Family History Day at TSLA Featuring Dr. Katherine C. Hughes

In her presentation, “How Can the Records of a Single Family Reveal a Much Larger Story?” Hughes will draw on her research into seven generations of families at Stony Point in East Tennessee to explore how archival records, objects, historic places and genealogy can work together to uncover the stories of our own families. Using Tennessee State Library and Archives records that have played an important role in her own research, she will share practical approaches for following clues, connecting people and places and bringing family stories to life.

Whether you are an experienced genealogist or just beginning to explore your family history, the program will offer new ways to look at the records, objects and places that preserve the stories of past generations.

Hughes is a public historian and preservationist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century Southern material culture and the recovery of marginalized and overlooked histories through objects, architecture and place. She is a lecturer in Interior Design History at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture and recently completed her Ph.D. in Public History at Middle Tennessee State University under Tennessee State Historian Dr. Carroll Van West.

Her previous work includes positions with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Historic Charleston Foundation, the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This program is presented as part of Family History Day at the Tennessee State Library and Archives with support from the Tennessee State Library and Archives Friends.