The Gen-Fed Alumni Association is pleased to present Aungelic “Gigi” Nelson as the winner of the 2023 Richard S. Lackey Memorial Scholarship.
Gigi is an accomplished speaker, genealogist, and historian. Born in Los Angeles and raised in an Army family, she spent her school years living all over the country and overseas. She holds both a BA (Columbus State University, Columbus, GA,) and a master’s degree (University of Alabama, Birmingham) in American History, and taught college-level history courses and other related subjects. After years of teaching, she became a military historian with the Air Force and completed two deployments downrange as a combat historian. In 2017, she finally settled down in Washington, DC, where her passion for genealogy became a mission.
That passion led her to create the Majani Project, a nonprofit online genealogical club for Black youth (www.majani.org). When she realized there were no books specifically to introduce Black young adults to genealogy, she wrote and published one herself. For The Culture: A Genealogy Handbook For The Cool Kids is a labor of love with lots of pictures and activities to get youth started on their genealogical journey of connecting to their ancestors and finding strength, resilience, and self-identity in their Black heritage.
Gigi has also developed a public speaking program on “Restorative Genealogy” directed to religious and social organizations where she speaks nationwide to groups about how genealogy can be more than just a hobby if more family historians are willing to put all family records (the great and the not-so-great) online. Making records available and searchable is a gift that can have profound effects on those attempting to piece together their own family story. Her book on that will be published this year.
Gigi is a member of various local and national historical societies and genealogical associations. A former elected commissioner for her neighborhood in Washington, DC, she enjoys researching genealogy for herself and others, skating, dancing, and cooking.