The News and Disturber

I've been MIA

2009-08-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a year since I blogged on my family history. It's not that there have not been things going on worth sharing, I've just been a little busy.

In July of this year, I sent a copy of the family tree to NC to be displayed at the family reunion. It was not received as well as I had thought it would be received. I have literally spent a the last 10 years off and on, working on this history.

So at first, I was upset. But then I realized, I did not begin this for the family's approval! I began this journey to find out who I am; to find my place in the world; to find where I came from; to find a way to accept where I am and where I belong.

Along the way, I've learned a lot about myself and even more about my family and who they are and most importantly, who they were. The journey is not over. It may never be over. There may come a day when I may have to pass what I have learned into another's hands and pray that they are able to piece even more of our puzzle together.

I am learning to be at peace with myself. I am learning to quiet the negative voices, even if they are familiar and familial voices.

ESmith

Digging up the past

2008-08-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from a letter to one of my cousins who has shown interest in my family history research...

4 August 2008, Monday
Hi Cousin,

I’m writing to tell you some news about the family history. I think that I mentioned that I had been looking at wills to see if I could find our family being passed down as property. Well, I think I found Great-Grandma Mamie’s mother and aunts and uncles in someone’s will. First, I’ll list all of these people with their parents and then list what I found on the will.

Great-Grandma Mamie’s mother’s name was Harriet and her mother’s name was Esther. Esther (born about 1830) married Daniel (born about 1825) Boykin and these are their children, all born before slavery ended: Clara (1850), Betsy (1852), Sarah (1856), Harriet (1854), Troy (1858), James (1859), Abram (1861), Henderson (1862), Mary (1862), and John (1863).

I found these names on a will for Allen Barbary Sr.:

Alvin, Tilla, Reow, Furney, Susan, Abram, Henderson, Charles, Sarah, Primus, Louza, Albert, Milly, Catherine, Serena, Sowell, Catherine, Harriet, Hamlet, Lydah, James, Joseph.

Since Henderson and Abram were not common names in any of the records I found, I believe that this is them! I also think that either Allen Barbary Sr. was related to the Boykins or married a Boykin female. Also, Allen Barbary Sr. died in 1853, so this is our family in 1853.

I have not found Esther or Daniel on any wills as of yet, but I’m still looking. I thought I had found Daniel on a will for Tobias Boykin, but this man died before Daniel was born, so I was mistaken unfortunately.

My next step is to get these wills and find out who received our people and find wills from their older relatives to see if I can find our people’s parents and grandparents and see continue tracing our family. Wish me luck!

PS: I also wanted to mention how these people named slaves. There were names like Yellow Sarah, Dark Sara, Cuff, Cupit, Lovelace, Satirah, Tener, Cato, Right, Freece, Tamer, and Chainy. These people put less thought into naming slaves than they did naming animals. It was terrible. But then I would see names like Mingo and Kizzy and these are African names. So it looks like sometimes, we did get to name our own.

Possibilities

2008-07-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

I have continued on with my research, even though I get negative feedback more than positive. But I am so glad I continued.

I might have found something.

I have begun researching will abstracts for Sampson County (1794-1900) and I believe I have found about six family members, possibly seven from the last slave family in my line. This would be in the early 1800s. I have found who I believe to be my great-great-great grandfather (Daniel Boykin), my great-great-grandmother (Harriett Boykin Ireland), and four of her siblings in these papers. One book (by EE Ross) has a Slave Index. In that Index, in with one slaveholder, I have found the children, including Harriett "Boykin". The family name was Barbery or something like that. I found Daniel under Tobias Boykin, who I also found listed with his father, brother, and son; all having wills.

Now I need to get hold of these wills.

I also looked for unusual names. I have a relative named Amret (Calvin Ireland's sibling, Harriet Boykin Ireland's sister-in-law). I found an Amret listed among the abstracts. I need that will also.

I am feeling hopeful; the search continues...

An interesting and disturbing article...

2008-07-09T06:13:00.000-07:00

Reproduced from THE TIMES Monday February 24th 1997

westcoast.news@dial.pipex.com

Beach yields mass grave of shipwrecked slaves

A mass grave containing the bodies of shipwrecked slaves has been uncovered on a holiday beach after Atlantic storms.

Up to 60 bodies are thought to lie beneath the rugged cliffs of Rapparee Cove in north Devon, where the treasure ship London foundered with all hands 200 years ago.

An archaeological team has begun excavating the site near llfracombe, which has yielded dozens of bones and three perfectly preserved teeth. Yesterday the first iron fetters were discovered in the shale. During the past 20 years several gold and silver coins thought to have come from the London have been found in the cove.

Experts believe that the grave is the largest burial ground of slaves discovered on the British coast. The bodies were apparently considered heathen by the locals and unfit for Christian interment.

Skull bones emerged three weeks ago but the dig could not begin until police had established that there were no suspicious circumstances. Scientific tests have confirmed that the skulls are of African descent.

The dig is unlikely to solve all the mysteries surrounding the 300-tonne barque, which had been chartered as a transporter by the Admiralty during the French Revolutionary Wars.
She was thought to have been bound for Bristol with her booty and 60 French black slaves captured during General Sir Ralph Abercromby's Caribbean campaign. On the afternoon of October 9, 1796, the ships master, Captain Robertson, approached llfracombe seeking shelter from a gathering storm.

Pilots rowed out to help him to dock but he tried instead to moor to a buoy at the mouth of the harbour.

According to a later account by a Captain Chiswell, held in llfracombe museum, one pilot shouted: "Where are you from?" Robertson, described as a "ruffian captain", was said to have screamed back: "From Hell, bound for damnation."

His ambitious manoeuvre failed and the ship, with its prisoners chained in the hold, was dashed against the rocks. Chiswell wrote that the ship contained five treasure chests, only four of which were recovered.

He described the cove as "covered with the bodies of negroes" and recorded that the corpse of a young woman, "a naked lily fair", was also washed up.

The excavation will concentrate on a ten-yard area of the cliffs which has been eroded by winter storms. Pat Barrow, an amateur archaeologist who is co-ordinating the dig for llfracombe museum, has spent 25 years researching the London's history. He believes the slaves were officially listed as prisoners of war. Britain's abolition of slavery was still 38 years away, although by the early 19th century liberal politicians were campaigning against it.

Mr Barrow said: "There's no doubt the skipper could have sold the slaves, probably at Bristol, if he'd wanted to. It is unclear why he was so reluctant to dock at llfracombe. The reports of the time suggested the wind would have been favourable. I believe the skipper was worried that local people would discover the slaves in his hold and try to release them. This area had a very strong religious tradition."

And the beat goes on.... and on.... and on....

2008-07-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

I still have not moved any further in my search to uncover information. I have found a couple of new contacts who may be able to help, one lives in Philly near me and the other in NYC. Now that I have exhausted all of the "easy" processes, it gets a bit more difficult now.

I have requested a book of Sampson County wills from the late 1700s through the late 1800s and hope to find my family among some of the other valuables being passed down in families. There could be a chance that my great-great-great-great-grandmother might be listed within these papers; possibly even her mother. Then I can add one of two more branches onto my family tree. That would be great and it would look like this (sort of); Me - Joyce - Essie - Mamie - Harriett - Esther - her mother - her mother. I like writing this down because the more I find out, the longer my line gets and the happier I am about doing all this work.

I am also checking with all the local churches that my family attended to see if that reveals any useful information.

In addition to this, I have decided to go back to the archives in Philly and start going through the Freedman's Bureau records backwards. Supposedly, the marriages were put at the end. Hopefully I will unearth some good news.

I am also reading and re-reading all of the articles that I've collected so far to see if I can find a new path of exploration.

I'm hopeful.

No mystery solved...

2008-06-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

I contacted the Duplin County Register of Deeds to find out that they actually have their records online. What a nice surprise. So I immediately logged on and searched for my mother's paternal grandmother.

Once again, I was completely disappointed. Annie M. Darden/Derden was not listed among the deceased in Duplin County. It's as if she disappeared after the 1920 Census. I am not sure exactly how to proceed here. I know that her father's name was John, but that is a very common name. I know that he was related to another John Darden and a Jack Darden. But I have been told they were cousins. I have found Jack Darden and his family on the census. I'm thinking that perhaps I should find Jack again and see who's living near and around him. Maybe I'll find something interesting.

Family history still a mystery

2008-06-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

It's June, 2008; summer already. I feel as if I am not accomplishing very much as far as my family history is concerned. After a recent trip (earlier this month) to North Carolina and pleading with the clerk at the register of deeds to allow me to copy the D Index for death records, I am still no closer to solving one of the many mysteries of my family.

My maternal grandfather's mother died (I assume) sometime between 1920 and 1930. She is listed on the 1920 census with her children, but in 1930, the children are listed with their sister and brother-in-law. I have scoured the D Index for her name, but it's not there. There are many Dardens listed (her name is Annie M. Darden, possibly listed as Anna, Dorden, Doeden, Derden).

Then I had a thought. What if she died in Duplin County and not Sampson County and her name is misspelled??? I plan to call the Duplin County Register of Deeds and beg them to copy and send me their D Index.

Fingers crossed.

A new confusing mystery...

2008-01-13T21:59:00.000-08:00

I have found out for sure that my maternal line originates in Nigeria. As I delve into my paternal line, I find that the story is not coming together as quickly.

After speaking with a cousin's (my father's first cousin), I was told that our family origin is Black Foot Indian and Cherokee Indian. An aunt also confirmed this. However, my cousin (my father's first cousin) says if you dig down far enough, you might find white people.

I've studied the origins of the county where most of my family came from. It was settled by mostly Scots-Irish. My paternal great-grandfather was supposedly Cherokee. I may even find him on the census records recorded as such, but there is some speculation that he and his family where white. If this is the case, they may be Scots-Irish, considering the fact that my paternal grandfather's last name was Smith.

I often wondered how the Smith name came to be in our family. I also have a couple of people ask me if I was Scottish. It all makes sense now.

I guess now I have another mystery to solve.

Slave Schedules (1850 US Federal Census)

2007-11-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

As I work on my family history, I have spoken to a few people. One of my cousins in particular says she would not do a family history because she did not know what she would find. Well, most of the worst of what we know has already been revealed. We know that our ancestors were slaves. We know that they were sold into slavery by people who looked like them. These are just facts of my and millions of people's past. I am still coming to terms with it. It has been difficult.

I am at a point in my research where the paper trails are beginning to thin out. My great-great grandparents were born slaves and then freed after the Emancipation Proclamation. My great-great-great grandparents were slaves. I have not determined yet whether they were born slaves of if they were sold into slavery. I think I might have found my great-great-great grandfather on the 1850 US Federal Census Save Schedules (from ancestrylibrary.com).

The (excerpted) record reads:

1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

Because your ranked search did not include a name, we are showing you exact
match results instead. Exact match searching generally returns more relevant
results than a ranked search when a name isn't included.

Slave Owners

Nam/Home in 1850/(City,County,State)
Saml R Ireland/Northern Division, Sampson, North Carolina

Slave Information

Age/Gender/Race
47/Male/Black
43/Female/Black
40/Male/Black
39/Female/Black
30/Male/Black
25/Male/Black
23/Male/Black
18/Male/Black
15/Female/Black
12/Male/Black
8/Female/Black
5/Male/Black

The 30-year-old black male might have been my great-great-great grandfather. On the 1870 census, my great-great-great grandfather was listed as 50-years-old. This makes him 30 in 1850.

In order to prove this, I have to do a "process of elimination" by viewing all of the slave owners with this last name (Ireland) in Sampson County in this year. If I find more than one 30-year-old black male, I have to elimate by city (if possible).

Facing the past

2007-10-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

The one thing about researching history, if you are (a) of African descent, and (b) ended up a descendent of victims of the Diaspora, looking back into the history of how you came to be forces you to face some horrible truths.

I did not learn about African / African American history indept until graduate school. That says a lot about this country. But even then, learning the history then never put such a spotlight on the origins of slavery and the blight that slavery was, and the destructive consequences it had on all Africans and descendents of enslaved Africans.

The worsts part of all of this research and study is realizing that we are not united as a people, even now, and not knowing how to even begin remedying the problem.

I often write to a cousin of mine, and when I told her about the history and the information I have been finding and talked about the state of Africa today; I questioned whether we would have been better off there or here (the descendents of the enslaved). She definitively said, we would have been better off there, because then the people would nto have been slaves. It was so simple, and so true. And we wouldn't be exiles. And the language that I struggle to learn today, would be a language that I would speak easily and freely. I feel as if I have missed out on so much, but sadly, I don't really know all that I have missed.

Family History - The Transatlantic Slave

2007-10-10T17:59:00.000-07:00

I like to do a lot of different things; so unfortunately, it is easy for me to get sidetracked. But one thing I have been doing consistently is researching African history and the history of the slave trade. I guess in a way, I am looking for some hope of finding where my family line originated in all of the information I have been reading. I actually found this Web site in my searching:

(http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/reading/pershist/atlanticslave.html)

and came across something interesting in the end.

The assignment is titled Family History - The Transatlantic Slave Trade and is a University of MD project. It reads (the good part begins at the end with "But all is not lost"):

First, I have some observations on the trade itself, then suggestions about how to deal with it for the purpose of this assignment. A Historical Synopsis The transatlantic slave trade originated in the waning decades of the 15th century. Although the Portuguese were its primary facilitators, many nations, both European and African, were in on the act. Don't be naive. At this period of history, slavery was a common institution across most of the world, where criminals or POWs were routinely condemned to intervals (though not always their whole lives) of hard forced labor. None of the people who instituted the transatlantic trade would have been morally outraged by the concept. What made the transatlantic slave trade different were its sheer scale, the brutal conditions that slaves had to endure during transport to their places of bondage, and the absolute hopelessness of their situation upon arrival. CONSERVATIVE estimates put the number of people dying during transport across the ocean at about two million. Given the incompleteness of historical records the true figure could be twice as great, and that doesn't even consider people's ugly fates in bondage. The transatlantic slave trade certainly ranks right up there with the Nazi Holocaust and Stalin's Gulag as a MAJOR blot on human history. If you ever need a case study in which the pursuit of free enterprise and the laws of supply and demand and were not good for society, this is it. The slave trade enriched people on the receiving end in the New World by making difficult agricultural schemes profitable, enriched people on the supply end who gained access to high-end manufactured goods by selling their POWs, and fabulously enriched the middle-men with the ships. Anyone who's grown up in this country knows about the grief and pain resulting from our historic tolerance of slavery, and has, in their personal life, tasted the poison that still flows through our cultural veins as a result. Less is known about the effects of the supply side of the trade, so it's worth a few words. The transatlantic slave trade began when the Portuguese instituted a simple exchange of manufactured goods (fine pottery, textiles, iron and steel tools, and firearms) for West African forest products (gold, spices, and slaves). With the colonization of the New World, this developed into a triangular system in which manufactured goods were traded for West African slaves, which were, in turn, traded for New World agricultural exports. In time, the Portuguese were joined by the Dutch and English as major protagonists. Rulers and merchants of the West African city-states visited by the Europeans sought to expand their trade by finding more and better products to trade. Kingdoms like Asante (in the modern Republic of Ghana) that boasted productive gold mines had no trouble attracting the trading ships. Less well endowed kingdoms exported spices, ivory, and their POWs (which were in good supply because these states were often at war with one another.) In principle, this wasn't really different from the export of slaves to the Mediterranean through the Sahelian trading kingdoms that had been going on for centuries. What was different was the scale of the operation. When India became part of Portugal's trading network, the demand for West African spices declined, leaving many kingdoms with little of value to export except surplus human beings. This coincided with the expansion of slave-based plantation agriculture in the New World, setting in motion a self-catalyzing economic shift in which West African states became increasingly specialized as slave producers. Of course, this gave them an incentive to wage war with their neighbors, simply to "harvest" POWs for export. Increasingly, European traders fed this fire by paying for slaves with firearms. Although governments and leading citizens got very rich as slave suppliers, the overall societal effects of the slave trade were very bad: War became more frequent and destructive. People in their productive prime were taken from their societies. Their captors, by trading them away, didn't even get the benefit of their labor. Manufactured goods purchased with slaves were either non-productive luxuries (cotton fabric, pottery, etc.) or destructive (firearms, later alchohol). Opportunities to develop more productive regional economies were ignored as people rushed to get rich selling slaves. At some point or other, slaves were taken from the entire region from Senegal to Angola, but this activity focused in different places at different times. Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia supplied slaves very early in the trade because they were among the first regions contacted by the Portuguese. By the 18th century they had been eclipsed by regions farther south. (In the 19th century, Sierra Leone, and Liberia were actually colonized by freed slaves from the New World.) The gold-exporting Asante, actually TOOK Nigerian and Dahomey slaves from the Europeans in exchange for gold. The major hot-spots of slave export were: the kingdoms of Dahomey (modern Republic of Benin) and southern Nigeria - called the "slave coast." the coast of AngolaEven in the "slave coast," the trade was uneven. The kingdom of Benin (not the modern republic) actually embargoed the export of slaves for nearly two centuries, although it held many for its own uses. In contrast, the kingdom of Oyo (modern "Old Oyo") and the Igbo confederation of Aro were especially enthusiastic trading partners. In Angola, the situation was slightly different. There, the Portuguese tried to set up a system of trade with local suppliers similar to that of the "slave coast," however their local trading partners, the kingdoms of Kongo and Ndongo, were more fragile, vulnerable to reprisals, and exerted less control over the countryside, motivating the Portuguese to establish colonies and manage the slave trade themselves. Many early colonists intermarried and assimilated with local populations. Thus, if your ancestors lived in Angola in CE 1800, then probably some of their ancestors lived in Portugal inCE 1490. During the nineteenth century, democracy and industrialization took root in North America and Europe, and the slave trade started to look both morally repugnant and unprofitable. By 1870, the trade had completely ended. (Even the Confederate Constitution outlawed the international slave trade, but of course they weren't exactly hurting for slave labor.) This spelled economic disaster for the kingdoms that had thrived on slave export. Indeed the civil unrest that this provoked provided the pretext for the next stage of West African misery - European colonialism. Doing the Assignment So, if any of your ancestors were transported by the transatlantic slave trade, two things are likely: Records of their national origin were lost. In the New World, they intermarried with people taken from all parts of the region effected by the trade.Thus, your best bet is to assume that in CE 1490, you had ancestors living in the coastal regions of Africa from Senegal all the way to Angola.

But all is not lost:

If you have family information that constrains the date at which your first slave ancestors were brought over, then you can constrain the geography of your ancestral homeland somewhat. The region west of modern Ghana largely dropped out of the slave trade by roughly the beginning of the 18th century. Indeed, the majority of African cultural influences brought to the New World (vocabulary items, Caribbean and Brazilian religious practices, etc.) point to a Nigerian, Dahomey, or Angolan ancestry for most African Americans. You don't have to be Alex Haley to have family information that ties your origins down more securely. Some African American surnames preserve information. For example, the surname of the Quander family of DC has been traced to its African origins (probably Angola). Indeed, during the early days of slavery in North America, many free blacks intermarried with Native Americans and European settlers to form composite ethnic groups. Examples are: The Melungeons: Derived from free African (mostly Angolan) white, and Native American settlers in the Tidewater region of Virginia during the mid seventeenth century. "Melungeon" is from the Kimbundu (Angolan) word "Malungu" which means something like, "shipmate," a reference to the bond formed during transport across the Atlantic. The Gullah/Geechee: During the seventeenth century, the demands of rice cultivation in the wetlands and barrier islands of coastal South Carolina and Georgia led to a special system in which slaves were given practical autonomy and were free to speak their native languages, as long as the crop got harvested. The result was a people originating mostly from Sierra Leone and Guinea who spoke an English based creole called Gullah in South Carolina and Geechee in Georgia. There may be other such communities that I don't know about. Clearly, if you can trace your ancestry to such groups, you can greatly constrain your African ancestors' region of origin. But remember, your aim on this assignment is to try to locate all of your ancestors. Just because you primarily self-identify as African American, don't assume that all of your ancestors were African. There are very few African Americans who don't have at least a few European or Native American ancestors. European family surnames are a good place to start hunting for these.

So perhaps in the end, there is some hope.... Perhaps.

I'm really beginning to get into this....

2007-10-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

I'm still reading information on the http://hnn.us/articles/41431.html#_edn4 Web site. Each time I go back to this site, I see something different. This particular reading, I noticed this quote, specifically the information in bold...

Wade’s remarks came months after the release of Adanggaman, by Ivory Coast director Roger Gnoan M’bala, “the first African film to look at African involvement in the slave trade with the West.” “It’s up to us,” M’Bala insisted, “to talk about slavery, open the wounds of what we’ve always hidden and stop being puerile when we put responsibility on others . . . . In our own oral tradition, slavery is left out purposefully because Africans are ashamed when we confront slavery. Let’s wake up and look at ourselves through our own image.”8

Africans felt shame for their role in the slave trade and slaves felt shame for their position as slaves.

As long as there is that shame, we won't be able to move forward. Slavery is rare today (but still exists). The people who were enslaved are long gone. The people who had a hand in their delivery into slavery are long gone as well.

It's the past, and even though it's so difficult to accept, we have to accept it, acknowledge that it happened, learn from it, and move on to some form of reconciliation. What's that quote, "he who does not learn from the past, is doomed to repeat it..."

I keep hearing the cry for reparations and at one point I was all for it. I don't know so much about that anymore. It's like a double-edged sword. The people who should have been made whole, can never be made whole. So how can you resolve the global question...?

It's something to think about.

Up To Date

2007-10-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

This blog is finally up-to-date so stay tuned for more information.

An interesting quote from Nigerian history (October 2, 2007)

2007-10-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

This picture is the Point of No Return. This is where enslaved people were last seen (the boat anyway) as they were being taken from Nigeria.

I found this quote on this site:

http://hnn.us/articles/41431.html#_edn4

Where did the supply of slaves come from? First, the Portuguese themselves kidnapped some Africans. But the bulk of the supply came from the Nigerians. These Nigerian middlemen moved to the interior where they captured other Nigerians who belonged to other communities. The middlemen also purchased many of the slaves from the people in the interior . . . . Many Nigerian middlemen began to depend totally on the slave trade and neglected every other business and occupation. The result was that when the trade was abolished [by England in 1807] these Nigerians began to protest. As years went by and the trade collapsed such Nigerians lost their sources of income and became impoverished. 4

This quote comes from this text:

4 Michael Omolewa, Certificate History of Nigeria (Lagos, Nigeria: Longman Group, 1991), 96–103, cited in Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward, History Lessons: How Textbooks around the World Portray U.S. History (New York: New Press, 2004), 79-83.

Researching the past (October 2, 2007)

2007-10-05T06:08:00.001-07:00

As I continue on with my family history research and my homeland research, I have linked myself to several Nigerian newspapers. I try to read something every day, but that does not always happen. But tonight, I decided to see what was going on in Nigeria today. What I saw was a huge article about peoples in the Nigerian Diaspora of the last 2-3 decades being asked to return. This lead me to look up the Nigerian Diaspora, on to the the Diaspora, then on to the African Diaspora, and eventually to the Nigerian Slave Trade.

I was surprised at what I found. There was a lot of internal and then external slavery. Here is a quote that I found on this Web site:

http://www.freemaninstitute.com/nigeria.htm

It was confessed that the prospects of Trans Atlantic Slave Trade fueled into tribal wars in Yorubaland as the kings and slaves who had taken part of the European slave merchants' offer, went all out to wage war on the other towns and villages with the sole aim of getting slaves to be exchanged for wine and guns.

That truly saddens me. But it was what it was. As I continue to speak to friends and family members about my search, I get mixed reviews. Some people want to know and some people fear what uncovering the past may bring. Well, I already said once before, I know the dirty truth. I am now merely filing in the details.

The picture that I have included here is from the same Web site mentioned above. It is "The holding cell for men, used just prior to sending the men off to the boat". This is the photographer's reference for this picture.

I look at this picture and wonder; is this the last room that my family members, all those years ago, saw before he or she had to endure a horrific journey across the Atlantic to wherever they went before getting to this country (America). Is it?

I shudder to think.

DNA Test Results (September 21, 2007)

2007-10-05T06:04:00.000-07:00

I finally received my DNA test results. But on July 20, 2007, I wrote when trying to guess my family's (maternal line) orgin:

Well, I guess West and I will guess a country right now.... I think, Liberia. But I fear it might be Nigeria. Then my second (or third, however you wish to count it) guess is Ghana.

But, I fear it might be Nigeria. That is so funny, because it is Nigeria. I feel so ashamed that I wrote that now and I know it was because of a negative feeling I was having about a Nigerian. But how ironic that I was so detached from this and this is actually where I"m (removed) from.

Life has thrown me some curve balls, but this one came out of nowhere. It's funny that knowing this makes me feel a certain kinship with the person I was having the negative feelings for. Who knows, we might have grown up nextdoor neighbors were it not for the diaspora. I don't want to use the s word anymore, even though I acknowledge it for what it was and what it has spawned.

My plan now, is to continue my family history search and visit Nigeria next year. I think I might have found my great-great-great (maternal) grandparents. And I just found out that a cousin is also researching the family history. Maybe I can get her to go to Africa with me...

Growing Impatient (September 5, 2007)

2007-10-05T06:01:00.001-07:00

I'm still waiting for the DNA results. It's difficult to wait because the patience I need is the patience I lack. Someone once said you practice patience. Well, I'm still getting to that.

I called the company yesterday about the DNA results and they said the test had to be done again because they were not able to get the results the first time. The lady on the telephone said the second time was a success and I should have my results in the next couple of weeks.

I'm ready to know and I'm scared to know. I write this because I found out yesterday that my grandfather, at age 24 (if I found the correct record) was someone's boarder. Why?

Why wasn't he at home with his mother and father?

And I also found out that at one point, he was listed as Black in the records. At another point, he was listed as Mulatto. He was neither. He was a Native America. Or at least that's what I've been told all my life.

What if he wasn't? I often wonder how he ended up with the last name Smith...

Waiting (August 14, 2007)

2007-10-05T05:44:00.000-07:00

I am waiting, not so patiently, for my DNA results. It is said that a watched pot never boils, well what about a watched post office box. It's always empty, even when it's full of mail.

I spoke to a friend yesterday (AD) about my "project" tracing my family history. He said that it was something he would not do, because he might find out something he did not want to know. Well, the worst thing I could find is the thing that is already obvious. My family started out in this country as slaves. Moving on with my search is not hindered by this. My paternal great-grandmother was raped by a white man and had a child, my Aunt Rosie. Bad thing revealed and my search goes on. My paternal grandmother did really horrible things to other people, which I can't mention. That's something bad. There are family "secrets" and I know this, so my search goes on.

I've come to the conclusion that it's not the past that can hurt you. It's ignoring it and being blind to the present and the future. Learn from the past, don't repeat the past. I just desire to know my past. So here I am.

I was calculating last night. It seems that I have a firm grasp on my family going back about 150 (+/- 10 years). From roughly 1850 through the beginning of slavery, which, according to one timeline (see below) began in 1640. But the first Africans came to Virginia in 1619. So that's about 210 years. Somewhere in those 231 years, my mother's, mother's, mother's, etc. or someone in her line, was brought to this country.

I hope I can put this puzzle together.

The picture above is of me and my sister at Christmas. I must have been about seven. Our mother is standing just to the left and you can see her profile.

____________________________________________________________________

Timeline: The Atlantic Slave Trade

1502 First reported African slaves in the New World.

1640-1680 Beginning of large-scale introduction of African slave labor in the British Caribbean for sugar production.

1791The Haitian Revolution begins as a slave uprising near Le Cap in the French West Indian colony of Santo Domingo and leads to establishment of black nation of Haiti in 1801.

1793Waves of white refugees pour into U.S. ports, fleeing the insurrection in Santo Domingo.

1794The French National Convention emancipates all slaves in the French colonies.March 22: U.S. Congress passes legislation prohibiting the manufacture, fitting, equipping, loading or dispatching of any vessel to be employed in the slave trade.

1795Pinckney’s Treaty establishes commercial relations between U.S. and Spain.

1800May 10: U.S. enacts stiff penalties for American citizens serving voluntarily on slavers trading between two foreign countries.

1804January 1: The Republic of Haiti is proclaimed. The hemispere's second Republic is declared on January 1, 1804 by General Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Haiti, or Ayiti in Creole, is the name given to the land by the former Taino-Arawak peoples, meaning "mountainous country."

1807British Parliament bans the Atlantic slave trade.Great Britain converts Sierra Leone into a crown colony.

1807U.S. passes legislation banning slave trade , to take effect 1808.

1810British negotiate an agreement with Portugal calling for gradual abolition of slave trade in the South Atlantic.

1815At the Congress of Vienna, the British pressure Spain, Portugal, France and the Netherlands to agree to abolish the slave trade (though Spain and Portugal are permitted a few years of continued slaving to replenish labor supplies).

1817September 23: Great Britain and Spain sign a treaty prohibiting the slave trade: Spain agrees to end the slave trade north of the equator immediately, and south of the equator in 1820. British naval vessels are given right to search suspected slavers. Still, loopholes in the treaty undercut its goals. Slave trade flows strongly, 1815-1830. Slave economies of Cuba and Brazil expand rapidly.In the Le Louis case, British courts establish the principal that British naval vessels cannot search foreign vessels suspected of slaving unless permitted by their respective countries -- a ruling that hampers British efforts to suppress the slave trade.

1819U.S. and Spain renew commercial agreements in the Adams-Onis Treaty .U.S. Congress passes legislation stiffening provisions against American participation in the slave trade.Britain stations a naval squadron on the West African coast to patrol against illegal slavers.

1820May 15: U.S. law makes slave trading piracy , punishable by the death penalty.The U.S. Navy dispatches four vessels to patrol the coast of West Africa for slavers. This initial campaign lasts only four years before the Americans recall the cruisers and break off cooperation with the British.

1824Great Britain and the U.S. negotiate a treaty recognizing the slave trade as piracy and establishing procedures for joint suppression. But the Senate undercuts the treaty’s force in a series of amendments, and the British refuse to sign.

1825The Antelope case: A U.S. Revenue Cutter seizes a slave ship, the Antelope, sailing under a Venezuelan flag with a cargo of 281 Africans. The U.S. Supreme Court hears the case and issues a unanimous opinion declaring the slave trade to be a violation of natural law, meaning it can be upheld only by positive law.But the ruling sets only some of the Africans free, holding that the U.S. could not prescribe law for other nations and noting that the slave trade was legal as far as Spain, Portugal, Venezuela were concerned. So the vessel is restored to its owners, along with those Africans designated by the court as Spanish property (numbering 39).

1831A large-scale slave revolt breaks out in Jamaica -- brutally repressed.

1833Great Britain passes the Abolition of Slavery Act, providing for emancipation in the British West Indies -- set to take effect August 1834. (Following emancipation, a 6 year period of apprenticeship is permitted.)

1835June 28: The Anglo-Spanish agreement on the slave trade is renewed, and enforcement is tightened. British cruisers are authorized to arrest suspected Spanish slavers and bring them before mixed commissions established at Sierra Leone and Havana. Vessels carrying specified “equipment articles” (extra mess gear, lumber, foodstuffs) are declared prima-facie to be slavers.

1837Britain invites the U.S. and France to create an international patrol to interdict slaving. The U.S. declines to participate.

1838In the British West Indies, most colonial assemblies have introduced legislation dismantling apprenticeships. Laws against vagrancy and squatting attempt to keep the social and labor system of the plantation economy intact, with varying results.

1839January: Nicholas Trist, U.S. Consul in Havana, recommends that the administration dispatch a naval squadron to West Africa to patrol for slavers, warning that the British would police American vessels if the U.S. did not.

June 12: The British navy brig Buzzard escorts two American slavers, the brig Eagle and the schooner Clara, to New York City to be tried as pirates. Two more arrive several weeks later, and another pair later that Fall.The Amistad is seized off Long Island and taken to New London.(Fall) U.S. federal officers arrest several vessel owners in Baltimore implicated by the British as slave traders. Several schooners being built for the trade are seized as well.Turner’s The Slave Ship (also known as Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying -- Typhoon coming on) goes on display at the Royal Academy in London.

1841Nicholas Trist is dismissed as U.S. Consul in Havana, amid allegations he connived at, or at any rate took no effort to suppress, frequent illegal sales of U.S. vessels to Spanish slave traders.

See this Web site for more information:
http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/timeline/amistad.html

National Archivin' (July 27, 2007)

2007-10-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

This morning, I spent a couple of hours at the National Archives (Mid Atlantic branch in Philadelphia). Well, I spent those hours looking for my great-great-grandmother (maternal) and came across a record for Mamie Ireland Hobbs (correct name/incorrect spelling). I also thought I had found come across a record for my great-great-grandfather (maternal), Dock Hobbs (correct name/correct spelling), only to come home and check the records with family members and find out they were wrong.

I thought I was searching for ghosts, but the search itself may be the actual ghost. When I thought I'd found some "good stuff" (the two words my spanish teacher kept saying that annoyed the hell out of me that I can't stop saying now). Well, I found someone else's "good stuff".

Well, anyway, according to my cousin, at least the death records I found seem to be accurate, so I have mailed a request to the Sampson County (NC) Register of Deeds for certified copies of my great-grandparents death certificates in the hope that both of their parents names are listed on them. Fingers crossed.

So my maternal family tree looks a bit like this:

Adeola (me)
Joyce (mother)
Essie Pearl (grandmother)
Mamie(great grandmother)
Harriet(great-great grandmother)
Mariah? (great-great-great grandmother)

This encompasses six generations of my family and the records go back to roughly the mid-1840s (including my great-great-grandmother) whose name I found out from my cousin. This is if I am correct about my great-great-great grandmother.

She also thinks that my great-great-grandfather's (maternal) name is William (a son is named after him, if this is the correct name). She also let me know that my great-grandmother's siblings include Lawyer (younger), Doc, William (oldest), and Annie (who married a Sampson). My great-great-gran was the youngest.

Also, on my great-grandfather's side, she says a siblings name is Betty Hobbs (who married an Owens from Roseboro). She remembers an Aunt Betty. It's not much to go on, but with this and when I get the death certificates, that will help and then I can go back to the archive.

I also need to plan a NC trip to visit the state archive and the county records (Sampson County).

Thoughts (July 25, 2007)

2007-10-03T17:30:00.001-07:00

This whole waiting thing is not going so good. Hopefully I'll get my DNA results before September this year. Hopefully.

DNA Testing (July 20, 2007)

2007-10-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

The picture over there is a pier leading out into the Atlantic Ocean. It seems to go on forever. Even though I know where it ends, in the picture, it seems to never end. I just seems so appropriate for this entry because I don't know where all of this will end.

The DNA test arrived yesterday (19 July 2007, Thursday) and it scared me a lot.

I took the test this mornng and mailed it off. If the dates are correct, I should kn0w by September 2007 where my mother's line originated.

Yesterday, a co-worker said she think there might be Cherokee on my mother's line. That was strange. But who knows.

I keep trying to guess the country of origin. The countries on Africa's coast are:

West African Countries:
Benin, Burkina Fason, Cote d'Ivoire, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo.

Central African Countries:
Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda.
Well, I guess West and I will guess a country right now....

I think, Liberia. But I think it might be Nigeria. Then my second (or third, however you wish to count it) guess is Ghana.

#2_Interviewing (July 17, 2007)

2007-10-03T17:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight I interviewed my cousin, or at least I think she's my cousin. My grandfather (maternal) was her uncle. So that would make her mother, my great aunt, so yes, we're cousins.

Well anyway, she was a little helpful. I thought she was my grandfather's sister, but, as mentioned, she is his niece. She did give me names of some of her other aunts, uncles, and siblings, but she let me know in no uncertain terms, that she is 72 (birthday 5 May 1935) and she just did not remember AND that I would not get very far in my search. I think maybe, perhaps, she said that three, possibly four times. And I kept saying, no, I think I'll find something, and I'll share it with you and the family. She said, she did not want to know. And anyway, I was not going to find anything anyway.

I had to keep telling her over and over again that I had already found information. But she said I'd find nothing, and I can understand her skepticism. We've been cut off.

When I was watching Roots, in the end, the greot said that there were Africans who were in exile, away from their home.

Somewhere I read about a monument at a slave trading sight someone in Africa that was dedicated to the lost and hoped that one day they might find their way home, back to their families, back to their home land.

But there was not a lot of hope surrounding this. I mean, being in exile (and believe me, this feels like exile, even on good days), it's difficult to get back, especially when the link was broken from the 1600s through the 1800s. That's 300 or so years. And one number of those abducted is 14 million (or more). I've heard other variations of that number, only higher. And after watching Amistad, I have to wonder how many of those millions ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic, but I digress.

The link has been broken, and for Alex Haley to have reconstructed his is a miracle. I say to myself after reading his books, especially Roots, and after having seen his movies, especially Roots, et. al., that man was truly blessed. The circumstances surrounding his finding his home were phenomenal and he was just always in the right place at the right time.

I don't know if the stars will align for me as they did for him.

I know that in my life I have been truly blessed. I have been given much and at times I feel as if I should not ask for more. But, for this, reconstructing my link, I am going to ask and I am going to pray. And just like Mr. Haley, I am going to ask others to pray for me too.

The picture above, again is of the Atlantic. But this picture is from the Atlantic, of the shore in North Carolina. I wonder if any of my ancestors (or ancestor) walked on this shore from chains into bondage.

The search is on... (July 17, 2007)

2007-10-03T17:04:00.000-07:00

So, last night I was speaking with a cousin, telling her about my search for my history and my genealogy project. I wrote these thoughts in my notebook yesterday:

I've been watching the 30th Anniversary of Roots and fished out this book last night to begin my search again. I found out today that the NC Census dates back to 1790 so I can find my family back over 200 years. BUT 1610 to 1790 may be more difficult.
I've decided to do the DNA test to find out where Joyce's side of the family comes from.

My desire to know my history is so overwhelming that I've just spent $259 to find out my mother's line in Africa. So I can at least have a country to aim for when I begin searching shipping records.

The thought of knowing where I'm from scares me. I mean, I know I'm American. My paternal grandfather is Native American. I don't care to know my paternal grandmother's origin though I think that it's Ghanian. I'm not so concerned about my maternal grandfather's family because other than my uncles and aunts, I don't know or spend time with the other family members. My mother's mother's family is my family.

Well, when I spoke with my cousin, she said, why not find out. They're still family. She went on to argue her point and wore me down. So after I have found my mother's maternal line, I plan to also find my mother's paternal line.

I had wanted to find my paternal grandfather's line, but it might be too late. He's deceased. My dad is deceased and there are no more males who are directly descended from him. I am hoping in the census records to find some list of the ethnic group and hopefully a tribe affiliation, but if not, I may have to look into other Smith family members to see if there are other males who descended from my paternal grandfather's brothers or any living brothers. Man this is going to be tough.

I plan to spend next Friday, 27 July 2007, at the National Archives in Philadelphia, finding information about my maternal side.

Until then...

Oh, and one last thought. The picture above is of Capitol Hill (Washington, DC). I had a thought about the DNA tests. Since the slaves benefited this country and built it, why not have the government pay for the DNA tests to allow people to find out at least part of their heritage. I wonder if I can get that idea any further than this web log...

Another View of the Atlantic (July 16, 2007)

2007-10-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

This ocean is truly beautiful.

It's a beautiful graveyard.

Roots: The Next Generations has driven me mad (July 16, 2007)

2007-10-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

The picture above is of the Atlantic Ocean which is entirely appropo for what I am about to write.

I have watched (off and on) the 30th Anniversary showing of Roots and Roots: The Next Generations and it has driven me mad. Okay, not quite mad, but it has driven me to search my bookshelves and find the blue notebook labeled with my "family" names on either cover (my mother's on the front; my father's on the back).

Watching the last scenes of RTNG, and watching JEJ/Alex Haley cry when he finally knew who he was as his relative called him Mr. Kinte. I realized yet again, that I also, wanted to know who I am. Not just want to know, I need to know.

So I pulled out that notebook and went over my papers and last night, I began collecting telephone numbers for the older people in my family and tonight, I plan to start interviewing those people. I need to know who I am.

After some thought, I realized I did not need to know everything. How sad is that? I want to know who my mother's mother's (and so on) family is and where they are from, so much so that I just spent $359 on African Ancestry to find out. I am not so much concerned with my mother's father's family, though I may eventually one day look this up as well.

I am not concerned about my father's mother's family at all, though I suspect that she is of Ghanian lineage. My father's father is Native American, and one day, I will submit the DNA test to find out which tribe we are from. But right now, knowing my mother's mother's lineage is the most important thing, because my mother's mother's family is my family (which in a way, makes me suspect they may too be Ghanian).

In a couple of months, I'll know.

More to come.