"DNA doesn’t lie," genealogist Charlotte Bocage explains her essay in The Searcher (Summer 2003, Vol 60, No 3, pp. 63-65, a publication of the Southern California Genealogical Society). "I am…
Charlotte BocageSeptember 8, 2023
Maria S. Montgomery & Allison Thomas Maria Montgomery found me on Ancestry.com in 2016. Our family trees overlap because my ancestors enslaved hers. We are “linked descendants”—cousins regardless of whether…
Allison ThomasJanuary 19, 2021
Sharon Leslie Morgan moved to Noxubee County, Mississippi to research her ancestors’ history. Morgan’s great-great-grandmother, Betty Warfe Gavin, was enslaved there, and gave birth to 17 children. The father of…
Sharon Leslie MorganJanuary 4, 2021
There is a problem I have been wrestling with for many years. One of the refrains I hear over and over among people working for racial reconciliation is the necessity…
Ken CollierFebruary 7, 2017
While drafting the post Half-white Slaves of Aristocratic Masters at my blog, I acknowledged that Edward Ball, in his text, The Sweet Hell Inside: The Rise of an Elite Black Family in…
Roger David HardestyJune 19, 2016
Today is Giving Tuesday, the day when we turn our focus away from purchasing and toward giving to work that we care about. We hope you will consider a donation…
Andi Cumbo-FloydDecember 1, 2015
Part 1 - Finding the House, Looking for the People At the Telling the History of Slavery conference, the woman I sat next to looked to be about my age,…
Prinny AndersonNovember 17, 2015
As our car turns down the lane, I flash back to Mom in the driver’s seat, the blue Nissan van idling beneath us as we wait for the yellow behemoth…
Andi Cumbo-FloydMay 13, 2015
Part One of this series is titled "Paper". It explains my family background, and how I was launched on this journey. Many thanks to the members of Bittersweet, for your…
Sarah BrownMarch 18, 2015