February General Member Meeting: Syl Woolford on “Free People of Color in the Colonial Era”

Happy Black History Month!

This month’s General Membership meeting will feature native Delawarean Syl Woolford, who will give a lecture on “Free People of Color in the Colonial Era”.

Tracing African American ancestors back to the late 1700’s and early 1800’s can be very difficult. Most people of African descent in British North America and the new United States of America were enslaved and few records recognized them as individuals rather than as property. For anyone doing genealogy research during the Colonial or Early National Eras, this presentation will provide some additional clues as to how to breakdown those brick walls.

Syl Woolford is a native Delawarean currently residing in Newark, Delaware. He has been lecturing on African-American history since 2010 when he began lecturing on “African-American Soldiers in the Civil War.” Mr. Woolford is a Founding Member of the Delaware Chapter of the Afro-American Genealogical Society.

Locally he is perhaps best known for the historic preservation of the Buttonwood School, located at 111 Buttonwood Avenue, New Castle DE 19720, where his father was an instructor. Mr. Woolford is a graduate of Delaware State University with a BS Degree in Business Administration /Accounting and holds an MBA in Marketing from Rutgers University. Recently retired from a career in accounting, Syl is a Board member of the Friends of the Delaware Public Archives and the State of Delaware’s Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs Collections Committee. He is a Board member of Howard High School Alumni Association; Vice President of the Historic Preservation Fund and serves on the Wilmington University History Advisory Committee. 

Please join us on Tuesday, Feb. 11th at 6:30 PM for this upcoming presentation.