Alex Genealogy

02/22/2026

Louisiana Creole’s. Have any stories of your family passing?

02/22/2026

Morning share is this lovely photo of Parker Auzenne and his wife Emma Edoice Auzenne, both Creoles of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Parker, a farmer, was born circa 1889 in Prairie Laurent, Louisiana to Aramis Auzenne, a free man of color, and Helen Fuselier. He died in 1982. Emma was born circa 1885 in Prairie Laurent, Louisiana to William H. Auzenne and Clothilde Gallot. She died in 1943.

Yes, they are distantly related. As the elders would say, they only had horse and buggy back then 😂 😉

02/22/2026

If you’re from Louisiana! We are related! Hey cousin!!!!

02/22/2026

Today we celebrate our Chief Engagement Officer, Chaila Scott.

Happy Birthday, Chaila!

You have been incredible in helping guide the new direction of the AlexGenealogy firm. Your dedication, vision, and commitment to elevating the work we do has not gone unnoticed. It is truly a pleasure to recognize the impact you continue to make behind the scenes and within our growing community.

Thank you for all that you do and continue to do to elevate AlexGenealogy. Your leadership, energy, and passion are making a tremendous impact, and you are truly appreciated.

Wishing you a wonderful birthday and continued success in the year ahead. You are truly valued and appreciated.

02/22/2026

I need y’all to help me spread this message.

If you have not conducted extensive genealogical research or taken an AncestryDNA test, sometimes the best thing to do is listen, learn, and allow the research to speak for itself. DNA connections are truly revolutionizing genealogy. They are helping confirm relationships, reconnect families separated by slavery, and uncover connections that were never documented on paper.

For descendants of formerly enslaved people especially, DNA has become one of the most powerful tools we have. It fills gaps where historical documentation ends and brings together families who never knew they were connected.

And here is a perfect example of what happens when research and DNA come together.

This photo is from the 2024 Friends and Family Celebration hosted by the Virtual Friends and Family Genealogy Group, an organization I am proud to be a part of. This three-day gathering brought DNA-tested researchers and families back to Opelousas, Louisiana, where many of our ancestors once lived. People traveled from across the country, filled the hotels, supported local restaurants, visited ancestral communities, and helped grow what is becoming a true genealogical tourism movement.

Genealogy is no longer just building a family tree online. It is reconnecting living families and restoring community.

If you want to be around people who have benefited from DNA testing, documented research, and real family connections, the next Friends and Family Celebration will take place June 11th through June 13th in Opelousas.

Come reconnect with family.
Come walk the same ground as your ancestors.
Come experience genealogy in real time.

Please and thanks.

02/22/2026

If you think small towns don’t have much history, think again.

This is the 1869 marriage record of Robert REEVES, a formerly enslaved man and the paternal great-great-grandfather of Jay-Z, who married Rosalie MARTINEAU, a free woman of color of Native ancestry, in Mamou, Louisiana.

Mamou is widely known today as the “Cajun Music Capital of the World,” but long before the music festivals and dance halls, communities like this were quietly documenting generations of Creole families whose stories would later shape American culture in ways few people realize. The same small town that produced pioneering Creole and Zydeco musicians also preserved records connecting global icons to Reconstruction-era Louisiana families.

02/22/2026

Researching formerly enslaved people is not easy work. There are moments when it becomes deeply emotional, especially when you see entire families listed for sale alongside animals, tools, land, and household goods. Those records force you to confront the reality of how our ancestors were reduced to property. But despite the weight of that history, this is important work that must be done.

This may be a long video, but what you are watching is me live in action around early 2014, nearly 12 years ago. At that time, I was already almost seven years into my research journey. From the very beginning, I made it a priority not just to trace enslavers, but to identify the formerly enslaved families themselves. That was significant because very few researchers were consistently doing that work then.

I was researching during a period when you still had to sit at microfilm machines, physically travel to archives, and spend hours turning reels just to locate one record. Digitization was only beginning to take shape, and I was working right at the early stages of that transition as institutions slowly started converting collections into digital formats. Much of what I built came from being physically present in courthouses, churches, and archives long before records became widely accessible online.

In this video, I share how I identified formerly enslaved families once owned by my ancestor Jean Baptiste MEUILLON, a free man of color born enslaved in New Orleans who later migrated to the Opelousas area and became a wealthy planter, even wealthier than many white families living there at the time.

I have successfully identified many of those formerly enslaved individuals and connected with their descendants. I have been doing this work for 18 years and counting. I don’t just collect names. I reconnect generations to their earliest known ancestors.

What you now know as AlexGenealogy grew from moments exactly like this.

This is my legacy. This is my passion project. ゚viralシ

02/22/2026

This is a 236-year-old slave record documenting the sale of my maternal 5th great-grandmother Zoe, identified as “from the Nation of Poular,” about 22 years of age, along with her two infant mulatto children, Clarisse, aged about 4 years, and Jean Baptiste, aged about 3 years. They were sold by Jacob SCHNELL to Florentin POIRET for $800.

As a Creole person, we often speak broadly about African ancestry, especially when many people struggle with accepting a direct connection to those who were forcibly transported through the transatlantic slave trade. The trauma, the violence, and generations of limited documentation have made that history difficult for many families to confront. Because of that, there has been a growing trend of individuals attempting to identify primarily with early Native American ancestry despite the absence of documentary evidence supporting those claims.

As an experienced regional researcher, I work from documentation, not assumption. The archives tell the story. Through Catholic church records, courthouse documents, succession files, and slave transactions like this one, I have been able to both confirm legitimate Native ancestry where it exists and also debunk narratives that disconnect families from their documented African origins. Genealogy requires honesty with the records, even when the truth challenges modern identity narratives.

To actually possess a legal document naming the specific African nation of my ancestor is deeply meaningful. For generations, enslaved people were stripped of identity, language, and homeland. Records like this restore a piece of what was taken.

Slave research is not easy work. It demands time, emotional endurance, and a willingness to read documents that recorded human beings only as property. I continue this research because every discovery restores humanity to ancestors whose stories were never meant to survive.

There is a heavy reality in recognizing that the only recorded value assigned to my early enslaved ancestors was their age, labor, and ability to produce. They were listed, priced, and transferred before their humanity was ever acknowledged. Knowing that history does not discourage me. It motivates me to build a legacy of documented accomplishments, restored identities, and preserved history in their honor.

02/22/2026

One of the Loyola graduates of 1955 descends from a prominent free man of color who became St. Landry Parish’s first Black constable, the first in the state of Louisiana. She is a close relative of my grandfather, but her branch of the family moved to New Orleans for better opportunities and never returned.

Last year, I connected with some of her relatives, many of whom are quite successful, yet most have no idea they descend from this trailblazing constable. Now, isn’t that something?

So, which of you can guess who his descendant is?

02/22/2026

Whenever I used to go visit my family members in rural Louisiana, one thing that always stood out to me was that nobody was really genuinely checking on the relatives. Here I was, a fresh 19-year-old man traveling back and forth to Louisiana, single, just trying to connect with family and learn history.

When I met these relatives, they shared a lot of information with me. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but notice the emotional and financial struggles some of them were facing. I used to try to ignite their spirit, make them laugh, make them feel seen and happy.

There’s something I never really said publicly. I used to carry $100 bills with me. That way, when I visited certain relatives, I could quietly leave them a little support. They never asked for anything, but you could feel when someone was going through something.

I started doing that after one particular visit. A relative offered me something to drink. When I opened the icebox, there was nothing in it. As much as I tried to focus on the information they were sharing, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that this family member was clearly struggling. I left three crisp $100 bills that day. I was getting paid every Thursday, and at that time I didn’t have children or much debt, so I had a little extra to give to some of the elders.

Nobody knew I was doing that.

That’s why it used to bother me when people said I was taking from relatives. I am proud to say that the conversations, photographs, and videos I collected mean these people will continue to live through my work.

I’m not throwing shade at the family, but the truth is a lot of these elders were forgotten. Sometimes I don’t even see their names mentioned. Yet when I share them on social media, look how many people come forward with stories and memories, realizing the special relationships they had with these individuals. That brings me joy.

So yes, it can be frustrating when family members act funny about me sharing their deceased loved ones. The reality is that I came with knowledge, information, and a sense of pride. I can only imagine how many elders we’ve lost who were taken advantage of by people close to them, loans taken out in their names or decisions made for someone else’s benefit.

All I’m doing is sharing information to reconnect family, and that is a beautiful thing. When I post those old photos and see people commenting, sharing stories, and reconnecting, that’s what makes it worth it.

Genealogy teaches you something important. When you sit with elders long enough, people tell you their business. I have integrity, so I would never expose anyone, but I know a lot about moves people made involving the deceased. That’s something people underestimate. I sit with the elders, and the elders know everything. They are not just on social media looking at everyone’s horrible gumbo recipes or passing time. They are paying attention. They are gathering information too. We just typically simplify it as being nosey 😂 👀 👂 👃

So today, call a relative. Check on them. Go sit with them. Don’t just ask questions for research. Ask them if they need anything.

You never know what a simple conversation or act of care can mean to someone.gss

02/22/2026

Back in 2019, after Nipsey Hussle’s death, my research confirmed that he and Laila Ali were close relatives. Her maternal great-grandfather and Nipsey’s maternal great-great-grandfather were brothers, both descended from Creoles of color from Louisiana. I even discovered a census record showing their ancestors living in the same household. A lot of people of color give up on family research because they don’t believe there are records, but this discovery proves otherwise.In one of his songs from the Victory Lap album, Nipsey Hussle mentioned, “Somebody’s a genius, they just don’t have the platform to explain it.” Since his passing, my platform has grown tremendously, and now I’m reaching millions every month, sharing the knowledge I have on family connections like this.Before they were celebrities, they were born relatives. Stay tuned! #

02/22/2026