DISCOVER YOUR ROOTS GENEALOGY CONFERENCE

Classes:
‘Locating Free African American Ancestors: Pre-1865’
‘Writing Your Autobiography: For Future Generations’

Aaron L. Day is a retired Accountant, Genealogist/Family Historian, Author, TV Host, and Community Activist. He has conducted numerous genealogy classes throughout the United States. He is a past Vice-President of The Questing Heirs Genealogical Society of Long Beach, and The African American Heritage Society of Long Beach.’

Day is also an active member of The NAACP - Long Beach Branch, The 100 Black Men of Long Beach, Inc., The Mombasa/Long Beach Sister Cities, and The Friends of the Long Beach Public Library. He has been a volunteer for the Long Beach Public Library for over twenty-five years. In 1999, Day became the first African American to receive the ‘Mary Dell Butler Volunteer of the Year Award,’ from the City of Long Beach.

As a long-time Family Historian, Day has been actively researching his maternal and paternal ancestry for over thirty years. Day’s paternal ancestors trace back to his eight great-grandparents – 1671 in Virginia. DNA tests have revealed that his maternal ancestors trace to Nigeria, and his paternal ancestors trace to Liberia. Day’s Genealogy Research has resulted in four Award-Winning Articles. Some of these deal with genealogy and family history research. He has also written seven books - which deal with ‘Genealogy, and African American History.’ His book entitled “The Heritage of African Americans In Long Beach: Over 100 Years,’ was on the Infinity Publishing Company’s best-seller list for five straight months.

Plan Your Family Reunion: You Can Do It!

Dr. EL Amin was first introduced to family history research by his father, now deceased, who developed the first family tree for his maternal (Suttles) lineage, and who encouraged participation at annual reunions. He is a member of the California African American Genealogical Society (CAAGS) in Los Angeles. Dr. EL Amin has been actively involved in the Suttles Family Annual Reunion since 2006.

Dr. EL Amin is the Medical Director of the Immunization Program for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. He is also a Board Certified Pediatrician.

Lost and Found in Texas After 50 Years

Asilah is a registered nurse, who first become interested in genealogy 15 years ago. Her interest was sparked by the fact that her father died when she was 3 years old. And there were no other living relatives in Los Angeles to give her information about his side of the family. After attending many workshops and summits sponsored by African American Genealogy Societies and the Mormon Church, she planned several trips to Tyler, Texas and was able to locate all living family members on her father’s side and complete her family tree. She will share the results of her genealogy research with you during her workshop.

I Thought I Was Organized, So Don't Do What I Did

Charlotte M. Bocage has over forty years of genealogy experience, a full-time genealogist, lecturer, author, and Louisiana specialist. She is on the Board of Directors and Education Committee chair for the Southern California Genealogical Society. She is also the First Vice President for the Pasadena Area African American Genealogical Society.

Summary of recent speaking experience:

1. Louisiana Creole Research Association National Annual Conference, New Orleans
2. Southern California Genealogical Society’s Annual Jamboree
3. The New Orleans National Family Reunion Seminar and Expo
4. Pasadena Area African American Genealogical Society.
5. California African American Genealogical Society

A Civil War Widow’s Pension: The Case of Mrs. Cornelia Porter.

Dr. Edna Briggs is a native of Gethsemane (Jefferson County) Arkansas, and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. She’s called “Faye” by family folks, and “Edna” by others. Her late-Aunt Edna Moorehead Williams insisted that she be given this name as her namesake.

Edna attended local schools public schools in Gethsemane and Wabbaseka, AR, and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Institutional Dietetics from the University of Arkansas/AM&N located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Following undergrad life, she completed an internship in Hospital Dietetics at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles, California. She earned a Masters of Arts degree in Nutrition from California State University in Los Angeles, and later received Masters and Doctor in Public Administration degrees (with specialization in Health Services Administration and Gerontology) from the University of Southern California (U.S.C.).

She is retired from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services after 40 years of services. When she’s not working part-time, Edna spends her time photographing and researching family members in museums, state archives, libraries and in cemeteries. While research activities will always reveal information on a myriad of family members, her priorities during the past two years have been on the Mooreheads, Woolfolks and Stricklands. Collateraly and thanks to the ongoing internet explosion, she also discovered new information for the Jones-Walker Family. In 2008, she began researching the Porter Family, at the request of her Uncle L.B. Porter, a Strickland family member.

The license plate frame on her SUV reads “Genealogists Collect Dead Relatives.”

Shadows of the Past: A Beginners Guide to Researching African Americans in South Carolina

New York City born but raised from the age of 6 in Stockton, California. Sociology BA, Cal State Los Angeles; Master Public Administration, University of Southern California. Asst. Unit Supervisor California Parole & Community Services (Retired); currently Head Coach-Cross Country/Track & Field @ Rolling Hills Preparatory School, San Pedro, CA.

Inspired by Alex Haley’s “Roots” and, encouraged by an acquaintance that was teaching genealogy, I began researching my family history in 1996, uncovering more than 600 relatives past and present and an intriguing family lore which had been lost to the descendants of my slave ancestors in South Carolina.

Using City Directories In Urban Research | Avoiding and Overcoming Brick Walls: Part 1 | Avoiding and Overcoming Brick Walls: Part 2

Luana began working on her family history in college and is still at it. She earned her B.A. in English from UCLA and remained there to earn her Masters in Library Science. She has worked as a genealogical librarian in two different libraries. Over the years she has taught family history courses at colleges, been a presenter at numerous genealogy seminars, and currently is one of the instructors in the training program at the Los Angeles Regional Family History Library. Her travels have taken her into courthouses, libraries, and archives across the United States.

African American Resources on the Internet

Ancestry.com

A native of Utah, Jackie received her Ph.D. from UCLA in small group communication. She served as Vice President of Academic Affairs at Los Angeles City College and was Chair of the Council on Academic Affairs for the Los Angeles Community College District. Following her retirement in 2008, Dr. Ireland served a family history area support mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Laos).

Currently, Dr. Ireland volunteers in the Los Angeles Family History Library and serves as the lead family history consultant in the Santa Monica II Ward where she also teaches a family history class in Sunday School.

Traveling the Path of Ancestors through Negro Colleges | How To Research Placages (Black women kept by White men) and Their Descendants

A Professional, studying to become Certified genealogist, Surah LeNoir- Mfume specializes in Louisiana/Mississippi Research, with erudition in researching the remaining 46 contiguous states. For the past 40+ years in addition to Researching, Surah has Lectured/Presented, Instructed and has authored books, pamphlets and articles in this genre and U S History. Surah is CEO of Americas Best Genealogy Researchers in Los Angeles, CA, and a member of San Diego African American Research Group (SDAAGRG).

Identifying & Researching Your Ancestors Who Served in the Military

Margaret (Marti) Lewis is the Vice President and one of the founding members of the San Diego African American Genealogy Research Group. Marti is a compelling and influential voice in the genealogy community; she has been featured, quoted, profiled and published in several major media publications.

In February, 2008, Marti was interviewed twice by Jessica Chang, Emmy award-winning reporter for Channel 4’s San Diego's News magazine show, “San Diego Insider”. She was also featured on Channel 4's Multicultural community affairs interview show “Shades of San Diego”, where she shared 500 years of her personal family research. Marti's love for genealogy is expressed through her own personal published articles: "A Soldier's Story", "My Family Link", "He Touched Me", and “Ancestral Roll Call". Her genealogical specialty is in Military and Slave Research. She is known for her boundless enthusiasm, and has provided genealogical presentations and workshops statewide in California, including Arizona and Nevada. Although Marti’s focus is African American Research her presentations offers research strategies’ for other nationalities as well. Through DNA testing Marti has traced her maternal Ancestry line to the west-central coast of Africa between Cameroon and Angola.

Marti’s greatest accomplishments beside her own family research dating back to 1522 in England . . . was fulfilling a genealogical research request from an inmate at Norco State Prison, in Riverside County, CA. In a 12 hour period with only 3 names she was able to add 5 generations dating back to 1712 to his very prestigious family tree.

Marti, volunteers’ as a contributor to the “Find a Grave” transcribing obituaries’ and photos to their website, she also volunteers as a consultant on African American Research at the Family History Center in San Diego, CA. She’s available to help individuals one on one with their personal family research, from 4:30 – 7:00p.m. she also teaches a free series of classes in “Researching Your Roots” “With Particular Emphasis on the Challenges Unique to Researching African Americans”. from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Margaret belongs to several genealogical societies across the country; she is a certified member of the International Society of Sons and Daughters of Slaves Ancestry, the Ninth and Tenth Horse Calvary Association of the Buffalo Soldiers, the Daughters of the Union Nancy Hanks Lincoln Tent #5 and the San Diego African American Genealogy Research Group.

Contact information:
Home # (619) 262-5810 - Cell # (619) 507-7676
ibemarti@aol.com or ibemarti@yahoo.com

Birth, Marriage & Death Records | Family Tree Sources and Cloud Storage

Dr. Richard D. McBride is the Director of the Los Angeles Regional Family History Center. He has been involved in family history research for about 40 years. He is a retired USC Professor of Management Science and Logistics. He has a PhD in Mathematics from UCLA.

US Civil War Pensions, Their Content & What Else They Can Reveal

William McKay Case Study: How A Teenaged White Girl Led Me To My Great Grandfather

My interest in family history began during my childhood in St. Louis County, Missouri. My father, Julius S. McKay, was a great teller of family stories and each one of my six older siblings and myself were well-versed in McKay family history. As I grew older, I combined my desire to document my family history, and my love and study of U.S. history, into formal research at the National Archives in Washington D. C. in 1989 and with subsequent trips to the Family History Center in West Los Angeles. Other than a few census records, I had limited initial success in finding documents to confirm the family stories. Following my retirement, with more time for research & travel and with the explosion of web and computing resources, I have now confirmed or solved many (not all) of the family stories and mysteries on my paternal side--while identifying and documenting eight generations of ancestors and communicating with, and visiting, several distant cousins. The research story about my great-grandparents, William & Amelia McKay, was published in the January 2011 quarterly edition of St. Charles County Heritage, the Bulletin of the St. Charles County Historical Society.

"Africans and the Five Civilized Tribes" (Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles)

"Ante-bellum African American Naming Practices" (Reconstruction to 1900's)

Born in Arkansas during World War II and growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Charles began researching his personal genealogy in December, 1990. Not having the extensive family oral history possessed by Alex Haley, Charles, nevertheless, became motivated to begin tracing his roots after reading a book written by a woman who had traced her roots back into the 1700s in North Carolina. Dorothy Spruill Redford was motivated by Alex Haley’s “Roots” and ultimately organized a one-day Reunion of the descendants of slaves of The Somerset Plantation and 3,000 people came. Her book, “The Somerset Homecoming” provided the motivation for Charles to believe that he could trace his ancestors back into the slavery era. The following December, he began his quest to walk on the land where each of his slave ancestors lived at the outbreak of the Civil War.

His efforts have led him to discover African American ancestors in the Cherokee Tribe, and African American slave ancestors in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. As a result of his personal research and the knowledge he’s gained in the process, he has conducted monthly workshops on Cherokee genealogy and African American genealogy at the Family History Library in Los Angeles for more than fifteen years. In addition, he has been a featured speaker on various aspects of African American and Native American genealogical and historical research at several genealogical and historical societies in Southern California including the U.S. National Archives at Laguna-Niguel.

He has a degree in Engineering from UCLA, and when not researching his family tree, he is an independent management consultant.

He has a daughter, three grandsons and has been married to his high school sweetheart, Barbara, for over forty-five years.

Family Tree (two sessions)

Dr. Ellis D. Miner received a BS in Physics at Utah State University in 1961 and a PhD in Astrophysics at Brigham Young University in 1965. He worked as a Space Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena from 1965 until his retirement in 2005. Since that time he and his wife have been service missionaries at the Los Angeles Family History Library three days a week. Dr. Miner has served in a variety of leadership and teaching callings in the LDS Church. He is also the author or lead author of four books on the giant planets of the solar system and has edited numerous other professional and children's books on solar system astronomy.

Using DNA Testing to Discover Your Roots

CeCe Moore is a professional genetic genealogist who is considered an innovator in the use of autosomal DNA for genealogy. She writes the popular blog “Your Genetic Genealogist” (www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com), which boasts readership from genealogy enthusiasts in 115 different countries and from top universities, research hospitals, the national news media, DNA testing companies and governmental agencies. CeCe is frequently recognized by the press and consulted in regard to the emerging personal genomics industry, including making Newsweek’s “Recommended Reading” List for DNA and being quoted by the Washington Post, Discover Magazine’s Gene Expression, Science Blog’s Genetic Future, Genomes Unzipped, Genomics Law Report, Fox Health, CNN's Paging Dr. Gupta and Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.

She is the Southern California Coordinator for the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG.org) and administers the organization's DNA-Newbie Yahoo Group. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Mixed Roots Foundation and was appointed to lead the 23andMe Ancestry Advisory Committee. She is the administrator of the Proctor DNA Project and co-administrator of the Travis DNA Project as well as the cofounder of the North San Diego County Genealogical Society DNA Interest Group.

Much of CeCe's research is drawn from the DNA tests of over thirty of her close family members, spanning four generations. Recently, spurred on by the results of one of these tests, CeCe discovered that her brother-in-law and nieces are directly descended from Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Due to this surprising discovery she has been inspired to undertake an autosomal DNA research project focusing on the Hemings/Jefferson descendants.

Since studying music at USC on full scholarship, CeCe has been working in the entertainment industry for over two decades. As a longtime member of Screen Actors Guild, she was chosen to serve on the Primetime Television Nominating Committee for the Screen Actors Guild Awards® last year. The result of combining both of her professions, her production company StudioINTV (www.studiointv.com) recently won a Telly Award for their Family Tree DNA commercial.

CeCe is a member of Mensa and the proud mother of a seven-year-old boy.

Genealogy Basics for Beginners (two sessions)

I was born in Texas and moved to California in 1969. I attended Los Angeles City College where I received a degree in Business Management.

I have worked in banking for the past forty years, but I continue to obtain a higher education. I received my part-time teaching credential from UCLA and I also went to California State University, Dominguez Hills and received a degree in Child Care Service.

I joined the church in 1996 and since that time I have been blessed to have several callings some of them twice. And at the present time I am serving as the Young Women’s First Counsel.

Pre & Post Civil War Marriage Records | The U.S. Migration of African Americans from the Late 1800's to the Early 1900's

Craig J. Patterson is a Professor of History at Los Angeles Harbor College and has taught the History of the United States, African American History, Introduction to World Civilization, History of the Americas, History of California, and Western Civilization (from beginnings to 1500) since 1996. He taught previously at California State University Dominguez Hills, Los Angeles Southwest College, and West Los Angeles College. Craig also served on the Accreditation Committee for California State University for the History of the Americas. He has done extensive genealogical research on his family including tracing his paternal family roots from California back to Louisiana and ultimately to central France in the late seventeenth century. In addition, he has traced his paternal family roots back to colonial New England in the seventeenth century. He has been invited as a public speaker to several genealogical conferences, arranged a genealogical symposium at Los Angeles Southwest College, and has been published in an article with Frederick L. Johnson on his Minnesota Roots in Minnesota Genealogical Society’s Journal as well as in Aaron Day’s Locating Free African American Ancestors. As a member of the African American Heritage Society of Long Beach, he presented a class on African American genealogy along with Aaron Day and Bill Doty from the National Archives in October, 2000. In September, 2005, Craig was also interviewed by PBS in Minneapolis/St. Paul on tracing the life of his great grandfather, Jeremiah Patterson, a former slave who was born in North Carolina, rescued from slavery by Quakers, taken to Tennessee during his youth, and eventually taken to Redwing, Minnesota in 1881 by a Freedmen’s school teacher from Redwing. Craig has traced his maternal roots from the African American migration from the Deep South to Oklahoma to western Canada in the early 1900s. He was invited by author, Elizabeth Shown Mills (former National Genealogical Society President) to the National Genealogical Society Conference in Sacramento in 2004 and spoke as the keynote speaker and descendant of Cane River’s Creoles of Color as portrayed in Elizabeth Shown Mills’ novel, Isle of Canes. He was awarded a mini-grant for a photo essay on his Cane River family roots by Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana in August, 2006.

Craig holds a Master of Arts degree in History from California State University Long Beach, Bachelor of Arts degree in History from California State University Dominguez Hills, and an Associate of Arts degree in English from Los Angeles Harbor College. Craig also studied Social History of China at the University of California Berkeley. Lastly, Craig believes that family history research not only reveals ancestry but also tells how one’s family contributed to the building of the United States or how and why they came to this country regardless of race or ethnicity.

Blogging Your Family History: What Will You Do With All Your Research? | Research When You Are Adopted

Yvette Porter Moore is a native Californian and has lived in San Diego for 41 years. Yvette has degrees in Cross-Cultural Studies and Human Development, and recently completed a Genealogy Research Certificate program through Boston University.

Yvette is the owner of Root Digger Genealogy Research Services. She is an active member of Geneabloggers, and she is a blog writer for yvetteportermoore.com and currently writing four books:

1. A Taste of Sugar Hill-A story about her mother’s life in Harlem, NY between 1930’s-1950.
2. Embraced Identity- A personal memoir that deals with adoption and race and embracing oneself through the birth search process.
3. Who Was Dr. Walter J. Porter: A biographical children’s book on the life of Walter J. Porter?
4. The Cully Family-An African American Legacy: A story about a people of color who migrated from New Bern, North Carolina to Worcester, Massachusetts during Reconstruction in hopes of better living conditions and opportunities.

Yvette was adopted at 4 months old and she has successfully reunited with her biological mother and her Father’s family, over 21 years ago. Yvette is currently tracing her birth family’s heritage and researching the ancestry of her parents that raised her.

Yvette has been a member of various civic and non-profit organizations over the years, but as she likes to say, “I am on Sabbatical” therefore she has condensed her active list to one organization, “The San Diego African American Genealogical Research Group” of which she is the Membership Chair.

Yvette is a contributor for Find-A-Grave, and is a member of the New England Historical and Genealogy Society & the National Genealogy Society.

How to Write Your Family History in 9 Easy Steps

Richard’s presentation is titled, How To Write Your Family History In 9 Easy Steps. He has been activity involved in genealogy since 1995 when he began to write his maternal family history. He was inspired by all the stories his mother shared with him and his sisters during dinner. She was also intensely involver with many of her 61 first cousins who later became his source for information.

He has written the following books:

1. Grandmother Dora Knoll May’s Family, 1835-2000. The book traces his Black Native American heritage. Because of his research he and 28 members of his family are now citizens of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation
2. Discovering Our Past, The May Family History, 1705-2004. The book traces Richard’s slave heritage. With the assistance of a descendant of the slave owner’s family he was able to prove through DNA that the slave owner was his Great great-grandfather.
3. Aunt Ruth’s Story, The May Family History, 2005. Richard’s aunt had a successful business located on Central Avenue.
4. How To Write Your family History In 9 Easy Steps, 2007
5. Running For Success, An Anthology Of Fremont High School Track History, 1950s-1980s, 2011. Fremont High School located in south central Los Angeles won 10 Los Angeles City Track and Field Championships during that period and produced four Olympians.

The first two books are located in Los Angeles Central Library, Los Angeles County Library, AC Bilbrew, Black Resource Center and libraries located in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama.

Richard has a versatile and eclectic background. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. Richard attended Fremont high school. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Science degree from California Stare University at Los Angeles. After receiving his master’s degree he began his professional career as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor in Watts. After transferring to the Employment Development Department (EDD) he became a manager and worked in that capacity for 34 years. He is also a professional scenic and wedding photographer with plans to publish a book of his photography this fall. He has participated in numerous photography exhibits. Richard is a California licensed Marriage Family Therapist and worked briefly as a clinician/ manager after retiring from EDD. He is a member of the California African-American Genealogical Society.

Will I be Considered An Elusive Ancestor? | Fact Or Fiction: How To Judge The Value Of Our Documentation

Lorna has served as an Associate Director of the Torrance Family History Center since it opened in 1989. She discovered her love for genealogy as her grandparents tutored her in family history as a child. It has since become a life long pursuit that has provide opportunities for travel and expanded her research beyond her own family.

A Humanities/Education major at Brigham Young University, she officially retired from the Torrance Unified School District but now regularly volunteers six to eight hours a day at her neighborhood elementary school. She is married, the mother of three grown children and the grandmother of ten. She is a merit badge counselor for the Boy Scouts of America and has also written several articles, authored three published family histories and chaired seven genealogy seminars. In addition to working two days a week at the Torrance Family History Center, she teaches classes for local community groups and is a frequent seminar speaker.

Lorna is a member of the South Bay Cities Genealogical Society, Upper Shores Genealogical Society of Maryland and Delaware,Windsor Historical Society, the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Connecticut Society of Genealogists.

What Do You Expect To Find In An Obituary?

Ophelia Robinson Sanders is a native Californian. She retired from A T & T in 2003. Even as a little girl Ophelia has always had an interest in the history of her family. She knew her mother’s side of the family, but not her father’s family. The day she purchased her first computer a whole new world opened up for her when she typed in genealogy. She soon joined the California African American Genealogical Society and got involved in attending various conferences around the city and other states. Ophelia is also a member of Southern California Genealogical Society and Federation of Genealogical Societies. When she is not researching, you can find her at one of the local senior centers line dancing or singing karaoke. Now whenever Ophelia meets someone, it won’t be long before she asks them, “Where are you from”?

The MacPhatter Project: Lessons in Pre-Emancipation Research

Sam Ward has over 35 years of speaker experience, including guest lecturer during his military career, in numerous U.S. and foreign military institutions and conferences. His career after the military included ten years as an Aerospace Research Engineer having responsibility for proposing and verifying new concepts for and innovative modifications to existing systems involved in air operations. He is a recently retired Avionics Project Engineer who controlled budgets and schedules for significant avionics projects of a leading aerospace company. His responsibilities included frequent presentations during company and customer hosted program reviews.

Since his April 2008 retirement from aerospace, Sam Ward has been aggressively researching his family history toward a goal of publishing a family memoir. He was motivated to this task in early 2007 after being asked to deliver the eulogy of a close family friend who, he discovered, published a family memoir just a couple of months prior to his death. Having started this task so late in his life, Sam immediately realized the significant challenge he faced due to the family members of his parent’s and earlier generations have all passed away. He is meeting this challenge by applying skills that he honed during his military and aerospace careers to aid his genealogy efforts.

He is a member of the Southern California Genealogical Society, the California African American Genealogy Society, the Pasadena Area African American Genealogy Society, and the Corona Genealogical Society. He is also a member of the Lowndes County Historical Society of Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.