As previously stated I started working on my family tree in 2013 after I saw Roots. I wanted to know exactly where I came from and trace my ancestry back to my beginning origins. I didn’t know anything about genealogy or how to research my family.

How Did I Start

• I WROTE EVERYTHING DOWN that I knew. Starting with myself, my brother and my parents (immediate family). I got their full name, birthday, mother’s maiden name, their parents names, their siblings and anything else that they could remember that may be some important.

• Next I asked my grandmothers – who were the oldest living close relatives that I had. I asked them the same questions I asked my parents. The main idea was to get as far back as I could through my living relatives.

• After my grandmothers, I moved on to other relatives which consisted of my aunts and cousins on all sides of my family. I spoke with 1st, 2nd, 3rd and even 4th cousins about their immediate family as well as the connections to my immediate family.

• Once I had everything written down, I researched the best websites to document my family tree. The main ones I found were ancestry.com and familysearch.com – I will get into the differences of each one in another post. The reason I chose family search was because it was free and still offered me a lot of information that I could use for my research.

• RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH… I looked through the census, birth, marriage, death, and any other types of records that I could find pertaining to the names and information I had gotten from my relatives.

• I took all the information I had and added it to a large family tree on family search. That included the documents, records and written information I found.

I hope these tips on how I got started assist you in starting your journey on finding your ancestors!

Click here to watch my video on how I got started :

Hello Beautiful Black People!! My first black owned wine comes from the Mcbride Sisters wine company. I tried their 2015 Red Blend.

Background Story

They have a very interesting back story about how they got started in the wine business as well as the start of their company. The sisters knew nothing of one another until they were introduced to each other by their aunt. One sister was living in New Zealand and the other was in California. They shared the same father but had different mothers and had never met before. Both sisters were interested in the wine industry and when they met in 1999 they started the company McBride Sisters wines.

The Wine Review

The wine was very smooth and had hints of berry and oak. It wasn’t sweet at all but the hints of berry allowed it to not be super dry. I chilled the wine before I opened it (I like cold wine) so that it would be at the temperature that I prefer. I purchased this wine from Kroger in Atlanta being that it was not available to buy in Birmingham. I used the store locator (https://www.mcbridesisters.com/store-locators/) on the McBride sisters website to find the closest location that sold the wine. The wine was on sale for $13 but is usually around $20. Overall I would purchase from the McBride Sisters Collection again. I’m very interested to try their Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Sparkling Brut Rose. Click here https://youtu.be/6XnsSWYRDQc  to view my wine review video.

For more information on the McBride Sisters and where you can purchase their wine please visit their website at : https://www.mcbridesisters.com/

Hello Beautiful Black People! Welcome to Ancestors and Alcohol! I’m Brie and I’m here to share my Genealogy story with you as well as give you reviews on alcohol, wine and beer produced by Black companies/individuals.

A little background on me. I’m 29 years old and live in Alabama!

Alcohol 

I love to drink and try out new beverages. I realized that I spend quite a bit of money on alcohol and decided that in the year of 2019 I was only going to purchase alcohol from Black owned companies. Jay-Z said it best in a line from his song Family Feud “I’ll be damned if I drink some Belvedere while Puff got Ciroc.” I’ve done some research and there are tons of black owned producers of alcohol, beer and wine (more than 50) in the United States. I wanted to share my experiences with other people who may want to broaden their horizons or just as Issa said “Root for Everybody Black”. Why not only buy black? I won’t get into that whole debate. I hope ya’ll enjoy my reviews and go grab that alcohol and support!

Ancestors

I’ve been working on my family tree since 2013 on and off. It’s always been something that I was interested in. I had a strong yearning to know where I came from. Let’s keep it real – I saw roots and thought I was gonna be the next Alex Haley. I wanted to find my own Kunta Kinta and Kizzy. I linked up with my cousin who was on the same journey and found a lot of history but there was still something missing. I would go back and forth with the research until I would stop working on it. I picked back up my genealogy hobby earlier this year (March 2018) and haven’t stopped yet. I’ve been successful in tracing my ancestors back until the 1870s (which is where most African Americans get stuck) before I hit a wall. I wanted to share my journey and information with other Blacks who may be interested in Genealogy but don’t know where to start. 

To watch my live introduction on Youtube view here –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbNlut1YmPw

Enjoy!