Local author and genealogist Char McCargo Bah will discuss how she used genealogical research and creative writing to write her two books and the articles for her column, “The Other Alexandria.” These methods of research and writing can be incorporated into any genre. This type of research can bring ordinary characters/people to life by taking the research and writing it in a creative way.
Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft and character development.
You can find examples of Char's work online:
What A Wonderful Childhood: Frances Colbert Clements Terrell
A Family’s Devastation of Influenza Pandemic: Bessie Evans Baltimore Carter
We Were Part of the Sunnyside Community: Lovell Arvid Lee
Remembering ‘Roro’ Scott
Grandfather and Us: Wilmer Benjamin Henry
At Heart a Firefighter for Life: Gerald Amos Wanzer
First Principal of Parker-Gray School (Found on page 6)
Char McCargo Bah is the CEO/Owner of FindingThingsforU, LLC. She retired from the Federal government as a Senior Policy Writer and Researcher. She has undergrad degrees in Urban Studies and African-American Studies. She has been a genealogist since 1981; appearing in numerous television interviews and documentaries. Char is currently working on the Virginia Theological Seminary’s Reparation Project and the Alexandria, Virginia Public Housing Project in locating descendants. She is a 2020 Virginia Humanities Scholar. Char has received numerous awards such as being nominated in 2019 for Who Who’s in America. She will appear in the 2020 Who Who’s in America publication. In 2014, she became Alexandria, Virginia’s Living Legend.
She is the author of two books and a short story in an anthology. Her most recent book was published in 2019, Alexandria’s Freedmen’s Cemetery: A Legacy of Freedom. Her second book published in 2013, African Americans of Alexandria, VA: Beacons of Light in the Twentieth Century. Her short story was published in 2006 in an anthology book, Everyday Grace, Everyday Miracle: Living the Life You Were Born to Live, Angels In A Time of Need. She is a freelance writer on local history for her column, “The Other Alexandria,” in the Alexandria Gazette Newspaper. She is a member of a dozen genealogical societies, which includes, National Genealogical Society, Virginia Genealogical Society, Fairfax Genealogical Society, Afro-American Historical Genealogical Society and numerous historical and writing societies and organizations. You can find her online on her website.
