The African American Family's Guide to Tracing Our Roots: Healing, Understanding & Restoring Our Families

The self-help guide The African-American Family’s Guide to Tracing Our Roots Healing, Understanding, & Restoring Our Families specifically is written in hope that we might rethink past events, explore vital health matters, and better understand our families.

Roland Barksdale-Hall, founder of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) of Pittsburgh president has been researching the black family for more than 25 years. In 2004 he hosted a three-day healing family gathering, entitled “The Restoration of the Family.” His research resulted in the Millennium Family Reunion, held in Detroit, bringing together more than 300 descendants of enslaved African ancestors. He has signed entries on the “Black Family in the Colonial Era” and “Inheritance and Slave Status” in the African-American History Reference Series, edited by Paul Finkelman (Oxford University Press, 2005). His intriguing family history has been showcased in an exhibition, “From Color To Culture” in New York. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2003 Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) National History Award and the former Peabody Special Collection Librarian, Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia.He currently serves as president of JAH Kente International, Inc. and vice president of Black Men for Progress. He is the director of the Mercer County Junior Frontiers. He has served as the vice president of The Buckeye Review and on the executive committee of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Inc. Other professional memberships include International Sons and Daughters of Slave Ancestry, National Association of Black Storytellers and Mercer County Historical Society. His family is the recipient of the 2001 Women in Ministry Shenango Valley Christian Family Award.