Who am I and where did I come from? This is a common question for people of all racial backgrounds. Finding the answers can be difficult, particularly for African-Americans, given our nation’s sordid trafficking in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The common slave trading practice of separating families and forbidding African languages has also complicated the work of ancestral research.
Black author Alex Haley’s genealogical search, as depicted in his novel and subsequent television film mini-series “Roots,” inspired thousands of Black people to search their own rich pasts.
More recently, Harvard University professor and noted documentarian Henry Louis Gates Jr. reintroduced the concept of ancestral study to current generations.
His PBS television series “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,” follows famous celebrities like Samuel L. Jackson and Condoleeza Rice as well as everyday people, as their DNA is analyzed to reveal their genetic and historic pedigree.
Last month, Gates was awarded the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for his six-part documentary, “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross.”
In his acceptance speech, Gates spoke on the importance of his work as it relates to recent national tragedies. “Just thinking about the events at Ferguson, Staten Island and the Black Lives Matter campaign, it’s clear to see the great span of Black history has never had more relevance than it does right now,” he said. “Maya Angelou put it best when she said, ‘History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.’”
Locally, a group of Indianapolis history and genealogy buffs have made it their mission to uncover their own histories while helping others to learn more about their family trees. The Indiana African-American Genealogical Group (IAAGG), founded in 1999, seeks to promote the accumulation and preservation of African-American genealogical and historical materials.
Founding member Tonya Hull, who serves as the group’s education and research chair, said the journey to discovering one’s origins could prove to be both informative and transformational. “It really does change you when you know more about your family. It’s really a spiritual journey,” she said. Hull was inspired to begin digging into her family’s history after hearing stories of her elders.
“I just found out I am the 16th great-granddaughter of Pocahontas,” she said. “And my third great-grandfather bought the land he was a slave on in 1866.”
In a twist of fate, Hull’s great-grandfather later employed his former owner. The land, located in Sumner County Tennessee, is still owned by Hull’s family.
Recently, Hull was also honored by Butler University for her in-depth research on a woman believed to be not only the first African-American to graduate from Butler University but one of the nation’s first Black college graduates.
Board member Denise Chisley said she was surprised to learn of her family’s lineage of free people of color. “My great-great grandmother, Catherine Hazeur, she was a mulatto free woman of color from New Orleans and her history went back to France. Her family also lived in Québec for some time where they were wealthy and well-known fur traders,” she said. When they relocated to Louisiana, they purchased several plantations, including one which still lies within one of New Orleans’ most affluent neighborhoods. Chisley’s investigations have also helped her to put a face and name to the once anonymous woman in an old family photograph.
Today, the IAAGG seeks to help others connect those dots through free classes and workshops. The group meets monthly at the Eiteljorg Museum in downtown Indianapolis and membership is free and open to the public.
For more information, visit Iaagg.org.
