What an awesome opportunity; never before in our history have we been this close to reconnecting with our ancestors. What we thought was long lost is now right at our fingertips. To my generation it is hard to fathom, but to my mother's generation, it is some sort of fantasy or fallacy. Sort of like the first reports of man walking on the moon. For this reason I am so excited about the possibility of tracing my family lineage. My mother, Elizabeth Jackson-Chenault, is an 81 year old African American woman, born in Meridian, Mississippi. My mother believes that she is the last surviving member of her family. In the past few years she has suffered from numerous medical problems. After losing her youngest son in 2001, her health begins to deteriorate. In 2002 she was diagnosed with C.O.P.D. (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which placed her on daily oxygen. Four year later she was diagnosed with Lung Cancer and just this past December she was in Intensive Care because of a Heart Attack. As a gift to this strong black woman, I would like to trace the source of this awesome strength.