James Dent Walker Memorial Lecture Series

March 8th, 2023 by Teresa Kelley

	NGS and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) will present the James Dent Walker Memorial Lecture series on Saturday, 3 June. African American family history researchers encounter many brick walls and the methodology used to solve such research quandaries benefits all researchers. The lecture series honors James Dent Walker, the founder of AAHGS. Walker was elected to the National Genealogy Hall of Fame in 1999 and was a fellow and second vice president of NGS. For more information about James Dent Walker see en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dent_Walker.
	Session Number: S302 Title: Black Homesteaders: Steps Towards Self-Reliance Bernice Alexander Bennett This presentation will emphasize community genealogy and the impact of the 1862 Homestead Act on African Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

	Session Number: S312 Title: The Intersection of Antebellum Property Rights and Slavery LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG, CGL, FASG Records relating to the property rights of slaveholding families provide genealogically relevant information about the enslaved.

	Session Number: S322 Title: Finding the Ties that Bind: Strategies for Descendant Research and Engagement Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy and Dr. Jajuan Johnson The genealogists from the University of Virginia and William and Mary will share their strategies for researching descendants of enslaved laborers.

	Session Number: S342 Title: Institutional Bondage: Researching Enslavers and the Enslaved in Churches, Schools, and Industry Leslie Anderson, MSLS Attendees learn to locate and access records associated with slavery as practiced by nonprofit educational and religious organizations and for-profit companies.

	Session Number: S352 Title: ”From This Day Forward” – Documenting Marital Unions of Enslaved and Emancipated Persons Renate Yarborough Sanders Despite the illegality of marriages of enslaved persons in America, unions were established, and couples considered “husband and wife,” as evidenced by many extant documents.