Friends of Friends: Quakers and African American Communities

Discover 8 options for pushing through difficult research of Midwestern Black families.

Using the records of the Southern Claims Commission to discover first-person accounts of the lives of freedmen, Union loyalists and former Confederates in their efforts to recover losses during the Civil war; includes the structure of the SCC and how the records can be used to advance research goals.

Successful Quaker research requires a familiarity with typical Quaker migration routes, and no two Quaker migration events are the same. This was true for the Hunt family of Burlington County, New Jersey. Once they began to move, they covered a lot of ground. Follow them from New Jersey to Virginia, Western Pennsylvania, and on to Ohio, then moving again to Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. This case study will also identify when and where the family ceased to be members of the Society of Friends.

A researcher’s number one goal is to find ancestors for their client or their own family and share their story. Within the story oral history is followed, critical records and resources will be discovered which helped guide the research. This session will take attendees through the challenges, successes, and the continued unanswered questions of researching an African American family from enslavement to freedom through the states of VA, PA, OH, and MI.

Discover how DNA, online and offline genealogy converged to break down a more than 100 year old brick wall revealing the life, times, and relations of a mysterious multi-ethnic man named John Lee.

Nine African Americans — two women and seven children — were posed amid a laundry day setting in a rare Civil War-era photograph. The handwritten caption identified them only as “Felix Richards Slaves” and the location as Volusia, near Alexandria, Va. Could their true identities be established? In this case study, historian and genealogist Amy Bertsch discusses a variety of sources, including probate records, a chancery suit, Civil War pension applications, and the former enslaver’s federal compensation claim, she used to identify the individuals in the photo, which is now at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She explores how these records can yield new discoveries for family historians and she also demonstrates the importance of researching the enslaver’s family when conducting African American family research.