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LOCAL
The Champion, Thursday, Jan. 29 - Feb. 4, 2015
Library group assists in search for ancestors
by Kathy Mitchell
Genealogy—the study
of family ancestry—accord
ing to the Merriam Webster
Encyclopedia, was once
the pursuit of royalty and
aristocracy. Today, many
individuals who don’t claim
to be of noble birth nonethe
less seek to know who their
forebears were.
“We held a program at
the Wesley Chapel Library
branch in 2007, and the
response was amazing,”
recalled Tamika Strong,
who worked at the Wesley
Chapel-William C. Brown
Library at the time and is
now with the Georgia Public
Library system.
What originally was to
be a one-time program grew
into monthly meetings of
the Genealogy and Histori
cal Research Group at the
Wesley Chapel Library.
Strong continues to facilitate
the group’s one-and one-
half-hour meetings, usually
on the third Tuesday of the
month.
“We have a core group
of seven to 10 people who
come to nearly every meet
ing, but each session draws
an average of 15 people,”
Strong said. “Those who at
tend are conducting their
own family research. They
come to the group for ad
vice, encouragement and to
assist others.”
Strong said there are
many public records as well
as websites that can be help
ful. While ancestry.com is
not free, individuals can use
the library’s subscription at
no cost.
“Group members are
very generous in sharing
their tips, and they join in a
happy dance when another
member tracks down some
information after a long
search,” she said.
“It’s not uncommon,”
Strong explained, “to hit
what we call a ‘brick wall.’
The person may successfully
trace the family to a certain
point then there’s no more
information. The researcher
may have to go down a lot
of blind alleys before finding
the information that breaks
down the brick wall.”
Strong, who has her
own family research proj
ect going, said, “This can
be a lifelong undertaking.
You’re never really done.”
Each time you go back a
generation, she pointed out,
the number of people from
whom you directly descend
ed doubles. Everyone has
two parents, four grandpar
ents, eight great-grandpar
ents and so forth.
Success, she said, often
depends on luck. “A family
might have the habit of care
ful record keeping, noting
births, deaths and marriages
in a family Bible, for exam
ple. Others may have little,
if any, written information,”
according to Strong.
The United States gov
ernment has conducted a
census every 10 years since
1790, Strong said, but some
records were not complete
and others have been lost.
“If a family member was
a slave he may have been
listed by only a first name or
as part of the owning house
hold’s records with a nota
tion such as ‘male, age 32.’
In some communities, the
1950s records for Black fam
ilies were kept in separate
books from those for White
families. You have to know
where to look,” she said.
The research can be
complicated not only by
lost information, but also
by information deliberately
suppressed by the family.
“There may have been rapes,
lynchings—all sorts of skel
etons in the family closet.
A few generations ago such
matters as babies born out
side of marriage or suicides
were major sources of em
barrassment to many fami
lies. They may have gone
to great lengths to cover up
such things,” Strong noted.
“Sometimes, even when
there are living family mem
bers who know the truth,
they may be reluctant to talk
about it,” she said. “Some
times when the person
doing the research learns
something and asks directly
whether it’s true the family
member will give an honest
answer.”
Some are doing the re
search to solve a family mys
tery, Strong said. They may
know of a family member
who disappeared or changed
his name and the researcher
may just be interested in
finding out what happened.
“Most of the people who
come to our sessions aren’t
trying to prove they’re re
lated to someone famous or
prominent, and they aren’t
concerned that they might
learn something negative
about a family member,” she
said. “They’re just curious
and they want to know the
truth.”
Strong said that some in
formation that people might
have wanted to suppress in
the past no longer carries
a stigma. “We’ve had some
White researchers who were
excited to discover that there
were Black family members
in their lineage,” she said.
Strong’s advice for those
who undertake genealogical
research is “start with what
you know. Start with the
names of parents, grandpar
ents, information from fam
ily papers and family Bibles,
then work outward.” She
warned that many people
have the same name and it’s
easy to start down a wrong
path. Strong said she found
10 people with the exact
same name as an ancestor
she was seeking information
on. “In a case like that you
have to use the information
you have—brothers and
sisters names, birthplace, oc
cupations—to pinpoint the
right person.”
NOTICE OF SPECIAL ELECTION, QUALIFYING REQUIREMENTS, AND REGISTRATION
CITY OF AVONDALE ESTATES, GEORGIA
Notice is hereby given that a Special Election for the City of Avondale Estates will be held on Tuesday,
March 17, 2015 to fill the vacancy and unexpired term of Mayor. The person elected to fill this unexpired
term will serve through December 31, 2015. This seat will be up for re-election on November 3, 2015
and the candidate elected in November will serve a four (4) year term beginning January 1, 2016.
Voting will take place at the following locations:
Avondale Estates City Hall, 21 North Avondale Plaza, Avondale Estates, Georgia, 30002 from
7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
AND
For the newly annexed area of Stratford Green Townhomes (ONLY), voting will take place at
Avondale Pattillo United Methodist Church, 3260 Covington Highway, Decatur, Georgia
30032 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Any person who is a resident of the City of Avondale Estates and who is registered with DeKalb County
Board of Registrations and Elections by February 17, 2015, as an elector within the City of Avondale
Estates, shall be eligible to vote in this election.
Advance voting begins February 23, 2015, at the DeKalb County Elections Division, 4380 Memorial Drive,
Decatur, Georgia 30032, 404-298-4020.
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