Age Group:
AdultProgram Description
Details
Presented by the library’s Special Collections staff and members of the Ranger Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), these events are free, open to the public, and appropriate for all levels of interest and experience. All levels will learn something new!Join us as genealogy and cultural anthropology specialist Teresa Vega presents on the rise and decline of Hangroot, a little known and long-lost Greenwich, Connecticut community of Native and African Americans that preceded the 1640 founding of the town. You will also hear about Teresa’s extended family and the fight to save their “Colored Cemetery” in the Byram section of Greenwich. Teresa will discuss the terms “colored” and “paper genocide” as they relate to both Native American and Afro-Indigenous people and she’ll highlight the importance of Native and African American cemeteries as testaments to our ancestors’ physical presence in this world.
Registration is required. Open to all levels. Please register to receive the Zoom link.
About the Presenter
Teresa Vega has been researching her family history and genealogy for nearly 20 years, using a combination of traditional and genetic genealogy. It has always been Teresa’s goal to document her family history the way it was experienced by her ancestors. Her research specialties include both African-American and Puerto Rican Genealogy, Slavery and Free Blacks in the Northeast, the Afro-Dutch Cultural Legacy in NY and NJ, the NY-Madagascar Slave Trade in the late 1600s to early 1700s, the historical importance of Native- and African-American burial grounds, as well as genetic genealogy for beginners.
Teresa earned degrees in Anthropology and Asian Studies from Bowdoin College and worked as an adjunct professor in Cultural Anthropology while attending CUNY Graduate School and University Center’s doctoral program in Anthropology. She has used her background in cultural anthropology to help research her ancestral roots. Teresa uses her blog, www.radiantrootsboricuabranches.com, to share her genealogy research on both her maternal mixed race African-American side as well as her Puerto Rican paternal side. Teresa is a proud member of the NJ and NY Chapters of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAGHS) and is a BlackProGenLIVE panelist. She has also served as co-administrator of FamilyTree DNA’s Malagasy Roots Project along with CeCe Moore of PBS’s Finding Your Roots and DNA Detectives since 2014. Follow Teresa on Twitter and Instagram @rrbbgenealogy.
Questions? Email libinfo@cityofportsmouth.com or Nicole Luongo Cloutier at nlcloutier@cityofportsmouth.com.