black genealogy advice
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Is My Family’s ‘Slave Name’ the Wrong One?
I have been working on my family tree for years and cannot find anyone on my father’s side earlier than my great-grandparents Texas Williams, 1871-1951, and his wife, Nettie Howard Williams, 1875-1912. My father said that Texas always said that they were really “Dunns”—that the Dunn family sold them to the Williams family and they…
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My Family Is West Indian. How Did I Get Melanesian DNA?
I have been watching your show and cannot remember anyone having Melanesian in their DNA ethnicity results. I did the Ancestry.com DNA test and it showed 1 percent Pacific Islander-Trace Region: Melanesia. I just wondered how often this comes up in people from the West Indies. My mother is Trinidadian and my father is Jamaican. I will send you…
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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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Help Me Find My Ancestors in Slave Records
I have been unable to find any records of the Armstrong branch of my family before the 1870 census and look to you for possible answers. The 1870 census shows Tom and Joanna Armstrong living in the Barbecue Township of Harnett County, N.C. There were six children in the house at that time (only the boys),…
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How Do I Connect With Kin of My Ancestor’s Slave Owners?
I have uncovered an interesting and tragic family story. I was able to trace my family to a couple of former slaves: my great-great-grandfather Joseph Hoosier and his uncle Timothy Hoosier (Hauser). Both were former slaves in Yadkinville, N.C. A front-page newspaper article on Dec. 26, 1913, tells of the death of Timothy Hoosier, who died…
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The Brick Wall: Where Was My Black Ancestor Before 1880?
My maternal second great-grandmother was named Sarah Riddick, born around 1862 in Washington County, N.C. Records show that she worked as a servant for L.B. Davis and his wife, Annie E. Davis. I would like to know if Riddick was a slave and where she came from. The 1880 U.S. census shows she had three…
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A DNA Test Says I’m Part Black. How Do I Embrace That?
I came across your article from 2014 while Google searching, trying to make sense of my own home DNA test. I grew up as a white American, so at first, when I saw that the report said I have 11 percent African ancestry, I thought, “Well, everyone came from Africa originally.” But then I found…
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Am I Related to Free People of Color in NC?
On the 1850 and 1860 censuses in Cypress Creek, Jones County, N.C., my ancestor William Dove/Duff appears in the household of the Brocks, who were wealthy slave owners before the Civil War. In 1850 he was about 20-25; in 1860 he was 30-35 years of age. He shows up on the census in 1870 with…
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Tell Me More About My Runaway Slave Ancestor
In my father’s family, there is a story about three brothers: Nash, Kush and Hardy. Our surname is Graham. The brothers were slaves who escaped by setting a cotton gin afire in the middle of the night, and during the commotion, they scat. We don’t know where they escaped from, but my family is strongly…
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How Do I Research My Kin’s Jamaican Origins?
My great-grandparents migrated from Jamaica. I have everyone’s name but no other information about them. Can you tell me more about their origins and how to research Jamaican ancestors in the 19th century? My great-grandfather was Arthur Ephraim Campbell, born May 20, 1879, in Jamaica. He died April 17, 1936, in Roxbury, Mass. His parents…