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My friend Aaron has made an incredible find that I wanted to share because it is such a rarity. Many people researching former slaves have encountered interracial children in their family trees. Enslaved women frequently had children with white men. Enslaved women did not own their own bodies and were commonly sexually abused. Sometimes the […]
I cannot overemphasize the importance of seeking original records during our research. In this era of Ancestry.com, transcriptions, indexes and databases are becoming accessible at a dizzying rate. While databases and indexes are useful, we must remember that they can never be a replacement for the original record. Common Issues Original records can be hard […]
I recently transcribed my gggrandfather John W. Holt’s will. He lived in Hardin County, Tennessee. He spent his childhood enslaved by Giles Holt, along with his mother Malinda and other family. By the early 20th century, John W. Holt was one of the wealthiest black man in the county. He owned hundreds of acres of land. […]
For those of us descended from enslaved ancestors, we are taught to research probate records early in the process. They can be used to verify slaveownership. If the slaveowner died before 1865, we may find our ancestors named in their will or listed in their inventories. As we advance in our skills, however, we need […]
Slave and slaveowner research is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. You need to have intermediate/advanced genealogy skills to do it well. Additionally, there’s the emotional impact of even looking at the documents. After all these years of research, my heart still bleeds every time I see: a will that includes “negro […]
Probate records hold a wealth of information about our ancestors. But when researching these records, do you just limit yourself to the will and inventory? Do you neglect all of the other documents that are part of the probate process? All parts of the probate process hold potential clues. The Probate Process Estates where a […]
The best way for me to analyze genealogical information is to create a picture, table or a chart. It allows me to see patterns, to see gaps in my research, and to make tentative conclusions. Even in engineering school, visualizing math problems helped me to solve them. We all have different learning styles and styles […]
Court Records are extremely valuable in genealogical research. For those researching enslaved ancestors, they are even more so. They can also help us with the difficult task of finding the slaveowner. Arden Hyman I’m helping my godmother Carole with her Hyman family research. Her enslaved ancestor was named Arden Hyman, and his roots were in […]
