history
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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…
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Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because Black Lives Aren’t Counted
News reporters and anchors have repeatedly referred to the recent tragedy in Las Vegas as the “worst mass shooting in U.S. history.” Like all things that are constantly repeated, the proclamation has become fact. In 2013 a report by the Congressional Research Service defined a public mass shooting (pdf) this way: incidents occurring in relatively…
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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: Where Did My Ancestor’s Freed Slaves Go?
A forebear emancipates his slaves in the 1840s, but “freedom” was a relative term in 1840s Kentucky. Dear Professor Gates: I’m trying to trace a family who was owned by my sixth great-grandfather the Rev. John Holland Owen. Their names were Christopher and Winney Owens and Winney’s children—Fanny, Edwin, Elijah, Andrew Jackson, Charles, America, Mary…
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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,…
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How Do I Legally Prove Native American Ancestry?
For this week’s column, we decided to address a topic that comes up frequently in your questions: How does one legally establish Native American ancestry? Legal recognition as a tribal member varies depending on the Native American nation in which you seek enrollment. Native American communities are sovereign nations and, as such, have their own…