Cynthia,

Many of us are in the same boat as you.

What drives a lot of participants on this forum is the unwavering will to face adversity (scarcity of information about our ancestors) or lack of desire from our relatives to talk about the past(sometimes there are many perceived skeletons in the closet or there may be painful memories).

To paraphrase a portion of "IF" by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you....

If you can hold on when there is nothing left except the will which says to you "HOLD ON"......

You will be a Black Genealogist...

Keep you head high and let the forces of your ancestors guide you.

PS. You do have a support system with this forum.