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Knowing Your History, Helps You to Find a Place in Today
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AAGSFW BOARD MEMBERS
Roberta Ridley- AAGSFW Chair
Retired employee of the Allen County Public Library. Chairwoman and charter member of the African American Genealogical Society of Fort Wayne. Faculty member of the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI) and an independent researcher. Active within the community always working towards cultural understanding with diversity and historic awareness.
Dr. Alfred Brothers Jr.- AAGSFW Vice Chair
Dr. Alfred Brothers Jr is the Vice President of the African African-American Genealogy Society of Fort Wayne (AAGSFW). His is a charter member of the organization and specializes in Military Genealogy. He is from Massachusetts and his research interests include New England, Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, and Canada. Dr. Brothers is a Mid-West African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI) instructor and leads our society in Saturday workshops on Zoom and Facebook. He has been doing family research for over 40 years.
Ngozi Rogers- AAGSFW Secretary
Ngozi picked up the torch to continue her mother's genealogy research after her mother, Bertha Rogers, passed away in 2018. Her most prized research findings to date are a photo of her maternal great-great grandmother and an 1889 marriage certificate of her paternal great-great-great grandparents. Ngozi has gathered extensive family oral history, photos and research by organizing and hosting virtual reunions for her family.
Camilla Grant- AAGSFW Treasurer
Camilla began association with the African American Genealogy Society of Fort Wayne in 2017, while looking for experts to assist her with research into her biological family. The research was highly successful. As a result, she has grown fond of the group, its mission, and its leadership and was honored to accept the position of Treasurer in November 2021.
Adrian Wells- AAGSFW Historian
An avid researcher Adrian has been a member of the genealogy society since 2011. He started his genealogical journey in 1996 after being told while sitting in the kitchen of his cousin Corrinne Mudd-Brooks house eating peach cobbler "To be proud of your family, and to sit and listen what the grown folks are talking about because you will learn a lot about the family." It was then he was reintroduced to the book the Mudd Family of the United States by Dr. Richard Dyer Mudd which included his Mudd family genealogy which Corrinne had submitted. It was then she was passing the baton to him to document the new generations of the Mudd family. Over the years he has uncovered many great things and has connected with many family members as a result of his research and DNA testing.
Vaughn Ensley Sr.- AAGSFW Member-at-Large
Vaughn H. Ensley Sr. is the Fifth Generation of his family surname (ENSLEY). His family surname ENSLEY, has survived over one hundred-ninety-five years of existence in America with over nine generations to date (1825 to Present).
He has been researching his family history since early Jan.1995, a little time after the passing of his mother in 1994, and the passing of his grandmother in 1991. Between the two of them he was able to obtain a lot of old documents, and old family pages, records, and old photos of his ancestors that his grandmother had kept throughout the years of tracing her ancestors, which fell into his hands after their passing. While looking thorough these old documents, old papers, and old photos, he decided to start his own genealogy research to continue on what had been started years ago. Researching his ancestors over the years he has uncovered a great deal of facts, important Information, and unanswered questions about his ancestor's history in those early dark days. Vaughn has been a member of the genealogy society since 2012.
Betty Johnson- AAGSFW Member-at-Large
Betty has been a member of the society since 2011. In her research she has uncovered the burial site of her Bledson family member who was buried over seas in France.
Chief Condra Ridley- AAGSFW Member-at-Large
Chief Condra Ridley is a retired librarian from Allen County Public Library where she spent 28 years promoting reading and lifelong learning for her community and developed her interest in genealogy and storytelling. Over the years, she has presented annual Black History programming including character portrayals of Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Lena Horne, Biddy Mason and others and has been a part of local Kwanzaa celebrations and many other African American cultural and educational events. She is a charter member of both the African/African American Historical Society/Museum and the African American Genealogical Society of FW. In August 2008, Condra was one of the five FW residents honored by the King of Ekiti Kingdom, Nigeria with the title of Chief and given the responsibility to share Yoruba cultural information and values, encourage better relations between African people and work towards the general upbuilding of our community.
Curt Witcher- AAGSFW Library Advisor
Curt Witcher is the Director of Special Collections at the Allen County Public Library, managing the Genealogy Center and the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection of Abraham Lincoln related research materials. He is in his forty-second year of service at the Allen County Public Library, and really enjoys collaborating with AAGSFW on exciting program endeavors.