Linked Descendants:
People connected to one another through slavery and its legacies; People related through ownership, kinship, or violence.
Individually and as a CTTT National Group, Linked Descendants learn the history of their connection to slavery and its legacies, like lynching and share cropping, in so many ways – poring intently over documents, overhearing whispered family stories, undertaking journeys to overgrown graveyards and dusty archives, accidentally discovering news articles, obituaries and birth announcements, or making or receiving out of the blue emails or phone calls as nervous genealogical researchers.
Linked descendants want to know the truth about their ancestors, discover their connections, maybe even heal a bit of the wounded past. To learn more about healing and repair, visit our Reparations page. If you’d like to learn more about your history and genealogy, check out our Genealogy Resources page or consider joining this group. Here’s an article to support you in Contacting Linked Descendants. You can also contact us below for more info.
The Linked Descendants Working Group also manages/publishes a blog: BitterSweet – Linked Through Slavery, in which many aspects of being a linked descendant are shared through stories, essays, and ideas. Linked Descendants also supports Writing Pods: small, self-managed groups of writers supporting each other’s CTTT writing.
To access many resources, recordings, downloads and programs and resources available from the Linked Descendants Working Group
Join the National Linked Descendants Group to share your stories of uncovering your family’s truth, possibly connecting to people whose ancestors shared their lives with yours, and come support others on this journey. Dive into deep conversations about how slavery links us, what that means today, and what actions we must take to contribute to equity and justice.
We welcome people who are doing family research and know there is slavery in their ancestors’ history. Being open to finding people linked to you through slavery is essential, whether or not you have come across them so far. Having experience with the tools of investigating family history, including with DNA analysis, is helpful, but not required.
PLEASE NOTE: We encourage everyone who is interested in Linked Descendants to join CTTT: Click Here to become a Member
If you’re interested in joining the National Linked Descendants Group, have questions, or would like to submit a story or essay for the BitterSweet blog, contact us by completing/submitting the Contact form below.