Orice Jenkins is a recording artist, genealogist, educator, and author from Hartford, Connecticut. He began researching his family history upon discovering that Whitney Houston’s grandparents were from his grandmother’s hometown of Blakely, Georgia. Since then, he has traced his ancestry back to 1756, uncovering the stories of several formerly enslaved Americans.
Orice is a member of the Sons and Daughters of the U.S. Middle Passage and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. He has been featured on podcasts and radio shows such as “Research at the National Archives & Beyond” and “Grating the Nutmeg” and presented his findings to Racial Justice Rising and at the Indiana African American Genealogy Group annual conference. Orice has worked as a consultant for Dr. Matt Baker, the creator of UsefulCharts.com, collaborating on genealogy videos that have garnered millions of views on YouTube.
In 2022, he contributed to Bernice Bennett’s latest book: Black Homesteaders of the South (Arcadia Publishing/The History Press) and appeared with other Homesteader descendants at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture during Black History Month in 2023. Orice also publishes a blog called Chesta’s Children, and serves as the Executive Director of a youth music program in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
