Category: Teaching

For Family History Research Ask What’s in Your Attic

family history research
Faith Broadwater Selters holds an old fire-damaged insurance policy. All sorts of papers can be helpful for family history research.

You never know what treasures you might find tucked away in attics, closets, or other places. Faith Broadwater Seltzer discovered this firsthand when she stumbled upon a relative’s unclaimed insurance policy during a family history research course I teach at Cecil College.

Faith and her classmates were in the computer lab exploring the rapidly growing array of online newspapers. While doing this, I asked class members to give me a few names so that we could practice search strategies.

Faith offered one, and soon, we located a long list of names in a paid legal advertisement in a 1960s Philadelphia newspaper.  It was a listing of unclaimed assets from the Commonwealth Treasurer’s office. With this discovery, she tracked down the asset associated with the policy.

This story highlights the importance of delving into old family papers.  You never know what valuable information might be hiding in long unexamined documents.

The retired nurse also volunteers at the Historical Society of Cecil County.  One of her colleagues was processing these old insurance policies from the Cecil Mutual Fire Insurance Company and the Farmers and Mechanics Fire Insurance Company there. While curating the collection, they discovered fire-damaged policies. While she had no connection with this instrument, someone may have collected on one of the policies, providing another clue for those interested in tracing their family history. 

So don’t forget to explore your attic or closets while checking out online newspapers.  You might uncover something valuable to help you better assemble your family story or assist your wallet. 

Professor Michael Dixon – History With Purpose

From WilmU, the magazine of Wilmington University

Wilmington University Adjunct History Professor Michael Dixon is deeply committed to studying local and regional history. His passion, he says, is ignited when he shares his knowledge with students and the community.

Fortified by graduate degrees in History and Behavioral Sciences, Dixon brings his extensive research and love of history to the classroom. He’s also a visiting scholar for several humanities councils and other organizations.

As my students engage in active learning activities in these practical lessons, it helps them understand how the past connects with the present,”

Professor Michael Dixon

His research focuses mainly on Mid-Atlantic regional and local history. He has worked extensively over three decades to encourage public interest and participation in preserving the area’s past and creating an understanding between earlier eras and the present. His work also focused on African American history, with topics such as the role of African American physicians before the Civil Rights Movement, the struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s, and a current examination of health care before the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s. He also has offered a discussion about the Jim Crow era and the Spanish Influenza of 1918, which swept the country and devastated America’s Black communities.

The article continues on WilmU, the official magazine of Wilmington University.

history professor michael dixon
Michael Dixon, in WilmU, the magazine of Wilmington University (Spring 2023, WilmU Magazine)

Mrs. Grant Was One of the Freedom Riders

BEL AIR, Feb. 9, 2023 — I had the opportunity to attend an award ceremony for Janice East Moorehead Grant, 89, where she received the first Harford County Civil Rights Leadership Award from Harford Community College.

janice east moorehead grant one of the freedom riders
Mrs. Grant (2nd from the left front row) worked with students in one of my U.S. History classes

In the 1950s and 1960s, Mrs. Grant led various efforts to support civil rights in northeastern Maryland. These included protests for fair housing, open schools, and greater economic equality through employment, and she was arrested twice for her activism.

She also led efforts to desegregate Route 40 and joined the 1961 Freedom Riders on the Maryland highway. One of the earliest campaigns of the Freedom Riders focused on the highway in northeastern Maryland and Delaware.

In 1964, she participated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer effort to register voters and set up “Freedom Schools in the State. Later she joined the Peace Corps and served as a teacher in Liberia, where she earned one of her three master’s degrees.

On February 21, WMAR’s Kelly Swoope aired a segment about the civil rights leader’s accomplishments and the honor she received at the College.

Here’s the piece that aired in Baltimore.

Dixon Promoted to Adjunct Assistant Professor

Wilmington University recently acknowledged Mike Dixon’s work as a scholar-practitioner with a promotion to Adjunct Assistant Professor.  Promotion in academic rank takes into consideration the quality of classroom engagement and scholarly contributions to the professor’s discipline.  He teaches history and humanities courses in the University’s College of Arts and Sciences.   

Mike focuses on social history and community studies in his public practice. For over four decades, he has worked to encourage public interest and participation in the preservation of the past while creating understanding between earlier eras and the present. He has appeared on the TodayShow, Maryland Public Television, the BBC, National Geographic Chanel, and National Public Radio shows.

Mike Dixon promoted to assitant professor.
Professor Mike Dixon was promoted to Adjunct Assistant Professor at Wilmington University. Here he is at the old State House in Dover in the summer of 2019