ABOUT THE SOCIETY 
 

The Fred Hart Williams Genealogical Society was organized in 1979 to increase interest in African American family history and genealogical research. It publishes a newsletter three times a year and sponsors educational programs and workshops explaining research techniques useful for persons of African American ancestry. Members are encouraged to share their experiences, to exchange research findings, attend meetings, and deposit compiled family histories with the society. The Society also collects, preserves and makes available to the public, manuscripts, documents, genealogical records and historical materials. Field trips are taken to examine historical sites and collections of family history records.

The Society honors the legacy of Fred Hart Williams (1882-1961), a pioneer in collecting and interpreting historical materials about African Americans. Throughout his employment as a senior tax clerk for the City of Detroit, he also wrote and reported for three newspapers: The Detroit Tribune, The Michigan Chronicle, and the Detroit edition of The Pittsburgh Courier.

Historians and writers all over the world are indebted to him for the materials he donated to establish the highly regarded E. Azalia Hackley Collections that honors African Americans in the performing arts, stored at the Detroit Public Library. The descendant of a family who came to Detroit on the “Underground Railroad”, Williams served his community as a journalist, author, historian and patron of the arts. Williams’ own family history papers, donated to the Burton Historical Collection in the library, form an important source of African American History.

The Society meets once a month from September to June, except in December. Anyone interested in the objectives of the Society if encouraged to become an active member. Most meetings are held in the main branch of the Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Avenue, on alternate first or second Saturdays at 10:00 a.m. All meetings are open free of charge to the public.

The Society was the first African American Genealogical Society in Michigan.