A look back at 2009. . .

The year of 2009 has been a great year for my personal genealogical research on The Family Griot Blog. This past year my journey into my personal African-American ancestry, history and culture has been truly eye opening. I've been able to tie my family history into various historical events making them much more personal to me.

A few of my most memorable research efforts this year are the following:

1) The McFarland Family of Wilkinson County, Mississippi This is one of my most exciting discoveries because of Milly McFarland's connection to Mexico by her birth. I've been following the work of Bobby Vaughn, the Afro-Mexican historian and researcher, for several years. This was a pleasant surprise for me.

2) Benjamin Thompson This was also a very interesting find because Benjamin Thompson was a soldier in the USCT and also applied for a pension. Those papers were a treasure because they gave a glimpse into the actual lives of my ancestors in their own words.

3) MtDNA Results
Another one of my most memorable moments in research. These results confirmed the oral family history passed down which indicated that my Rounds family ancestors were Guinean. The testing and results were courtesy of Africanancestry.com

4) The Smith Family Tree
With two of my family reunions that took place in 2009, I was able to make contact with other of our family historians. I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a distant cousin, Margaret of Detroit, Michigan who had been researching the Smith family tree since 1982 and has been able to trace it back to 1788. I'm hoping and encouraging cousin Margaret to write a book about her research on the Smith families of Dallas County, AL.

5) Genealogy Road Trip
My final of my memorable genealogy moments of 2009 was my trip to Mississippi in July. I was able to travel between Adams County and Wilkinson County, Mississippi; conduct research at the local courthouses, historical societies, landmarks, churches, and interviewed my older family members.

Those moments round of my most memorable for 2009 in my genealogical research. I will hope to see everyone next year when I will have some new research and information about my family! Until then everyone enjoy Kwanzaa and New Year's with your families and friends.

Family Griot