Youth from foster care trace their roots with help of nonprofit group, websites

The project was spearheaded by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson.

“With the help of the Mormon Temple Family History Center in Oakland and the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, the Family Journeys Ancestry Project was launched in February. Teens, and even some elementary school students, searched websites, census and Social Security records, and travel and military documents to find clues about their ancestors.

Because youths today are adept at using Google to find information and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to share that information, the project was not looked down on as “old school,” said Nicka Smith, a 32-year-old volunteer with the African American Genealogical Society of Northern America.

“You have to meet them at the level they are on,” said Smith, who has traced her family history back to 1810 and has a family tree that includes about 2,100 people.

She worked with Henry and Delexes Woods, a 23-year-old Berkeley man who was raised by a single foster mother.

“They had more challenges because they were in the foster system,” Smith said. “We had to have some hard conversations about what family is. We kept assuring them that even if they find out one thing, that is more than some people find in their entire lives.”

They hit some challenges along the way, Smith said. For example, some pedigree charts list a place for “husband” and a place for “wife,” Smith said.

Those titles, she said, were foreign to some in the program because their parents were not married or their father was not around, or they were raised by grandparents.

“It can get discouraging when I can’t find anything, but I don’t let that stop me from trying,” said Woods, who is finishing his project along with about 10 former foster children from Beyond Emancipation, and 35 others from McClymonds High School in West Oakland, Berkeley Technology Academy and Hoover Elementary School in Oakland.

“The project has been especially meaningful for (former foster) youth because a number of them have lost touch with parents or other family members and are working to reconnect with them through this project,” said Hannah Greene, Carson’s communication coordinator. “The youth now have a different understanding of where they come from. Their perspective has been widened and communication between the youth and their family members has become stronger.”

Carson said a number of youths have found ancestors as far back as five, six and seven generations. Finding out about family can lead to better self-esteem: Perhaps someone in the family owned a business, was a schoolteacher, fought in a foreign war, or was a leader in the community, Carson said.

The youths used census records and were given a family history chart and directed to ask their parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles for help completing it. They collected photographs, birth certificates and obituaries, then documented the project by creating a scrapbook or PowerPoint presentation.

Youngsters were also given Flip video cameras to record their interviews with family members.

Charles Eddy, director of programs at Beyond Emancipation, said the ancestry project gave young people a chance to connect with people further removed from their immediate family.

“It begins to connect and reconnect families going back generations,” he said, adding that the former foster children were selected to participate in the ancestry project. “We’re confident that they could handle the emotional material that came up.”

The research helped them identify family members they’d lost touch with or never knew existed, Eddy said. “It gives them permanency and enduring, long-lasting relationships, which are so important to children in the child welfare system. They’ve known lots of people who have passed through their lives temporarily, but have often lost the ability to connect with family.”

Youth from foster care trace their roots with help of nonprofit group, websites
[Oakland Tribune 6/9/11 by Kristin J. Bender]

“Some participants from Beyond Emancipation have lost touch with siblings or parents while in the system. Their main goal for the project is to rekindle those lost connections. And some of the school-aged youth are facing similar issues. The absence of biological fathers in the daily lives of some of the Berkeley Tech students colors their feelings about family and belonging. Teacher Lamont Snaer works with the young men on self esteem and emotional health through journaling and in-class discussions.

The ancestry project was a logical extension of that curriculum, Snaer said, and he was excited to bring the project to his class.

With the help of supportive adult mentors and the Genealogical Society members, the youth have gotten up the nerve to make that first phone call to an auntie or grandparent. And some have been pleasantly surprised.

Michael’s grandmother ended up handing over the keys to the attic. Together, she and Michael found a treasure trove of obituaries and birth certificates. Now his grandmother won’t stop telling him family stories. A few weeks after his trip to the attic, Michael and his classmates shared family photos they had unearthed in their research. Laughter filled the room as he showed a photograph of himself at the age of four posing with his father and uncle.

Carolann Perales, a participant in the Beyond Emancipation program, has found relatives on the 1860 census and has become so hooked on the research that she is tracing her family roots all the way back to England.

“I don’t think of myself as just coming from the Lower Bottoms [a neighborhood in West Oakland] anymore,” said Tyisha Stills, a spirited 9th grader in the Culture Keepers program. “I am bigger than that.” When starting the online research, she recalled: “At first I was scared. And then I started typing names in the computer and I was on fire. I learned my great-grandmother was from Louisiana!”

April 27, 2011 Newsletter Keith Carson.org

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