The Big Family Search: Reuniting an American Family Separated by Forced Migration - African American Genealogical Interest Group

Join the African American Genealogical Interest Group for a special presentation - "The Big Family Search: Reuniting an American Family Separated by Forced Migration in the Antebellum South"

More than a million American-born enslaved people were forcibly separated from their families between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. As the US grew and spread westerly and southerly, enslaved people were migrated and resettled all across the Lower South. While newly emancipated slaves made great efforts to reunite their families after the Civil War, many families still remain separated, more than 150 years after the war.

Author Pamela Bailey will share her journey as she discovers and reunites her large multi-racial family, all descended from enslaved African Americans from the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. Her family was forcibly migrated to Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas.

This presentation will:

• Discuss the massive wave of forced migration of American-born enslaved people during the antebellum period
• Discover how researching information about slaveholders and their families can aid in the search for forcibly migrated ancestors
• Provide help in understanding slave narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project
• Share techniques for  moving beyond the frustrating 1870’s “Brick Wall”
• Show how social media can be used for genealogy research
• Discuss the benefits and concerns about DNA testing and other new technology for genealogy research    

Learn more about Pamela Bailey at http://www.bigfamilysearch.com