BLACK HISTORY MONTH VIRTUAL GENEALOGY CONFERENCE

Agenda-At-A-Glance Saturday, February 13, 2021

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

10:00AM - Welcome/Opening Remarks/Intro of Keynote Speaker - Bernice Alexander Bennett

Keynote Address – Ted Ellis, African American Artist

Break with Infomercials! 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM (Concurrent sessions)

Chiquita Clark Sorrels Introduction to Researching Your Family History Melvin Collier and Margo Williams

Writing a Book Panel Discussion moderated by Bernice Alexander Bennett

Break with Infomercials! 12:00 Noon - 12:45 PM (Concurrent sessions)

Carol Kostakos Petranek African American Records in FamilySearch Barbara Spencer Dunn, Michelle Evans Oliver, Eric White and Linda Crichlow White

2021 ASALH® Black History Theme - “The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity

Break with Infomercials! 1:00PM - Closing Remarks – Nathania Branch Miles

Keynote Speaker: Ted Ellis

Ted Ellis is a passionate man. He is passionate about his family… passionate about his heritage and passionate about his art. Just ask him and he proudly declares, “I paint Subjects that are representative of the many facets of American life, particularly, African American culture and history, as I know it. I like to think of myself as a creative historian. I was put here to record history…all aspects of American culture and heritage. My sole purpose has always been to educate through my art.”

Ellis grew up and was educated in New Orleans, a city known for its rich African American heritage history. A city full of style, and artistic exuberance. This backdrop inspired Ellis to capture the essence of the subjects of his childhood in the glory of their rich cultural heritage. Extremely dedicated to his craft, this artist draws on a style that was born in his childhood from impressions of his native city. Ellis is self-taught and boldly blends realism and impressionism in his work, evoking nostalgia and inspiration.

Ellis, who currently resides in Friendswood, Texas, continues to be recognized for his artistic talent and is now being applauded for his intellectual capital and depth of understanding the power and use of art. He is an artist with vision. His legacy is still growing. This awareness continues to garner Ellis more and more collectors. as they are scattered throughout the globe. Major corporations have commissioned Ellis, which include - Walt Disney Studios, The Minute Maid Company, Coca-Cola, Phillip Morris, and Avon, Incorporated.

It's not folk art, but "Tedism", his own unique style of art. The art of this man both reveres and celebrates the traditional values of his culture. African American culture and lifestyle is a vital part of the tapestry of American history. Ted Ellis captures that lifestyle on canvas, the man, lives the life he paints about. He is cementing himself in history as one of those Famous African American artists you so often read about. https://tedellisart.com/pages/about-ted-ellis

http://www.tellisfineart.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgQ-OQ2x0HY

Chiquita Clark Sorrels

Since she was a teenager, Chiquita has been interested in her family history. She is originally from West Chester, PA and both her maternal and paternal families have resided in Chester County, PA for over 150 years. She is currently the President of the Montgomery County Maryland Chapter of AAHGS. Chiquita served as an active member on the 2019 AAHGS National Conference planning committee – “400 Years of Black History: The Struggles, Challenges and Perseverance”; and the 2020 virtual AAHGS National Conference planning committee – “1619 Virginia to Present Day, Correcting the National Narrative, in the Midst of Covid-19” Chiquita has a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Drexel University, a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and is an adjunct professor at Montgomery College.

Introduction to Researching Your Family

History

11:00AM - 11:45AM

In this session, learn how to get started with your family research, where to access free research tools and how to organize your research findings.

Writing a Book Panel Discussion

11:00AM - 11:45AM

Dialogue will include thoughts from award winning authors on telling your own story and the challenges faced by putting it all together.

Moderated by Bernice Alexander Bennett with panelists Melvin J. Collier and Margo Lee Williams

Bernice Alexander Bennett

Genealogist, author, producer, and host of the popular Research at the National Archives and Beyond! Blogtalkradio show. Her guests include nationally recognized historians, genealogist, book authors and family researchers. Bennett is the recipient of the first Ida B. Wells Service Award from the Sons and Daughters of the U.S. Middle Passages for her dedication to broadcast the stories about enslaved and indentured ancestors of African descent.

Bennett's book – Tracing Their Steps: A Memoir – honored as a winner from the International AAHGS Book Awards program in the Non-Fiction Short Story category at the annual AAHGS National Genealogy Conference in October 2020.

Melvin J. Collier

Melvin J. Collier has been conducting historical and genealogical research for over 25 years, starting at the age of 19. He is a former civil engineer, who used his passion for African American history and historical preservation to foster a career change. He then earned a Master of Arts degree in African American Studies, Clark Atlanta University, in 2008, with additional graduate coursework in Archival Studies from Clayton State University. For seven years, he worked as an archivist at the Robert W. Woodruff Library – Atlanta University Center, processing the Morehouse College Dr. Martin Luther King Papers, the Maynard Jackson Administrative Papers and Photographs, the Dr. Asa Hilliard III Papers, and other collections. He now works for the Department of Defense in the Washington, D.C. area. Collier has appeared on the NBC show, Who Do You Think You Are, as one of the expert genealogists on the Spike Lee episode (2010). He has given numerous presentations on genealogy, slave ancestral research, and genetic genealogy at many events and conferences around the country. He was also a guest speaker for African Heritage Day at the 2017 RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City. He maintains a genealogy blog, Roots Revealed, at https://rootsrevealed.com/ The Afro-American Historical and Genealogy Society (AAHGS) awarded Collier with the 2012 Marsha M. Greenlee History Award and the 2016 Paul Edward Sluby, Sr./Jean Sampson-Scott Meritorious Achievement Award. His books, Mississippi to Africa: A Journey of Discovery (2008), 150 Years Later: Broken Ties Mended (2011) and Ealy Family Heritage: Documenting Our Legacy (2016), have been used by genealogical and historical scholars as great reference sources for genealogical methodologies.

Margo Lee Williams

Award winning, genealogy and history author. A former editor of the Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, she is particularly interested in community and family histories of free people of color in the southeast, especially those in North Carolina and Virginia, who often had mixed race origins. Her writings include: Miles Lassiter (circa 1777-1850) An Early African American Quaker from Lassiter Mill, Randolph County, North Carolina: My Research Journey to Home (Backintyme Publishing), tells the story of both her personal and research journeys that led to the discovery of her fourth great grandfather, Miles Lassiter. From Hill Town to Strieby: Education and the American Missionary Association in the Uwharrie “Back Country” of Randolph County, North Carolina (Backintyme Publishing), picks up where her first book left off, a social history that follows the development of the school and church, founded in 1880 by a mixed race, former slave, and 19th century poet, the Rev. Islay Walden. Williams is a graduate of Marquette University. She has her M. A. in Sociology from Hunter College and her M. A. in Religious Education from The Catholic University of America. She worked for over twenty years at various churches in the suburban Washington DC area, and another eight years as a National Service Officer with Vietnam Veterans of America. She is currently the Project Historian for the Historical Black Communities of Sandy Spring (Maryland), at the Sandy Spring Museum. She has one daughter.

Carol Kostakos Petranek

Co-Director of the Washington, D.C. Family History Center where she coordinates classes, conferences and community outreach projects. The Washington DC Family History Center (FHC) is open for genealogical research for the general public. FHCs provide local access to microfilmed family history records, family history computer resources, and internet genealogical websites. Carol volunteers at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. as a Citizen Archivist for the Civil War Widow's Pension Project and as a Genealogy Aide in the Research Room.

African American Records in FamilySearch

12:00Noon - 12:45PM

FamilySearch maintains a collection of records, resources, and services designed to help people learn more about their family history. Although user account registration is required, FamilySearch offers/provides free on-line access. During this session you will hear about the FamilySearch Collections for African American Researchers on www.familysearch.org that include: Freedmen’s Bureau • Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company • Freedmen’s Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872 • U.S. Civil War Service Records of Union Colored Troops • Southern Claims Commission • Southern States Slavery and Bondage Collections • North Carolina Slavery and Bondage Collection.

Barbara Spencer Dunn

Barbara Spencer Dunn, a native of Texas whose legacy of service is exemplified as an advocate for youth and families. Mrs. Dunn (wife, mother, author, lay historian, scholar/activist) is a descendant of enslaved persons on the Monte Verdi Plantation in Rusk County Texas, the most complete record of any antebellum slave plantation in the State of Texas. As an Executive Council member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the Founders of Black History Month, she presently serves as the Vice President for Membership (2019 – 2021), Co-Chair of both the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site and the National Heritage Sites Research Committee guiding on behalf of ASALH, a partnership between ASALH and the National Park Service. Mrs. Dunn is a graduate of Bowie State University and served as a Governor appointed Commissioner on the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture (2013 – 2018).

Michelle Evans Oliver

Michelle Evans Oliver brings over 20 years of experience in the financial, insurance, and marketing industries to her career as the President/Financial Advisor of The Oliver Financial Group. She has helped individuals all over the United States take control of their financial future and provides a financial legacy for their families. She assists clients in making appropriate financial decisions by listening to their needs and educating them on their financial options. Michelle loves serving her community and volunteers her time with numerous outreach activities and organizations. She volunteers extensively with many organizations. She is currently the President of the Richmond, VA Branch of ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life and History). Michelle has a B.S. Marketing with a concentration in Advertising from Virginia State University.

Eric White and

Linda Crichlow White

Eric White was born in Brooklyn, New York where he attended public schools before completing his Bachelors degree at the City College of New York and Masters in Library Science at Columbia University. He worked as a librarian at Howard University before moving to the DC Public Library where he is currently an Adult Services Librarian. Eric is a member of the James Dent Chapter AAHGS-DC and is secretary of the Bethel Dukes Branch of ASALH. Linda Crichlow White, born in Washington, DC and attended public schools here before attending college (West Virginia State College, B.S. and Howard University, M.S. in) and beginning a teaching career in Brooklyn, New York. Linda taught home economics in both Brooklyn and DC Public Schools for 20 years before earning a Masters in Library Science from Catholic University, and working as a School Library Media Specialist in Montgomery County, Maryland retiring 2013. In retirement, she has worked on writing her family history, using documents and images that she found in the homes of her mother and aunts. In retirement, she speaks about local history and genealogy and volunteers at the National Museum of African American History and Culture—where there are some family objects on display. Linda is currently the president of the James Dent Walker Washington, DC Chapter of AAHGS.

“The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity”

2021 ASALH® Black History Theme

12:00Noon - 12:45PM

Hear about the 2021 ASALH® Black History Theme - “The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity”. The black family has been a topic of study in many disciplines–history, literature, sociology, anthropology, and social policy. It has been reverenced, stereotyped, and vilified from the days of slavery to the present. The role of the black family has been described by some as a microcosm of the entire race, and yet its complexity as the “foundation” of African American life and history can be seen in numerous debates over how to represent its meaning and typicality from a historical perspective–as slave or free, as patriarchal or matriarchal/matrifocal, as single-headed or dual-headed household, as extended or nuclear, as fictive kin or blood lineage, as legal or common law, and as black or interracial, etc. Those varied images, in addition to topics on the nature and impact of parenting, of childhood, marriage, gender norms, sexual and racial identities, health, and the role of the law provide a rich tapestry of perspectives for exploring the black family in past and present America. https://asalh.org/black-history-themes/ https://asalh.org/festival/

Association for the Study of African American Life and History - ASALH®

2021 Conference Planning Committee Members

AFRICAN AMERICAN SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP Bernice Alexander Bennett, Frank Jenkins, Jacqueline Tillman-Lewis

Washington DC Family History Center – Branch of the FamilySearch Library

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Carol Kostakos Petranek

AFRO-AMERICAN HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC.,

Agnes Kane Callum – Baltimore, Maryland – Noreen Goodson Central Maryland (Columbia, MD) – LaJoy Mosby

Montgomery County, Maryland – Chiquita Clark Sorrels Prince George's County, Maryland – Jane Taylor Thomas, Nathania Branch Miles

James Dent Walker - District of Columbia – Eric Johnson

2021 BLACK HISTORY MONTH VIRTUAL GENEALOGY CONFERENCE

Keynote Speaker: Ted Ellis African American Artist

Saturday, February 13, 2021 10:00 AM—2:00 PM

Registration opens Jan 4th: www.wdcfhc.org/AAHGS-Conf/

A free virtual conference sponsored by AFRICAN AMERICAN SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Washington DC Family History Center – Branch of the FamilySearch Library The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

AND AFRO-AMERICAN HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC.,

STATE OF MARYLAND AND WASHINGTON, DC CHAPTERS Agnes Kane Callum – Baltimore, Maryland

Central Maryland (Columbia, MD) Montgomery County, Maryland

Prince George's County, Maryland James Dent Walker – Washington, DC

Limited spots available - Register early – Select your sessions