Family tree of Thomas Jewell on ancestry.com.
Ticket Prices
Free admission. Pre-registration is required.
Morven will offer a free African American Genealogy Workshop highlighting the process and lessons learned while researching the history and genealogy of people enslaved at Morven. The workshop will be led by historian Sharece Blakney who conducted over 900 hours of research about enslaved people at Morven and other Stockton properties and developed the museum’s Inclusive History Interpretive Plan.
Topics covered will include: the process of conducting archival research (both digital and analog); breaking through the 1870 “Brick Wall;” and resources for collecting records. Attendees are encouraged to bring their questions and their own research ideas and leads.
This event is hybrid - held both live and online. Doors open for the in-person event at 6:00 p.m. in the Stockton Education Center. The virtual waiting room opens on Zoom at 6:00 p.m.
A Zoom webinar link will be shared with virtual ticket holders following registration. A recording of the event will be provided following the program.
About Sharece Blakney
A historical research consultant, Blakney focuses on American slavery and freedom in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century. She has been involved with several projects that turned research into public facing interpretation. In addition to Morven, she also works as a historical research consultant for Bartram’s Garden, the oldest botanical garden in the country. That project uses archival research to examine the history of African Americans in Southwest Philadelphia from 1780 to 1850.
Blakney assisted with the publication of the fiftieth anniversary issue of The Public Historian and worked with Philadelphia-based artist Talia Greene to create a mural commissioned by the city of Philadelphia. Using archival records, the mural depicts themes of abolitionism and housing discrimination in Philadelphia history. She has also written for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.
Blakney holds a B.A. in Africana Studies from Rutgers University-New Brunswick; a B.A. in History from Kean University; an M.A. in American History from Rutgers University-Camden; and an MLIS with a concentration in Archives & Preservation from Rutgers University-New Brunswick.