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You want to try to find your heritage.

Some of what I am doing when I am researching is looking for things people in my family have done and finding out what those things mean, why they did those things and seeing how I fit into them.

For a while, I thought a lot about lineage. Where do I belong? Who am I standing next to?

You'll find a lot of rich detail in people's personal histories - diaries and journals and things of the era.

It's hard to say what I want my legacy to be when I'm long gone.

My particular lifetime, my individual profile, represents something very basic to African-American history and culture because I was a second generation immigrant, so to speak, from the South. My grandfather was born in South Carolina - well, both grandfathers were born in the South.

I learned from an early age that my heritage, my love for people, and my desire to be a vehicle that can be used through my voice, that my expressions and actions can transport a person to experience a scene from the past, present and future.

I haven't done any genealogical exploring myself, though members of my family and also of my husband's family have traced things back. I have a great grandfather on my mother's side who was a musician, and I'd like to know more about his life.

Information defines your personality, your memories, your skills.

It was important for me to understand who I am and where I came from. To get a hold on why I do certain things.