Tracing our Family History and African Ancestry

President and First Lady Obama’s recent trip to Ghana magnified our collective African ancestry. Visiting the Door of No Return, President Obama remarked on the stirring emotion created in the stark contrasts of then and now. Shortly thereafter, the revolting news of grave robbers raiding Chicago’s historic Burr Oak Cemetery and the initial belief of a  connection to Michelle Robinson Obama’s family reinforced the importance of family history.

From there emerged the discussion on tracing our roots: family history and African ancestry. Unfortunately, for most of us, our African ancestry remains a mystery. Unless you are the more studious among us and come from a family that traced its roots, our pre-abolition ancestry is a blur.

My own family’s research goes back as far as the mid-1800′s, beginning in Mississippi. Our family history during slavery remains the great unknown, even after rigorous review of county census records and birth and death certificates. We are aware of the landowners and lands in which my family were sharecroppers. But the trail stops there.

Fortunately for me, I still have my grandparents. My grandfather was one of the youngest of his siblings, several of which are still living. When I slow down enough from my hectic life (in my own mind), I enjoy reading the historical documents my mother and uncle have compiled and pressing my grandfather about how life was in the South. His memories, as well as his sibling’s, are often vague and anecdotal as a result of time or experiences I could never understand. This is the history that is most important to me, something I can feel…touch…and hear through story-telling. My job is to slow down long enough to listen before they’re gone.

Will our family ever get around to learning more about our pre-abolition African ancestry? Perhaps, but not at the expense of appreciating our family and history with us now.

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