LOS ANGELES — Learning about your name and family history can be fun, but for African Americans, this can also be a challenge.
Poor documentation of enslaved people has created hurdles for those seeking their family history.
Charlotte Bocage has been tracing her lineage for the past 20 years. Like many other African Americans, her family history and slavery go hand in hand. Her research and DNA databases led her to a plantation in New Orleans.
“I stood on the balcony of the second floor looking out onto the plantation where she probably stood as an enslaved person, and I was standing as a free woman. The whole experience was very emotional for me,” said Bocage.
Although it can hurt to see the history, she says it is important.
As part of the research team at the Southern California Genealogical Society and formerly part of the California African American Genealogical Society, she now helps others embark on that journey.
She says the biggest challenge is tracing past the 1870 Census.
“When the [Census] counter got to the plantation, all he did was ask the plantation owner, ‘How many enslaved people do you have and how old are they and what sex are they?’ So although they had a place for you to write down the name of this person, they didn’t do that,” said Bocage.
She recommends anyone looking to dig into their family history to take a genealogy 101 workshop.
That is what Alexis Flenorl did, attending a workshop led by Boacage at a library in Compton. She started her journey two years ago, but was seeking guidance and resources.
Because of lack of information available, 76% of African Americans looking into their history are learning by talking to relatives, according to the Pew Research Center.
That is how Alexis was able to get a hold of a family Bible dating back to the 1800s with a record of family member’s names, birth dates, and even marriage certificates.
Saying she feels as if her ancestors left enough for her to know to put all the pieces together.
She is hoping she finds a lot of answers on the way and is planning to travel with her family to Africa once they have enough information.
“My family is from Little Rock, Wilton, Arkansas. So how do we move to even the West Coast? What happened in between that? I have family in Chicago. So how do we move from Mississippi to Chicago and why? So just knowing all of that background information, I think is very important,” said Flenorl.
Saying it’s not just for themselves but to make sure history itself is not lost.
“So much information and documentation was lost. We still have a great deal to work with, but I think what was lost is important for us to fill in the gaps, almost like our obligation to just tell the story and tell it correctly ... Because that history is important, it is part of American history,” said Flenorl.
For those interested, the African-American Historical and Genealogical Society has a beginner guide to help start out.