Noted professional genealogist Tony Burroughs was interviewed by CNN about tracing Micelle Obama's roots. CNN asked Tony about the concept of "the concept that records simply don't exist beyond the mid-1800s for so much of her family is so telling about the legacy of slavery we'll never shed."
Tony addressed that in respect to the First Lady's ancestry as well as what all this means for other Black Americans who have an interest in their own family trees. As stated in the interview: "African-American genealogy is still in its infancy, and methodology is still being developed. Advanced research, particularly in the slavery period, can become very complicated. Progress is often contingent on genealogy skills, painstaking research in multiple locations and using records that have not been transcribed, indexed or placed on the Internet."
You can read this article about the interview at http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/14/burroughs.obama.genealogy/.
