How Can Black Americans Trace Their Roots? This New Documentary Shows One Family’s Journey

Essence Magazine:

By Rayna Reid Rayford ·Updated December 17, 2023

It is a well-documented fact that many Black Americans lack knowledge about their family history. According to Pew Research Center, “[b]ecause of slavery, it is often difficult for them to trace their ancestry prior to the 1870 census. Records of the enslaved are often handwritten, poorly maintained, or simply lost of over time.”

This was true for Emmy-nominated filmmaker Byron Hurt and

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