georgia 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: What Did Freedom Bring for My Ancestor?
Post-Civil War records point to a common fate for many African Americans after emancipation. Dear Professor Gates: I’m searching for any information on my third great-grandfather Hardy Dykes, who was born in 1843. I assume that he was born in or near Hawkinsville, Ga. The only record I could find on him was in the…
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Tracing Your Roots: Have I Found My Ancestor’s Plantation?
She found a photo of her great-grandmother in the records of a historic plantation house in Georgia, but little information about her life under slavery. Dear Professor Gates: I have located my great-grandmother Cora Lundy in the 1880 census. I would like to learn about her life before 1880 but have so few clues. She…
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Tracing Your Roots: Who Were My Grandparents?
Census records reveal clues to an African-American lineage stretching back in time to the years before slavery ended. Dear Professor Gates: My mother, Maggie Nell Lyons, is an only child. Her mother, Magnolia Battle, died when my mother was 5 years old. Magnolia Battle married Nelson Lyons, my grandfather. They lived, we think, in Gordon,…