About Us

Stacy is the creator and curator of “They Had Names: African Americans in Early Liberty County, Georgia, Records,” an online compilation of antebellum Liberty County probate, deed, church and other records with more than 37,000 references to African Americans, enslaved and free. She is a descendant of an enslaving family from Liberty County. Mrs. Cole retired from the U.S. federal government in 2014. Contact her at jnscole@yahoo.com.

Affiliations:

• Currently on the Georgia Genealogical Society Board of Directors (since 2022)
• Midway Museum Board of Directors (2018-2022) (Liberty County)
• President, Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society (2019-2023)

Presentations: 

• Afro American Historical & Genealogical Society
  –“Reclaiming What’s Owed: Using Southern Claims Commission Records for African American Genealogy” (2021 national conference)
  –“They Had Names: A Community-Focused Approach to Documenting African Americans in Antebellum Records” (2021 national conference)
  –“Where Did That Surname Come From? Researching the Post-Emancipation Name of an Enslaved Ancestor” (2023 national conference)
  
• Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP), “They Had Names: African Americans In Liberty County, Georgia” (2021 national conference)
• Susie King Taylor Mami Wata Rising 2018 and 2019 annual conferences
  
• Georgia Genealogical Society, “They Had Names: A Digital Genealogy Project”
• Rockdale-Newton County Genealogical Society and Statesboro-Bulloch County Library,  “U.S. Southern Claims Commission: Our Ancestors’ Experience” 
• Liberty County Historical Society, “They Had Names: African Americans In Liberty County, Georgia”
• Lower Altamaha Historical Society, “They Had Names: African Americans In Liberty County, Georgia”
• Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society
  –“They Had Names: A Genealogy Journey”
  –“Tips and Tricks for Reading Courthouse Records”
  –“Using FamilySearch’s UnIndexed Records to Find Your Ancestors”

• The Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly:
   —“Abram Houston: Bridging the Gap from the 1870 Census to Slavery — A Liberty County, Georgia, Case Study Illustrating the Benefits of a Community-Focused Approach to Slavery Documentation” (vol. 57 number 1)
  —“Where Did My Surname Come From?: Researching the Slaveowner James James of Liberty County, Georgia” (vol. 57 nos. 3-4). 
• The Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation (Issue #2, 2020) and the Enslaved.org project as a peer-reviewed dataset 

Awards:

• Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) Jean Sampson-Scott award, their 2d highest award, for a “significant and measurable contribution to African American history and/or genealogy within the last two years” (October 2022)
• University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents “Award for Excellence in Documenting Georgia’s History,” at the recommendation of the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC) (October 2023)
• The Genealogy Guys podcast “Unsung Heroes” award (2019)s