The Front Porch Community

MyHeritage DNA is the testing company and platform that supports our community’s effort to preserve our unique Gullah-Geechee, Low Country Georgia, southern heritage, and genetic ties. View our presentation to learn more about their research tools and how testing may help one to break through or scale one’s brick walls. Discover how you can use MyHeritage to take your genetic genealogy research to the next level, even if you did not test with the company. Consider becoming an active part of the Low Country DNA initiative which is set to break barriers and update our family histories in 2022!

In Part II of "From Enslavement to Freedom: The Saga of Butler Island," presented via Facebook Live on March 4, 2021, Terri Ward, the Front Porch Genealogist, shares her extensive research covering the experiences of the former Bondsmen and their descendants of the Butler Island plantation near Darien, McIntosh County, Georgia. She shares their role in building a solid coastal community that embraced its independence, and forged a way forward with faith, education, political activism, and their labor. Viewers will recognize the newly acquired surnames carried by those formerly enslaved and sold from Butler Island and discover how they became tied to other McIntosh County kinship groups to grow and extend their clans. Part I presenters Brian Sheffey (GenealogyAdventures.com) and Tiffany Young (the Geechee Griot) joined moderator Michele Nicole Johnson and chat coordinator Adolphus Armstrong in a Q&A session at the end. Presentation co-sponsored by UJIMA Genealogy of Coastal Georgia (@ujimagen on Facebook) and Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society (@coastalgagensociety on Facebook). (See the Part I presentation at: https://youtu.be/jnqtNu12dp0) Timestamps: 0:02:15 Start of Presentation (Terri Ward) 0:14:55 Butler Island Descendants: The Community Activists & The Community Builders 0:15:37 The 1899 Darien Insurrection 0:24:23 Family, Associates & Neighbors (FANs) 0:27:35 Butler Island Descendants & the Community Core: Faith, Labor, Politics, Education 0:31:32 Thomas Baker & His Records 0:39:00 Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Words 0:43:39 Ushering in the New - After Slavery 0:44:48 Individual Stories 1:02:55 Accomplishments of the Black Representatives of McIntosh County 1867-1901 1:05:44 Leading Lights in Education 1:10:16 Anna Ellison Butler Alexander, America's First African American Deaconess of the Episcopal Church 1:13:42 Individual Stories 1:30:33 A Community of Kin 1:40:50 By the Turn of the Century 1:43:31 How to Find Former Butler Slaves 1:48:19 Butler Island Chroniclers 1:51:53 The Tom Pate-Pat Sommers Feud Clues 1:53:24 Keep a Research Log 1:54:07 The Low Country DNA Project 1:55:16 Summary 1:58:01 Black History MonthTies to McIntosh County 1:59:55 Back to James Baldwin 2:01:42 End of Presentation (Terri Ward) 2:01:43 Question & Answer session with Michele Johnson, Brian Sheffey, Tiffany Young, and Adolphus Armstrong 2:33:37 Closing Remarks by Michele Johnson, including list of sponsors

Ujima Genealogy founding members, Terri Ward, also known as the Front Porch Genealogist, and Adolphus Armstrong, present a case study of the DNA results of Gullah-Geechee cultural icon, Mary Dawley Moran. Mrs. Moran comes from humble roots in McIntosh County, Georgia, however, her DNA connects her to some of the most prominent Georgia families and historical events associated with McIntosh, Liberty, and Chatham counties. This presentation is co-sponsored by Ujima Genealogy of Coastal Georgia and Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society. For more information about the Low Country Georgia DNA initiative, contact Terri Ward at frontporchgenealogist@gmail.com or Adolphus Armstrong at aarmstrong3649@gmail.com. Visit ujimagen.org for more information about Ujima Genealogy of Coastal Georgia.