In late 2014, I uncovered one of the biggest finds of my genealogy career thanks initially to genetic genealogy and later traditional family history research.
The Trask 250 series amplifies the voices of the more than than 6,000 people I am now connected to through DNA, community, and kinship who have ties to a defined enslaved community based in Adams and Wilkinson Counties in Mississippi, and Concordia and Pointe Coupee Parishes in Louisiana..
These extraordinary folks were or had ancestors that were enslaved by brothers Israel Elliot Trask, James Lawrence Trask, Augustus Trask, and/or William Porter Trask along with their niece Charlotte Pynchon Davis Ventress, nephew Augustus Trask Welch, and James Alexander Ventress. The Trask family was largely based in Massachusetts but profited from plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Additionally, this defined enslaved community is uniquely positioned as it has ties to the origins of Amherst College in the north and the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), in the south.
A note of thanks
This project has taken on a life of it’s own and I am now fortunate to include the voices of other descendants such as Bridge Bajoie, Christopher Alexis, Jacqueline Arbuthnot, Lillie Palmer-Curtain, research of Amherst College students, such as Anna Smith, and resources such as the Israel Trask Papers at Robert Frost Library at Amherst College. Special thanks to Michael Kelley, the Archives staff, Anna, and faculty, all at Amherst College, and those who have been an incredible assets in my ongoing work on this project.0