An African Diaspora Genealogy Conversation with Marvin Elliott Ellis & Patricia Jennings Braynon

“An African Diaspora Genealogy Conversation With Marvin Elliott Ellis and Patricia Jennings Braynon” will focus on the journeys of Ellis and Braynon in tracing their ancestral roots and discovering and identifying their African-American, Bahamian, Jamaican, Crucian and Bajan ancestors and collateral relatives. Ellis, a retired Miami-Dade County Public Schools educator and Braynon, a retired Miami-Dade County Government administrator, both have more than 30 years of genealogy research experience in researching their ancestral lineages and family histories. They will share their amazing stories of their passionate pursuit discovering and identifying their African descended ancestors who have a documented presence in the United States and the Antilles for more than 250 years. Their presentation will be followed by a Q & A.

About the Conversants:

Patricia Jennings Braynon

Mrs. Braynon served as the Director of the Housing Finance Authority of Miami-Dade County from 1990 through 2014. As the Director, she was responsible for the administration of the County’s $2 billion bond financed housing programs, generating affordable housing opportunities for thousands of Miami Dade county residents. Mrs. Braynon also created and served as the President of the Miami-Dade Affordable Housing Foundation, which furthered the goals and mission of the Authority.

She began her career with Miami-Dade County as a Loan Officer for the County’s inaugural Documentary Surtax Homeownership program. During Mrs. Braynon’s thirty-year career with Miami-Dade County government, she also served as one of six Assistant County Managers with oversight of numerous and varied departments.

Mrs. Braynon and her husband Oscar J. Braynon, are members of two of Miami’s pioneer African-American families. In retirement Mrs. Braynon has remained involved in numerous local organizations, which address civic and social issues. Mrs. Braynon is the current Chairperson of the Black Archives and Historic Lyric Theater in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. Retirement has afforded her a greater opportunity to further explore family history through genealogical research. She is a graduate of Tuskegee University and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration.

Marvin Elliott Ellis

Elementary/Secondary Education: Bethune Elementary School; Brownsville Junior High School; Miami Jackson Senior High School.

Post Secondary/University Education: Associate of Arts Degree-Miami-Dade Junior College; Bachelor of Arts Degree in French  and Spanish Education-Xavier University of Louisiana.

Professional Career: Began professional education career with the Miami-Dade County Public School System in 1975 as a permanent substitute teacher at Brownsville Middle School. In 1977 became a permanent teacher of French, Spanish and Bilingual Education at Miami Edison Middle School where he was also Foreign Language and Bilingual Education Department chairman. At Edison Middle School, he was known for his multi-cultural bulletin board displays in observance of Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Haitian Heritage Month and Women History Month. In 2009, he began the final phase of his professional education career at Horace Mann Middle School where he had been a faculty member in the Language Arts and Reading Department. He commenced his retirement in May 2016.

Community Involvement: The Marvin Elliott Ellis Collection of Personal Papers and Photographs are archived at The Amistad Research Center on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana; The Xavier University of Louisiana Archives in New Orleans, Louisiana; and The Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida in Miami, Florida. Mr. Ellis has been a recipient of The Haitian-American Scholarship Fund Vayola Hercules Community Service Award. He was featured in the 2008-2009 Miami-Dade County African-American History Calendar. He was a recipient of The Historic Hampton House Community Trust’s 2017 Achievers Award.  Of paternal African-American (Wilkes County/Taliaferro County, Georgia), and maternal Danish West Indies/United States Virgin Islands (Sainte-Croix) and Barbados Antillean Creole ancestral heritage, in 2014 Mr. Ellis founded and chaired the panel discussion In Search Of Our Roots: African Diaspora Genealogy of African-American and Antillean Creole People which is a major component of Miami Book Fair International. He is chairman of The Episcopal Church of The Incarnation’s October Family History Month Activities. Researching his own family genealogy and history, he has traced his paternal ancestry back to 1790 Wilkes County, Georgia and his maternal ancestry back to 1799 St. Croix, Danish Virgin Islands and 1600s (17th century) England via Barbados..