Last Seen Ads - Finding Family After Slavery
An incredible resource for scholars, genealogists, historians, and history lovers.
Last August, I stumbled upon a post on X (formerly twitter) for a webinar “Using Last Seen Ads”. It really was a webinar for scholars. I attended because well, I’m writing about events that happened in the Reconstruction Era and this dealt with that time period.
The webinar geared toward teachers and how they can incorporate the Last Seen Ads into their curriculum. Judith Giesberg, Director, Last Seen has an incredible website full of newspaper clippings and transcripts of the clippings for easy viewing.
What are Last Seen Ads?
Last Seen Ads are newspaper ads that were posted from the 1830s to the 20th century where loved ones tried to find their formerly enslaved family members. As most of you know, during the brutal times of American slavery, families were torn apart and sold to various plantation owners. Sometimes their names would be changed to reflect the plantation owner’s name. So, when slavery ended (and sometimes before), Black family members desperately searched either for their children, siblings, parents or grandparents to reconnect. These ads were placed in various newspapers across the US and mostly read out loud on Sundays during a church service.
A couple of takeaways from the webinar:
First, I was completely moved to know about the teachers that are sharing these stories and learning a way to present this information across the ages. From grammar school through college.
I was so moved by this because we’re in a time where people are trying to erase our history or reimagine it. (side note: just recently there are schools that are changing their names back to the names of confederate soldiers. I will discuss this in another newsletter.)
Second, the webinar inspired me use some ads in my novel about Peter Crosby and include them in the church announcements.
The stories…
The numbers are few and far between for families that were united like Ellen Johnson who was reunited with her mother after 50 years.
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
September 12, 1885
But most never found their loved ones. Here’s one son, James Cullins, who searched for his father and sister.
Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA)
June 3, 1880
The “Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery” website www.Informationwanted.org is an incredible resource for the ads that were placed by the formerly enslaved.
According to their website, they have over 3,500 ads spanning eight decades from 275 newspapers. Their goal is to publish 5,000 ads. This is a great project ran by an incredible team that’s keeping this history alive.
Subscription update!
For my paid subscribers, I am starting a monthly zoom call the last Saturday of the month to discuss history. This month, it will be Saturday, June 29th at 11am (pst) – Noon (pst). We can expound on anything I’ve touch on thus far, or chat about something new.
I will send out a zoom link the week before.
Looking forward to chopping it up with you all!
Best,
Danita