-
Why Did My Ancestor Change the Family Name?
My last name is Stradwick. However, my late grandfather, Thomas Stradwick, said that was not our family’s original surname. He said his father, James, changed his last name to Stradwick, for reasons unknown, before he married my great-grandmother Lilly Ferguson of South Carolina. But what he changed his last name from is the mystery. My…
-
Did My Granddad Play in the Negro Leagues?
“I’m curious to know more about my paternal grandfather, Claude Barclay, from Cleveland. ‘Beatrice Penn’ was the name of his wife. He died many years before I was born, and for many reasons my father never talks about him. “During the most recent Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to ask my father and his siblings about…
-
Help Me Find My Black-and-Apache Dad
“I was born in 1971 in Boulder, Colo. My mother, Terri Bailey (née Luther), is white (German-Irish) from Kentucky. My father, Gregory Allen Bailey, who left us when I was 2, is half-black on his mother’s side and perhaps half-Mescalero Apache through his father. (I was told Mescalero, but the Bailey name is only on…
-
How Do I Research My Ghanaian Ancestry?
“How can I research Ghanaian genealogy online?” —Hillary Osei Letting History Point You in the Right Direction Before you begin your research in Ghana, or anywhere in West Africa, it is useful to have an understanding of the country’s history and how the ruling powers changed over time, since this will give you information that…
-
Do Most Whites Have Traces of African DNA, as I Do?
“I have had both of my parents’ ancestry tested by 23andMe, and I have been tested as well. I am ostensibly European, but both parents received West African-ancestry DNA results. I am 1.3 percent West African, which Doug McDonald of the University of Illinois verified as being of Yoruba origins. “My father has 1.4 percent…
-
2 Families: 1 Black, 1 White. Have I Found the Link?
“I have been tracing my roots on my mother’s side for a number of years. They hail from Middlesex County, Va., home of the senior Honorable Christopher Robinson. Robinson (1645-1693) came to Virginia and settled in Middlesex County, where he established the Hewick Plantation. He also fathered a family of prominent Virginians, and some of…
-
I Can’t Believe My Ethnic DNA Test Results!
“I was just reading your column, ‘I’m Creole. Why Do I Have South Asian DNA?’ I, too, have ancestral roots in Andhra Pradesh region of India and South Africa. I identify—and the rest of the world identifies me—as a black male. However, a test I took from DNA Tribes says I also have large concentrations…
-
I Expected African DNA Results. Why Are Mine Chinese?
“I used AfricanAncestry.com to trace my matrilineal and patrilineal DNA. Through my brother, Keiffer Mitchell, Jr., the patrilineal results were traced to the people of China. We were amused by the result, and somewhat disappointed, given that we expected results from Africa. I took the maternal DNA test and it traced to the Ibo of…
-
Am I Related to Nat Turner?
“Recently I was told that my grandmother’s family line was linked to Nat Turner. I have done some research, but I am unable to get beyond my great-great-grandmother Gertrude Turner in Virginia. I just wanted to know if the Turner family has done a family tree and where Gertrude Turner is on it. I know…
-
Did My Jamaican Kin Descend From British Loyalists in America?
“My father told me that his maternal grandmother’s side of the family descended from a British Loyalist family who owned a plantation in Virginia. When the American Revolution started, this family relocated (and took all their slaves with them) to Jamaica, another British colony at that time. Is there any way that I can verify…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
