When 27-year-old Cicely Schatzman was offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to trace her paternal lineage, she didn’t hesitate to take Essence magazine up on the offer.
In the magazine’s February issue, the feature article “A Legacy of Love & Pride” chronicles a team of genealogists who explored the slave quarters on the grounds of L’Hermitage Plantation, a plantation in Frederick, Md., that gained notoriety for criminality and cruelty to its slaves. Something short of a miracle happened; they discovered that there was a living descendant. 
Researchers Googled and found Schatzman, an Atlanta resident and barista at a Georgia Tech University coffee shop, via her MySpace page.
“The people at Essence magazine contacted my mother. It was out of the blue. I had no idea I had roots tracing back to the noteworthy plantation,” Schatzman shared during an interview with rolling out.
AfriGeneas, an online company devoted to African American and African Ancestored genealogy, led the research.
“It was an exciting experience to have [Cicely] connected to her family in this way. I had a personal experience when I went to a Ghana and entered the slave dungeon. I didn’t know which of my ancestors [was] in that particular dungeon; I just knew there was a connection. … I think what [the Murdock/Schatzman family] went through is amazing because they could’ve given up, yet they persevered. They rose to a status where they could buy their family members back,” says Schatzman’s mother, Kym Kennedy.
Kennedy stressed that research performed by genealogists is important because it gives African Americans a foundation that we don’t have as a race, as the result of slavery. Many of us do not have any connection to our history like other races.
“The experience, seeing the artifacts discovered by the archaeologist and touring the main house, has been amazing. Anybody who has an opportunity to go back and trace your roots make sure you do. Keep your ancestry alive. Don’t let it stop with you. Pass it on to the future generations,” Schatzman advises.
Read the story in its entirety in the February issue of Essence magazine, which features the lovely actress Regina King on the cover. –yvette caslin
