Knowing Your History, Helps You to Find a Place in Today
"When a society or a civilization perishes, one condition can always be found. They forget where they came from" Carl Sandburg
The AAGSFW traces its origin to the first International Black Genealogy Summit held in Fort Wayne. It was noted that there was no local African American Society presence.
The summit revealed that a need existed to present realistic, truthful and a more personal account of African Americans within Fort Wayne and Allen County. Thus the AAGSFW was organized in 2009
The purpose of this society:
- Provide support and education for African American family and historical research
- Recruit researchers for African American genealogy
- Promote the collection and preservation of records
- Generate publication of genealogical data
- Cultivate professional genealogists
- Transcribe historical documents
The benefits of this society:
- Members meet regularly for genealogy research support and ongoing education
- Members share and assist one another on personal and community research
- Meetings held at the second largest genealogical library in the United States: the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana
- Members have many opportunities to volunteer their talents within the society
- Members receive two free hours of research assistance to start or further research
- Members receive discounts on workshops, conferences and surname registry fees
- Members have the option to have their research professionally bound at no cost