In Search of Our Roots: Genealogy and the African Diaspora

Marvin Elliott Ellis, a native Miamian and graduate of Xavier University, is a photographer and visual documentarian of the South Florida African diaspora communities. His photo collections and papers are archived at The Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida in Miami; The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans; and The Xavier University of Louisiana Archives. The primary focuses of the collections are the African American and Haitian American communities of Miami and South Florida, and Black Roman Catholics and Black Episcopalians. His photography has been featured in the 2008-2009 Miami-Dade County African-American History Calendar, and by The Amistad Research Center. Three decades ago, Ellis began researching his African-American and Antillean Creole genealogy and family history. As a result of Ellis's intense interest in the  pursuit of finding and identifying  his ancestors and relatives, he developed and chaired the first Miami Book Fair International panel discussion focused primarily on genealogy and family history of descendants of Africans  in the Western hemisphere.

Author Melvin J. Collier, an archivist, historian, genealogist, and former civil engineer, has been conducting historical and genealogical research for two decades. He was only 19 years old when he began a quest to trace the histories of his family. His first book, Mississippi to Africa, A Journey of Discovery (first edition), was published in 2008. Mississippi to Africa (second edition) captures Collier's fourteen-year journey in unearthing the buried history of his maternal grandmother's family - a journey that took him back seven generations, from northern Mississippi to the Piedmont hills of South Carolina, and even back to a specific people and region in West Africa where his ancestry undoubtedly began. Trekking the paths of his ancestors and their displaced relatives before Emancipation (1863), this emotion-filled journey traversed down an intricate paper trail of federal, state, and local records, other public records, and oral histories, presented in a narrative style to inspire, entice, and propel readers into the fascinating world of genealogy and historical discoveries.

Sonia Jacobs Dow is the Executive Director of the St. Croix Landmarks Society, dedicated the preserving the Virgin Island’s cultural heritage. Through its museums and an array of educational programs, the Landmarks Society continues to cultivate appreciation of St. Croix's rich history and enduring legacy. In 2008, the Society was awarded the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Presidential Award, acknowledging "Sixty years of diligence in protecting, preserving and celebrating the irreplaceable heritage of the island of St. Croix."