Finding the Last Enslaver: Guidance & Case Studies
By Robyn Smith
For descendants of enslaved individuals, uncovering their ancestral heritage presents unique challenges. One of the most critical steps in this journey is identifying the last enslaver, prior to emancipation. This task can be incredibly difficult. The reasons for this complexity are deeply rooted in the nature of the institution of slavery itself: lack of documention, changing names, multiple enslavers, and especially, family separations.
In this lecture, Robyn presents research strategies that can prove successful using sources such as probate records, court documents, tax records, deeds, and more. There is nothing easy about this research, and the information in these records can take an emotional toll. But a driving force for this work (as quoted at Reclaiming Kin) is this:
“Slavery’s reach is still with us, and part of the gift of doing African American research is recovering the stories of those caught in its grasp who could not in their own time leave their own witness.”
Robyn Smith has been researching her family and the families of others for almost thirty years. She specializes in court and land records, genealogy skill-building, and slavery research.
A respected speaker in the field, Robyn has taught widely at genealogy conferences, for genealogical societies across the U.S., and for institutions such as the Maryland State Archives, the National Archives (Atlanta), RootsTech 2025, and the Smithsonian Institution. She taught at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) in 2023 and worked with the Georgetown Memory Project in 2022. She also taught a genealogical workshop for Maryland Public Television.
Her lectures on Legacy Family Tree Webinars have garnered thousands of views. Robyn writes extensively and has published articles in Family Tree Magazine, and in the peer-reviewed Maryland Genealogical Society Journal and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly Journal. From 2008 to 2015, Robyn taught an advanced genealogy class at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland.
Access will be through GoToWebinar. Instructions and Connectivity Link will be forwarded via email to all registrants upon registration, six days prior and again 1 hour prior to the event. Making the connection is quick and easy only requiring a computer and Internet connectivity from wherever you chose to watch the event. Your questions help drive the meetings, and we will be there to help each other.
