Frazine Taylor

Frazine K. Taylor (March 21, 1945 – July 24, 2024), , was a librarian, archivist, historian, genealogist, and author, known for her work in African American genealogy, particularly during her time as the first coordinator of the Researching African American Ancestry track at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, and afterwards as a freelance genealogist, lecturer, and mentor and as a part-time archivist at Alabama State University. She was renowned for her ability to trace enslaved people for their descendants, and helped over 10,000 individuals find their ancestors over the course of her career.

Early life and education Frazine Kennett Jones was born March 21, 1945, in Wetumpka, Alabama, and she was the second child and only daughter of Professor John L. and Martha Odessa Jones.

She graduated from Southern Normal High School in Brewton, Alabama.

She earned a bachelor's degree in Business Commerce (BCom) from the historically black Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee, and received a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree from Atlanta University in 1984. including living in the Fiji Islands and travelling extensively in the South Pacific, before returning to work at the Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. from 1970 to 1976 and in 1985 she was chosen for a six-month internship at the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, MD.

After completing her master's degree, Taylor became a ready-reference librarian at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) in 1985. She rose to co-head of ready reference for genealogy

In 2010, following her retirement from the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Taylor began working part-time as an archiver at Alabama State University, and eventually at the university's Levi Watkins Learning Center. She was the president of the Elmore County Association of Black Heritage,

She served on the board of the Patrons for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture at Alabama State University, was a member of the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance,

In 2016, along with Donna Cox Baker, she co-founded the Beyond Kin Project to serve as a platform to encourage, facilitate, and enable the documentation of enslaved populations in the United States, particularly through encouraging the descendants of slaveholders to share the records they hold, recognizing how the lives the enslaved and slaveholders were intertwined and that the fullest accounting of an enslaved person's life required awareness of the circumstances of the slaveholders.

Personal life While she was at the Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington D.C. from 1970 to 1976, Frazine met and married Donald Taylor, a graphic designer and father of five. In 2020 she was awarded the prestigious Dorothy Porter Wesley Award by the Information Professionals of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) for her contributions to the field.

Selected publications

Taylor, Frazine. Researching African American Genealogy in Alabama: A Resource Guide.