Finding Our Slaves with Konnetta Simons Alexander




Research at the National Archives&Beyond show

Summary: If you only know the name of a grandparent, then how do you go back three or four generations to find their slave ancestors? Konnetta Alexander shares touching stories of finding her slave ancestors going back three and four generations.  With inspiration from journal entries of an Antebellum, slave account book written by slaveholder Daniel Graham, the lives of unrelated slaves provides documentation of slave life from which Konnetta uses as her guidebook to find and document slaves.  While making national presentations about the life of Matila Graham, house slave, Konnetta tells the story of every house slave!  Calling out the last names of her slave ancestors:  Clark, Miller, Moorman, Peay, Prince, Quinn and Ramsey. Join in as discoveries unfold in Finding Our Slaves. With 20+ years of genealogy digging, Konnetta has three projects: researching family, transcribing and making public excerpts of the slave journal, and performing interpretative presentations about the lives of Free Persons of Color and Slaves.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, is an annual participant of MAAGI (Mid-Western African American Genealogy Institute), and member of several historical societies.  The focus of Konnetta’s genealogy research is finding, documenting and personalizing slaves, whether family nor not.