New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Museum to offer presentation of ‘love, family, racism’
NEW HAVEN — It will be a story of “love, family, racism and African American history.”
City native Jill Marie Snyder, author of “Dear Mary, Dear Luther: A Courtship in Letters,” will participate in a Zoom presentation through the New Haven Museum Feb. 10, according to a release, talking about what she learned as she researched her “complex” family tree.
The book, which won the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society Award for Nonfiction Romance/History Focus in 2019, came about after the death of Snyder’s mother, Mary, in 2007. Snyder transcribed letters between her parents throughout their relationship, the release said, something her mother had wanted published. To add context, Snyder “began digging for details,” the release said, and learned much.
“Snyder’s genealogical journey led to a better understanding of her parents’ emotional connection, and some surprising discoveries, and it has become her post-retirement mission to show other African Americans the value, and the methodologies, of researching their own family trees,” the release said.
“I believe strongly that every Black family should document its history,” Snyder said in the release. “The Black history my generation learned in school was a single story — that Black people were enslaved in the south,
“I believe strongly that every Black family should document its history.”
Jill Snyder, New Haven native, author
there was a Civil War to free the slaves, and in the 1900s Black people left the south and went north to find work — end of story.”
But she said she found there was much more to it.
“The people I meet during book signings often share amazing anecdotes about their families — stories of hardship and suffering — sometimes almost too painful to bear, and uplifting accounts of family members persevering in the face of great odds,” she said in the release. “It’s important to document these stories for historians to get a fuller view of the Black experience and to inspire future generations.”
According to the release, the book details the relationship of Snyder’s parents, Mary (née Brooks) and Luther Snyder, who met in 1935, as it moved through the years, including moving from city to city and finally landing in New Haven, where Snyder and her siblings were raised. At one point, the release said, every member of the family was employed by Yale University in various capacities, “ranging from campus police to research assistant in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health.”
Among the family history discoveries Snyder made along the way, the release said, the “most surprising” was “finding her great-great grandfather, Henry Jones’ obituary, which documented his enslavement.”
“I knew as a person of African descent that I had ancestors who were enslaved,” Snyder said in the release. “But to have a name and a location (Winchester, Va.), and to learn that he escaped, was very moving.”
The presentation will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 10 via Zoom. To register for the presentation, visit http://bit.ly/380Nk6a.