Thursday, July 26
The annual LCGS picnic will be held this year at the Lake Erie Bluffs Pavilion located in Perry, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The picnic is open to all members, their families and guests. It’s potluck this year; bring your table setting and a dish to share. Beverages will be provided.
Deborah A. Abbot, PhD, will be the guest speaker. See following article about her presentation.
The pavilion is in a beautiful park setting on bluffs overlooking Lake Erie. Photographers might want to bring a camera. There are plenty of hiking trails to explore.
Directions:
From the West: Take Route 2 East to its end where it becomes Route 20. Follow Route 20 to Lane Road in Perry Township. There is a traffic light at the intersection and a big Sheetz gas station on one corner. Turn left (north) onto Lane Road and follow it to its end. (Pass Niagara Rd. Do not turn there; it goes to another part of the park.) Turn right at the end of Lane Road and follow the road to the picnic pavilion.
From the East: Take Route 20 to Lane Road in Perry Township. There is a traffic light at the intersection and a big Sheetz gas station on one corner. Turn right (north) onto Lane Road and follow it to its end. (Pass Niagara Rd. Do not turn there; it goes to another part of the park.) Turn right at the end of Lane Road and follow the road to the picnic pavilion.
From the Voice of a Slave: Ohio and the Underground Railroad
LCGS Picnic Presentation, July 26, 2018
Come hear the amazing story of the Underground Railroad from the voice of a slave. Hear how the Underground Railroad with its vast secret network of paths, roads, swamps, and river crossings crisscrossed the state of Ohio. Learn how important Ohio and the surrounding areas was to a system which was neither a railroad nor underground. Hear how the efforts of committed men and women, both black and white, who risked their own lives to help slaves from the south escape north to freedom.
Few written records on the Underground Railroad exist, but hundreds of stories have survived. Hear these stories through an engaging slave reenactment which will keep you on the edge of your seats.1
Deborah A. Abbott, Ph.D. is a professional genealogist, specializing in African American research, manuscript collections and genealogy methodology. She is a Trustee on the Board of the Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS), a member of the Cuyahoga County Archives Advisory Commission in Cleveland, and a member of the Board of Directors for FGS. She is an associate with the Kentucky-Tennessee Associates based in Springfield, TN, past president of the African American Genealogical Society, Cleveland, Ohio and a retired professor of Counseling from Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland. She holds both the BS and M.Ed. degrees from Tuskegee University in Alabama and the PhD degree from Kent State University in Ohio.
Dr. Abbott is an instructor at IGHR,2 SLIG3 and the African American Genealogy Colloquium at Alabama State University in Montgomery,AL. She presents lectures and workshops at a variety of national, state, and local genealogy conferences across the country, as well as colleges, businesses & libraries. She has had articles published in the Ohio Genealogy News and Family Tree Magazines. Dr. Abbott can also be seen teaching African American research entitled “Needles & Threads” on Ancestry Academy, an educational video course for Ancestry.com.
Dr. Abbott is a member of NGS, APG, GSG, as well as other state and local genealogical societies. She teaches monthly classes entitled “Using Ancestry.com in Genealogy Research” at the Lakewood (Ohio) Public Library and coordinates/teaches the “Genealogy and Family History Clinic” for the Cleveland Public Library.
A Cleveland native, she is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Tuskegee University National Alumni Association, and Antioch Baptist Church.
LCGS is fortunate to have had her speak to our group several times. All presentations have been excellent. This program on the underground railroad promises to be the same.
1 Description of program provided by Dr. Abbott
2 Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research; http://ighr.gagensociety.org/
3 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy; https://ugagenealogy.org/aem.php?eid=36
