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Tracing Your Roots: My Ancestor’s Records Are Confusing!
Was a formerly enslaved man in a May-December romance? Was he well-read or illiterate? We try to untangle the clues. Dear Professor Gates: I have hit a brick wall in my research regarding an ancestor by the name of King David Hinch, born in Tennessee. His birth year varies in records that I have found,…
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How Do I Legally Prove Native American Ancestry?
For this week’s column, we decided to address a topic that comes up frequently in your questions: How does one legally establish Native American ancestry? Legal recognition as a tribal member varies depending on the Native American nation in which you seek enrollment. Native American communities are sovereign nations and, as such, have their own…
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Why Were My Freedmen Ancestors Split Between Tribes?
Dear Professor Gates: My ancestor Billy Postoak (aka Taylor and possibly Perryman) was born about 1820 in Alabama and was a slave of Taylor Postoak (Creek Indian). He married a Lizzie Smith and they had a son named Isaac Nivens (born about 1840-1842) in Alabama. A slave schedule shows Isaac was a slave of Cherokee…
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Tracing Your Roots: I Want to Find a Slave’s Descendants and Apologize
I’m Australian, and hoping to trace living relatives of a slave owned by a relative of my uncle in Trinidad. I want to apologize for my ancestor’s actions. What I know is as follows: William Preston Galloway (born May 30, 1798, in Edinburgh, Scotland) landed in Trinidad in 1821 and by 1825 was the owner…
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How Do I Find Descendants of My Ancestor’s Slaves?
Through wills and census reports found during family research, I have discovered a couple sets of ancestors who owned slaves. Although most of the documents note slaves only by age and gender, I have come across three names: Sam, Dinah and Sutton, who were owned by James W. Hampton Sr. in Virginia around 1774. I…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
