history
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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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Do I Really Have African and Native American Ancestry?
According to the 23andMe DNA-testing service, I have 0.1 percent West African DNA from my mother. I also have approximately 5-6 percent Native American from my mother, who is now deceased. I have a studio portrait of my great-grandmother Luisa Gomez taken on the Plaza in Santa Fe, N.M., about 1881-1883, and she looks (about…
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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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Lincoln University Facing Shuttering of History Department Because of Financial Woes
Lincoln University, an HBCU in Missouri, is known for its rich history, founded by veterans from the 62nd and 65th U.S. Colored Infantries who were determined to build a school for African Americans. However, now, Inside Higher Ed reports, the school’s board of curators has voted 4-2 in a special meeting to deactivate the university’s…
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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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Relics From Slave Ship to Be Displayed in National Museum of African American History and Culture
As the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture continues to prepare for its grand opening in September, so does the collection that museum curators are pulling together to display for guests. The latest acquisition, according to WJLA, is iron ballasts recovered from a Portuguese slave ship that sank in the 1790s off…
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Descendants of Plantation Owner, Slave Reunite for Dinner 181 Years Later
Last week, two families sat down for dinner. That really isn’t unusual or special, but what made this gathering rare was that it took some 181 years to get there. Nkrumah Steward, the descendant of a slave, and Robert Adams, the descendant of a plantation owner, pulled together the meeting between their two families to…
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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…