MAAGI 2018

This has been a crazy year but with tiny steps I seem to finally, although ever so slowly, be returning to my research.

And to help me get back into the grove and keep pushing forward, this year, I will be attending the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute better known as MAAGI.

I'm looking forward to reconnecting, again, with my on-line genealogy buds that I've know for years and have have meet many in person. And as the old Girl Scout song states, I  also hope to make some new friends.

Most importantly, I'm looking forward to learning and acquiring new skills as I fully return to my research. The ancestors are once again stirring and telling me that I need to get back at it that I need to move beyond this stuck place that I've been at ever since my dad died in 2011.

And as I get back to the research, I also hope to get back to blogging.

February 25th Genealogy Showcase

Hey everyone, I know it's been several months since my last post.

I'm still not totally back to the genealogy but I am trying to at least stay active these days. On February 4th, I attended the the Spring Genealogy Conference, African American Genealogy: Overcoming Roadblocks, at St. Augustine University in Raleigh.

Later in the month, February 25th, the African-American Heritage Ministry at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, put on a Genealogy Showcase. I'm a member of both the church and the ministry. The ministry tries to plan activities throughout the year in order to try to educate the members of our church, especially our youth, about our history and heritage. However, most of our activities are centered around the month of February.

Several of these activities center around genealogy / family history. Last year, one of the other members of the ministry and I conducted a 1 1/2 hour presentation on getting started in genealogy.

This years event was the Genealogy Showcase. We invited the members of the church to participate and share part of their family's history. In addition we invited several of the local genealogy organizations, including AAHGS - AAGIG, Comprehensive Genealogical Services, and the Mecklenburg County Library. Guest speaker, via Skype, was Dr. Gina Paige of African Ancestry DNA.

Due to several events, such as the CIAA tournament, occurring that same weekend, attendance and participation was not what we had hoped for but it was still a nice event.

Here are some of the visual displays.

This first one is from my friend, Beatrice Cox. Mrs. Cox and I are the main two researchers in the ministry. She's the one I did last year's presentation with.

This next display is from our chair person, Cynthia Dumizo. Cynthia, as well as Mrs. Cox, are very active in a local group, Comprehensive Genealogical Services, which is active in finding local abandoned slave cemeteries.

This was the beginning of the display by another of our ministry members, Rosalyn Johnson. Originally, this was all that Rosalyn had planned to bring. She was planning to use a corner of my table but I ended up using my entire table, so Rosalyn ran back home and brought in some other materials. Since I was also doing a lot of running around (even going back home myself), I did not get a picture of Rosalyn's completed table.

The following tables were done by other members of the church and unfortunately, I didn't get their names.

And last but not least, here are the pictures of my table. If I had known we could use more than one table, I would have definitely brought more materials but for this being the first time of doing a visual display, I think it turned out okay. I got several tips from the Conference / Workshop earlier in the month that I employed in creating my displays.

National Black Genealogy Summit, Fort Wayne, IN - Oct. 20-22, 2011

The National Black Genealogy Summit will take place October 20 - 22, 2011 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Fort Wayne is home to one of the nation's most comprehensive collections of genealogy records, and an excellent source of documents pertaining to Black genealogy in particular.


The three-day conference will feature a number of nationally-known genealogy and research experts, and a wide variety of workshops for everyone from beginners to experienced family researchers. The event is sponsored by the Indiana Genealogical Society; the Friends of the Allen County Public Library; and Ancestry.com.

For more information, please visit http://www.blackgenealogyconference.info/

Late Thursday Night Thoughts

Holding Pattern and My First Genealogy Workshop

Right now, it feels like I’m in some type of holding pattern with my research. It’s not like I’ve done nothing to start out the year but when I am waiting on the arrival of requested materials it sure feels like I’m not doing a darn thing. Ahh, I must try to learn an attribute which I’ve never had, patience.

As I await the arrival of microfilms and fiches, death certificates, and DNA results, I’m actually trying to work on some of my New Year’s goals, both in genealogy and in other areas of my life.

One of my genealogy goals for 2010 was to go to one training seminar, because I was feeling like I needed formal training in addition to all the knowledge I’ve acquired from various books. So, I signed up for and have started my first genealogy workshop. The workshop is being giving by Comprehensive Genealogical Services, a non-profit organization, which is based in Charlotte, NC.

I must admit that my first two weeks of the workshop have not faired well. First by the time I found out about the workshop, I had already scheduled another event for the first night of the workshop, so I missed week one. I signed up for the intermediate class and left a note with my PayPal payment that I would not be able to make the first class. The instructor received my payment but somehow didn’t get the note that I wouldn’t be at the first class. For various reasons, the remainder of last week was hectic. Therefore, I didn’t think to call and ask if there was anything I needed to bring to week 2 of the class, so this past Tuesday, the instructor and I just sat and chatted for 2 ½ hours. (Yes, I’m the only one that signed up for the intermediate workshop.)

This upcoming week, week 3, will provide me with an opportunity to work on another one of my genealogical goals, that of reorganizing my older records and organizing my newer material, as the instructor requested that I bring in everything I have. Now, while this is forcing me to organize / reorganize records, something I very much needed to do, I have to be honest and say that maybe I’m much further along as a family researcher than I give myself credit for. (I’m basing this on my conversation with her.) This brings me personal joy but is a bit of a disappointment also as I was hoping for something a bit more advanced, workshopwise. I’m not going to totally write things off, yet as 1. We haven’t had a true workshop session, yet and 2. The workshop has provided me an opportunity to connect with fellow researchers in real life, as well as given me an opportunity to learn about an organization here in Charlotte.


Until Next Time!