Where Does Your Story Begin?

Join NMB to explore, honour, and preserve your family history with Tracing Our Roots/Routes. Online presentations, workshops, resources, and an on-site contemporary art exhibit help us better understand and connect with our collective past.

Local and international expert panelists will provide you with the tools and strategies to research and document your personal story.

FastCompanyAwardNMB
Tracing Our Roots/Routes is a finalist in the Education Category of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards

This category honours companies or initiatives that help inspire better and more equitable learning.

Read More On Our Blog

Start Your Journey

IMG_003570-web

Step 1:

The Journey of Family Discovery I: Tips, Tools & Strategies

Presenter: Kenyatta Berry, Genealogy Expert

Begin your journey with resources from a leading international expert. An interactive Family Discovery Toolkit is available to download for free to help you get started.

Family Discovery Tools, Pt. I
Family Circle

Step 2:

The Journey of Family Discovery II: Understanding Local Resources

Panelists: Jane Downing (NMB), Ellen Hollis (Bermuda National Library), Mandellas Lightbourne (Bermuda Archives)

Learn about the available resources from local experts to help you to discover your family’s history. Our free Family Discovery Toolkit is available to download to help you research your family history.

Family Discovery Tools, Pt. II Search Genealogy Database
IMG_003571-web

Step 3:

Personal Journeys and Personal Objects: The Development of NMAAHC’s Collection

Presenter: Joanne Hyppolite (Museum Curator), Hollis Gentry (Genealogy Specialist, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives), Kamilah Stinnett & Doretha Williams (Center for the Digitization and Preservation of African American History, NMAAHC)

Explore how curators, museum specialists, and genealogists at The Smithsonian use multiple strategies to research collections for exhibitions and community archives.

Family Circle2

Step 4:

Crafting a Personal Story

Presenter: Dr. Janet Ferguson, NMB Trustee & education specialist

Join Dr. Janet Ferguson to discover how personal stories and memories are anchored in everyday personal objects and learn how to create a polished, written piece documenting those memories. Using StoryCenter’s “Material Memory” storytelling approach, Dr. Ferguson will explore the associations we make with a cherished family photograph or object and how exploring those associations can reveal memory, sustain relationships, and provide new ideas and growth.

Crafting a Personal Story Toolkit
background

Step 5:

Bermuda’s Family Scrapbook: A National Crowdsourcing Project

Online Submission

We invite you to share your personal story and photographs. Help us connect with the past and each other. This project will be displayed online and on the walls of the Museum.

Submit Your Story
TracesnPastimes

Past Exhibit:
Traces and Pastimes

A Solo Exhibit by Gherdai Hassell

On display in Commissioner’s House from June 2022 to September 2023, Hassell’s installation explored ancestry, cultural identity, memory, and time through large-scale digital collages and biodegradable flagging tape sculptures. Her work focused on her own discovery of her family history which she can trace back to West Africa. 

Learn more about the exhibit
Exhibits:

Past Exhibit:

Homestead

Through a collection of large format portraits of multi-generational families at their homesteads, local artist Meredith Andrews captures the fortitude of family life in Bermuda. Her vibrant family photographic portraits are an artistic response to NMB’s Bermuda Family Scrapbook project.

Accompanying the stunning portraits is an audio component where visitors can listen to some of the photographed family members reflect on what home means to them and their favourite memory of the homestead.

Learn More About the Exhibit
Featured Exhibit

FAMILY (Fam, I Love You)

Don’t miss Jayde Gibbons’ solo exhibit, FAMILY (Fam, I Love You) on display in Commissioner’s House.

Through a collection of photographs, artist Jayde Gibbons explores the enduring power of family bonds in the face of profound sorrow and bereavement. She chronicles poignant moments from five local funerals and celebrations of life. This exhibit is her artistic response to NMB’s community project Bermuda Family Scrapbook.

Learn More

Pre-Purchase Admission Tickets

Browse Exhibits

Experience the stories of Bermuda’s past—all housed in the island’s largest fort.

Learn More

Explore Our Grounds

Learn more about NMB’s beautiful and unique spaces and venue hire options.

Learn More

Book a Group Visit

Access visitor resources and venture to NMB with your group or school

Learn More
Close