After viewing Dr. Gates African American Lives and African American Lives 2, I would like to share my story of an African American Family from the North.

In December of 1863 my Great Great Grandfather, William Henry Halstead, who lived in Tarrytown, New York, traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to join the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry. On his Volunteer Enlistment papers it notes his occupation as a farmer. He enlisted for three years and was discharged on the 24th day of October 1865. He married and had five children. William Henry Halstead passed away in 1888 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cementary in Tarrytown, New York. His wife moved to New York City with her five children. Her children grew up in Harlem and belonged to different organizations. Some of the organizations were Odd Fellows, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Daughters of New York.

I will end my story here since this is just a brief synopsis of a family from upstate New York and their migration to Harlem.