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My Ancestor’s Name and Race Changed in Census Records. Why?
I recently discovered that I have an ancestor listed as “mulatto” on the 1850 and 1860 census records. Her name is Amelia “Millie/Milly” A. Moreland, born in 1818 in Virginia. She is listed as living with William White Mullin and three children, Richard Winfield Scott Moreland, Anna R.C. Moreland and Mary J.V. Moreland—all children also…
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Do Mormon Genealogy Records Include Black People?
I am trying to learn more about my family’s history. My mother, Ora Lean Johnson, is from Alexandria or Shreveport, La. However, she is ill and unable to provide me with any information. My father is Emanuel Christopher Bass Sr. of West Virginia, and as far as I know, he is still living. He was…
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Were My Black Ancestors Deployed With the French in WWI?
I’m trying to find out if my grandfather and great-uncles fought in World War I and if they were assigned to the French army. My grandfather was Webb A. Owens, born in 1899 in McComb, Miss.; his brother Wallace Owens was born in 1896 in McComb, Miss.; his brother Philip Demoulin was born in New…
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Did My Ancestor Own the Former Slave Whose Info I Found Online?
My family, descended from Thomas Chaffe (1635), is well-documented in The Chaffee Genealogy by William Chaffee (1909) and I’ve traced a direct line back to Thomas in 12 generations. Also well-documented is the fact that the woman who owned the slave Dred Scott, Irene Sanford Emerson, married one of my ancestors. But this isn’t about…
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My Ancestor’s Records Were Destroyed by Fire. Now What?
Dear Professor Gates: My grandfather Charles Richard Jackson was born in Russell County, Va., in November 1870. My father, Charles Daniel O’Brien Jackson, was only about 2 years old when his father died. Story was that my grandfather may have been robbed and murdered. His family lived in Honaker, Va., and in McVeigh, Ky. My…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
