African American Research 101 – Antebellum Era (Part 3 of 3)

Learn how DNA reconnected a family living on two continents (North America and Australia), and how the Underground Railroad, the Freedmen’s Bureau, a legal battle within the slaveholding family, and Broadway musicals became central threads to their dynamic story.

In the summer of 2023 American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society announced the collaborative 10 Million Names project, an undertaking to recover the names of people of African descent who were enslaved in the area of the United States. This monumental task of centralizing datasets about African Americans is likely to take years to accomplish; in the interim, this webinar provides a useful survey of the many existing databases that serve a similar purpose though limited in scope.

Thomas Terrell was a lawyer born in Louisa County, Virginia in 1761. His plantation in Greene County, Georgia and the people he enslaved there have connections to a Civil War battlefield, the University of Georgia, Wells Fargo, a United States Congressman, and northern enslavers from Connecticut and New Jersey. Thomas’ death in 1822 created the only comprehensive list of his enslaved population, requiring the use of unconventional sources to gather more information about them. Many were separated due to devastating slave sales, but 200 years later, their descendants have been reunited by DNA testing.

Using several families that were enslaved on the same plantation as case studies, this presentation will demonstrate research that meets the Genealogical Proof Standard. Examples of reasonably exhaustive research, evidence analysis, correlation, and resolving conflicts will be presented. This class is presented live at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City as part of the Joy Reisinger Memorial Lecture Series and is being broadcasted by Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

Take a deep dive through case studies to learn how Civil War Pensions, the Freedmen’s Bureau, and Probates/Successions come together to reveal the pre-emancipation, post emancipation, and 20th Century lives of the formerly enslaved and their families.