Finding Female Ancestors When Few Clues Exist with Viola Baskerville

Research at the National Archives and Beyond

Telling Her Story: Finding Female Ancestors When Few Clues Exist” Viola Osborne Baskerville is a Richmond native who has been tracing several lines of her own family history for over thirty years. Brief sketches about three family matriarchs led her on a hunt to find out more about them. Ms. Baskerville is a member of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), Greater Richmond VA Chapter as well as a member of ASALH, Richmond Chapter. She received her B.A. from the College of William and Mary and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa, College of Law. As a public servant, she advocated for the preservation of Virginia’s African American history through placing statues and historical markers, most notably a monument to Arthur Ashe in Richmond and a plaque naming and honoring Virginia’s Black Reconstruction Era state lawmakers at the Capitol. In addition, Ms. Baskerville secured state funded scholarships for former students locked out of Virginia’s schools when the state closed public schools rather than integrate them. Currently, she serves as a Virginia Outdoors Foundation trustee. The foundation is focused on creating equity and justice in selecting its land use preservation projects. One project the Foundation has supported is the restoration of Evergreen Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, a historic African American Cemetery. Ms. Baskerville is currently featured as one of the contemporary Agents of Change, in the Virginia Museum of History and Culture’s exhibition, Agents of Change: Female Activism in Virginia from Women’s Suffrage to Today on exhibit through November 1.