The Search Continues for Birmingham’s Oldest African American Genealogy Group

By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times As February comes to a close, Black History continues for Dora Marrisette, President of The Birmingham African American Genealogy Group Inc. (BAAGG) and members of the organization. “We are a group of people [who] are curious about our roots, where we came from, and our people,” said Marrisette. “We are trying to extend that out into the community, where we help other people who are interested in the same thing. We try to point them to the right direction like the library, the archives in Montgomery, [and] the different archives at the Historically Black colleges.” BAAGG was founded in 1999 and the oldest such organization in Alabama. Marrisette, who has been a part of the group since 2000, has been able to “research her paternal side of my family back to 1870,” she said. “I thought that was a big accomplishment. I was able to locate the slave owner and identify my family in the slave owners’ will when his property was distributed,” said Marrisette. At the time of BAAGG’s founding a growing number of African Americans expressed a desire to research their family’s “roots” in the Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama areas. The...