January General Member Meeting
Presentation on Locating Family Members in Prison Records
Originally recorded on January 12, 2021
Speaker: Annie Anderson
Bio: Annie Anderson is an American Studies Ph.D. student at Rutgers-Newark. She worked at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site in Philadelphia for 9 years doing research on the prison's history and contemporary justice issues, developing exhibits, audio stops, public programs, and social media projects. Annie has collaborated with academics, genealogists, front-line interpreters, and museum visitors. Her research interests include race, class, gender, sexuality, cities, vice, crime, and morality. She loves telling the stories of those whom history has largely forgotten.
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Presentation Description
We all have them – stories of ancestors who had encounters with the law. Sometimes it’s just a rumor, whispered at family gatherings, sometimes it’s a surprising new story stumbled upon in an online record search, and sometimes it's an ongoing discussion about a painful historical injustice. How do we, as genealogists, find the records to help us better understand these stories and the experiences of our ancestors who came in contact with the criminal justice system? What were the potential points of contact from suspicion of a crime to final verdict and punishment or release? Join us as researcher Annie Anderson helps us to answer these questions. Bring your own examples and we may have time for live workshopping of ideas and extended Q&A!
Agendas, Handouts and Notes