PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — As Faruq Adger sits at the dining room table with his father, they look at photos that span not just generations, but more than a century.
“Pictures are very valuable in our family,” said the 22-year-old while holding several photos.
Photos help the Adger family tell their story, which has deep roots in Philadelphia.
“We just had this rich family history,” said Khaleel Adger, Faruq’s father.
There’s one photo, passed down in the family, that lives in both the past and the present.
“You can almost feel a presence in a way. It could be a tingle on the back of your neck, could be a smile,” said Faruq of the ancestor pictured in the photo.
He felt that presence as he prepared to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania because more than a century ago, his ancestor, William Adger, was in the same place.
“He’s my fifth great-uncle,” Faruq Adger said of the man pictured in the photo.
In that family picture, William Adger is dressed dashingly in a suit with a thick moustache and his hair parted to the side. When he took the photo in the late 1800s, he may not have realized he’d seal a place in history.
A graduate of the class of 1883, William Adger was the first African American to ever graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. One hundred 42 years later, his great, great, great, great, great nephew is doing the same thing.
Read more about Faruq and William Adger on the ABC News website.
Read about Faruq’s experience at Penn on the College of Arts and Sciences website.