My Ancestor's Name: National Black Genealogy Summit Opens With a Bang

Argyrie McCrae (Maryland) Lisa Lee (California) Charles Brown (Missouri)

The first official day of the National Black Genealogy Summit went extremely well. This was the opportunity for many researchers from from all corners of the country to meet and share ideas, thoughts and have questions answered.

One of those opportunities was especially poignant when a beginning researchers received some assistance from another researcher and she found some information on her family online.

Ms. Bertha Curtis examined her notes after being shown some information on her family online.

It was exciting to see so many groups that had arrived. Several groups were present also--St. Louis African American Genealogy Society arrived on a charted bus, as did a group from Chicago and Baltimore. Many from the local area were also in attendance. Friday was an opportunity for many to also meet several authors from and have books autographed as well.

Tony Burroughs (Illinois) and Bernice Bennett (Maryland)

Although I had two presentations yesterday myself, I was glad to be able to attend some sessions myself. I particularly enjoyed the session by Lisa Lee on Search and Reward Notices. This session illustrated the need to use newspapers in a different way, and how exploring data in Search and Reward Notices one can see how often times multiple generations are reflected in many of the ads found in black newspapers around the country.

Also present was noted author and scholar Dr. Carla Peterson, author of Black Gotham, a book describing life of free people of color in New York City.

Author Dr. Carla Peterson

The exhibitors were present and among them were those representing the AfriGeneas.com website. Several people took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the website and the many features to be found on the site.

Vicki Daviss Mitchell explains the AfriGeneas website to an inquiring visitor.

The conference banquet speaker was Robin Stone of Essence Magazine. She shared the story of how the genealogy-focused article published in the February 2011 came to be published.