Tracing Your Ancestors

Are you ready to begin a journey?

A journey that will perhaps influence, if not change some aspect of your life.

A journey that will surely:

Help you discover your family's roots.
Enhance your knowledge of American history.
Enlighten the present by connecting you to the past
Foster within you an appreciation of slave and free people of color suffering and endurance.

Tracing your ancestors is such a journey. Utilizing actual cases this series will hopefully provide a roadmap.
Even if you have already begun the search for your ancestors, perhaps you will find useful tips in this series of articles.

Let Us Begin!

Step 1

Decide whether you want to trace your maternal (mother's side) lineage or paternal(father's side) lineage.
Contact your oldest, living relative who is willing and able to talk with you. Life is like a vapor- so easily gone. Therefore, I admonish you to start your search with elderly relatives if possible.Once the opportunity to obtain valuable information from an elderly relative slips away, it can never be regained.
Use courtesy and your own discretion when talking to your older relative(s). Use whatever device you have available to record notes from your conversation.
Let your relative speak freely, but you might want to consider asking the following:
1. When and where were you born?
2. Where did you grow up?
3. What type work did you do?
4. What was one of the most memorable events in your life?
5. What were the names of your parents? grandparents?
6. What type of work did your parents do?
7. What were the names of your parent's siblings?
8. Do you have any old obituaries that I can copy? This is where a phone with a camera/scanner app or digital camera comes in handy.

Case Study

Let us consider the case of M. Walker, a fifty year old black male who resides in central Georgia. He wanted to trace his mother's side of the family. Although his mother and grandmother were now deceased he remembered the following from previous conversations with them:

His grandmother Mattie Stuckey was born around 1909.
She lived in Wilkinson County, Georgia in a community called Chapman Place.
She lived and worked on a farm.
She had siblings called Robert C, Pearl, and Harm.
She was kin to the Creek Indians.

He further stated that his grandmother died in 1989 and was buried in Mt. Cilla Church cemetery, Wilkinson County. He could not locate his copy of her obituary. He believed she owned the farm on which she worked. He was not sure about her marital status.