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Charee Harvey
Website Coordinator
My name is Charee Jackson
Harvey. I have always had an interest in my family’s humble
beginnings. It was inspired by my Great Grandmother Chaney
McDuffie who was born in Georgia in March of 1868. Family
members would talk about her long beautiful hair and her
love for the children in the family as well as her being
born the day after her parents were freed. I was fortunate
to spend time with her before she died in March of 1963.
It was years after before
I decided to work on building the family’s lineage. When I
decided to, I had no idea of where to begin so I naturally
started with those that I knew. By the time my daughter left
home and my son went to the military I had acquired the
skill of asking questions. Questions, that only peaked my
curiosity more. When I discovered the magical world of the
internet, I knew I had arrived. I learned to surf, search,
and finally to email. What a concept.
Since my journey with
Genealogy began in 1992 I have managed to build a lineage of
over 3700 strong. Others may boast more but for me as an
African American, I feel proud of my accomplishment. I
learned early that without sources my research was useless
so of course they had to be included which opened me to
knowledge of my heritage which truly amazed me.
My journey reached a
milestone when I made a trip to Georgia and surveyed a
cemetery which I wrote about and submitted to Rootsweb
Review. They published the article and a couple of years
later Reunions Magazine asked my permission to publish the
same article. I have surveyed cemeteries, traveled to
courthouses in other States, spent numerous hours in
libraries as well as on the internet in my quest to search
my roots.
I never knew much about
the Jackson side of my family except for them being from the
State of Kentucky. I learned of them thru a sequence of
events at a time that was very unexpected. Today I know more
than I ever thought was possible through the wonderful world
of Genealogy. When I started my research on my Jackson
family, I made trips to Kentucky especially with research
in mind since the family moved to other areas. My
Great-Great Grandfather Thomas Jackson was born in Bourbon
Co., Kentucky. He had a total of 15 children. The last
family member that I know of from Bourbon County passed in
2004. I was fortunate enough to interview her before her
passing. The interview was a very important one considering
she was the last of her generation. Today my research is
focused on finding Thomas Jackson's siblings and other
related family members from Bourbon and surrounding
counties.
In 2004, I was fortunate
enough to meet Jerry Taylor. She posted to a message board
that I administer; we have been friends ever since. When I
met her she was in the process of building a website for a
County in which her interest lie. I agreed to help her with
the African American portion of her website and from there
“Kentucky African American Griot's” was born. The union we
have formed has been one of friendship and love. I remember
when we started talking about this project. I knew I wanted
to be a part of it but Jerry must have thought I was taking
too long so she said she would start without me. Of course I
couldn’t let that happen.
Today Kentucky African
American Griot's has turned out to be an important part of
both of us. After working with Jerry to make the Kentucky
website a site worth searching, the decision was made to
work on other states. From this decision "U.S. (United
States) African American Griots" was created. With very
little knowledge of web-design, some data for particular
parts of Georgia and Florida, and very few resources for
states outside of my family research, I knew this would a
challenge. We worked and continue to work diligently to
better this site. Since starting U.S. African American
Griots in late October, I have encountered trials and errors
in web-design and have come to realize more than ever how
scarce African American resources are.
The scarcity of our
resources is the primary reason this site has been created.
The goals today are the same as they were when KY African
American Griots was started; to become a repository for
African American genealogy and history. Since starting this
site I have become the administrator of four African
American message boards, done census lookups and assisted
other researchers in their research. I am also working with
a friend whose interested in starting a genealogy column in
his local newspaper.
My personal dream is for
each state to be represented and for each state to have its
own coordinators as well as having the African American
culture and traditions represented. I would also like to see
the site become a valuable tool for students researching
African Americans. I have requested approval from USGenWeb
to become a member of their family which will open doors for
other researchers to join in on the project.
My dream and Jerry's of
what U.S. African American Griots should be is a work in
progress and will take time to develop as well as
participation from other researchers of African American
genealogy and history. This is why contributions are so
important. Visitors to the site have been generous with
their materials and they are greatly appreciated. Thank you
for your contributions to this project and please continue
to contribute and visit.
Thank you for taking the
time to find out who I am and enjoy the site.
Cha
Jerry Taylor
Project Associate
My journey into
genealogy began in 1983 at the request of my grandmother
in hopes of learning more about the paternal side of my
family, who were from the mountains of southeastern
Kentucky. I was born there and it is where I lived
until an early age, when we then moved to the Bluegrass
Region of the state. All of my roots are tied to the
hills and hollows of southeast Kentucky and it is the
foundation for all that I am today.
Since beginning
genealogy, I have done extensive research on my lineage
and two years ago I published a book documenting my
families heritage. The majority of my family research
was done the old fashioned way with lots of legwork,
which included countless hours at the KY Department of
Archives and the KY History Center. I was slow to learn
about the "information highway" and all of the
possibilities that existed with it. Once I finally got
my feet wet, I realized that I could share my research
with everyone who was interested through the web and so,
in the fall of 2001 my first website went online. I
now have a total of four websites and my roll in each is
not merely as a webmaster but also as a researcher,
which gives me the opportunity to do two things that I
love, research and web building.
\I'm only an amateur
at web building, but I learned at the very beginning the
importance of documentation and until recently I had
always considered myself a good researcher. The year
2004 marked a new beginning in research for me as I
started a quest to document an African American family.
That's when I suddenly hit the famous 1870 brick wall.
Until that time I was oblivious to the difficulties
involved in African American research. Loving genealogy
and helping others with their lineage, I knew that I
wanted to do all that I could to help African Americans
with their research. While working with Charee, I found
a way to at least do a small part by contributing
records from the county in which I live. Not long into
our project, we both realized that there was a need to
broaden our area of research to surrounding counties and
from there the decision was made that we should cover
the entire state of Kentucky and the concept of Kentucky
African American Griot's was born with the goal of being
a centralized location for African American research in
Kentucky. Within two days, KYAA Griot's went online and
soon afterwards became a member of the USGenWeb as part
of KyGenWeb's Special Collections Project. Later in the
year we recognized that further expansion was needed and
U.S. African American Griot's was born. Our goals for
USAAG are the same as with KYAAG, to assist all those in
search of the African American roots in the United
States. We firmly believe that there is a great future
ahead for both projects. Charee and I live it and
breath it on a daily bases and we share the same passion
and drive to see that they become all that they can be.
I would like to take
this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us in
making these sites what they are today. Your support
and generous contributions have been overwhelming. For
those who would like to make a contribution, please do.
These are projects are in need of input from everyone
with an interest in African American research to meet
their full potential.
Thank you and may God
bless you all,
Jerry Taylor
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