Amy Tanner Thiriot
@ancestorfiles.bsky.social
Family and community historian. University instructor. Author of Slavery in Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History of Black Lives and Black Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847–1862 (U of Utah Press, 2023), https://uofupress.com/books/slavery-in-zion/.
The Zimbabwean sculpture collection in the Atlanta airport. Totally unexpected.
September 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM
The Zimbabwean sculpture collection in the Atlanta airport. Totally unexpected.
Remembering when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was "AWOL" for four days and it was a major national scandal
August 31, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Remembering when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was "AWOL" for four days and it was a major national scandal
Nancy Jefferson was one of the first Black children born in the Salt Lake Valley. She and her family were kept in slavery in Utah and California and freed by a judge in 1856. When she died in 1875, the newspaper wrote she was, "26 years of age, and American by birth."
January 24, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Nancy Jefferson was one of the first Black children born in the Salt Lake Valley. She and her family were kept in slavery in Utah and California and freed by a judge in 1856. When she died in 1875, the newspaper wrote she was, "26 years of age, and American by birth."
Something to keep on speed dial when blocking people on social media. From @lettersofnote.com
January 22, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Something to keep on speed dial when blocking people on social media. From @lettersofnote.com
Ida Husted Harper about the historian's craft. From one of the monumental volumes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "History of Woman Suffrage."
"The particular difficulties of historical work can be understood only by those who have experienced them..."
(Entire quote in ALT text.)
"The particular difficulties of historical work can be understood only by those who have experienced them..."
(Entire quote in ALT text.)
December 19, 2024 at 6:50 PM
Ida Husted Harper about the historian's craft. From one of the monumental volumes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "History of Woman Suffrage."
"The particular difficulties of historical work can be understood only by those who have experienced them..."
(Entire quote in ALT text.)
"The particular difficulties of historical work can be understood only by those who have experienced them..."
(Entire quote in ALT text.)
For historians or genealogists going through old photography collections, do you know why the man's eyes look like they do here? Hint: he wasn't blind.
December 5, 2024 at 4:02 PM
For historians or genealogists going through old photography collections, do you know why the man's eyes look like they do here? Hint: he wasn't blind.
I'd forgotten we were read Chaucer as children. (More or less.) What a timeless tale.
December 5, 2024 at 1:56 AM
I'd forgotten we were read Chaucer as children. (More or less.) What a timeless tale.
Class today:
• demographics as a genealogical tool
• using current language about slavery & enslaved people
• understanding the context of WPA slave narratives (they're accurate, but contain what an elderly person was comfortable telling an interviewer)
• assessing the reliability of family stories
• demographics as a genealogical tool
• using current language about slavery & enslaved people
• understanding the context of WPA slave narratives (they're accurate, but contain what an elderly person was comfortable telling an interviewer)
• assessing the reliability of family stories
December 2, 2024 at 6:32 PM
Class today:
• demographics as a genealogical tool
• using current language about slavery & enslaved people
• understanding the context of WPA slave narratives (they're accurate, but contain what an elderly person was comfortable telling an interviewer)
• assessing the reliability of family stories
• demographics as a genealogical tool
• using current language about slavery & enslaved people
• understanding the context of WPA slave narratives (they're accurate, but contain what an elderly person was comfortable telling an interviewer)
• assessing the reliability of family stories
Another addition to recent works about slavery or unfree labor in the US West: William S. Kiser's book, Borderlands of Slavery: The Struggle over Captivity and Peonage in the American Southwest (UPenn Press, 2017).
December 2, 2024 at 4:02 PM
Another addition to recent works about slavery or unfree labor in the US West: William S. Kiser's book, Borderlands of Slavery: The Struggle over Captivity and Peonage in the American Southwest (UPenn Press, 2017).
The star dessert at Thanksgiving: my teenager's pecan pie brownies. Deadly but delicious.
November 29, 2024 at 4:50 PM
The star dessert at Thanksgiving: my teenager's pecan pie brownies. Deadly but delicious.
Glad to see that newspapers.com now has the Korrespondenten, a Swedish-language newspaper printed in Salt Lake City. This is my grandfather's grandfather's 1898 obituary.
There were many #immigrant newspapers in the US, with many now coming online.
Translation in the alt text.
There were many #immigrant newspapers in the US, with many now coming online.
Translation in the alt text.
![Death.
It is announced that my beloved husband
John Wessman, born 1 March 1840, died in Kamas, Utah, 15 March 1898, deeply mourned and missed by wife and five children as well as grandchildren and other relatives and many friends.
He obeyed the gospel in Göteborg [Sweden] on 24 July 1889 and arrived in Utah on 23 December 1896. Died as a Latter-day Saint in the hope of a glorious resurrection.
Salt Lake City, 23 March 1898. Amanda M. Wessman, nee Hallman,
(Nordstjärnan [LDS Swedish-language periodical] please reprint.)
Utah-Korrespondenten, Salt Lake City, Utah, Friday, March 25, 1898, page 1
The picture is John or Johann Westman or Wessman to the right, his wife Amanda Hall to the left, and probably their son Joseph in front.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:n2q7gfcw73oi2fegdd647cb2/bafkreihbpl7wc3hvwfw6h7cyu6ro57r5aijbtpzb2xg3vv2v23cxpqu6y4@jpeg)
November 24, 2024 at 6:06 PM
Glad to see that newspapers.com now has the Korrespondenten, a Swedish-language newspaper printed in Salt Lake City. This is my grandfather's grandfather's 1898 obituary.
There were many #immigrant newspapers in the US, with many now coming online.
Translation in the alt text.
There were many #immigrant newspapers in the US, with many now coming online.
Translation in the alt text.
Copy and paste to introduce yourself to #Genealogy Bluesky
Technically I'm a family & local historian using genealogy for microhistory of understudied people, but:
Years researching: [polite cough] decades
Hobbyist or pro: pro
Wildest discovery: my g-g-uncle was killed by a lion
Niche: see above!
Technically I'm a family & local historian using genealogy for microhistory of understudied people, but:
Years researching: [polite cough] decades
Hobbyist or pro: pro
Wildest discovery: my g-g-uncle was killed by a lion
Niche: see above!
November 17, 2024 at 7:02 PM
Copy and paste to introduce yourself to #Genealogy Bluesky
Technically I'm a family & local historian using genealogy for microhistory of understudied people, but:
Years researching: [polite cough] decades
Hobbyist or pro: pro
Wildest discovery: my g-g-uncle was killed by a lion
Niche: see above!
Technically I'm a family & local historian using genealogy for microhistory of understudied people, but:
Years researching: [polite cough] decades
Hobbyist or pro: pro
Wildest discovery: my g-g-uncle was killed by a lion
Niche: see above!
Since we've been talking vaccines and public health, here's the 1880 census death schedule from Heber City, Utah, showing families losing children to diphtheria one, two, three, or four at a time. We've had a safe and effective diphtheria vaccine since 1923. There's no reason to go back.
November 17, 2024 at 1:59 AM
Since we've been talking vaccines and public health, here's the 1880 census death schedule from Heber City, Utah, showing families losing children to diphtheria one, two, three, or four at a time. We've had a safe and effective diphtheria vaccine since 1923. There's no reason to go back.
I just opened the .zip file. Here's a screenshot of the html file it generated. It looks like it has everything I ever tweeted.
November 16, 2024 at 3:22 PM
I just opened the .zip file. Here's a screenshot of the html file it generated. It looks like it has everything I ever tweeted.
In addition, Mark J. Stegmaier wrote an article, “A Law that Would Make Caligula Blush?: New Mexico Territory’s Unique Slave Code, 1859–1861” (NM Historical Review, 2012) that covered the story of NM’s choice of a stringent slave code for the territory.
November 15, 2024 at 7:52 PM
In addition, Mark J. Stegmaier wrote an article, “A Law that Would Make Caligula Blush?: New Mexico Territory’s Unique Slave Code, 1859–1861” (NM Historical Review, 2012) that covered the story of NM’s choice of a stringent slave code for the territory.
Last, from @wpaulreeve.bsky.social, Christopher Rich, and LaJean Carruth, "This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle Over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah (OUP, 2024) uncovered important sources to tell about how the history and battles over unfree labor played out in Utah Territory.
November 15, 2024 at 7:52 PM
Last, from @wpaulreeve.bsky.social, Christopher Rich, and LaJean Carruth, "This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle Over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah (OUP, 2024) uncovered important sources to tell about how the history and battles over unfree labor played out in Utah Territory.
My book “Slavery in Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History of Black Lives and Black Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847–1862” (@uofupress.bsky.social, 2023) won awards including from WHA and UT History. It examines both history and genealogy to discover what happened during Black Utah slavery.
November 15, 2024 at 7:52 PM
My book “Slavery in Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History of Black Lives and Black Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847–1862” (@uofupress.bsky.social, 2023) won awards including from WHA and UT History. It examines both history and genealogy to discover what happened during Black Utah slavery.
Kevin Waite’s “West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire” (@uncpress.bsky.social, 2021) showed how US slaveholders looked west to spread slavery to the Pacific coast, and after the Civil War, used the western movement to help undermine Reconstruction.
November 15, 2024 at 7:52 PM
Kevin Waite’s “West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire” (@uncpress.bsky.social, 2021) showed how US slaveholders looked west to spread slavery to the Pacific coast, and after the Civil War, used the western movement to help undermine Reconstruction.
Stacey L. Smith wrote “Freedom's Frontier: California and the Struggle Over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction” (@uncpress.bsky.social, 2013) to demonstrate how, “Despite its antislavery constitution, California was home to a dizzying array of bound and semi-bound labor systems.”
November 15, 2024 at 7:52 PM
Stacey L. Smith wrote “Freedom's Frontier: California and the Struggle Over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction” (@uncpress.bsky.social, 2013) to demonstrate how, “Despite its antislavery constitution, California was home to a dizzying array of bound and semi-bound labor systems.”
Andrés Reséndez won the Bancroft Prize for “The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America” (2016). It’s a well-deserved prize for a much-needed book. Reséndez covers both Native American slavery and Native American enslavement by Europeans, over four centuries.
November 15, 2024 at 7:52 PM
Andrés Reséndez won the Bancroft Prize for “The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America” (2016). It’s a well-deserved prize for a much-needed book. Reséndez covers both Native American slavery and Native American enslavement by Europeans, over four centuries.
Delilah Beasley was a California journalist and historian. She wrote “The Negro Trail Blazers of California” (1919) using interviews, correspondence, and archival research. She preserved legal records that no longer exist. She recorded stories she heard from people taken in slavery to California.
November 15, 2024 at 7:52 PM
Delilah Beasley was a California journalist and historian. She wrote “The Negro Trail Blazers of California” (1919) using interviews, correspondence, and archival research. She preserved legal records that no longer exist. She recorded stories she heard from people taken in slavery to California.
In mentioning the book “This Abominable Slavery” the other day, I said it filled the last major gap in the history of slavery in the US West.
So, what are the other major works? Glad you asked. :) The following are works published in the past twelve years, plus one from 1919.
So, what are the other major works? Glad you asked. :) The following are works published in the past twelve years, plus one from 1919.
November 15, 2024 at 7:52 PM
In mentioning the book “This Abominable Slavery” the other day, I said it filled the last major gap in the history of slavery in the US West.
So, what are the other major works? Glad you asked. :) The following are works published in the past twelve years, plus one from 1919.
So, what are the other major works? Glad you asked. :) The following are works published in the past twelve years, plus one from 1919.
With this new book just out from OUP, historians closed the last major gap in the history of slavery in the Western US. Congratulations to Paul Reeve, Christopher Rich, and LaJean Carruth. This is a monumental work, and a long time coming. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
November 12, 2024 at 11:46 PM
With this new book just out from OUP, historians closed the last major gap in the history of slavery in the Western US. Congratulations to Paul Reeve, Christopher Rich, and LaJean Carruth. This is a monumental work, and a long time coming. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Genealogical writing tip! Genealogists tend to think in terms of families, but sometimes we need to expand our focus and look at *households*. Households may consist of married couples, children, stepchildren, relatives, children in guardianships, enslaved people, hired or indentured servants. 1/2
November 12, 2024 at 4:37 PM
Genealogical writing tip! Genealogists tend to think in terms of families, but sometimes we need to expand our focus and look at *households*. Households may consist of married couples, children, stepchildren, relatives, children in guardianships, enslaved people, hired or indentured servants. 1/2