history
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VSB Relaunched Two Years Ago Today. It's Been A Ride.
While being on Facebook and still not understanding what Snapchat is used for might make me the old guy at the club, ye olde Facebook does have one function that serves to heal the world, and make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race. Facebook’s memory function of days…
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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…
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Hillary Clinton Claims Victory as 1st Woman to Claim Presidential Nomination of Major Party
Hillary Clinton has officially staked her claim as the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, taking her place in history as the first woman to claim the presidential nomination of a major U.S. party after capturing primary victories in California, New Mexico, South Dakota and New Jersey Tuesday, Al-Jazeera reports. “Thanks to you, we’ve reached…
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How Do I Decode Slave Records?
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Feb. 13, 2013. For many African Americans the paper trail back to your ancestral origins hits a wall once you reach the slavery era. During the hunt for information about my great-great-grandmother, Jane Gates, who was born into slavery in 1819, we were able to find her…
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The Lynching of My Husband’s Ancestor Shocked a Nation
Dear Professor Gates: I am seeking help with finding the parents of my husband’s four-times-great-grandmother Leanna Donegan Knox (born in 1794 in Hopkinsville, Ky.). She was mulatto and, according to an Illinois Servitude and Emancipation record, the daughter of a white woman. She owned land in Todd, Ky., until 1847, when she was “removed” to Illinois. I found…
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Am I Related to Black Nationalist Martin R. Delany?
According to my family’s oral history, the abolitionist Major Martin R. Delany is my great-great-great-grandfather, father to my great-great-grandfather Dennis Dollary DeLaney, who was born in South Carolina in 1836. According to the daughter of my second great-uncle, the Rev. William Y.D. DeLaney (Dennis Dollary’s grandson), an original lithograph of Martin R. Delany has hung…
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Was My Black Texan Ancestor Fathered by a White Judge?
My maternal grandmother was very secretive about her family past. Her name was Lucy Laverne Alexander Lee and she was born to Bessie Baker Alexander and Jeffrey Alexander on April 7, 1918, in Richmond, Texas. She was their last child and only daughter (her brothers were Jeffrey Jr., Nolan and Charles). My great-grandfather Jeffrey died…
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Was My Ancestor Lynched in Ga.?
Dear Professor Gates: I have been trying to trace my mother’s father’s line. The furthest I can go back is to my great-grandfather Roscoe Lewis (Louis) Nelson Sr. His death certificate states that he was born in Moultrie, Ga., on April 18, 1907. His parents are listed as John Nelson and Mary Bryant. There is a family…