Trailblazing family historian Paul Crooks (author of Ancestors) traced his African forebears enslaved on a sugar plantation in Jamaica, 200 years ago. He traced his family back 6 generations to Ami Djaba who was living in the Krobo Mountain, Ghana. Paul’s acclaimed novel and appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? inspired a generation to start exploring Black and British ancestry and gathering information to make their family trees.

Paul was told that it would be impossible to trace records of slave-ownership let alone his African ancestors enslaved on plantations in Jamaica. “No one had tried because such records did not exist.” In the 1990’s, undeterred, he embarked on a journey of discovery that led from suburban North London to Jamaica and ultimately back to the Gold Coast of Africa; an effort that has brought him international recognition for his breakthroughs in African Caribbean genealogy research.

Paul will talk interactively about his journey and how he traced his roots.