- Dorsey family, Free People of Color, General, Lavallais Family, Louisiana, Maternal Ancestry, Slavery
Our Queen Mother is now an Ancestor
A Mother’s Day tribute to my maternal heroines I have started and stopped writing this post many times. After all, how do you properly pay tribute to a person who is your inspiration for, well, everything? I still don’t know…
What genealogy taught me about America’s real history
Avoyelles, LA. Noxubee, MS. Okemah, OK. What do all these places have in common? Well, they are all places where white terrorist attacks ended in the lynching of Black Americans. And they are all places where I discovered my ancestors lived when these terrible events…
- Fox family, Free People of Color, Genealogy tips, General, Kansas, Maternal Ancestry, Ohio, Slavery, Virginia
A family’s journey to freedom – a tribute to my great aunt
Our Aunt “Dude” The year 2020 has been a year of major transition for most of us. Along with everything else happening in the wider world, my family lost one of our matriarchs. Back in June, my great aunt, Melva…
Finding the Smiths part 3: The origin story
Editor’s note: This is the third part in a series on my Smith ancestors. Be sure to check out part 1 and part 2 if you haven’t already! Playing the ancestor name game One of the biggest hurdles for many…
Breaking down the brick wall: The Chavis Family
In my last post, I introduced my 6x great grandmother Rebecca Chavis. Now, I want to explain a bit more about how I discovered her. Buckle up because it’s a long, winding road! Hopefully, this post will show how you…
First post! So, why am I working to reclaim our ancestors?
Many people doing genealogy research can easily find who they’re researching by taking a quick look at an index or thumbing through the pages for the names of the people the record belonged to. But for most of us that…