black genealogy
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Tracing Your Roots: Were My Enslaved Ancestors East African?
Separating fact from fiction in a family’s oral tradition. Dear Professor Gates: I recently read a 2014 article that you authored (“Were My Enslaved Ancestors Originally From Ethiopia?”) concerning a Green family in Texas with roots in Georgia and their possible connection to Ethiopia. I’m inquiring about my own Green family, also from Georgia (primarily…
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Tracing Your Roots: Were My Southern Kin From Jamaica?
A search for the Caribbean origins of a reader’s family takes a few surprising turns. Dear Professor Gates: I want to learn about my paternal grandparents, Cecil E. Burley Sr. and Beatrice (King) Burley. They were both born in Jamaica but lived out their lives in Rome, Ga. I want to know how my grandmother…
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Tracing Your Roots: How Were My Ancestors’ Lives in 19th-Century Arkansas?
In a common scenario for African Americans, the paper trail disappears once a reader gets to the 19th century. Dear Professor Gates: I have been working on my family tree for years. I am having difficulties finding information on my paternal great-grandfather. His name was Leon Turner (born in 1901) and he married Birdie Todd…
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This Can’t Be Good: Genealogy Companies Say They’re Willing to Give Law Enforcement Your DNA
We all have those people in our family or close circle who are just like Martin Lawrence’s character in Boomerang: They “here” on all the conspiracies—from being certain that microwaves cause sterility in black men (or is it White Owls?) to obsessively covering up the cameras on their laptops. These are the folks who would…
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Tracing Your Roots: Do I Have Gullah Roots?
A reader wonders if her family originates from a unique coastal Southern community that has retained many West African traditions. Dear Professor Gates: I’m hoping you can help me figure out whether my family is of Gullah origins. My mother’s family is from a tiny town in South Carolina’s Low Country called Brittons Neck. While…
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Tracing Your Roots: What Are My In-Laws’ Texas Slavery Roots?
Her mother-in-law’s paternal roots lie in what was once Texas’ richest county, made so off the backs of slaves. Dear Professor Gates: My mother-in-law is in her mid-80s, and per her request, I would like to do what I can to find information about her father’s family. I have searched on Ancestry.com and I am…
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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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Tracing Your Roots: Did My Ancestor Work in a Prior Enslaver’s Home?
Repeating patterns in Reconstruction-era census records point to possible connections during slavery. Dear Professor Gates: I’m trying to determine if my third great-grandmother (from my mother’s paternal side of the family) was a slave or if her mother was. In the 1880 census in Lytle’s Fork of Scott County, Ky., she is listed as Polly…
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Tracing Your Roots: Was Great-Grandma Part Creek Indian?
Historic records point to a life of mixed heritage in the American West. Dear Professor Gates: My great-grandmother Lula Craig/Creg, born Jan. 26, 1870, appears on both the federal 1910 census in Depew City, Creek County, Okla., and the 1910 Indian-population census for that city and county. Lula and her children (including my grandfather Bobby)…
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Tracing Your Roots: How Did My Black Ancestor Come to Own Land?
Finding out how a great-grandfather came to own 300 acres of land in post-Civil War South Carolina. Dear Professor Gates: It is a mystery to me how and when my great-grandfather Peter Golphin obtained his wealth and holdings. He was born about 1858 in Barnwell, S.C. Somehow he obtained 300 acres of land. I have…