Event Registration - Association of Professional Genealogists

Genealogy is a powerful tool for uncovering the past, deepening our understanding of history, and fostering connections across generations. Reparative genealogy aims to shed light on difficult histories---including enslavement and colonialism---and bring a better understanding of America's history and its resulting systems.

Through storytelling and examples from various perspectives, we’ll explore how genealogical research on the family trees of both enslavers and the enslaved, colonizers and colonized can lead to healing and repair. What are the best ways to approach this work? How do we best present this information? Why is it important for families of enslavers to provide access to records from the enslavement era? What are the ethical considerations? The panelists do not claim to have all the answers to these questions, but they are initiating the conversation.
 

Panelists:

• Jennifer Hadlock, CEO of My Ancestors Footsteps, has been doing her own and friends' genealogy for over 20 years and serving clients' professional genealogical needs for 10. She has struggled personally and supported others in the emotional and spiritual work with the genealogy of healing and reparations. 
• Lotte Lieb Dula. After discovering that she was a descendant of slaveholders, Lotte, a retired financial strategist, co-founded Reparations 4 Slavery (R4S), a portal for white families walking the path of direct repair. Lotte collaborates with reparationists nationwide, often focusing on helping white audiences understand the historical context of the racial wealth gap and the need to engage in reparative genealogy. 
• Briayna Cuffie is the co-founder and equity advisor for the R4S portal. She has co-created a guide to reparative genealogy to assist both Black and white people in tracing their ancestry. She serves her community as a local historian, genealogist, and educator. 
• Katie MacMurray found her family ancestry included enslavers and wanted to do something to make reparations including sharing access to info about the people her family had enslaved that she found through researching her family. She has created a website and tried different strategies for sharing the info and all its complexities.