Eric Wilson, Executive Director of the Rockbridge Historical Society (Lexington, VA) travels to Santa Cruz in continued collaboration with Lars Fehren-Schmitz and Kalina Kassadjikova of the UCSC Paleogenomics Lab, advancing a project that bridges disciplines, centuries, and continents.

In his presentation, Wilson is eager to field questions regarding the recent discovery and genetic analysis of the remains of an anonymous woman of 100% African descent, who lived in early 19th-century Virginia. In both historic and contemporary contexts, he'll share relevant backstories, and pictures from her new resting place in Lexington’s historically Black cemetery. Whatever your field of study, you can bring questions that may help illuminate how her story once migrated & where the journey of ‘Miss Jane’ still meaningfully moves today.

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