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Tracing Your Roots: How Did My Ancestors Come to Texas?
On the trail of a great-great-grandfather from Louisiana who farmed in Texas at the height of Jim Crow. Dear Professor Gates: I have been working on my family history for several years; now I have hit a brick wall with my great-great-grandfather John H. McCants. I have only been able to locate him in the…
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Tracing Your Roots: Where Did My Ancestor’s Freed Slaves Go?
A forebear emancipates his slaves in the 1840s, but “freedom” was a relative term in 1840s Kentucky. Dear Professor Gates: I’m trying to trace a family who was owned by my sixth great-grandfather the Rev. John Holland Owen. Their names were Christopher and Winney Owens and Winney’s children—Fanny, Edwin, Elijah, Andrew Jackson, Charles, America, Mary…
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Tracing Your Roots: I Want to Post the Names of My Ancestors’ Slaves
Her ancestor’s will named 13 slaves, and she seeks help getting this information to their descendants. Dear Professor Gates: My ancestors were slave owners in Victoria County, Texas. My three-times great-grandfather John James named 13 enslaved people in his will, dated Sept. 3, 1863, in Victoria County. They included three boys, named Woodson, George and…
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Tracing Your Roots: My Black Ancestors Were Indian Scouts
Research reveals a Black Seminole family’s continent-crossing migration in search of freedom and battlefield glory. Dear Professor Gates: I’ve discovered that my paternal great-grandmother, Leona July Blanks, was a descendant of the Black Seminoles who migrated with the Native American Seminoles from Florida all the way through Mexico. She was born in April 1900 in…
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Tracing Your Roots: The Story of My Ancestor’s Origins Keeps Changing
A great-granddad appears to have been the marrying kind, which may explain why records vary on when and where he was born. Dear Professor Gates: I’m curious about the origins of an elusive family member, my great-grandfather Schofield Love. There were rumors of Native American and Jewish ancestry, but an Ancestry.com DNA test of his…
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Tracing Your Roots: Is My Ancestor’s Surname From Slavery or Marriage?
The origins of the surname of a great-great-grandmother who was born into slavery are shrouded in mystery and require creative sleuthing. Dear Professor Gates: I am trying to map out my father’s side of the family tree. He passed away a few years ago and I never met his side of the family. I’ve been…
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Tracing Your Roots: Was My Civil War Vet Ancestor an Overseer’s Son?
Family lore and death records contain conflicting information about the parentage of a forebear who served in the colored troops during the Civil War. Dear Professor Gates: I’m writing for help in tracing the parents of my third great-grandfather, William Owen Van Vaxen Goodlow. He lived in Missouri and Iowa, was married to Mary Nickelson…
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Tracing Your Roots: Help Me Separate Fact From Family Fiction!
An upcoming family reunion motivates a young woman to prepare an accurate presentation about the storied family matriarch. Dear Professor Gates: Since the late 1970s, my family has come together every two years for a reunion. For the upcoming one in 2018, I would like to present my family with information on the origins of…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
