February 2024 Program
Tracking the Migration of Black Families
Presented by Samantha Dorm
This presentation describes the migration of Black families, both forced during slavery and voluntarily once free. Samantha Dorm has discovered these migrations in exploring the lives of her ancestors and the many people buried at the historic Lebanon Cemetery in North York. Some forced migrations spread families who had connections to York over several of the former “slave” states. Manumissions of slaves prior to the Civil War and promises of a new life with freedom and work
opportunities brought other Black families to York voluntarily.
Samantha L. Dorm is a senior grant consultant with over 20 years of experience. Ms. Dorm has been instrumental in providing grant writing guidance to various public safety and non-profit agencies throughout the United States to enable them to obtain alternative funding as well as provide instruction on statistical compilation, analysis, and program development. Dorm has been a reviewer for several federal agencies and instructs grant writing workshops.
Recently added to the Board of the York County History Center, Samantha L Dorm is one of the founders of the Friends of Lebanon Cemetery, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of African American cemeteries in York County, Pennsylvania by honoring the memory of those interred in their folds through historic research, documentation, education, preservation, restoration, and community engagement. She is an active member and participant in the Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds Network, the Black Cemetery Network, consults with the National Cemetery Administration to promote the care of African American Veterans in private cemeteries. Ms. Dorm is an active contributor to the Veterans Legacy Program, highlighting the untold accomplishments of veterans.
Dorm’s work has recently been featured on PBS station WITF, CBS Sunday Morning with Martha Teichner, USA Today, a novel by Neil King, Jr, former Wall Street Journal writer, and in a CNN article by Eliott McGlaughlin.
Watch the recorded program here.
Summary of the presentation by Erica Runkles.
Samantha Dorm was our speaker for our February 4th meeting – her presentation was titled “Tracking the Migration of Black Families”. In 2019, Samantha began tracing her Smallwood family that was buried in Lebanon Cemetery in York. Founded in 1874, Lebanon Cemetery is the resting place for over 3000 African American individuals from York and surrounding areas. While locating her family’s burial sites in the cemetery, Samantha became aware that over the years the cemetery has suffered from neglect. With two other like-minded women, Tina Charles and Jennie DeJesus Marshall, “The
Friends of Lebanon Cemetery” was founded with the purpose of preserving and telling the stories of York’s black community.
In tracking the migration of the Smallwood-Outlaw-Hawkins families from Bertie County, North Carolina to Baltimore, Maryland in the 1930’s to York, Pennsylvania, Samantha has developed techniques which have helped her face the challenges of successfully tracing her family.
The first challenge is to answer the question: What do I want to find out about my family? Do I want to find more than just dates? Do I want to include stories about people, the places they lived, customs, traditions, and accomplishments? Or am I only interested in tracing the genetic make up to find out more to determine family connections or medical concerns?
Once the direction you want your research to take is determined, then the challenge of terminology needs to be faced. In order to track black families, you need to be familiar with the how descriptive words changed depending on the time period and the area of the country. Samantha demonstrated this within her presentation by showing newspaper articles: one article used “Colored”, and another “Negro”. Census records would record individuals as “Black”, “Mulatto”, or “Colored” –based on the census year and census area.
Why did people frequently move? Could the move have been a forced migration or a voluntary migration? Did boundary lines change – making it look like the family had moved? What role did economics, education, and social life affect or play into these moves?
With so many common names and spellings, how do you determine if the person you are focusing on is the right one or the correct name. Names can be spelled many different ways. Using Samantha’s Dorm’s family line from Carroll County, Maryland, as an example, Samantha showed a slide of an obituary for Albertus A. Dorsey and a tombstone for Albertus Dorum – same person, but the last name was spelled differently. To prove it was the same man, she compared birth and death dates, locations, census records that list parents and siblings, “kissing cousins”, and maiden names with other
information that she had found. Sometimes children would be informally adopted by a local family and take on that family’s surname. Samantha has discovered that Dorm can be spelled at least four different ways.
Researching Black families involves going beyond the usual resources like census records, etc. The Freedman’s Bureau records, although many are not indexed, are valuable. The Bureau maintained savings account records which contained information such as birth date and place, spouse and children, or sometimes the names of parents and siblings. Manumissions were sometimes recorded in deed books. Wills and inventories would list slaves and instructions on what to do with them after the death of their owner. Scrapbooks, photo albums, and newspaper articles (especially the local news columns) can help locate family members. Entering a street address into a newspaper data base is a unique way of tracking people – by entering the address and checking over the years to see who’s living there can locate individuals who don’t always show up in the census.
To close her presentation, Samantha introduced three special cousins that she had connected with through DNA. Janett Taylor Saunders, her daughter, Chenisa Claud, and Barronita Banks. They had moved to York not knowing that they would find family in York. Before coming to York, Janett moved from Bertie County, Windsor, North Carolina in 1966 to Baltimore, Maryland seeking a better way of life. Janett had moved from Bertie County, North Carolina. Janett had brought a picture of “Hope Plantation” and told us her family story:
"The Taylor family of eight sons and four daughters were sharecroppers for the Powell/Stoke family in Bertie County, Windsor, North Carolina. The sharecropper arrangement limited the quality of education for the older children. They missed many days from school in order to cultivate and harvest the crops. The parents did all they could to give their children the best possible education under the circumstances. They stressed self-sufficiency and to also try to get a high school education! We did quite well. Some of the children are college graduates, educators, technicians and skilled in various trades. One brother owns property formerly part of the Hope Plantation Estate. I found a better and beautiful way of life! It is a privilege to connect with family and most of all it warms my heart to know God’s purpose for all families worldwide. His purpose is for all families to be united, no racism, all treated impartially, no man above another, all humans treated with dignity and respect, everyone owns their own land and home."
Anyone who has tried to trace and track family members knows that it can be difficult – for some people there are many challenges. But as Samantha has proven – it can be done, and the stories can be told.
opportunities brought other Black families to York voluntarily.
Samantha L. Dorm is a senior grant consultant with over 20 years of experience. Ms. Dorm has been instrumental in providing grant writing guidance to various public safety and non-profit agencies throughout the United States to enable them to obtain alternative funding as well as provide instruction on statistical compilation, analysis, and program development. Dorm has been a reviewer for several federal agencies and instructs grant writing workshops.
Recently added to the Board of the York County History Center, Samantha L Dorm is one of the founders of the Friends of Lebanon Cemetery, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of African American cemeteries in York County, Pennsylvania by honoring the memory of those interred in their folds through historic research, documentation, education, preservation, restoration, and community engagement. She is an active member and participant in the Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds Network, the Black Cemetery Network, consults with the National Cemetery Administration to promote the care of African American Veterans in private cemeteries. Ms. Dorm is an active contributor to the Veterans Legacy Program, highlighting the untold accomplishments of veterans.
Dorm’s work has recently been featured on PBS station WITF, CBS Sunday Morning with Martha Teichner, USA Today, a novel by Neil King, Jr, former Wall Street Journal writer, and in a CNN article by Eliott McGlaughlin.
Watch the recorded program here.
Summary of the presentation by Erica Runkles.
Samantha Dorm was our speaker for our February 4th meeting – her presentation was titled “Tracking the Migration of Black Families”. In 2019, Samantha began tracing her Smallwood family that was buried in Lebanon Cemetery in York. Founded in 1874, Lebanon Cemetery is the resting place for over 3000 African American individuals from York and surrounding areas. While locating her family’s burial sites in the cemetery, Samantha became aware that over the years the cemetery has suffered from neglect. With two other like-minded women, Tina Charles and Jennie DeJesus Marshall, “The
Friends of Lebanon Cemetery” was founded with the purpose of preserving and telling the stories of York’s black community.
In tracking the migration of the Smallwood-Outlaw-Hawkins families from Bertie County, North Carolina to Baltimore, Maryland in the 1930’s to York, Pennsylvania, Samantha has developed techniques which have helped her face the challenges of successfully tracing her family.
The first challenge is to answer the question: What do I want to find out about my family? Do I want to find more than just dates? Do I want to include stories about people, the places they lived, customs, traditions, and accomplishments? Or am I only interested in tracing the genetic make up to find out more to determine family connections or medical concerns?
Once the direction you want your research to take is determined, then the challenge of terminology needs to be faced. In order to track black families, you need to be familiar with the how descriptive words changed depending on the time period and the area of the country. Samantha demonstrated this within her presentation by showing newspaper articles: one article used “Colored”, and another “Negro”. Census records would record individuals as “Black”, “Mulatto”, or “Colored” –based on the census year and census area.
Why did people frequently move? Could the move have been a forced migration or a voluntary migration? Did boundary lines change – making it look like the family had moved? What role did economics, education, and social life affect or play into these moves?
With so many common names and spellings, how do you determine if the person you are focusing on is the right one or the correct name. Names can be spelled many different ways. Using Samantha’s Dorm’s family line from Carroll County, Maryland, as an example, Samantha showed a slide of an obituary for Albertus A. Dorsey and a tombstone for Albertus Dorum – same person, but the last name was spelled differently. To prove it was the same man, she compared birth and death dates, locations, census records that list parents and siblings, “kissing cousins”, and maiden names with other
information that she had found. Sometimes children would be informally adopted by a local family and take on that family’s surname. Samantha has discovered that Dorm can be spelled at least four different ways.
Researching Black families involves going beyond the usual resources like census records, etc. The Freedman’s Bureau records, although many are not indexed, are valuable. The Bureau maintained savings account records which contained information such as birth date and place, spouse and children, or sometimes the names of parents and siblings. Manumissions were sometimes recorded in deed books. Wills and inventories would list slaves and instructions on what to do with them after the death of their owner. Scrapbooks, photo albums, and newspaper articles (especially the local news columns) can help locate family members. Entering a street address into a newspaper data base is a unique way of tracking people – by entering the address and checking over the years to see who’s living there can locate individuals who don’t always show up in the census.
To close her presentation, Samantha introduced three special cousins that she had connected with through DNA. Janett Taylor Saunders, her daughter, Chenisa Claud, and Barronita Banks. They had moved to York not knowing that they would find family in York. Before coming to York, Janett moved from Bertie County, Windsor, North Carolina in 1966 to Baltimore, Maryland seeking a better way of life. Janett had moved from Bertie County, North Carolina. Janett had brought a picture of “Hope Plantation” and told us her family story:
"The Taylor family of eight sons and four daughters were sharecroppers for the Powell/Stoke family in Bertie County, Windsor, North Carolina. The sharecropper arrangement limited the quality of education for the older children. They missed many days from school in order to cultivate and harvest the crops. The parents did all they could to give their children the best possible education under the circumstances. They stressed self-sufficiency and to also try to get a high school education! We did quite well. Some of the children are college graduates, educators, technicians and skilled in various trades. One brother owns property formerly part of the Hope Plantation Estate. I found a better and beautiful way of life! It is a privilege to connect with family and most of all it warms my heart to know God’s purpose for all families worldwide. His purpose is for all families to be united, no racism, all treated impartially, no man above another, all humans treated with dignity and respect, everyone owns their own land and home."
Anyone who has tried to trace and track family members knows that it can be difficult – for some people there are many challenges. But as Samantha has proven – it can be done, and the stories can be told.