The African American Civil War Memorial Museum is proud to host our USCT Descendants Group which has been active since 2021 to support and cultivate a space for the descendants of the courageous United States Colored Troops to connect with each other in order to share generational family history.
For the past year the USCT Descendants Group have had the opportunity to chat via our Facebook group and also sign up for a time slot to host genealogical presentations for other group members via zoom on their USCT ancestor.
Through these presentations we’ve learned the stories of numerous soldiers, their legacies and the importance of preserving family stories through generations. Recently we’ve had the pleasure of hosting Ms. Janice Gilyard, who has been a part of the AACWM’s USCT Descendants Group for the past 6 months yet has provided our group with an immense amount of information and resources to push forward in our own genealogical searches.
Ms. Janice Gilyard has been making waves in the historical and genealogical field long before joining the AACWM’s USCT Descendants Group. She has conducted research for the past 26 years and through this she has traced her family’s heritage all the way back to 1720! Ms. Janice has been a part of numerous genealogical and historical societies such as the New Jersey Genealogy Society and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society – New Jersey Chapter, where she also served as the Vice President for three terms and the President for the past two years.
Ms. Janice has fully immersed herself in the journey of collecting family history and her passion for this shines through while assisting friends and colleagues with finding their own stories. As we concluded our USCT Descendants Presentation on Ms. Gilyards three ancestors were a part of the USCT, she left us with a moving way to think about genealogical work. She stated “As hard as genealogical work may get, your ancestors are waiting for you to find them. They want you to find them!”
For more information please visit our African American Civil War Memorial Museum’s USCT Descendant’s Facebook Group.
