Meetings
Meetings and Events
In 2022, meetings held every 2nd Saturday of every month 10:30 a.m to 1:30 pm at Family Search Library located at 509 S. 9th Street, Las Vegas, Nevada. No meetings are held in August for a summer break.
The 2022/2023 year resumes on September 10, 2022. Please contact Karen Johnson, karsew4u@aol.com,or Rhonda Long, rhlong@yahoo.com. We would love to see you become a part of our organization.
September 10, 2022 Meeting
The 2022-2023 monthly schedule for the African American Genealogy Society will resume with in person meetings.
The next meeting of our organization year is scheduled for Saturday September 10, 2022 at 10:30am-12:30pm at the Family Search Library located at 509 S. 9th Street, Las Vegas, Nevada.
At the meeting we will discuss any general genealogy news and finds. In addition, someone from the library will give updates on new research techniques. As always, there will be time to use the library computers for research after discussion.
Please feel free to invite anyone you may know who is interested in joining our genealogy group and/or wants to start researching family information. The library has computers for research after the lecture.
Meetings are subject to the library's rules concerning in person meetings.
Please follow us on Facebook for meeting notices: https://www.facebook.com/NVAAGS
Upcoming events/Projects
There are no upcoming scheduled Events.
If you have any ideas for future projects/events or would like to volunteer. Please reach out to Rhonda Long at rhlong@yahoo.com
Future Projects include:
Clark County Black Church Records Preservation Project - Our organization would like to do outreach to black churches in Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas to provide assistance in our to preserve membership records for future genealogical purposes. We would also like to create our own catalog of historical black church records to assist people who are searching for family who may have attended a black church in Clark County, Nevada.
Introduction to Genealogy Courses - In 2022/2023, our organization plans to conduct an introduction to genealogy at a community center in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2017, our organization held an introductory seminar at Dolittle Community Center which was a great success.
Past events/Projects
2018 Bench of Unknown Souls
Photo Credit: Jamie Munks/Las Vegas Review-Journal @Journo_Jamie_
Las Vegas monuments honor those in unmarked graves
"By Jamie Munks Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 12, 2018 - 5:48 pm
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The Bench of Unknown Souls in Woodlawn Cemetery in Las Vegas symbolizes rest to Darell White.
“A lot of the people buried here were toilers — workers — and didn’t have a very restful life,” said White, the president and founder of the Nevada African American Genealogy Society.
The bench, dedicated on Memorial Day, sits in the cemetery’s O section, the burial site for African-Americans before desegregation.
The bench and an obelisk in the Cyprus area of the cemetery, another section where a number of people are buried in unmarked graves, were dedicated in May after years of fundraising.
“We wanted to take that history and have a memorial so people could come and remember those souls,” White said.
Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Dean Heller, Reps. Dina Titus, Jacky Rosen and Ruben Kihuen, and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman attended the May ceremony.
According to the city of Las Vegas:
In the city’s earliest years, people buried the dead in small family plots or on public land just north of the railroad-owned Las Vegas Ranch, east of Las Vegas Boulevard. Markers in the informal graveyard disappeared, and the burials were forgotten over time.
The railroad donated land in 1914 just south of the burial ground for a city cemetery, which became Woodlawn. Any early burials found outside its bounds have been re-interred within the cemetery.
Woodlawn managers chose grave sites for black citizens until 1939, when residents asked for the right to choose their own plots. The city allowed a delegation of black residents to choose a section of the cemetery exclusively for black burials and said cemetery staff would provide proper care of the graves.
It’s not clear how many bodies are buried in unmarked graves at Woodlawn.
The cemetery is part of the Pioneer Trail, which marks historical locations that are significant to early Las Vegas.
One of the Nevada African American Genealogy Society’s primary goals is to help members locate and document their ancestors.
“People want to know where they came from,” Nevada African American Genealogy Society historian Karen Johnson said. “One day somebody’s going to stumble across someone who could have been their great-great-grandfather.”
On a recent walk through Woodlawn’s O section, White said that now that the markers have been placed, she’s turning her attention to raising funds that will pay for additional upkeep. She points out tree roots snaking among headstones and said she’s seen some get damaged.
“This is a city cemetery and the oldest one,” White said. “It needs to be shining as bright as the lights on Las Vegas Boulevard South.”