A Black History Month gift – an unexpected find!

Happy Black History Month! This is the first Black History month since I decided to share my genealogy journey and launch Reclaiming Our Ancestors. I had grand plans to post a new blog every week in February, but alas, real life keeps blocking my shot! But while I haven’t been able to blog as often as I wanted to, I’m still proud I can use my love for genealogy to help expand the American Black history narrative by sharing my own family’s stories.

To celebrate BHM, I thought I would first share some exciting info about a new genealogy project that was recently unveiled by the Center for Family History at the International African American History Museum. Black people who are interested in researching their genealogy should definitely become familiar with IAAM CFH as it is the only research center with a special focus on African American genealogy. On February 1, the Center launched “Finding Your Black Roots: 29 ways in 29 Days”, its first major project of its collaboration with FamilySearch. Every day this month, they are featuring a searchable collection of records that is especially helpful for African American genealogy research.

I’m really looking forward to diving into the new collections! Lately I’ve realized that FamilySearch has been an underutilized resource in my own research, simply because I didn’t know how to fully use the site. Not all records in their vast library have been transcribed, so they won’t show up as part of the results when you search for an ancestor’s name. So, I’ve always been resigned to the fact that I would have to travel to their main genealogy library in Salt Lake City if I wanted to extend my search beyond what I’ve already found.  But just a couple of weeks ago, I discovered there are more records available to view digitally on FamilySearch than I ever knew.

Always something new to learn

I’ve been doing genealogy research for more than a decade now, but I’m the first to admit I’m no expert. I call myself an “armchair genealogist”, and I know that there is a lot I have yet to discover about the fine art of digging up dead folks :-). But I LOVE the search! Sometimes, when you’re diligently researching an ancestor, you wind up going down a rabbit hole toward discovering new info on an entirely different branch of your tree. Such was the case for me as I was doing a bit more research on Martha Smith for the third part in my Smith family series.

While perusing the FamilySearch site, I decided to click on the “Catalog” link under the “Search” tab instead of the usual “Records” button that will take you to the landing page where you can type in a name to start your search. I don’t know what led me in that direction, but I’m glad I wandered over there! The Catalog search page will allow you to search their entire catalog of genealogical material including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and other publications made available by FamilySearch online and in their affiliate libraries and centers worldwide.

The type and number of records vary widely by location. For instance, I found very few digital records were available for Pointe Coupee, LA. But Mecklenburg County, VA, the location in which my Chavis family originated, turned out to be a gold mine! There are a TON of digitized records for that county dating back to the mid-1700s. They haven’t been transcribed though, so nothing from this cache of records shows up in search results. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, so I thought I would be spending hours looking at each record one by one searching for a needle in a haystack that might pertain to the Chavises. To my surprise however, many of these collections contain indexes. Now, pull up a chair and let me tell you how I used this new discovery to break down another brick wall! 

The (BIG) unexpected find

As I perused what was available, one item under the “Minorities” category piqued my interest immediately: Register of Free Negroes 1809-1864. According to their blog, the Library of Virginia has 30 of these county registries in its collection, and their importance cannot be overstated if you are researching any ancestors in Virginia that may have been free before the Civil War. An 1803 law passed by the Virginia General Assembly required every free Negro or mulatto to be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the county clerk. Key for genealogy sleuths, most of the registers are not only lists of names. They usually include age, physical description and by what means a person became free.

I’ve shared in an earlier post how I discovered the fascinating story of my Chavis ancestors and their origins as free people of color living in Virginia nearly two centuries before the Civil War. But one person from this family group that I had uncovered very little, and contradictory information about was my 4x great grandmother Elizabeth “Betsey” Chavis, wife of Henry Chavis (later Shafer). I first learned her name when I located their graves in Hardin Co, Ohio on the Find A Grave site.

Her tombstone recorded her as “Elizabeth P., wife of Henry Shafer, born December 26, 1797, died May 3, 1870.” I assumed the “P” was the initial for her maiden name, but later I discovered their daughter Sophia’s death certificate, on which her maiden name is listed as “Elizabeth Mallett”. The only census record I found that included Elizabeth was the 1850 census when the family was still living in Mecklenburg, VA. There, she is listed as “Betsey Chavis”.

That was my brick wall for her. I’ve never uncovered a marriage record for she and Henry, nor any free people of color in the Mecklenburg Co. area with the surname Mallett. The only white Mallett family in that area didn’t seem to have ever owned any slaves that they might have emancipated.

And this is where the free negro register comes in. I scanned the index hoping to find a record for any of my Chavis ancestors and found both Henry and Elizabeth Chavis listed! Reading the entries for my ancestors helped bring them to life. Instead of guessing, I could easily picture what they looked like. What’s more, I could perhaps answer the enduring question many of us who descend from FPOC have: how did they become free?

Henry’s described him as “of yellow complexion, six foot five and a half inches high…born of a free woman in this county.” This confirmed what I had already discovered – that he had been born a free man. Elizabeth’s didn’t give info on how she became free, but it did offer the BIG clue that led me there. It said, “Betsey Chavous, wife of Henry Chavous, of yellow complexion. Four feet eleven inches high…has once been registered as a free woman in the name of Betsey Paschal.”

Her maiden name! This must be why her gravestone recorded her as “Elizabeth P.”! This registry was the second volume that covered 1841-1865, so I went to the index of the earlier volume and sure enough, there was a record from 1819 for Betsey Paschal.

Who was Betsey Paschal?

“Betsey Paschal, a woman of colour born on or about the 28^th day of December 1796. Four feet eleven inches high, and who was emancipated by Joseph Quenichett by deed of emancipation, having date the 2^nd day of April, 1798…”

Here was the background info that so often eludes us as we search for the “wives” in our family tree. Many times, if we can’t uncover a marriage record, finding out more about our female ancestors can be impossible. So, this turned out to be one of my most exciting finds to date! 

Elizabeth’s 1819 registry pointed out that she had been freed by a “deed of emancipation”. Since property deeds and chancery records for Mecklenburg are also available to view digitally, I circled back to the Family Search catalog to see what I could find on Joseph Quinichett. After flipping carefully through the indexes, I found quite a few documents pertaining to him. He was a doctor who immigrated to Virginia from France. Interestingly, I even found the record of his oath of citizenship filed among the chancery records.

But more importantly, I found Elizabeth’s original deed of emancipation! It turned out to be a slightly bittersweet find. Sweet, because I was thrilled to find this type of record for an elusive ancestor. Moreover, it contained some surprising information—the name of Elizabeth’s mother! It said in part:

“Betsey Pascal is the daughter of a yellow woman slave by the name of Malinda and was formerly the property of Doctor William Hepburn, dec. and was sold by John Ravenscroft, executor of the said Hepburn on the ___ day of Jan 1796.”

This is the first record I’ve found pertaining to an enslaved person that contained such specific information, right down to her mother’s physical description and purchase date. So why was it a tad bitter? Well, unfortunately the first part of it is quite faded, and it looks as though that section may have contained Quinichett’s reason for emancipating Betsey. She was just an infant when he decided to emancipate her, and I’d love to know why he made this choice. Was Betsey Paschal his natural child perhaps? Some mysteries may never be solved!

Even so, all of the information that was included allowed me to trace Elizabeth and her mother back even further.

Malinda’s journey to freedom

This catalog of records turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving! I easily located the estate records for Dr. William Hepburn, who died in 1794. In an April 1795 inventory of his estate, I found Malinda listed among 24 other enslaved people. She is listed as “a girl”, so I assume she was a young teenager—perhaps 14 or so—and her parents may be amongst these names as well.

The executor’s account records show that many of Hepburn’s slaves, including Malinda, were hired out shortly after he died. She went to work for a man named Lewis Toone throughout 1795. Finally, the executors liquidated the estate, and Malinda was sold in January 1796 to Joseph Quinichett. By the end of that year, she would give birth to Betsey Paschal. 

Quinichett died intestate (without a will) only a few years later in 1800. Although records show that he had two children living, no one came forward to administer his estate, so the courts ordered that the sheriff seize control of his property and conduct a liquidation sale. The sheriff’s inventory revealed that in the time since Elizabeth’s emancipation, Quinichett had also freed Malinda and two additional daughters.

Malinda’s deed of emancipation was luckily easier to read than Elizabeth’s, and it contains some rather odd wording. In freeing her, Quinichett says:

“…for certain reasons known to me thereunto moving, I have thought it fit to emancipate and set free in the fullest and most comprehensive meaning of the above expressions, one yellow woman called Malinda, which I purchased of the estate of William Hepburn…”

The phrase that he used, “for certain reasons known to me”, just struck me as a little odd. What great secret was he keeping about why he was freeing Malinda? Also, I noticed that he decided to free her months after he had already freed her child. This whole scenario vaguely reminded me of Thomas Jefferson freeing his children with Sally Hemings but hesitating to actually free Sally. Hmmm…

Another thing I found curious was that Malinda and her daughters would be included in Quinichett’s estate inventory at all since they had been freed years before. But my guess is that they continued to live on Quinichett’s property after he emancipated them, so were there at the time the inventory was taken. The sheriff must have made them prove their freedom because he points out that it was proven by evidence of the deeds on file in the courthouse.

The Quinichett free people of color

The 1800 and 1810 censuses for Mecklenburg county were destroyed, so the next record I found of Malinda was the 1820 census. She is listed as “Malinda Quinichett”, head of a household of free people of color, including one male under 14 and one female slave age 26-44. Elizabeth is also listed in this census as head of a household of free people of color. Her record calls her “Betsey Quinichett” and includes two males under 14, one female under 14 and one female age 26-44.

After looking through various census and other records, I had a hunch that the unnamed children in Elizabeth’s and Malinda’s households were either children that Malinda had after emancipation, or possibly even children Elizabeth had before marrying Henry Chavis. The adult female with Elizabeth may have been one of her sisters, but I haven’t found any additional records that mention their names.

The only men listed in later census records that match the ages of the boys on the 1820 census were William, Richard and Alexander Quinichett, born about 1808, 1813 and 1815 respectively. In fact, I noticed Alexander living with the Chavis/Shafer family in both the 1870 and 1880 census records when I first started researching long ago, but didn’t understand his connection to them because 1) his surname was misspelled “Quince” and 2) the latter record only lists him as a “boarder” in the household.

The last records I found mentioning Malinda proved that Alexander, at least, was indeed her son and Elizabeth’s brother. In 1855, Alexander and his wife sold a 50-acre tract of land. The deed of sale says: “it is the same land conveyed by Christopher Haskins Jr to Malinda Quinichett for life and after her death in fee simple to the said Alexander Quinichett…” After reading this, I managed to dig up the original 1841 deed from Haskins to Malinda, and that one identified Alexander as her son.

Not long after Alexander sold the family land, he and sister Elizabeth moved with their families to Ohio, where I first found the Chavises. There they lived out the rest of their lives and are all now buried together at Grove Cemetery in Kenton.

Another branch reclaimed

What a life journey Malinda had – from someone’s slave sold from one man to another, to ending her life as a landowner passing along a tangible legacy to her children. I don’t know if many of her descendants out there know anything about her, but I am glad that I was able to restore her and Elizabeth to my family’s narrative.

I’m always amazed at just how much I’m able to accomplish from my own computer. Although all records are not digitally available and some research does require legwork, it’s awesome that orgs like FamilySearch and the IAAM CFH are working to ensure our individual Black history stories don’t remain buried behind the 1870 brick wall forever. While researching our ancestors can be daunting at times, I hope sharing my stories shows you just how much Black history we can uncover if we know where to look!