Genealogy Research Workshop: From “Traces of the Trade” to Traces of the Family

On November 1, Sharon Morgan, an expert on African American genealogy, will be working with librarians, staff, students, and university family members to share her knowledge of tracing African American family lineage. Sharon writes that “because so much about African American families was not recorded in public documents, offline resources may be the only way you will ever identify your ancestors”. She will be showing how to use estate files, family papers, sharecropper accounts and Bibles to find things that may not have made their way into resources like Ancestry.com. “Enslaved people are frequently named in these documents and nowhere else.”

Anyone in the Furman community is welcome to join us for the workshop which will be from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in Room 041 of the main Library.

That evening at 7 the documentary “Traces of the Trade” will be shown in Patrick Lecture Hall (CLP). Sharon will join Tom DeWolfe (whose family is featured in the documentary) and Felicia Furman to provide context and explanation about the steps they have taken to heal the harms of the past and come to reconciliation and justice in light of our shared past of slavery. Sharon and Tom have co-authored a book,  Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade (Beacon Press, 2012).

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