Ancestry Magazine

If anyone knows about researching family history, it’s Antwone Fisher. His name is recognizable from both his gripping memoir, Finding Fish, and the Denzel Washington-directed film depiction of it, Antwone Fisher.
Antwone Quenton Fisher was born in prison to 17-year-old Eva Mae Fisher and 23-year-old Eddie Elkins, who was shot and killed before Antwone was born. Antwone grew up with a foster family, where he endured nearly-constant verbal and physical abuse.
In his mid-teens, Antwone escaped and enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he met Commander Williams, a psychiatrist who helped Antwone realize that his life had not begun as a foster child—he came from somewhere. Antwone knew he would someday find out exactly where that “somewhere” was.
In 1992, just after starting a new job as a security guard at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fisher decided to find his family. He began researching and eventually found Annette Elkins, who turned out to be his aunt. Within months, Fisher met all of his kin, including his mother Eva Mae.
“My mind travels back momentarily to some of the visions I made up for myself—that I would become a family man, a good provider, a strong, loving husband and father in a secure, love-filled home,” Antwone says today. “And here I am, living that vision, with good neighbors and good friends. For me, doing family history, family research, was about closure—a resolution of the conflict that plagued me for years.”