As any African American genealogist will tell you, a random newspaper article or document can lead genealogists to a profound family history story. Ge... Read More

Making preparations during a family member's final transition is never an easy or comfortable task to do. While it is not an urgent topic of discussio... Read More

Brian and Donya have often discussed becoming certified genealogists, but something has been holding them back. Join us this Sunday, October 13th, at... Read More

Family history research can be exhausting for any researcher, regardless of ethnicity or nationality. But have you considered the psychological toll i... Read More

You've contacted us through messenger, Twitter, and email to discuss our thoughts on 23andMe and the challenges they’re facing. Join Brian and D... Read More

There are a few times each year when Brian and Donya step outside the realm of Genealogy to discuss other important topics, such as Black History Mont... Read More

Sigh... and just like that, for some, the world has changed for the worse. Fear has been awakened in the hearts and minds of many, and the question on... Read More

Brian and Donya are continuing their conversation on how we can move forward and do better for ourselves in the wake of the election results.  &... Read More

In this episode of Genealogy Adventures, Brian and Donya walk through two powerful FamilySearch features every researcher should know: Full Text Searc... Read More

Join us this Sunday at 4 pm EST when we are joined by Jennifer Randall, Program Manager & Lead Archivist at the International African American Museum... Read More

In this episode of Genealogy Adventures, award-winning documentary filmmaker, historian, and cultural consultant Clennon L. King delves into his rich... Read More

In celebration of Black History Month, Donya and Brian focus on Civil Rights and exploring the powerful theme of Bridging the Past and Present. In thi... Read More

Join Genealogy Adventures this Black History Month, for the next episode featuring Tamika Middleton, Managing Director of The People's March, as we re... Read More

Genealogy Adventures continues to celebrate Black History Month as they discuss the hidden history of erased Black towns—once-thriving communities bui... Read More

Join us for an insightful conversation as we explore the journey to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Monument. Our featured guest, Alan... Read More

We will have advice on how to protect county & state-level archive records plus information about a National Archives record digitization project... Read More

Discover a powerful and little-known chapter of Harriet Tubman’s life through Dr. Edda Fields-Black’s groundbreaking book, "Combee: The Hi... Read More

For centuries, Black women have been the backbone of movements for freedom, justice, and equality. From the maroons who built independent communities,... Read More

Trailblazer in Action – A Conversation with Aisha Braveboy   To close out Women’s History Month, Genealogy Adventures Live celebrat... Read More

For centuries, Black America has sounded the alarm: on injustice, on inequality, on danger looming ahead. Yet time and again, those warnings have been... Read More

What Is Family? – Blood, Love, and Legacy   What makes a family? Is it DNA - or the people who stand by you when it matters most? Is it b... Read More

Before they could speak, they were judged. Before they could dream, they were denied. Before they could run, they were restrained.   In this ep... Read More

Get ready for an exciting journey into the heart of family, competition, and self-discovery. We’re sitting down with Kayli and Uncle Dan, better... Read More

In this powerful episode of Genealogy Adventures, Brian Sheffey and Donya Williams confront one of the most devastating - and too often silenced - cha... Read More

What happens when a mother and daughter set out to find long-lost family—and discover nothing but love?   We’re thrilled to welcome... Read More

In this extraordinary episode of Genealogy Adventures Live, Brian Sheffey and Donya Williams welcome esteemed genealogist Jari C. Honora for a remarka... Read More

A Race to Discovery – Finding Family, Finding Self   In this heartfelt episode of Genealogy Adventures, Brian Sheffey and Donya Williams... Read More

Historian and genealogist Ja’el Gordon returns to Genealogy Adventures with Brian Sheffey and Donya Williams to share the remarkable journey of... Read More

In this episode of Genealogy Adventures Live, Brian and Donya tackle one of the most urgent and often unspoken topics in Black America: colorism. With... Read More

Season 8 Finale – A Journey Worth Remembering   Brian and Donya close out an extraordinary season of Genealogy Adventures with a powerful... Read More

We're back with Season 7! Bernadette Thompson from Tell Me Our Story joined us to share her knowledge and experience about how ancestral stories can... Read More

Deborah M. Robinson joined the show to talk about a special cemetery preservation project. Between July 2020 and January 2021, more than 500 unmarked... Read More

The fast-approaching holiday season got us thinking. What better time to gather family history stories! For families who have multiple generations of... Read More

We love it when we hear about the launch of a new African American genealogy research business. When we heard about Marie Eaton-Jones turning her pass... Read More

A negative review of an African American History Museum commented on how a museum didn't "go in hard enough" when it came to the history of the U.S. c... Read More

An Edgefield, South Carolina-connected DNA cousin reached out to Donya last week. He asked her to explain information that he was given from a big com... Read More

Dr. Shelley Murphy joined the show to talk about free people of color - how to research them, the records that are available for them, their history,... Read More

Dr. Rhonnda Thomas joined the show today to talk about the amazing Call My Name Project at Clemson University, and her book "Call My Name, Clemson: Do... Read More

This episode focused on a genealogical research-related career that doesn't receive much attention: research librarians.    Genealogy rese... Read More

IAAM Researcher Grant Mishoe has spent the past few years documenting South Carolina African American burial grounds and cemeteries. Using GPS technol... Read More

We're always excited about capturing the enthusiasm of the next generation of genealogists on the show. This episode did not disappoint.   We w... Read More

In this episode, we discussed Ancestry's new ProTools. The conversation about these new suite of tools was done through a Black and African American g... Read More

Have you ever heard of "The Book of Negroes"? The book was written about more than 3500 formerly enslaved and runaway slaves who were offered their fr... Read More

One of the biggest challenges for a genealogist is to get their family interested in learning about what they do. It is an even bigger challenge to ge... Read More

Sometimes a story is best told by the person who knows it best. The description of the Williamsburg Bray School from William & Mary University is... Read More

Who was Carter G Woodson? He was the 2nd African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard; He was the author of many historical books including th... Read More

“And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him g... Read More

The fight for equal justice has been going on since the beginning of time. As time marches on the style of fighting may have changed but the reasons t... Read More

Throughout history, the contributions of women have been ignored. We have had a hand in every facet of this world, from comedy to politics. Let's talk... Read More

WE ARE BACK!! After a long break the Genealogy Adventures team is back with a great story and new book. Join us as we talk with former guest Cynthia W... Read More

Brian and Donya are always excited when they find generations younger African American genealogists  interested in researching their family lines... Read More

Today's show will be a "back to basics" episode. We will be talking about slowing our researching roll when adding documents to a person with a common... Read More

Ancestry has added a new tool to its Pro Tools line, making Genealogists burn the midnight oil. It's called Enhanced DNA Matches and Brian and Donya w... Read More

Ancestry has added a new tool to its Pro Tools line, making Genealogists burn the midnight oil. It's called Enhanced DNA Matches and Brian and Donya w... Read More

During the time of slavery, music served as a crucial means of communication for enslaved families. It enabled Harriet Tubman to convey messages on th... Read More

Are you familiar with Project 2025? It has been widely discussed by families and placed on blast by celebrities. Genealogy Adventures has decided to t... Read More

We are back with pt.2 of Project 2025 explained and we are going to focus on chapter 14 Department of Health and Human Services. This chapter is impor... Read More

Welcome back to our final broadcast on Project 2025. Today, we begin our review on page 503, where we'll delve into the Department of Housing and Urba... Read More

Orice Jenkins is back to talk about his newly released book The Early County Massacre: Goolsby vs. The State of Georgia. Orice goes into some detail a... Read More

Researching an enslaved family line requires understanding the ancestral line's pathway of enslavement. Was your family held by multiple generations o... Read More

As researchers, Brian and Donya have learned so much about their families and their histories. They have also discovered information about the history... Read More

The migration of our families is an important thing to know when researching your family.  Historians and researchers talk so much about Black fa... Read More

BYU TV's show "Relative Race" is a game where four teams are taken on a 10-day whirlwind race around the USA to find their families.    Co... Read More

Cemeteries, as we know them in the U.S., began to appear around the 1830s. So it is safe to assume that during that time just like people of color wer... Read More

Present-day Black voter suppression in the United States is nothing new.  The U.S. has a long and sordid history of suppressing the Black vote th... Read More

The Homestead Act of 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation, and subsequent Reconstruction amendments didn't just abolish slavery-they gave African Ameri... Read More

Genealogists spend a lot of time stressing the importance of preserving records and resources that documented our ancestors’ lives for future ge... Read More

At some point in your genealogy research, you will find a family line that died out. Or a male YDNA line or female mtDNA line became extinct. Or insta... Read More

The BYU TV show Relative Race brings family history to life in an exciting reality competition series. With a $50,000 grand prize up for grabs, 4 team... Read More

10 seasons is an accomplishment for any tv show. And kudos go to the Relative Race production team (and its contestants) for creating 10 seasons of ri... Read More

When the enslaved Moses Williams, Sr. died in 1884, he was possibly one of South Carolina’s last links to the American Revolutionary War. He was... Read More

We talked about how Conservatives believe that when it comes to teaching Black History, only teaching it up to Emancipation is sufficient.  Black... Read More

This Sunday we spoke with African American entrepreneurs Jourdan & Tameshia who are the founders of Kinkofa - the only digital family history plat... Read More

One of the biggest misconceptions that our children are most ashamed of is the concept that our ancestors didn't fight back.  This is where the p... Read More

Forensic genealogy for cold case research is amongst the saddest, humbling - and yet ultimately rewarding - type of genealogy there is.   The G... Read More

It's 2023 and African Americans continue breaking down barriers as we still show others who we are and what we can do.    Brian and Donya... Read More

Introducing Women's History Month on Genealogy Adventures.   In previous seasons we celebrated Women's History Month with stories and histories... Read More

On the 6th of December 2022, in a runoff election against the incumbent Mayor, Lisa Hicks Gilbert took on a new role to empower and inspire the Elaine... Read More

In this episode, Brian and Donya discussed the uniqueness of African American genealogy. The history of Black people in the United States is unique, a... Read More

It's spring time which means it is time to do that spring cleaning on your family tree. I know that I dread doing it but it is mandatory especially wh... Read More

Joseph McGill from the Slave Dwellings Project and Ja’el “YaYa” Gordon joined us at 4 pm EST this Sunday. We talked about the import... Read More

Brian and Donya spent the hour talking about genealogy conferences - the pros, the cons, and why you should try to attend at least when your time and... Read More

Shelley Murphy (University of Virginia) and Renate Yarborough-Sanders (Wake Forest) joined Brian (University of Virginia Foundation) and Donya to chat... Read More

Kevin Graham (President of the SAR Lower Cape Fear Chapter, NC) and Luke Alexander (SAR, NC) joined us to talk about being the first Black men to join... Read More

This week's show is about the cost of paying for genealogical help.  

In a change to our planned programming today, we will be talking about the recent U.S. Supreme Court Rulings. In a bid to return the U.S. to the pre-C... Read More

We are so looking forward to having Courtney Eberhard and Sherman McRae in the house to talk about new DNA analysis tools and more from FTDA.  

What a fun show we have lined up this Sunday. Our Fun Tree founder Mary Kay Wilson will join the show to talk about creating unique pieces of genealog... Read More

Join us this Sunday at 4 pm EST when we introduce our research team. We will chat about how we work as a team, our researchers' areas of specialism, m... Read More

Today's episode is one of our favorite kinds of shows. Brian and Donya will be chatting about their favorite Season 6 episodes. This will be the last... Read More

Black History is American History. That's how it ought to be taught. Sadly, too many United States schools fail in this regard. It's the county as a w... Read More

We welcomed Lalita to the show to discuss her new book "Circumcision of a Wounded Heart: An Unjust Journey Due to Systemic Racism, Classism, & Opp... Read More

We were so pleased to welcome Regina Griffin, Jasmine Redden, and Romona Burns to the show to talk about Mischlingskinders (Brown babies) - the childr... Read More

Elizabeth’s  DNA Journey began in 2016.  After her mother was diagnosed with cancer, she decided to take a DNA test. She hoped the res... Read More

Louisiana-native Ja’el Gordon is a historian and genealogist who specializes in interpreting antebellum history, genetic genealogy, and conducti... Read More

Those who have taken a DNA test know the initial thrill that’s felt when the results come in. We know the excitement in talking about our result... Read More

Dr. Evelyn McDowell joined the show to talk about this special African American lineage society and the work that it does.    Founded in 2... Read More

If you have ever wondered what goes into a county archives digitization project...you won't want to miss this show!   Rosemary McFarland joined... Read More

The Society of the First African Families of English America is a lineage organization that seeks to inform its members and the public of the historic... Read More

Our book clubs have become so popular that we can't wait for our third book chat!   Black narratives of the Civil War are few. Susie King Taylo... Read More

Poignant and moving beyond measure: the newspaper advertisements placed by formerly enslaved people looking for loved ones from all over the United St... Read More

Original surviving slave cabins and tenant farmer cabins have largely disappeared from the United State’s landscape.  The humblest of dwell... Read More

The global demand for cotton set off a forced migration of enslaved people with close to one million being transported to the Deep South between 1790... Read More

Deborah Fountain is the Lead Genealogist and the History and Research Subcommittee Chairperson on the Natchez USCT Monument Committee.   ... Read More

Mac & Cheese, Collard Greens, and Fried Chicken, these foods are associated with what most call soul food. Tonya Hopkins, the Food Griot joins the... Read More

When Congress ended the United States’ participation in the international slave trade in 1808, enslavers and would-be-enslavers could no longer... Read More

Ja'el "YaYa" Gordon returned to the show to share, teach and explain slavery in Louisiana.    Get ready for another knowledge-dropping sho... Read More

Professor William Horne of Villanova University walked us through the least discussed time period in African American history. It should have been the... Read More

Did you have a family member disappear during slavery? Do you think they ran and went into hiding? As we close out Black History Month we always have... Read More

Say their names... Anarcha, Lucy, Betsy! Without these three women, the study of Gynecology would not be where it is today.    Join us as... Read More

Mary L. Beal (author) and centenarian Mother Lucille D. Shazier joined the show to talk about Beal's book "How to Live Well Past 100 Years" - a book a... Read More

U.S. psychologist and professor, Olivia Juliette Hooker, was one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa race massacre in 1921.  Ms. Hooker was... Read More

Private Cathay Williams was the only known woman to serve in the US Army as a Buffalo Soldier.    Despite the prohibition against women se... Read More

We are back and very excited!! For the next three months, the Genealogy Adventures Live show will explore stories never truly discussed. From learning... Read More

Have you ever heard of Slavic Genealogy?    Patrick Elias joined us to talk about what Slavic Genealogy is and how he researches it. We ar... Read More

    Linford Sweeney joined us to share his knowledge and resources about genealogy research in Jamaica and other British-held... Read More

Deborah Sampson was an indentured servant until the age of 18. By 22 years of age, she disguised herself as Robert Shurtleff and joined in the fight d... Read More

The story of Henrietta Lacks is not a secret anymore. It was first told by an author named Rebecca Skloot in the best-selling book The Immortal Life o... Read More

More than 1,800 people who served in the U.S. Congress in the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries owned human beings at some point in their lives, acco... Read More

The Hampton History Museum curator, Allen Hoilman, joined the show to talk about the history of Historic Black Beaches and Resorts.   Like many... Read More

Historically Black Colleges were created during one of the most undiscussed times in history. The reconstruction period was the time when African Amer... Read More

We were thrilled to have author, attorney, lecturer, TV personality, and professional genealogist Kenyatta Berry join us on the show.   We chat... Read More

One of the biggest discussions in African American culture is the ability to tell our own stories. Our history is either hidden or told by someone els... Read More

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! It's summertime and Tonya Hopkins (The Food Griot)  is back with an exciting show about the hi... Read More

The history of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest is a complicated history and an unsung legacy. Few histories in the American Pacific Northwe... Read More

What is your first thought when you hear the word, Mammy? As a child, I thought of someone like Aunt Jemima, a heavy-set black woman who consistently... Read More

In this episode, we talk about Fanny Kemble's book "Journal of a Residence on a Georgian plantation in 1838-1839" which was published after her death... Read More