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The Conversation

Factual: Life Stories

Two women from different parts of the world share the stories of their lives

Two women from different parts of the world, united by a common passion, experience or expertise, share the stories of their lives.

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The Conversation: Tracing forgotten female ancestors

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Women uncovering family mysteries

16/05/2022 GMT

Tracing forgotten female ancestors

BBC World Service - The Conversation, Tracing forgotten female ancestors

Genealogists Kenyatta Berry and Marie Cappart look for women’s forgotten stories

Genealogists Kenyatta D Berry and Marie Cappart are passionate about uncovering the forgotten stories of their clients' female ancestors.

Kim Chakanetsa meets two genealogists passionate about uncovering the forgotten stories of their clients' female ancestors. 

Kenyatta D Berry is a lawyer and genealogist from the USA. She is the author of The Family Tree Toolkit and the co-host of The Genealogy Roadshow on PBS. She caught the genealogy bug by chance, when she started looking into her ex-boyfriend’s family history. She is an expert on African American ancestry and on the specific challenges people who descend from enslaved individuals face when looking into their families’ past.

At the age of 15, Belgian Marie Cappart started looking into her country’s national archives to find out more about her great-aunt, Maggie Nicholls. During WWII, Maggie helped three Canadian pilots survive in Nazi-occupied Belgium. She was later arrested and killed because of that. Marie went on to graduate in history and wrote several books, including Guide to Genealogy in Belgium. She is also the country manager for the online genealogy platform MyHeritage and she helps other people track down their ancestors. 

Produced by Alice Gioia 

(Image: (L), Marie Cappart, courtesy Marie Cappart. (R), Kenyatta D Berry, courtesy Kenyatta D Berry.)

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