UGRR Quilt Code

Research Methods

For Over 40 years we traveled touring Underground Railroad Stations

& Related Sites

Attended Conferences & Workshops

held by the National Parks Service

before the

UGRR Network to Freedom

program was began

Participated in escavations of an

UGRR Statation in

Traveled with my parents & my children

from Sullivan Island South Carolina

I went on a research & ASA World 2015

Medical mission Trip to Nigeria & Ghana Africa
to check the accuracy of our family's

UGRR Quilt Code
& my book

"Keeper of the Fire:

An Igbo Metalsmith From Awka."

Below Nana Efua Adadzewa 1st

Teresa R. Kemp

In Ghana Africa at the

 Museum at the palace of the

Osei Tutu II, King of Ashanti
Asantehene ma Asanteman

in Kumasi Ghana 

 Below,

Talking with Ghana's Elders & historians to check the symbols and the translations. 

Tour Guide Paul Amuah met me in Accra Ghana and traveled with me for a month.

to villages around Kumasi, Mankessim

I attended schools celebrations, weddings,

funerals, festivals, hospitals, church services,

met dignitaries, visited archives, markets,

weavers, craftsmen, farms, prisons, welders,

conferences, historic slave sites, community centers

to determine.....

THEY ARE ACCURATE!

Went on Radio Blogs where I could talk to

listeners around the world.

The listeners asked questions and wanted to 

Hear about the primary sources we used to
document our African family's history
that resulted in the 5 generation work:

"Keeper of the Fire: An Igbo Metalsmith From Awka"

I showed the quilt patterns used as maps & messages with music and more to assist in formerly enslaved African & African American Freedom Seekers.

********

 You can hear these broadcast today

Thanks for the Listening on
High Frequency Radio &

Get the Book Keeper of the Fire!

It is 480 pages of photos, documents and

primary sources for the UGRR Secret Quilt Code.

Click on book to buy a copy at a Discount!

Color  Version $73.62

Black & White Version $26.96

It discusses International & American slavery,

American Revolutionary & Civil war mpact on slavery,

International Abolitionist,

Anti-slavery Abolitionist, Churches & Organizations

I have often heard that the UGRR Quilt Code is based only on the interviews of my late great Aunt Ozella McDaniel Williams.

Here is what our family's legacy is based on:

Over 1,000 years of documentation  and oral history,

Over 1,200  Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia,

South Carolina State Documents

Plantation Wills - 2 that name Peter & Eliza, 

Wills that name slaves given to family members

Plantation inventories, that name people enslaved

 3 Slave valuements naming Eliza & Peter

Estate documents, platts and maps.

Plantation cemetary records & photos 

U.S. Federal and State Census documents

State Birth & Christening documents,

Military Service & Pension , State Death, State Hospital

Oganizational records

State and Church Marriage records,

Church Histories, Records,  Programs & Leaflets, Photos

Dated Newspaper articles and photos

School Records

State & College Farm and Agricultural Reports

Handwritten family testimony by
William Jefferson in photo below

His Family Bible Records              

State, National & International

Archives records & Museum records  

Organizational records

Y-DNA & MTDNA testing 

30,000+ artifacts in our personal collections

 3 ancestral houses on the National Register of Historic Places

UGRR Quilt Code Museum patrons -    850,000 indiviuals & families that wrote entries in our guest books

Family geneology documented by Churchof the Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City Utah as a gift,

Cincinnati, OH Freedom Center Archives, WV, SC, GA, OH &  Nation Archives, Libraries, Geneology Centers, LDS Family Research Center staff, On-line sources and more

2 U. S. Copyrights

10,000's of Photos,

Over 150 Igbo customs still in our American family,

Documented faith of African Tribes by British Missionaries,

Use of paid & volunteer researchers

5 African research trips & 1 to Israel by my mother

Family Research Trips from SC to Canada

Journals, Audio & Video Taped Interviews

   Living in Europe 15 years, we toured homes,

museums, libraries, churches and historical sites.

When the book "Hidden in Plain View"
aired on morning talk shows... the attacks began

My younger children (when ages 10, 11, 15)

asked me....

"Did they think our family
didn't quilt in Africa?"

or

"Do they really believe there weren't
many Igbo people
kidnapped, sold to America?"

or

"Do they believe the African people came
without their own languages or skills?"

"Why are people so angry about the
UGRR Secret Quilt Code?"

I told them, "It was a lack of a broad education."

American Education omitts 

worldwide achievements in order to
instill a sense of national pride."

"They obviously only learned American history and at the time it lacked most of the accomplishments of 

other cultures riches & skills."

 -- Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp

 "Until the lioness tells her story the tale
of the hunt goes to the lion & the hunter"

 Serena on her final African research trip

Serena Wilson made five (5) research trips to
Africa and one to Israel.

In Ghana, West Africa At Elmina slave fortress

and with African teachers discussing
textile languages shown below

We traveled throughout the United States.

Accompanied by family and friends.

Her family also traveled throughout Europe.

 Family Trip to UGRR Stations and Cities

Then in a Atlanta, GA community public school, 

my youngest son was being taught in 3rd grade,
he was the descendant of African slaves and
should not have high life expectation!

He had the "3 strikes" - Black, male and poor! 

I was out raged and so was my family.

When we asked for a meeting
with the school
administrator & the teacher .....
She said it was a technique
she used to motivate her students!

Finally in 2012 we did our DNA

With the unexpected controversay that 

surrounded the book
"Hidden In Plain View " by the authors
Jacquelin Tobin & Raymond Dobard
my family was facing a challenge that no
other family has experience.

In another situation:

I was openly communicating with people 

on-line and by phone to personally answer
questions about our family.

Thoes correspondance were being twisted
and published without
our knowledge or consent.
My parents had cancer diagnosis
and were publicly and cyberly being attacked
(a medium they didn't understand in 1990's)
we stopped!

My great aunt's Social Secutity information was
actually published on-line by hartcottagequilts.com!

We decided to just own and continue
telling our family story.

We have heard stories of people who do
" UGRR Quilt Code Exhibits"
that are used to vent their racial biases

Our family is multi-racial & we embrace them all.

Pictured above Cousin Lynn Booram Edgefield, SC Historian & Serena in one of the family homes

Here you will find inspiration on how our family overcame

slavery, separation, segragation,
natural disasters, depression, wars & more to still be landowners,
educated, contributing members of society always
concerned with the well being & prosperity of all!

All slavery situations were not equal.
In the case of our family,
there were several types
"up country" South Carolina
plantation owner, my maternal

great great grandfather was
a slave on a "Lowcountry" coastal GA plantation.

Below Nora Farrow McDaniel 

Ozella McDaniel Williams Mother



Her husband William McDaniel was on the Breckman plantation 
which is now the Master's Golf Course in Augusta, GA.

Below is a link to help you get to know the European 

side of my Strother Family.

Documented in Europe before 200 AD

in America starting in 1650's.

Get to know our family visit Milton Strother's
Teresa's grandfather) ancestry on the
William Strother's family page.

I have put the ancestry on-line in the
Free FamilySearch.org back to 1240 AD!

Click on Crest above
Then select the "Did You Know" Page
on the see how we are related to
American President's including Jimmy Carter.

Below is my grandfather Milton &
(his frist) wife Martha Pixley Strother
they had 11 children. 9 were born in
the late 1800's some passed for White.

Martha Pixley's older sister's children
were all "sold away" by her slave master.
When slavery was over she
never found them again!
Family is very important to us!

We have known our family
history, been quilters for eight generations
and historians even longer.

My family history is extensively documented &
the records are now easier to find.

My old Research page had more
abolitionist and UGRR sites.
This one will have the information in updated formats.

Thank you for visiting our site!      ____________________________________________________________

Follow us on Social Media:

IG: 1keeperofthefire

FB: Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp

LI: Teresa R.Kemp

Youtube: Teresa R. Kemp

                      ____________________________________________________________
For technical issues with this
website contact trkemp@plantationquilts.com

-All information, the UGRR Quilt Codes, photos herein contained are
Copyright © 1999 -2021 USA &
may not be reproduced without the prior
knowledge and written consent of Teresa R. Kemp (404) 494-5465.