It's been a few years since I've enjoyed the opportunity to deeply drive into a genetic genealogy case with a MRCA (most recent common ancestor) positioned more than 4 generations back. Typically, my DNA clients, whom I've been serving since 2015, present themselves...
With such abundant and rich knowledge of the enslaved life of Oliver C. Kelly (later Gilbert), his family, and the journey which led to his self-liberation in 1848, one may feel that his narrative is complete upon reaching freedom. Wouldn't that have been enough?...
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! With the release of yesterday's digital Washington Post, which trended on Apple News as the top story for most of the day, and today's front cover of the Washington Post print edition, our family extends our deepest thanks for the...
Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4 "Slavery wasn't discussed. It was painful and shameful. You knew not to ask anything about anyone who wasn't here before a certain period. We knew we had a slave in the family, but we didn't discuss it' shared Cousins Bertha and...
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 I consulted a much older cousin, my father's contemporary, about the validity of the claims within this 'Grandfather Gilbert' narrative. Who'd written this? And who was Oliver Cromwell Gilbert? That cousin, Bertha Gilbert Jones, explained...
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Ethel Hawkins, then 70 years old, the Philadelphia Black history artifact collector, verbally shared a passage from the autobiography which led Fernald to believe Hawkins was holding one of the most powerful links to the antebellum south and the...
Part 1 Part 2 The legal-sized pages of Oliver Gilbert’s autobiography were enumerated, and the bottom corner of each page revealed an encircled set of numbers – a word count. These pages were meant for publication. We know that Oliver had been encouraged to write his...
I awakened today, Saturday, with the intent of submitting a few simple paragraphs to Wikipedia such that Oliver would have his own page. He should, right? I read Wikipedia's Terms of Use and got started. That was 8am. Here, it is 3:40pm and I've been writing non-stop,...
(Video above - speaking is Dr Cheryl LaRoche associate research professor in Historic Preservation in the School of Architecture, Planning and...
Oliver Gilbert's Baltimore Sun death notice was published July 14, 1912 "Former Slave Dead" This week, we remember the death of Oliver Cromwell Kelly, who became Oliver Gilbert on when the quaker abolitionists in lower Lancaster County asked him to change his name to...