USA Griot Launches Black American Family History Research Services Nationwide

May 29, 2010 (Southfield, MI) - What is my heritage as an African American? What are the root causes of many problems that Black Americans face? And how can these problems be resolved for individuals and families? These are questions that most African Americans ask, without being able to fully answer.

Southfield, Michigan-based professional family history research company USA Griot (pronounced gree-oh), www.usagriot.com, has launched a service providing answers to these questions, thereby healing many of the problems that plague Black Americans.

“These problems that plague Black Americans are harmful after-effects of slavery. And USA Griot’s goal is to undo the negatives of slavery one person/family at a time,” says the company’s owner, and professional genealogist Burlay Toukam.

Scholars estimate slave ship crews and captains and European/European American businessmen transported 11,698,000 captive Africans to the Americas and Caribbean during the Atlantic slave trade. The United States Census Bureau estimates there are 41,100,000 African Americans today. The vast majority of their ancestors arrived here in slave ships.

Page 82 of Slavery in the South: A State-by-State History by Jewett and Allen states, “Human chattel brought directly from Africa often had to go through a ‘breaking-in’ period to learn work discipline and the proper subservient behavior.”

To maximize profits and prevent slave revolts, slave owners, related businessmen, and legislators separated slave families, took away their names, languages, cultures, religions, and, by default, their unity and humanity as extended families, ethnic groups, and members of nations and empires. This unfortunate process was an intentional theft of heritage.

As a consequence of this rape of parentage and human rights, many problems arose for African Americans. These resulting issues included health problems, complexion/racial prejudice, broken homes, different castes of slave and free Black society, financial concerns, crime, and so on. These harmful side effects of the breaking-in process were to occur to de-unify slaves (and their descendants) while slave owners and business persons in related fields (and their descendants) hoarded wealth and power. Meanwhile, slaves of African descent (and their offspring) suffered as a de-unified group without the ties of kinship and culture that link and empower strong groups of people.

These problems can be systematically corrected for the betterment of African Americans just as they were systematically inflicted to the detriment of Blacks by regaining one’s true heritage.

With an expert staff including a history expert, genealogist, African American research specialist, European/European American expert, and an authority on Native American heritage, USA Griot offers family history research services including:
• Research end of slavery to present.
• Chronicle slavery.
• Document Middle Passage (slave ships).
• Discover African tribe/country.
• Native American heritage
• European American heritage
• Book creation and publication
• Family website
• DVD documentary
• Family wall charts
• Family health history

Burlay Toukam, BA (Afroamerican & African Studies) is a professional genealogist who traced more than seven generations of his own African American family in 2001-2003 at 21-23 years old. This research included end of slavery to the present, slavery, the Middle Passage (slave ships), and the specific African tribe and country of ancestry. He completed genealogy coursework at the University of Michigan under Dr. Kevin Gaines (the Director of University of Michigan's Center for Afroamerican & African Studies).

He has been a member of the North Carolina Genealogical Society, Broad River Genealogical Society, and the Association of Professional Genealogists. He copyrighted a paper on African American genealogy. Various radio, newspaper, magazine, and internet media platforms featured Toukam and his family history research company USA Griot.

Toukam and the staff of USA Griot are conversant in all Black American genealogical methods, regions, and historical eras.

USA Griot, LLC is an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau.