Note: the time for today's meeting has been changed to 10:00am. The Discover Your Past Genealogy Club is meeting virtually. Space is limited and registration is required. Registered participants will receive the meeting login information by email by 9:00am on the day of the meeting.

Creole Family Heritage and Culture -- South Alabama, Louisiana 

This Thursday's meeting will involve family in a new way.  Stephanie's sister, Tracy Neely and a young fellow student researcher Dakota Perry will share research findings and resources about 17th -20th Creole families and culture along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.   Dakota will share her ten minute 2020 award winning documentary Unearthing the Forgotten Heritage of South Alabama Creoles and afterwards Dakota and Tracy will take questions facilitated by club member and Wakefield high school history teacher Paul Trahan.

Dakota Perry is a rising 9th grader at WP Davidson High School in Mobile, Alabama.  In May of this year she was awarded first place in the Junior Documentary Category for the 2020 History Day Competition for the creation of a short film about Creole heritage and history in South Alabama

In addition to being Stephanie’s big sister, Tracy Neely serves as President of the Mobile Creole Cultural and Historical Preservation Society and is the Mobile County Representative for the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance. She also serves as Registrar for the Needham Bryan Chapter of the DAR in Mobile and is a lifetime member of the Jamestowne Society​.

MHL Discover Your Past Genealogy Club member Paul Trahan is a Boston-area native and a History teacher at Wakefield High School.   After spending several years researching his own  French-Canadian and Italian ancestry, Paul is launching a high school genealogy class this academic year.