African American Genealogy

On March 19th Restore My Name – Slave Records and Genealogy Research, will kick-off the first of an ongoing series of African-American themed carnivals, intended to be a gathering place for the community to share and learn about African-American genealogy. Read more at Our Georgia Roots

One day late in the summer of 1956, when I was an undergraduate, I walked a few blocks to my grandmother's house and sat my father's mother down at her round wooden table. I was born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., and her house at 106 Walnut St. had been a family home for generations. I asked Grandma to tell me about our family.

As she spoke, I took notes and began a detailed chart on a large sheet of paper. Names, places, relationships, personalities -- I wrote it all down and marveled.

Grandma personally knew ancestors of ours whose lives reached back before 1850. She recalled that there was a white relative way back then -- a woman who had lived in this house and spoke a language my grandmother did not understand. As she imitated the sound of the language, German, my grandmother told me about my great-great-grandmother, Katherine Gehring. Read More

When Michael Saahir and Anne McWilliams crossed paths over coffee between Sunday services at her Northside church, they easily could have passed from each other's lives without another thought.

But Saahir noticed her nametag and made a comment that there were McWilliamses in his family.

The overture could seem odd, given that Saahir is black and McWilliams is white. And even stranger, Saahir is Muslim -- a kufi-wearing imam, in fact -- and at the time, McWilliams was an administrator at a Christian seminary.

Yet McWilliams couldn't help but come back to Saahir, who was the guest speaker at her First Congregational Church of Christ, and pick up the thread connecting them. It didn't take long for them to realize they were connected by more than a thread. Read More

For many African-Americans, family history can be difficult -- in some cases nearly impossible -- to trace.

Now, new technology allows people of African descent to trace their ancestry by analyzing their DNA.

Our own Judi Gatson was curious about her own history beyond her immediate family.

Judi's parents were married in 1964. She says she spent plenty of time with both sets of grandparents. On her mother's side, there was Emily and Jim from Daphne, Alabama. On her dad's side, there was Dorothy and Charles lived in St. Louis, Missouri.

Through family research, we've discovered some surprising South Carolina connections. Read More

In recognition of Black History Month, today Nationwide Insurance is providing African American families with a unique online experience that helps them connect with their ancestry, celebrate their past and work together to honor the present, while at the same time support the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

It's all part of Nationwide's ongoing effort to reach African American consumers. This particular campaign created by McKinney, Nationwide's advertising agency of record, includes the Family Heritage Tree website (http://www.nationwide.com/familytree) where visitors can create their family tree.

In Snellville, Ga., a city about 25 miles east of Atlanta racial strives are being made by a prominent family mending their historic roots. White and Black Livseys becomes One Family...

Its our purpose to promote the heritage of Gwinnett County, Georgia. We feel its our duty to educate its citizens, students,and visitors of the influences and effects of the Civil War.

While history books illustrate grand battlefields, like Gettysburg, Vicksburg or even Chicamauga, where fathers and brothers fought to the death against each other. The bloody and the dead were left to rot where they laid.

For better or worse, today's history is left for the living. We must question our past in order to determine our own future...

This is the story of the racial divide and a reunion 187 years ago, of a proud American family that settled in Gwinnett County, Georgia in 1840.

Read More