Event Link: https://www.hcscconline.org/events.html

Join us and the Moorhead Public Library as we
welcome African American genealogist Elyse Hill for Black
History Month. The presentation will focus on how to start
genealogical research, as well as the nuances and ways to
overcome the issues faced by African American researchers.
After her presentation, the event will turn into a workshop
where the audience can work on their own family tree with
the help of Elyse, librarians, and historical society staff who
are already familiar with the databases available at the
library. We also invited those who are interested in local
history to “adopt” a family from Fargo-Moorhead’s original
African American community and research their past so we
can better understand our region’s history.

Elyse Hill lives in Georgia, but she grew up in St.
Paul. Her family ties in Minnesota gave her a fascination
with the region’s Black pioneers. Over the past twenty years
she has helped many individuals and groups reconnect with
their past.

Currently she is working on projects for the National
Parks Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
program for which she conducted research on enslaved
individuals who escaped bondage and later settled in St.
Paul and Minneapolis before the end of the Civil War. Her
research resulted in Pilgrim Baptist Church and Pioneers &
Soldiers Memorial Cemetery in Minneapolis becoming the
only sites in Minnesota to date that have been included into
this program.

A special thank you to Dr. Yvonne Condell for supporting Hill's appearance in our community.