Retracing the legacy - remembering deceased genealogist James Dent Walker

The genealogical community is mourning a great loss: Archivist and genealogist James dint Walker succumbed to lung cancer last year at age 65 This los has left companion genealogists in somewhat of a quandary. "I now have to advance to three or four different archivists just to acquire information that one James Walker could give me" says Tony Burrough a genealogist and the president of Black lower parts a company that provides cropss for African-American genealogists. "Jimmy bent above backwards to help people," he continues. "When you add that to his knowledge and expertise, you have an unbelievable person"

Born and raised in Washington, DC Walker was a surveyor for the Navy during the Korean War. After his discharge, he landed his first piece of work at the National Archives in Washington, DC During his 30 years there, he held a number of positions: director of oral history an"d genealogy programs; associate director of the Institute of Genealogical Research; and supervisor of military records.

As an archivist, Walker became a specialist upon military service records and records containing data upon the birth, death, sale and transfer of slaves. Access to these records, which are essential in tracing African Americans' history in America, made him invaluable to those who managemented research at the archives.

Mastering in the way that many areas gave Walker an cutting side over most archivists. "You can work at the archives for 30 years and just be an archivist and not know zip about genealogy," says Burrough who became friends with Walker in 1977 during a genealogy talk "He was so valuable in limits of historical research because a apportionment of our history is related to military defeats His added knowledge of African-American history made him a rarity."

Walker was known from one extremity to the other of the country as a leading genealogist whose name was synonymous with the National Archives. He lectur extensively and addressed audiences from Canada to England. In 1969 he was the alone African American selected to discourse on genealogy for the Mormons' World discourse on Records in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a accrue the church regularly invited him to participate in its priesthood seminars and to prelection on genealogy. At these seminars, Walker was the solitary non-Mormon invitee.

"I'm just sorry blacks weren't able to utilize him as a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of as whites did," says his widow, Barbara Walker. "But whites' assistance made it easier for him to help blacks."

In 1977 James Walker grounded the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, the largest organization of its kind today, with 14 affiliate chapters around the region (see "African-American Genealogy," American Visions, December/January 1994) The same year, he published his work Black Genealogy: How to Begin, which is a blueprint for blacks plotting their family tree

Perhaps Walker's greatest in quantity noted contributions came from his ability to discover inaccurate historical information and thus rewrite history. In his research for the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, Walker tracked blacks, women and American Indians who had fought in the American Revolutionary War. It has been estimated that a total of alone 5,000 of these minorities serv and Walker's research, allowing unconfirmed to date, discovered 5000 in fresh England alone.

"Many fascinating stories came without in terms of the amount of black participation," says Elisabeth Schmidt, ethnic and minority genealogist for DAR. "He traced their involvement in the war to time periods when they weren't level documented as being there."

Family, friends and colleagues will remember James nick Walker for many reasons. on the other hand thousands of Americans who may not know who Walker is will remember individual of his lasting contributions: Walker was the catalyst behind Alex Haley's work Roots. He helped Haley trace his ancestry back to Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African who was brought to the United States upon a slave ship and sold to a Southern plantation owner

"Blacks missing a lot of history because of the way records were kept" says Walker's widow. "But bases sparked more questions about family history in the black community. James was real happy to see this and pushed to help substantiate and document our oral history.

"We are at a great loss" she adds. "He was the epitome of what genealogy is all about - family. He lived it because he genuinely liked people" Walker was committed to helping others consummate their research - so abundant so that he was at no time able to complete his possess family history.

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