About the project

About The Project

Back in the late 1980's, my Mom began telling me about our ancestors. She had told me a decade earlier during the time mini-series Roots was popular, but in 1989, with the birth of my youngest son, I thought I should "write it down". Writing it down is "more than a notion"; but write it down we did. In the early 1990's we got a Kaypro computer, that we used public domain LDS (Mormon Church) software to create a Family Tree Wall Chart, that some of you may recall seeing. Momma, Aunt Josie Lee, Arvelle Fisher, James Brown, and I, were the primary contributors to that effort. That 1992 wall Chart is included in the documents section of this site. With Arvelle's passing, I began to think it was time to update the family history. With the passing of Aunt Kizzie, I began to feel a sense of urgency, to resume the family history project.

The day after Christmas 2008 the project resumed in earnest; I went to the attic to find old photos, papers, and whatever. Over Christmas 2007, I sent my sons, nephews and nieces a copy of the 1992 wall chart, to put the updating of family history on their radar screen. Along with the chart, I asked for suggestions on how to update the family history. The suggestions that came back ranged from using updated LDS software to Ancestrey.com, and facebook.com. Initially, I started with the updated LDS software FamilySearch. I transcribe the information from the 1992 wall chart into FamilySearch. One of the features of FamilySearch is to create WebPages. I began looking for web-based software, and found TNG (The Next Generation) to best suite my needs. I say TNG best suites my needs, because I spent a few weeks researching how to code what I wanted to do using Dreamweaver, PHP, MySQL, etc.; then found that TNG had already done 95% of what I'd planned to do. So, by the end of January 2009, we had decided on using TNG, and began the installation, and began preparing the content for inclusion in the site. Many thanks to the "Tech Team", aka my three sons, and wife.

During February, while working on the site, the movie Amistad came on. I was already in the TNG Forum, so I started looking for Black or Slave history. It seems the primary developer of TNG is affiliated with footnote.com who had a Black History Month promotion. I copied several photos from that site and have them associated with Ann Unknown. Ann Unknown has other information to help those interested in researching our ancestors. So, please after you've looked up yourself and others, spend some time with Ann Unknown.

The original plan was to start at Christmas, and be done with the first pass by March Madness, then put the finishing touches on the site in June.

Let's hope we can stick to the plan.

-John