CVGS Program on Wednesday 2/27 - Margaret Lewis on "Researching Slaves in the Family"

The next General Meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society will be on Wednesday, 27 February at 12 noon in the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library auditorium. There will be a short business meeting, with the 2007 Annual Report presented and discussed.

As many of you know, this is Black History Month, and CVGS has arranged for our program speaker to be Margaret Lewis - her topic will be "Researching Slaves in the Family."

The synopsis of the talk is:

"Due to the lack of written records, African-American families relied on oral tradition when researching the slaves in their family. While oral history cannot take the place of documented sources, it can provide invaluable clues to family histories, names, relationships, and locations. Slaves were prohibited from participating in any activities that generated records on which genealogical research is based.

"Therefore, oral history can be a curial start to your research. While some ancestral lines can be traced back several generations with relatively little effort, researching slaves in the family can only be discovered after painstaking research. The objective of this presentation is to share slave records, and documented sources to use in your research. I would also like to stress the importance of researching the slave-owners and their families. The information you obtain in researching the slave-owners can help provide invaluable information that will assist in helping research the slaves in your family. "

Margaret's CV includes:

"Margaret Lewis is the President, and a founding member of the San Diego African American Genealogy Research Group in San Diego, California. She started her “Ancestral Pursuit” in July of 1995 and her research quickly turned into an exciting journey that has taken her through an historical timeline of some of the most significant events in American History. What’s more important is that her ancestors participated in these events.

"Marti’s love for genealogy is expressed through her many published articles: “A Soldier’s Story”, “My Family Link”, “Time Will Tell” which was revised August 2005, to “He Touched Me”, and “Ancestral Roll Call” a poem summarizing her family heritage. She is also organizing her research materials to publish in a Family History Book to be titled, “Ancestral Pursuit.”

"Marti is currently working with the Daughters of the Union “Nancy Hanks Lincoln Tent #5” Editorial Committee to publish a Heritage Book which will feature their Civil War ancestors’ war stories. She has submitted a revised version, of “A Soldier’s Story” and has added a personal narrative which provides a vivid “on the scene” memoir of her great great grandfather’s life story from 1840 -1922.

"Marti is a compelling and influential voice in the genealogy community and she advocates for the study of Family History. She is known for her boundless enthusiasm, and has provided genealogical presentations, workshops and displays at many San Diego City Schools and conferences throughout the State of California, Nevada and Arizona."

This should be an excellent program. If you can attend this meeting, I'm sure that you will learn a lot about African-American research problems and successes.