How one African American historian is recovering her family history
PHILADELPHIA — Thanks to her grandmother, Joyce Mosley has always known her family's rich oral history. Her grandmother passed down stories of her family, preserving crucial information about her ancestors generation to generation.
Over the years, Mosley, a historian, continued to do research on her family, learning that her ancestry included some of the first free African Americans in Philadelphia.
At this year's Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society national conference outside Philadelphia, she taught others how to organize documentation, marriage and death certificates, obituaries, on their families.
"I wanted to leave for the rest of my family a documented history going back as far as I could go in this country," Mosley told WHYY's "Movers & Makers."
Mosley's family members were among the founding members of Cheltenham Township just outside Philadelphia, where they lived, worked and married into a racially diverse Quaker community. They are also among the families who founded several African American churches in Philadelphia. They were teachers, doctors, lawyers and business owners, and many took on roles as abolitionists and community leaders.
"When you're doing any genealogical [research], especially on African Americans, start with yourself," Mosley advised, adding that it was best to interview the oldest member of your family and start collecting obituaries.
Mosley sat down with WHYY in her home to go through her impressive findings on her family.
Video shot by Erika Schroeder and Gary Lindstrom; edited by Pete Scaffidi; and audio by Dan Rosenthal. This report originally appeared on WHYY's "Movers & Makers."
Support Canvas
Sustain our coverage of culture, arts and literature.
In death, Leonard Cohen is having a rebirth. The legendary singer is being remembered by older and younger generations alike…
Alec Baldwin's Western "Rust" had its world premiere Wednesday at a film festival in Poland, three years after the shooting…
In her new collection of columns from The Wall Street Journal, Pulitzer Prize-winner Peggy Noonan takes readers on a journey…
If you've ever wanted to own a piece of Hollywood history, now's your chance. A pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers…
When Centurion was founded, it was the first group of its kind working to overturn wrongful convictions for people facing…
As major American museums reexamine their collections to ensure diversity and inclusion, there's a growing realization that they need more…
As a dancer, choreographer, director and speaker, Jamison's distinguished career leaped over barriers of race and gender.
In the 1980s, about 70 percent of clothes sold in the U.S. were made in the country. Today, it's down…
This is her first time receiving nominations in the country and Americana categories.
For many Muslim and Arab Americans, Israel's wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and the wider Middle East are personal, and so…
A giant in the music and entertainment industry has died. Quincy Jones, known to many as 'Q,' was revered as…
Jones rose from music school dropout to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives…
Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in the final days before the presidential election, playing herself…
During the final days of this tense election, we take a look at a project fostering a different type of…