Photo of Char McCargo Bah by Steven Halperson of Tisara Photography

Char McCargo Bah

Char McCargo Bah is the CEO/Owner of FindingThingsforU, LLC. She retired from the Federal government as a Senior Policy Writer and Researcher. She has undergrad degrees in Urban Studies and African-American Studies. Char holds professional certificates in genealogy, publishing, investigation, research and paralegal. She has been a genealogist since 1981; appearing in numerous television interviews and documentaries.

She is currently working on the Virginia Theological Seminary’s Reparation Project and the Alexandria, Virginia Public Housing Project in locating descendants. She is a 2020 Virginia Humanities Scholar. Char has received numerous awards such as being nominated in 2019 for Who Who’s in America. She will appear in the 2020 Who Who’s in America publication. In 2014, she became Alexandria, Virginia’s Living Legend.

She is the author of two books and a short story in an anthology. Her most recent book was published in 2019, “Alexandria’s Freedmen’s Cemetery: A Legacy of Freedom.” Her second book published in 2013, “African Americans of Alexandria, VA: Beacons of Light in the Twentieth Century.” Her short story was published in 2006 in an anthology book, “Everyday Grace, Everyday Miracle: Living the Life You Were Born to Live, Angels In A Time of Need.” She is a freelance writer on local history for her column, “The Other Alexandria,” in the Alexandria Gazette Newspaper. She is a member of a dozen genealogical societies, which includes, National Genealogical Society, Virginia Genealogical Society, Fairfax Genealogical Society, Afro-American Historical Genealogical Society and numerous historical and writing societies and organizations.