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Biography and speaker sheet
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Contact
- thekitchengenealogist@gmail.com
- Detroit, Michigan
Current role
Executive Director, Public Historian and Professional Genealogist, Storykeepers Heritage Network, LLC (2024–present). Dr. Carter leads historical research, documentary production, genealogy education and heritage consulting through Storykeepers Heritage Network, and teaches researchers to move beyond names and dates by placing ancestors within their families, neighborhoods and communities.
Short biography
Dr. Carolyn Haliburton Carter is a historian, professional genealogist, archivist and public and oral historian based in Detroit. She is Executive Director of Storykeepers Heritage Network, LLC, a Michigan Freedom Trail Commissioner, and Board Chair of the City of Detroit's Historic Designation Advisory Board. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Kansas State University and a Master of Arts in History with a concentration in public and oral history, and taught genealogy at Wayne County Community College District for close to a decade.
Full biography
Dr. Carolyn Haliburton Carter is a historian, professional genealogist, archivist and public and oral historian based in Detroit. Her work joins documentary evidence, archival research, oral history and community memory to recover family histories and to preserve African American heritage.
She is Executive Director of Storykeepers Heritage Network, LLC, where she leads historical research, documentary production, genealogy education and heritage consulting. Her research specializes in reconstructing African American families before and after emancipation, and in the Underground Railroad in Detroit, southeastern Michigan and along the Detroit River.
She serves as a Commissioner on the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission, appointed by the Governor of Michigan, and as Board Chair of the City of Detroit's Historic Designation Advisory Board. She formerly served as a Civil Rights Historian with the National Park Service, documenting the historical and cultural significance of African American burial sites.
Dr. Carter taught Beginning and Advanced Genealogy at Wayne County Community College District from 2012, and led its student genealogy club. She has researched at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the Library of Congress and the National Archives, and in state and county archives across the country.
She holds a Doctor of Education from Kansas State University, a Master of Arts in History with a concentration in public and oral history, a Bachelor of Arts in Instructional Design, and an Associate of Arts from Wayne County Community College District. Her research journey began in 1985, at a kitchen table, interviewing her grandmother and great-grandmother.
“I am the hopes and dreams of my ancestors.”
Speaker sheet
Booking Dr. Carter
Topics
Untangled: Discovering Truths in Family Myths and Stories
What to do when the family account and the record disagree — and why, as she puts it, it is the researcher's job to find the truth in that journey.
African American Genealogy Beyond 1870
Research strategies for the point where many family searches stop: slave schedules, enslavers' probate records, and the friends, associates and neighbors who place a family in a community.
Detroit and the Underground Railroad
The city's role on the last stretch to freedom, and the research behind its historic designations — a lecture, or a narrated bus tour where the format allows.
Recording Your Family's Oral History
How to prepare for an interview with an elder, what to ask, how to record it, and how to look after the recording once you have it.
Beginning Genealogy
The first session: what to gather, how to record it, and which records answer which questions. Drawn from a decade of teaching the subject in the classroom.
Documenting Community History Responsibly
Evidence, citation and care when the history belongs to a congregation, a neighborhood or an institution rather than a single family.
Audiences
- Colleges and universities
- Libraries and archives
- Museums and historical societies
- Schools and educational programs
- Churches and faith communities
- Sororities and civic organizations
- Community organizations
- Family reunions
Formats
Keynote, lecture, panel, hands-on workshop, or a narrated historic bus tour of Detroit’s Underground Railroad where the occasion suits it.
Fees and availability
Not published. Please write with your date, audience and format and Dr. Carter will respond directly.
Credentials
At a glance
Education
- 2020 — Doctor of EducationJohn E. Roueche Community College Leadership Program — Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
- 2017 — Master of Arts, HistoryPublic and Oral History — American Public University System, Charles Town, WV
- 2014 — Bachelor of Arts, Instructional DesignAshford University, San Diego, CA
- 2006 — Associate of ArtsWayne County Community College District, Detroit, MI
Dissertation: Eyewitness to Excellence: A Portraiture Study of one African American Female's Fundraising Strategies in an Urban Community College
Appointments and affiliations
- Board Chair, Historic Designation Advisory Board — City of Detroit (2018–present)
- Commissioner, Michigan Freedom Trail Commission — appointed by Governor Whitmer (2025–present)
- Member, Advisory Committee — 20th Century African American Civil Rights Sites project
- Former Civil Rights Historian — National Park Service, National Capital Region (2024–2025)
- Registered researcher — Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT
- Registered researcher — Library of Congress and National Archives, Washington, DC
- Proud member, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated — Alpha Rho Omega Chapter, and Archives and History Committee Co-Chairman for the Great Lakes Region
- Adjunct Faculty, Anthropology / Genealogy and Research, and student genealogy club faculty lead — Wayne County Community College District (2012–2021)
- Civics and Genealogy Instructor — Cass Technical High School, Detroit (2025–2026)
Memberships
- National Genealogical Society
- Fred Hart Williams Genealogical Society
- Oakland County Genealogical Society
- Haywood County Genealogical Society, Tennessee
- Caswell County Genealogical Society, North Carolina
- Michigan Historical Society
- Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated — Alpha Rho Omega Chapter, Detroit; Archives and History Committee Co-Chairman, Great Lakes Region
Awards
- 2026 — Social Impact Award, Detroit Trinity International Film Festival
- 2019 — Community College Leadership Program Scholarship
- 2019 — American Association of Community Colleges Academic Scholarship
- 2018 — National Genealogical Society Award of Merit
- 2018 — AACC John E. Roueche Future Leaders Institute Scholarship
- 2017 — Dr. Linda D. Woodard Diversity Scholarship
Repositories researched
- Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT
- Library of Congress, Washington, DC
- National Archives, Washington, DC
- Tennessee State Archives
- Ohio State Archives
- State Archives of Michigan, Lansing
- Caswell County Archives, North Carolina
- Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN
- Kentucky genealogical repositories
- Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit