Ancestry and New York Times: Record of Resilience

Ancestry has collaborated with The New York Times to support its 'Black History, Continued' editorial initiative by rolling out a special five-part series called Record of Resilience.

The fourth video within “Records of Resilience” features attorney Kimberly Cook, and documentarian, Nicka Sewel-Smith. Nicka shares her experience of discovering her family lineage with the records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, commonly referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau Collections. She shares how she found Kimberly Cook, the living descendant of Louis B. Toomer, a man who was devoted to the education of a community of Black Americans shortly after Emancipation. The two discuss the magnitude of education and what values can be passed down regardless of biological relation.