Old Camden District Hosts African American Workshop at Price House

The Price House. Photo by Ellis McClure on March 23, 2019.

I attended the African-American Workshop sponsored by The Old Camden District Genealogical Society held at The Price House March 22-23, 2019. The presenters all brought professionalism and expertise to this event. I enjoyed each presentation, so I thought I would share a little about the two days in case there is anyone who is looking host a similar event for their area and would like to any of these folks to present.

Also, from what I understand, William Guerry Felder (guerryf@outlook.com) will be hosting this event again next year, so if you want to attend, mark your calendars. To start us off Guerry gave a great presentation on The Price House. It was interesting to see the different owners, and one attendee even stopped there on the way to school. I enjoyed hearing the history.

Guerry introduces Sonya. Photo by Ellis McClure on March 22, 2019.

Sonya Hodges-Grantham's presentation, The Underground Railroad to Spanish Florida, got people interested in visiting Fort Mose Historic Park to learn about the Southern underground railroad and blacks being in Florida in 1525.

Sonya Hodges-Grantham. Photo taken by Ellls McClure on March 22, 2019.

Allen Blanchett presented on Using DNA in Genealogical Research. His presentation was easy to understand, and he answered the questions that the group posed to him.

Allen Blanchett. Photo by Ellis McClure March 22, 2019.

Cheryl Hudson Passey's presentation, Discovering Slave Owners in Your Family, was so good. She told how researchers can be in a bit of denial about their family owning enslaved people, but how they can go to working together with the descendant of enslaved people to share what they know about the enslaved. It gave the descendants of enslaved people a new perspective to collaborate with the descendants of slave owners. I apologize that I do not have a photo of Cheri giving her presentation, but click on her name to see a photo of us from the event.

On March 23, 2019, we all returned for day two. Guerry gave us a presentation on Plantations in Kershaw County. He is wealth of knowledge. He has done research in Florida as well which he shared with me the day before. In this presentation, I appreciated his visuals of where plantations were located in Kershaw County, memories of Mulberry Plantation, and actual births of the enslaved were some of the great things he shared.

Terry James from The Jamestown Project came and told people about the great work he is doing with building up his family and 246 acres of land his ancestor owned. The Mars Bluff community was founded in 1870 by Irvin James who believed in being free of debt. To learn more about Terry, click on his name and follow him on Facebook.

I was excited to give the presentation I had been asked last year to give, African Americans in Kershaw County Records. I told the group that I had traced Nathaniel Vance, my ancestor, back to were he had been taken prisoner right up the street at Historic Camden during the Revolutionary War by the British to Guilford County, North Carolina. He returned to Laurens County, South Carolina. His son, Samuel Vance, after his wife died became the father of Beverly Vance, my enslaved 2nd great grandfather in 1832. Beverly was give to his son J. K. Vance when he moved to Abbeville County, South Carolina and got married.

I encouraged them to put all of what they had as far a photos, stories, documents, and recordings into FamilySearch.org, and then search for and attach historical records from each person page. This way everything would be linked. I then showed them the Research Wiki while they performed searches using their phones. We went over the Kershaw County, South Carolina page and African American Resources for Kershaw County, South Carolina.

Robin Foster. Photo by Ellis McClure on March 23, 2019.