A Round of Applause to Liz Petry

We are so pleased to share the news that Liz Petry was featured on a recent podcast episode of The Nutmeg discussing her family tree and the documentary film she and her cousins are working on.

Here is more information on the podcast – take a listen!

The Nutmeg: The Podcast of Connecticut History

#80  Novelist Ann Petry and Exploring the Family Tree

With Liz Petry

Our guest, Elisabeth Petry is a journalist. She knows how to uncover a clue, follow a lead, and tell a good story. Her mother was bestselling novelist Ann Petry, whose 1946 debut novel The Street became the first novel by an African American to sell more than a million copies. In this episode, Liz tells us more about her family tree—the James and Lane Families—four generations of strivers and achievers descended from self-emancipated slaves, who settled in New Haven, Hartford, and Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Four hundred family letters survive, many of which contained stories that were fodder for Ann Petry’s novels. Hear more about how Liz and two of her cousins are taking the family’s story to the screen. We join Steve Courtney at the Mark Twain House & Museum as he introduces the lecture from which this podcast was recorded.

We wish to thank our guest Elisabeth Petry and the host for the lecture, the Mark Twain House & Museum. Read more about Liz’s search for her family history in the Fall 2019 issue of Connecticut Explored . For more information on the James Family project and documentary go to https://www.jamesfamilyletters.com/

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE

This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan.

To support the James Family Documentary Project, click HERE