black genealogy advice
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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: Was My Black Kin’s Land a Gift from a White Man?
Dear Professor Gates: My paternal great-grandfather, Joe P. Daniels, and his mother, my great-great-grandmother Matilda Jackson, settled in a small community called New Hope in Kilgore, Texas, by way of North Carolina. The story goes that one of the main contributors of this community was an Army officer named John Holt. He fell for Matilda…
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What’s the Story of a Portrait of My Slave Ancestor?
I am seeking help to learn more about my third great-grandmother Elizabeth Bettie Lane Dickey. She was raised on Orchard Pond Plantation in Tallahassee, Fla. Her husband’s name was Hanover Dickey, and her mother’s name was Maria Lane. Richard Keith Call (who served twice as governor of Florida) was the plantation owner of Orchard Pond…
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How Far Back Can You Trace My Black Family?
I have a lot of questions regarding my family’s history. With my grandfather’s recent passing, I was compelled to finally write in. My maternal grandparents, Woodrow Kimble Jr. and Martha Belle Kimble, were born and raised in Shreveport, La. My grandfather was born on Dec. 30, 1943, and died on Nov. 7 of this year.…
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Do Freedmen’s Bureau Records Show the Marriage of My Kin?
Many years ago, I located my maternal great-great-grandparents, Lucy Hoffman and Ben Hoffman, in census records for Mount Sterling, Ky. They are both listed in the 1870 census, with Lucy listed as being born circa 1803 in Georgia and Ben being born circa 1815 in Virginia. In the 1880 Mount Sterling census, only my great-great-grandmother…
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Can You Help My Dad Find His Father?
I’ve been trying to help my dad, Samuel D. Jones, locate his father. His mother, Amolene Hughes Jackson, passed in 2000; however, she wouldn’t provide any information on who his father is. His aunt also has been reluctant in providing information, though she said my dad’s grandfather is Eutah/Utah Jones and his father is Alious or Delious…
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Did My Black Ancestor Move Farther South During Slavery?
I am trying to trace the roots of my paternal great-great-grandfather, Lucien Joshua. He relayed to the census taker in 1900 that his parents were born in South Carolina. At the time of the census, he lived in Ascension Parish. According to oral history accounts given by older relatives in my family, Lucien changed his name…
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I Know Who Owned My Ancestors. What Now?
I’ve managed to trace my family ancestry back to an Adalin and Alex Vinson. The records I have state that Adalin (the spellings of her name vary) was born around 1825 and died around 1915. Alex was born around 1820 and died around 1878. They had quite a few children, including my great-great-grandmother Sabre. I…
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Who Were My Enslaved Ancestor’s Parents?
How do I go about finding the parents of my maternal second great-grandfather Spencer Mott, born about 1820 in Georgia? He was listed in the 1880 census as mulatto, living in Brandywine Claiborne, Miss. I’m guessing he was probably a slave. —Tammy Robinson Tracking enslaved people before the end of the Civil War is tricky…
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Was My Black Ancestor Named After a Confederate General?
I visited Charleston, S.C., last week and walked past a statue of Wade Hampton III and stopped dead in my tracks. You see, my great-grandfather’s name was Wade Hampton Shields. Wade Hampton III was a Confederate general, U.S. senator and governor of South Carolina. He was one of the largest enslavers of people in the South…