About the Author
Peter W. Byrd was raised in Jersey City with his four siblings and his parents who were educators. After attending Fisk University, he worked for airlines and traveled extensively. He is the father of two sons. His family ties have always been strong and important to him until health conditions changed his perspective on his own mortality. The prospect of not surviving to see his sons reach adulthood, he began compiling family stories and developed a narrative detailing the family's history. A project that spanned two decades, The Son of Seven Daughters provides what has become a larger story with a a story that will provide answers for them and their future generations for years to come. Mr. Byrd is currently a consumer advocate and a peer educator for individuals living with multiple chronic illnesses.
Volume two of The Son of Seven Daughters - A 350-Year Family Album completes the two-book set of the history of an African American family's journey from the Colonial Provinces to today in the United States. From 1653 in the English Province of Maryland, to 1815 when 39 families migrated to Ohio and then from 1860 to 1870 when families moved to Northern Michigan, Missouri and Oklahoma our narrative has been America's narrative. The unique story, told in a daily reader format is simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary as told by the son of a seven-generation maternal line.It is your story, too!!
The Son of Seven Daughters: A 350-Year Family Album (Volume 1)
The 'Seven Daughters' represent the daughter - to-daughter maternal line that begins in 1766 with my 5th great grandmother, Henrietta Perrill Caliman. From Henrietta to my mother, Joyce Hilton Bransford Byrd, is a seven generation journey of colonial America for families of color; enslaved and free! Each daughter's life frames another generation and another period in the building of America. Births, marriages, letters, photographs, wars, epidemics, and pioneer migrations mirror the history of our families against the backdrop of our nation's growth. They were teachers, soldiers, farmers, activists and visionaries whose lives span 350-years of love, sacrifice, perseverance and comittment to generations to come. Its the amazing collection of personal stories that is uniquely American that depict one son's journey of discovery and hope.
The Son of Seven Daughters - A 350-Year Family Album, Vol. 3: The Photographs
Volumes 1 and 2 of The Son of Seven Daughters have depict, in detail, the scope and richness of a an American family's history in North America that exceeds 365-years. The struggles and achievements that represent a uniquely American experience are told in the voices of our ancestors and mirrored against the expansion of what is now the United States pf America. Volume 3 culminates with a sweeping photographic tale, told in the faces of our fathers, mothers, cousins and extended families. The dreams and hopes of a nation within itself bring hope to all families who sacrifice, build and dream of future generations who stand tall on the established foundation that our family legacy provides. With these three volumes, I extend my hope to the children and the childrens' children who I may never know, to stand tall with our heritage and all families, now and always.
