Lowcountry Africana, a free website dedicated to African American genealogy and history in the Lowcountry Southeast (SC, GA and FL) is pleased to welcome Aisha Taylor as Coordinator of Florida Records. In her new role at Lowcountry Africana, Aisha Taylor will coordinate the growth of the Florida document collection, share information on resources for Florida research, and offer insights on research methods to help keep your Florida genealogical research moving forward.
She holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a masters degree in Educational Psychology: Applied Cognition and Development from the University of Georgia. She brings a deep knowledge of software and technology, social networking tools and instructional design to the Lowcountry Africana team.
Aisha Taylor began her genealogical journey at the age of 15 after a family reunion in South Carolina. After wondering what the stories were behind the names on her family tree, she teamed with a teacher in her high school to establish a genealogy club. After discovering records for her family at the National Archives, she realized that genealogy could help people build a bridge to their past and inspire young African-Americans to achieve.
Aisha's connection to the Lowcountry runs deep; she is descended from slaves in Orange County, South Carolina and Alachua County, Florida. She has established the Uncommon Roots blog and the Reddick-Benbow-Means family site to share her experience with others and preserve the history of her family.
By day, an Instructional Designer/Developer, Aisha is committed to helping a younger generation embrace genealogy and become committed to learning about the past in order to ensure their future.
She currently volunteers as an indexer for the FamilySearch Indexing Project and the Ancestry.com World Indexing Project. In addition, she works with the Alachua County US Ancient Records to transcribe and index the scanned documents. As part of her indexing efforts, Aisha is working to create an index of slaves mentioned in the Alachua County ancient records. She has also begun working with the Archer Historical Society to incorporate the history of the African-American families of Archer and to document the African-American family cemeteries in Alachua County.
We are honored to welcome Aisha Taylor to the Lowcountry Africana team!
