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Roots for KidsMaryland State Archives
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Roots for KidsMaryland State Archives
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I don't know if people need genealogical roots, but all people need to belong.
-- Phebe Jacobsen
From his childhood in Henning, Tennessee, Alex Haley heard his elders speak of Kunta Kinte, "the African," captured by slave hunters and taken across the sea to a port called "Naplis." After his retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1959, Haley's began to write articles that appeared in popular magazines and worked with Malcolm X to write The Autobiography of Malcolm X published in 1964. The remembrances of Haley's own ancestors and their exploits kept intruding, however, and gave him the impetus to begin documenting the stories he had heard.
The quest for sources to illustrate the Roots saga took a number of years. Haley had already found documentation of the ships, including the Lord Ligonier, that had been carrying slaves from the Gambia during the years that Kunte Kinte would have been transported to the United States. In the spring of 1967, Alex Haley arrived in Annapolis searching for confirmation that the slave ship, Lord Ligonier, had docked in Annapolis. Upon his arrival at the old Hall of Records, Haley was directed to Phebe Jacobsen, the Maryland State Archives' senior reference archivist, who carefully listened to his request. In letters to Phebe and in interviews about the book, he often recounted the story of the moment that the Roots saga came together -- the reference to the Lord Ligonier in the Maryland Gazette:
I will never forget long as I live how one morning Phebe lifted up a little 3x5" index card bearing the ship name "Lord Ligonier"... which name I'd last seen in London, then on a listing saying that the ship was sailed from The Gambia, on its way to Annapolis. I will never forget the look on your face when you saw the look in mine. Loved you ever since!
In 1976, Haley's Pulitzer prize-winning novel was finally published. The book has since been published in 37 languages and the resulting television mini-series was viewed by an estimated 130 million people. The popularity of Haley's saga sparked an unprecedented interest in family history, particularly African American genealogy. That popularity was no surprise to Haley. In the Foreword to Ethnic Genealogy: A Research Guide (1983), he wrote:
Young and old alike find that knowing one's roots, and thus coming better to know who one is, provides a personally rewarding experience. But even more is involved than uncovering a family history, for each discovered United States family history becomes a newly revealed small piece of American history. Stated simply: a nation's history is only the selective histories of all of its people. It is only through an unfolding of the people's histories that a nation's culture can be studied in its fullest meaning.
SOURCE: Extracted from Phebe R. Jacobsen Scrapbook, MSA SC 5304; Alex Haley, Why Do Genealogy?
Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades K-4:
Topic 1: Living and Working Together in Families and Communities, Now and Long Ago
STANDARD 1: Family life now and in the recent past; family life in various places long ago.
Standard 1A: The student understands family life now and in the recent past; family life in various places long ago.
K-4: Investigate a family history for at least two generations, identifying various members and their connections in order to construct a timeline. (Teachers should help students understand that families are people from whom they receive love and support. Understanding that many students are raised in nontraditional family structures--i.e., single-parent families, foster homes, guardians raising children--teachers must be sensitive and protect family privacy.) [Establish temporal order]
K-4: From data gathered through family artifacts, photos, and interviews with older relatives and/or other people who play a significant part in a student’s life, draw possible conclusions about roles, jobs, schooling experiences, and other aspects of family life in the recent past. [Draw upon historical and visual data]Topic 4: The History of Peoples of Many Cultures Around the World
Standard 7: Selected Attributes and Historical Developments of Various Societies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe
Standard 7A: The student understands the cultures and historical developments of selected societies in such places as Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
3-4: Investigate the ways historians learn about the past if there are no written records. [Compare records from the past]
DESCRIPTION: Advertisement, announcing arrival of the Lord Ligonier from Africa to Annapolis, MD
CREATED/PUBLISHED: September 29, 1767
SOURCE: Maryland Gazette Collection
REPOSITORY: Maryland State ArchivesDESCRIPTION: Example of marriages recorded in a parish register
CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1723-1728
SOURCE: SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (St. Stephen's Church Collection) SC2507, North Sassafras Parish, 1695-1822,
REPOSITORY: Maryland State ArchivesDESCRIPTION: Example of a 18th-century recorded will
CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1732
SOURCE: PREROGATIVE COURT (Wills) pp. 515-517, Thomas Larimore, Sr. [MSA S 538-30; MdHR 1298-2; 1/11/1/24]
REPOSITORY: Maryland State ArchivesDESCRIPTION: Example of 18th-century militia appointment
CREATED/PUBLISHED:
SOURCE: ADJUTANT GENERAL (Militia Appointments) pp. 49a-49b Stephen Durbin [MSA S 348-1; MdHR 1349; 2/8/3/13]
REPOSITORY: Maryland State ArchivesDESCRIPTION: Example of entry from Census of 1778
CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1778
SOURCE: CHARLES COUNTY COURT (Census of 1778) X 3, pp. 632, 639 John Mudd MSA C 654-1; MdHR 8167-2; 1/7/7/27.
REPOSITORY: Maryland State ArchivesDESCRIPTION: Example of entry from Census of Negroes
CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1832
SOURCE: TALBOT COUNTY COURT (Census of Negroes) p. 23 MSA C 1841-1; MdHR 10,786; 1/43/3/44
REPOSITORY: Maryland State ArchivesDESCRIPTION: Example of a 19th-century certificate of freedom
CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1807-1815
SOURCE: TALBOT COUNTY COURT (Certificates of Freedom) MSA C 1843-1; MdHR 10,784; 1/43/3/44
REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives
Students should be encouraged to examine the following family documents that may be found readily in their own homes:
- Family Bibles
- Photographs and photo albums
- Scrapbooks and yearbooks
- Newspaper clippings (for family events, obituaries, wedding announcements, etc.)
Additional sources of genealogical information include:
- Interviews with relatives
- Census returns
- Birth and death records
- Church records
- Newspapers
- Land records
- Probate records
For genealogical charts, see:
- Timeline
- Pedigree Chart
- Family Group Record [chart 1]
- Family Group Record [chart 2]
Genealogy and Family History for Children. From Genwriters.
Maryland State Archives: Guide to History/ Family History Research in Maryland
Resources on Incorporating Primary Sources and Historic Sites in Classroom Instruction
ANCESTORS Teaching Guide. From PBS.
Student Worlds Student Words: Teaching Writing through Folklore
Identifying Sources of Family Information
Cemetery Records. From PBS TeacherSource.
Census Records. From PBS TeacherSource.
Compiled Records. From PBS TeacherSource.
Family Records. From PBS TeacherSource.
Immigration Records. From PBS TeacherSource.Military Records. From PBS TeacherSource.
Newspapers. From PBS TeacherSource.Probate Records. From PBS TeacherSource.
Religious Records. From PBS TeacherSource.
Vital Records. From PBS TeacherSource.
Current, Richard N. "Fiction as History: A Review Essay" The Journal of Southern History (Feb., 1986): 77-90.
Haley, Alex. Roots: The Saga of an American Family. New York: Delta, 1976.
Access to materials linked within these document packets is intended for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or holders of other rights (such as publicity and privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. The responsibility for making an independent legal assessment and independently securing any necessary rights rests with persons desiring to use particular items in the context of the intended use.
Password Access to Materials
The use of any user name and password to access materials on this web site constitutes an agreement by the user to abide by any and all copyright restrictions and is an acknowledgement that these materials will be used for personal and educational use only. In most instances, the username aaco and password aaco# will work. Contact ref@mdsa.net if you have any questions or have difficulty accessing files.
Teaching American History in Maryland is a collaborative partnership of the Maryland State Archives and the Center for History Education (CHE), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and the following sponsoring school systems: Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Howard County Public Schools.
Other program partners include the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, Maryland Historical Society, State Library Resource Center/Enoch Pratt Free Library, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. The program is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education.
An Archives of Maryland Online Publication
© Copyright, Maryland State Archives,
August 16, 2006
