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How Do I Save a Family Bible That Is Falling Apart?
I am reaching out to you on behalf of a neighbor. She has a family Bible that takes her family history back to their time in slavery. Unfortunately, it was in a house fire and the pages are so brittle, they fall apart when the book is opened. So all she has is an oral…
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Did My Black Forebear Have Kids With a White Employer?
Dear Professor Gates:My fourth great-grandmother Delilah Yates was listed as a “domestic servant” in a white household on the 1870 Virginia census in Marshall-Farquhar County along with three of her children, the younger two who are listed as mulatto (Delilah and the oldest child are identified as black). My third great-grandfather Daniel Yates was also a son of…
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Were My Ancestors in an Interracial Love Triangle?
My research into my family origins reveals that in the 1680s, Maudlin Magdelen Magee, an Irish woman who was married to a white man, George Magee, had a baby girl by an enslaved African man, Sambo Game. The Magees had come to Somerset, Md., from Ireland, and had two sons of their own when Maudlin…
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Were My Black Texan Ancestors Actually Mexican?
My great-grandfather Abe Davis was born in Texas (well, actually, Mexico) in September 1835. As of 1870, he was living in Nacogdoches County, but he may have been born in a different county. His brother Wash Davis was also born in Mexico in 1823. They are alternately described as black and mulatto, so I’m guessing they were mestizo. My…
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Why Can’t I Find Proof That My In-Laws Were Married?
Editor’s note: This column has been updated to reflect additional information received after it was published via a reader of Tracing Your Roots. We love the fact that the column inspires readers to continue the research on their own! Orlando Henderson Sr. and Sterling Nelson were, in fact, married in Lawrence County, Ohio, in 1947.…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
