The Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists are again pleased to offer grant opportunities in support of important continuing genealogical research projects. These grants are intended to assist with those projects sitting unfinished (or unstarted) on every genealogist’s “back burner” for lack of financial aid to help cover researching and writing time, costs of copies, fees, travel, and other usual expenses associated with genealogical research and publication. 

Grants are for $2,500 each. Four grants are available for 2025. Projects are not limited regarding location, subject, length, or format, but the value of the work to other researchers and institutions will be an important consideration. Examples of possible projects include, but are not limited to, compilation of single or extended family genealogies, transcriptions or translations of original documents, bibliographies, indexes, studies of ethnic groups, geographic locations, migration patterns, legal history, etc., using genealogical resources and methods. Publication is not required, but acknowledgement of the support from the American Society of Genealogists in any distribution of the project results is requisite. The grantee is required to present ASG with a copy of the completed project in the format in which it exists – hard copy, digital image, database, etc.

To receive a 2025 Continuing Genealogical Grant Application, write to:

acwcrane@aol.com or 

Alicia Crane Williams, FASG, 4 White Trellis, Plymouth, MA 02360.

Deadline for submitting an application for 2025 grants is: April 1, 2025.

Grants awarded in 2024: 

• Shadidah Ahmad, Watertown, MA: This grant adds to the 2023 grant awarded to Ahmad to locate and record 200 funeral programs from churches and funeral homes, and through interviews with local elders to document the African American cemeteries in Holly Hill and Cottageville, South Carolina. The programs are being copied and digitized, their information captured on Excel sheets and entered into a genealogy program, with a future goal of creating a website with the digitized materials she has collected. Her research also include family Bibles and church organizations. In-person visits with community elders and with family members in charge of burial plots, etc., add flesh to the stories of a “rapidly dying history in these small, yet rich towns.” 

• Carolyne Ngara, Nairobi, Kenya: “A Comprehensive Genealogical Research of the Luo people of Kenya.” The Joka Jok oral history program has conducted 50 interviews with members of 24 ethnic Luo clans, with the expectation of eventually conducting over 100, “preserving over half a million records on the Luo.” Original documents, bibliographies, indexes, geographical locations, migration patterns and legal history of the Luo ethnic groups of Kenya will be studied. The preservation of endangered records is an urgent motivator in the face of political conflict in the area. The Luo population in Kenya us about four million or 13 percent of the total population, with others living in Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. U.S. President Barak Obama is a descendant of the Luo clan.

• Kelly Richardson, Dickinson, ND: Grant to continue her work with the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy on their project to restore and document the Gualala River Cemetery, Northern California. Over 100 individuals buried in the long-neglected cemetery have been identified, genealogical research has been done, and descendants, most of whom do not know they have an ancestor buried there, have been contacted. Twenty-nine family sketches have been published on the website (www.rclc.org/gualala-cemetery) and include California immigrants from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ontario, New Brunswick, Ohio, Missouri, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Norway, and West Prussia, connecting families who have lost track of branches that made it this far west.

• Pamela Vittorio, Brooklyn, NY: “Navigating the Records of the New York Canals (1817 to 1918): A Guide for Genealogical Research.” Tied to the Bicentennial anniversary of the Erie Canal in 2025, this project evaluates and presents for publication the records of the Erie and lateral canals of NY State at the State Archives using The New York State Canal Society’s archives, the Library of Congress, and New York Public Library, and regional collections. It is intended to supply researchers with tools, examples, and strategies for their work, and to help identify and find records of ancestors who may have worked along or been passengers on the canal. Databases include “Boats/boat owners” (1820s to 1920); “Laborers” (1817 to 1920); and “Other individuals associated with the canal, e.g. businessmen, etc.” (1817 to 1920).