by Lamar Tyler
As Ronnie mentioned we’re in Salt Lake City covering the RootsTech conference for BMWK. The connection between finding your roots and ancestry as an African American male in the middle of Salt Lake City, Utah is not something I would have imagined in any shape or form. Contrary to my initial thoughts that is exactly what happened.
I’ve always had an interest in my family history but what I didn’t have was the patience or time to do research. When tracking family came to mind, I just envisioned spending hours, days, weeks in the basement of the National Archives building pouring over microfilm looking for needles in a haystack. What I’ve found since being at the RootsTech conference is that advancements in technology over the past few years has made this task easier than ever.
During a break in between sessions I sat down at one of the many banks of computers to “fool around” with a family search on my own. Within the first 30 minutes I found something that I still find hard to believe. What I discovered was that my Grandfather’s name might have actually been his middle name. At least that’s what it looks like according to the 1930 census when he was 5 years old. I immediately called my Grandmother to ask her if she was aware of this and she had never known him by any other name so the first great mystery was unraveled.
Over a few more hours that same evening I was able to trace back multiple lines from my Grandparents back to descendants that were born around the 1830’s all using free services via FamilySearch.org. The significance of this is that this was the last generation born into slavery. To sit there and read names of those who came before you, of those who paved the way is a powerful thing.
In the African American community many times we lack our true history, knowing who we truly are for multiple reasons and I truly believe that this impedes our ability to reach our full potential moving forward. Researching your family history is an excellent way to gain that history back. I will warn you that it won’t always be as easy as it was for me. You most likely will hit a wall at slavery and that is when the real search begins through slave records, land deeds etc… “if” the state you’re searching in even kept good records.
Over the next few months we’ve decided to make family history a priority here on Blackandmarriedwithkids.com. We’ll be rolling out campaigns and efforts to get all of you involved in researching your history and we’ll do it as a group so that we each have a built-in support mechanism. We’ll report back here with our findings in hopes of encouraging even more to dig up the past in hopes of paving the way for better futures.
Stay tuned for more on this initiative and what I know will be exciting times ahead.