of the 17th and 18th centuries, and finally emerged victorious in the Civil War as a part of the mixed-race community.  Five members served in the U.S. Colored Troops.  Three fought from Suffolk, VA to Richmond and helped enforce Juneteenth.  Two served in Florida and South Carolina. After the war, they served in NC legislature, invented and founded schools and churches. "Marvin T. Jones is the executive director of the Chowan Discovery Group, whose mission is to research, document, preserve and present the history of the mixed-race land-owning people of the Hertford County area in northeast North Carolina.  The CDG has produced many articles, lectures, historical markers, a stage production and several video documentaries.  Marvin lives in Washington, DC and is a native of Cofield, NC. Our website is www.chowandiscovery.org."

Join a group of African American co-authors (The Memory Keepers), Harris Bailey, Jr., Bernice Bennett, Ellen Butler, Ethel Dailey and Vincent Sheppard to discuss a collaborate  book about their ancestors in Edgefield, South Carolina.   You will find in Our Ancestors, Our Stories an historical overview of life and events in South Carolina, and particularly Edgefield, and a compilation of five unique stories depicting the discovery of the African American experience. Through these stories, the rich value of using primary and secondary sources will become evident as each discovery examines relationships in the home, the neighborhood and the community.  

Join author, lecturer, television and radio host Antoinette Harrell for a discussion of her new book The Department of Justice -Slavery,  Involuntary Servitude and Peonage. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution outlaws slavery and certain forms of involuntary servitude. The Department of Justice files contain complaints made by persons (victims) who were being held against their will or forced to work off debts through threats and intimidation by employers or others. Most of the victims were negroes who were beaten to return to former employers to work off their debts. These files contain correspondences, memorandums, telegrams, newspapers clippings, transcripts or testimonies, FBI reports of investigation and indictments. Antoinette Harrell, a renowned genealogist whose genealogical research has been featured on Nightline News, People Magazine and many other national and international public media. Harrell is the host and producer of Nurturing Our Roots Television and Nurturing Our Roots Blog Talk Radio. She was appointed Honorary Attorney General in the State of Louisiana in 2003 for her studies in genealogy. She is also one of the recipients of the ASLAH Award for her outstanding services of as a humanitarian activist and film maker. She has also been featured in “Chronicle On Civil Rights” & Civil Rights History from the Ground Up: Local Struggles a National Movement.