Rita Heinegg

2023 Honoree

Ms. RITA HEINEGG of the great state of Pennsylvania.

She was the inspiration for the researching the family histories of nearly eight hundred free and distinct African American families in Virginia and North Carolina during the earliest colonial period of America resulting in the publication of the award-winning series the Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia.

She descends from multiple early colonial ancestry, including her 1600 enslaved Kee family of Virginia and her free Tann (Kecatan) family found in the 1650s colonial records of Charles City County, Virginia.