Researching and Preserving African American Family History To Be Focus of Apr. 14 Workshop

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Researching African American Family History Workshop
Saturday, Apr. 14, 2012
Wilson Special Collections Library
9:30 a.m. Coffee and Pastries | Main Lobby
10 a.m.-1 p.m. Program | Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Free and open to the public
Register by emailing Biff Hollingsworth at biff@unc.edu

Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

Researching and preserving African American family history will be the topic of a workshop at UNC on Saturday, Apr. 14.

The workshop will focus on resources and methods for genealogical research; preservation of African American family collections; and use of primary sources in library collections.

The free public event, set for 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Wilson Special Collections Library, is being sponsored by the Southern Historical Collection (SHC) and the Friends of the Library. Due to space limitations, attendees are requested to register by emailing Biff Hollingsworth at biff@unc.edu.

Coffee and pastries will be available for workshop participants at 9:30 a.m.

Speakers:

• Dorothy Spruill Redford, former manager of the Somerset Place State Historic Site and the author of Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage, will discuss use of primary resources such as the Southern Historical Collection’s Pettigrew Family Papers,  Anne Cameron Collins Papers, and Cupola House Papers to document her enslaved ancestors at Somerset Plantation.

• Holly Smith and Biff Hollingsworth, UNC librarians in the Southern Historical Collection, will discuss how to preserve personal collections of archival material and how to use library resources to conduct genealogical research on African Americans.

• Joey Fink of the Southern Oral History Program will share tips for conducting oral history projects.

The workshop is part the African American Family Documentation Initiative, an effort to acquire and make available for research a wide range of archival materials (letters, journals, photographs, and the like) to document the experiences of black North Carolinians and their families.

Also included in the initiative is the exhibit Southern Roots, Enduring Bonds: African American Families in North Carolina, on view in the Southern Historical Collection (4th floor) through July 1, 2012.

The exhibit tells the stories of black families and communities in the South, and encourages African American families to partner with the Library in preserving their family history.

To learn more about the African American Family Documentation Initiative, contact Holly Smith in the Southern Historical Collection at (919) 962-1345 or email wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Related Links:

• Southern Historical Collection (SHC)

• Exhibit Encourages African American Families to Preserve Their History

• African American Family Documentation Initiative

• UNC Press page for Dorothy Spruill Redford’s Somerset Homecoming