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MAAGI
  • HOME
  • ABOUT MAAGI
    • History
    • Staff
    • Tracks
    • Faculty
    • Appreciation
    • Sponsors & Supporters
  • WHY MAAGI?
  • LOGISTICS
    • Location
    • FAQ
  • MEDIA
    • Press Releases
    • Videos
    • Photos
  • REGISTER
    • Register Online
    • Access My Account
    • Policies
    • Scholarships
  • CONTACT US

MAAGI Tracks & Classes

2023 INSTITUTE TRACKS & CLASSES

Registration for 2023 opens on Jan 2, 2023.
Registered participants will receive a link to access sessions for their track.
*Tracks are subject to change*
  • Tracks 1a & 1b
  • Tracks 2a & 2b
  • Track 3
  • Track 4
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Track 1a: Fundamental Methods and Strategies 

​​Faculty: Shelley Murphy, Judy Russell, Vicki McGill &  Ric Murphy

​Class Offerings:
  • Time and File Management
  • Public Records and the Law
  • Slavery and the Law
  • When Worlds Collide
  • SO WHAT! A need to analyze 
  • Timelines to Research Plans! 
  • How to research Burned Counties! 
  • Looking at the U.S. Military: Yes, We Were There
  • Going local: Making the most of onsite research 
  • Legacy of the First Angolans of 1619 and Your  Genealogical Research
  • Society of the First African Families in English America: How a Hereditary Society can Help in Genealogical Research
  • Mapping the Freedmen's Bureau

Track 1b: Methods and Strategies for Slavery Era Research 

​​
Coordinator, Shelley Murphy
Faculty: Judy Russell, Toni Carrier, Bernice Bennett, Nicka Sewell-Smith, & Renate Yarborough-Sanders


Class Offerings:
  • Slavery and the Law
  • Slavery in the North
  • Reconstruction Era Records: the Key to Breaking Through the 1870 Brick Wall
  • Documenting Enslaved Ancestors: Working in Antebellum Records
  • Examining Slave Ship Manifests
  • Finding your Ancestors in Wills and Deeds: a Case Study
  • Slave Runaway Ads for Slave Era Research
  • No Stone Unturned: Case Studies in Identifying the Last Slaveholder
  • The Proof is in the Pensions
  • Case Studies in Gray: Identifying Shared Ancestries Through DNA
  • Finding Our Ancestors in Antebellum Church Records
  • Understanding and Using the Slave Schedules
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Shelley Murphy, B.S., M.A., D.M.
Track 1a & 1b Coordinator
Bio
Track 2: DNA & Genealogy 
 
​Faculty: Bernice Bennett, Shannon Christmas, Janice Lovelace, Nicka Sewell-Smith

Focus Track 2a: This section is for individuals who are new to DNA testing and have not taken a formal course or feel competent that they understand the basics of Genetic Genealogy

Focus Track 2b: This section is an intermediate DNA class and it it designed for individuals that have taken a DNA course either through MAAGI or another entity and are ready to move into intermediate to advance DNA analysis. 


Pre-requisites for all participants in both tracks: Participants should have taken at least one autosomal DNA test and received their results prior to attending to MAAGI. Any of these tests are suggested: AncestryDNA, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage DNA. 

There are 2 sections for this track. Assignments will be made after assessment.

​Additional Requirements:
  1. All students are required to purchase and read: The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine T. Bettinger, and Genetic Genealogy in Practice by Blaine T. Bettinger and Debbie Parker Wayne.
  2. Must have received your autosomal and other DNA test results.
  3. Participate in one MAAGI DNA Conference Call
  4. Download an upload your autosomal results to GEDmatch
  5. Create a spreadsheet of your results

Class Offerings:
  • Introduction to DNA
  • Privacy and Ethics
  • The Emotional Side of DNA
  • Systems to Track and Document Enslaved Populations
  • Building a Genealogy Research Plan for DNA
  • Getting Started - Autosomal, YDNA and mtDNA
  • Ancestry and Family Tree DNA
  • 23andMe and MyHeritage
  • Introduction to Third Party Tools
  • Putting it All Together: DNA and Paper Records
  • Finding African Roots
  • Strategies for Using Autosomal DNA
  • GEDmatch: What to Do With It and How 
  • Clustering and Chromosome Mapping: Tools and Methods
  • The Family DNA Project
  • Researching Native American Ancestry with DNA
  • Capstone — Student Research Plan Discussion
  • Genetic Genealogy Capstone Project
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Bernice Alexander Bennett, B.S., MPH
Track 2 Coordinator
Bio
Track 3: Intermediate Genealogy - Pre & Post Slavery Era Research

​Faculty: Juliana Szucs,  Roberta Ridley, Dr. Alfred Brothers Jr., Melissa Tennant, Janis Minor Forté
​
Focus: Learn to expand your research.  Learn to explore new document record groups.  Investigate new study techniques and methodologies.  Learn problem solving skills and how to develop a new research path.  This track provides in depth skill building is researching pre and post slavery era records. 
 
Designed to uncover the hidden documentation of formerly enslaved and free persons of color, this Track is designed to explore the records of the pre and post slavery era period.   The core curriculum of this Track’s focus is on best practices standards in African American genealogy with emphasis on methodology and skill-building techniques.  Attendees embark on a new adventure to find documentation of enslaved ancestors; to developing new analytical skills, to developing new research pathways towards pre and post emancipation era family history.  Learn collaboration and partnership techniques and the value of genealogy support groups.   Learn from nationally recognized experts.

Class Offerings: 
  • Search Strategies and Using Trees to Organize Information: Getting the Most out of Ancestry - Szucs
  • Founding of a Nation: The Revolutionary War & Post-Revolutionary War Period Records - Brothers
  • Exploring Collections Beneficial to African American Research:  Hidden Treasures at Ancestry - Szucs
  • Rebirth of a Nation: The Civil War & Post Civil War Period Records - Brothers
  • Census Data:  More Than Just a Population Count - Forté
  • Exploring U.S. Probate Records on Ancestry - Szucs
  • U.S. Becomes a Superpower - Brothers
  • Plantation Journals:  The Business Ledgers Provide a Valuable Source To Slave Identity - Forté
  • Seven Strategies To Identifying The Slave Holder - Forté
  • Discovering Unique African American Resources and Collections - Tennant
  • What's My Brick Wall:  Strategies Towards Resolving It - Forté
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Janis Minor Forté, B.A., M.A.
Track 3 Coordinator
Bio
​Track 4: African-Native American Genealogy     

Faculty:  Terry Ligon, Janice Lovelace, Nicka Sewell-Smith, & Angela Walton-Raji

Focus: MAAGI is the first genealogy institute to offer a track devoted entirely to researching Native and African American family histories. Included are several classes that contain information on Oklahoma Freedmen, Native families in the federal census, and info on families from the south to New England. Records from the Indian schools will be reflected, and so much more. This focus in the genealogy community, is long overdue. This will be the second year that MAAGI will contain a track devoted to Native American genealogy.  Among the classes will also be in-depth exploration of Mississippi Choctaw, Eastern Cherokee applications and blended communities from the 1800s onward.

For three days the participants will take 12 classes, all of which will be devoted to methods of researching the documenting the history of this most underdiscussed population. 


Class Offerings: ​
  • African-Native American Research - Basic Records
  • The Dawes Rolls - Purpose and Content
  • Cherokee Ancestry & Genealogy Records
  • Forgotten Patriots No More - African and Native American Patriots of the Revolutionary War
  • Creek Records Beyond the Dawes Roll
  • Land Records: Allotment and Beyond 
  • Chickasaw Freedmen - Equity Case 7071
  • Africans on the Trail of Tears: The Long Road to Recognition 
  • USCTs and Indian Home Guards - African & Native Soldiers in the Civil War
  • Territory of Lincoln. Oklahoma/Indian Territory: An All Black State?  Profiles of Creek Freedmen Families
  • A Community Extraction Program for Indian Territory Freedmen
  • Mississippi Choctaws & Eastern Cherokees
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Angela Walton-Raji, B.A., M.Ed.
Track 4 Coordinator
Bio

Don't get left behind.

Three days of learning, researching and networking await you at MAAGI!
Register Today
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  • HOME
  • ABOUT MAAGI
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  • WHY MAAGI?
  • LOGISTICS
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    • FAQ
  • MEDIA
    • Press Releases
    • Videos
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  • REGISTER
    • Register Online
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