Save the dates! The IAAM Center for Family History and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission will present 4 FREE virtual seminars in February. Please join us every Saturday in February for these exciting seminars! Save the Dates and Register Registration is required for each of the seminars. All seminars will be archived for later viewing in our On Demand Learning Library. Please see individual seminar descriptions for links to register! Saturday, Feb 5: African American Genealogy Challenges Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy   Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy will present “African Am ..read more

One of the biggest research challenges for African American genealogy is documenting enslaved ancestors who were brought from Africa to the Americas in the Atlantic Slave Trade. More than 40% of those who were forced from Africa to the shores of North America arrived in Charleston. In the final years of the Atlantic Slave trade to Charleston, slave ships arrived exclusively at Gadsden’s Wharf, the site where the International African American Museum is under development. Here, we look at some of the resources genealogy researchers can use to document the arrival of slave ships in the port of C ..read more

Family and Home Information Sources Checklist A lot of us start researching by jumping online, and we do not start by using our own family archives. You could miss the best information that would keep you routed in the right direction to find your family.  All that you need to do to start is look through this checklist and find things in your own house that can tell you about an ancestor. Gather all the records in your house that have a name of a family member on it. If you have never done this, you may not realize the number of items that you will find. Get a couple of empty boxes in whi ..read more

Do you feel like you need to start over or are you getting into family history for the first time? You have come to the right place. Even seasoned family historians can learn something for the first time as we go over the principles of doing family history. So, how does a beginner find the right path for getting started with family history? I do not like to overwhelm because there is so much you can talk about when you discuss family history. There is so much technology available to us now. The things we do now are done in an easier way. You could be just a beginner, or you may feel like you ..read more

If you have been following along, you have seen that I recently wrote about Rev. Simon Miller in Rev. Simon Miller (1819-1875), a Presiding Elder and a Freeman, Served His Community. I commenting at the end of the article, “I could not believe it. Rev. Simon Miller was right under my nose all these years. From Cokesbury, SC, to being a Presiding Elder of Abbeville District, to founding Miller Chapel AME Church in Newberry, to presenting the land to the Columbia Annual Conference for Payne Institute. I am so glad to know him now.” Well last week, Wayne OBryant, left a comment on the Facebook po ..read more

“United States Census, 1880,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YBK-SQJ?cc=1417683&wc=XW7Z-K68%3A1589414013%2C1589414117%2C1589394799%2C1589395245 : 24 December 2015), South Carolina > Abbeville > Greenwood > ED 13 > image 5 of 76; citing NARA microfilm publication T9, (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., n.d.) These are my great grandparents, Andrew Johnson and Jane Smith Johnson. I have spent quite a bit of time researching them and their children, but some I have not found besides here in t ..read more

Greenwood County Courthouse. SC, Robin R. Foster, Feb. 2014 I spent the first eight years of my move to South Carolina in Columbia researching in the archives, libraries, and getting to know cousins there.  I have worked my way back to the 1800’s in my research. Our family decided to move to Greenwood, South Carolina at the end of the summer last year where I could be closer to research in the area where my ancestors lived before Columbia. Walking in Their Footsteps I live just down the street from the place where my 2nd great grandparents spent their lives as slaves and experienced emanc ..read more

It was often quite violent in those days five years after the US Civil War. I am constantly bringing our ancestors forward with ways they were involved besides what they were remembered for doing. Such is the case of Everidge Cain (B. 1842). He was in the House of Representatives in Abbeville County, South Carolina, but what else can we remember him for? Everidge Cain (B. 1842) was named as one of the Grand Jurors in serve in Abbeville County, South Carolina along with nine other whites and eight colored men in January of 1870: The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.), 2 ..read more

In looking for Rev. Simon Miller from the historic newspaper article with Richard Harvey Cain (1825-1887), I admit I had to start from scratch. When I wrote Richard Harvey Cain (1825-1887) Served in South Carolina Senate, I knew I would try to find out more on Rev. Simon Miller because he was the one who was chosen Secretary of that Conference. Little did I know I would find how important he was. First there is an excerpt about him that I found in South Carolina and Black Migration, 1865-1940, In Search of the Promised Land on page 51by George Alfred Devlin: “The establishment of the A.M.E. Ch ..read more

Richard H. Cain, member of the United States House of Representatives I trust you followed along with our series on the Bishop William H. Heard where we proved researching him could also bring forth many resources that would also document other African Americans. If you missed it, see the last installment: Documenting William H. Heard (1850-1937) 1901 Until His Death in 1937. Now, we will show how bringing forth 1868 politicians, a forgotten few, will cause us to look at resources for even more African Americans. You will recognize names of ancestors and find resources to check for your a ..read more