Edda Fields-Black

But then he was stuck.

That's as far back as he could go.

So how do you find Hector Fields?

I was working with the International African American Museum Center for Family History.

They identified Hector Fields as a veteran in Beaufort.

So I took these little lists and I went down to the National Archives and I pulled these pension files.

And Hector's file was a bust.

There was no...

Family information.

It was like 30 pages long.

I put it on the shelf.

You know, when I looked at the other pension files, the beauty came when we discovered the pension file of Hector's brother, Jonas Fields.

The name of his siblings, the names of their parents, how they got separated during the war.

My aunt was given away as a wedding gift.

The slaveholder gave her to his daughter when she got married.

So it just opened up so many doors for our family history.

Jack Aiken, Sunday Briscoe, Robert and Phoebe Frazier, Captain Brown, Edward and Peggy Brown.

My goal was to tell the story of

The notable and the nameless, right?

The people we know and the people we don't know.