Menokin Descendant Collective Spotlight - MPAAGHS
"THE MENOKIN DESCENDANT COLLECTIVE SPOTLIGHT SERIES" SHOWCASES STORIES ABOUT MODERN-DAY DESCENDANTS OF THOSE PERSONS ENSLAVED AT MENOKIN, BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES, COMMUNITY LEADERS AND EVENTS, AND OTHER NOTABLE HIGHLIGHTS.
The Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Virginia was convened in September of 2004 by genealogists Gloria Waller and Bessida Cauthorne White. The organization’s mission is to create and provide opportunities to encourage and enable African-Americans to research, document, and publish their family histories and genealogies. MPAAGHS’ focus is the Middle Peninsula counties of Essex, Middlesex, King and Queen, King William, Gloucester, and Mathews, and the Northern Neck counties of Westmoreland, Richmond, Northumberland, and Lancaster. However, anyone who is interested in African-American genealogy and history is invited to join and is likely to find something of interest. MPAAGHS has worked and partnered with multiple organizations across the Northern Neck and Virginia. One of the group's most recent initiatives has been sponsoring historical highway markers; MPAAGHS has done four in all.
The latest one acknowledging the 1923 lynching of James Horrace Carter in King and Queen County, is set to be dedicated in October of this year, 100 years after the lynching. They are now working on a marker application that will acknowledge the Stewart sisters of Westmoreland County who in 1884 sued the steamship company that refused to allow them to occupy the first class accommodations they had paid for on a steamship from Baltimore to Westmoreland.
Genealogy and historical societies like MPAAGHS are extremely helpful in locating resources and finding a community of researchers to assist in your research.