You’ve probably watched Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveal celebrity family histories on PBS’s “Finding Your Roots,” and thought it’d be great to know your full family tree. This coming Saturday, you’ll have an opportunity to learn the process through a free workshop at the Black Archives of Mid-America.
The genealogy workshop—set for Sat. March 8, from 1 to 5:30 p.m.—offers specialized tools and expertise to help African Americans discover their ancestral connections. The event is free but requires pre-registration at bit.ly/BlackArchivesRoots.
“I think genealogy is important because you’re learning about yourself, about your family,” says Laura Darnell, lead archivist with the Black Archives. “It’s also a stepping stone into learning more about history in general.”
The event brings together three key organizations: the Black Archives, the Midwest Genealogy Center, and the Midwest Afro-American Genealogical Interest Coalition (M.A.G.I.C.).
Breaking Through Research Barriers
The workshop offers two specialized sessions designed for both beginners and experienced researchers.
Shari Golden from the Midwest Genealogy Center will lead the first session on Ancestry.com basics.
“The introduction to ancestry will show how to navigate the site, all the different things you can look for, and the ways to look for what you’re hoping to find,” says Darnell.
Preston Washington, president of M.A.G.I.C., will guide the second session on using newspaper archives for research.
“The second session will focus on newspapers and how you can use them to search for births, deaths, marriages, and other announcements that might relate to your ancestors,” says Darnell.
Both sessions include a lecture component and hands-on computer research practice with expert guidance. Jason Williams with the Black Archives says previous genealogy classes helped Black folks trace their family line all the way back to slavery rolls.
“From there it can get a little more tricky,” says Williams. “But we can usually help people trace back to the time of slavery.”
Resources Beyond the Workshop
The Black Archives provides free access to premium genealogy databases year-round, including Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, and Family Search.
The archives also house unique local records that are unavailable elsewhere, including courthouse transcriptions from the late 1800s from over a dozen Missouri counties.
“We have transcriptions directly from the courthouse containing deeds, birth records, death records, marriage records, all kinds of different things,” Darnell said. “We also have all the burial records for Highland Cemetery.”
Additional resources include yearbooks from Missouri and Kansas schools and access to Library of Congress databases.
The workshop represents the Black Archives’ ongoing effort to make genealogical research free and accessible to the community. For more information about the workshop or the Black Archives’ genealogy resources, visit blackarchives.org. To register for the free event sign up at bit.ly/BlackArchivesRoots.
Will the “Trace Your Roots” workshop be recorded? I would like to access it at a later time.