Findings That Make You Go “Hmmmmmmm”

The research of my great-great-grandfather John (Jack) Bass’ family roots has been met with the infamous 1870 Brick Wall.  However, there seems to be some clues to possibly tearing down this brick wall.  In genealogy research, theories are often made first based on research findings.  Researchers and genealogists conduct research to prove or disprove theories.  This particular blog post is to solicit your theory based on the information I will present.  Let me warn you, this particular genealogical case involves many different surnames!  You’ve been forewarned.  But, there may be something significant behind each surname?  I will present the findings in a series of exhibits.  Hopefully, you can follow along and develop a theory based on all of the exhibits.  I would LOVE to read what your thoughts or theories about this are!

Exhibit A – John Bass’ Freedman's Bank Application dated Jan. 16, 1871, Warren County, Mississippi: The following information was provided. See image below.

Where Born: North Carolina

Where Brought Up: Mississippi

Residence: Warren County, Mississippi

Age: 25

Complexion: Black

Occupation: Farmer

Works for: Daniel Canon (I believe this was supposed to be Daniel Cameron and possibly Jack’s last enslaver. He was also born in North Carolina. See sixth and seventh paragraph in this blog post, Boom! The Brick Wall Came Crumbling Down!)

Wife: Francis Ann

Father: Tom Bowdin

Mother: Bedy

Brothers: Oscar Birdsong  (Note: Never found an Oscar Birdsong in the censuses; I found an Oscar Hatcher.)

Sisters: Mimy Hatchel (suppose to be HATCHER), Eliza Newman

Exhibit B – 1870 Hinds County, Mississippi census of the Bass and Newman Households, page 586A:  Prior to finding his bank application, I had found Jack Bass in the censuses. Turns out, the Newman family living adjacent to him in 1870 was his sister and her family.  Notice that his sister Eliza named one of her sons Senaker. In 1880, Eliza’s children’s surname was Potter, so apparently George Newman was the stepfather.

Exhibit C – 1870 Hinds County, Mississippi census, Senaker Hatcher and Jackson Bass, page 772A: These two men were next-door neighbors. However, Senaker’s birthplace was reported as being South Carolina and Jackson’s birthplace was reported as being North Carolina. Are they related to each other?  Are they related to my Jack Bass? Where did the name “Senaker / Seneca” come from? This is the transcription of those two households since the actual census image is very light:

Exhibit D – 1880 Alexander County, Illinois (Cairo) census, Senaca Hatcher: Emiline Bass, who was in Jackson Bass’ household in 1870 and presumably his daughter, was in Senaca’s household in 1880 in Cairo, Illinois. She was noted as his niece. Her parents’ birthplace is noted as South Carolina.  Therefore, were Senaker/Senaca Hatcher and Jackson Bass brothers?  Also, Jack Bass’s sister, Mimy Hatcher, was also in Cairo, Illinois by 1900. Like Jack and his sister Eliza Newman, Mimy/Mima’s birthplace was noted as North Carolina.

Exhibit E – 1880 Richmond County, North Carolina census, Thomas Bowden:  Since there wasn’t a notation on Jack Bass’ bank application that his parents were dead, as I have seen on other applications, I checked to see if I can find someone named “Tom Bowdin,” either in Mississippi or maybe back in North Carolina if Jack had been separated from his father.  This Thomas Bowden in Richmond County was the only one who was of age to possibly be his father.  In the 1870 Richmond County census, I found that his name was reported as Thomas Capel after I couldn’t find a “Thomas Bowden”. 

Exhibit F – The location of Richmond County, North Carolina: Notice in red that it is located on the South Carolina / North Carolina border. The next county just south of Richmond County is Marlboro County, South Carolina.

Exhibit G – Hatchers in Marlboro County, South Carolina: There are many Hatchers in this county, as well as Richmond County, North Carolina. In fact, they are considered the Waccamaw Hatchers of the Waccamaw Indian tribe.  See http://hatcherfamilyassn.com/index.php

Assessing all of the exhibits, what do you theorize about my Jack Bass’ roots? Why did he take the Bass surname?  Yes, this one is a hair-puller. LOL!

African Americans and Mexicans Are Cousins

Many African Americans and Mexicans are distant cousins, indeed. There’s no doubt about that. I have known for quite awhile that many Mexicans have African ancestors.  Transatlantic slave trade statistics show that at least 200,000 enslaved Africans were imported into Mexico from West Africa. They arrived in the Mexican territory during the three hundred years of the colonial period (1521–1821). Sadly, the indigenous and European heritages are what most Mexicans embrace; the African legacy is overlooked. When actor and comedian George Lopez took an admixture DNA test, his tests results revealed that he’s 55% European, 32% Native American, 9% East Asian, and 4% Sub-Saharan African.  See this video clip of his DNA results announcement. Much can be read about Africa’s silent legacy in Mexico on the Internet. Here’s a link to one of many interesting articles on the subject.

The link between Africa and Mexico became more evident to me when a Mexican guy, Kamel Perez, appeared in my Relative Finder database on 23andme. What was quite surprising to me is that our connection is not very distant, in my opinion.  He wasn’t my eighth, ninth, or tenth cousin.  Because of the amount of DNA we share, 23andme predicted that we are fifth cousins. See image:

 

Although I have little hope of ever figuring out exactly how we are related, I want to give a visual perspective to how our common ancestor was likely born during the last quarter of the 18th century (late 1700’s). Kamel and I share 0.10% (8 cM) of DNA across 1 chromosome segment. As mentioned before, our predicted relationship is fifth cousins. Geneticists have calculated that fifth cousins share an average of 0.049% of DNA.  We share twice that amount. The definition of fifth cousins is people who share the same 4th-great-grandparents. 4th-great-grandparents are just six generations back, and I have estimated that many/most of my enslaved 4th-great-grandparents were likely born during the last quarter of the 18th century.  Here’s an example to show the relationship of fifth cousins.   

Based on a number of sources, I ascertained that by the last quarter of the 18th century, there were very few imports of African slaves into the main Mexican port of Veracruz, if any at all.  One source notes that the transatlantic slave trade to Mexico reached its peak between 1580 and 1640, “when imports from Africa averaged better than 1,000 slaves a year and two out of every three slaves bound for Spanish America were destined for Mexico” (Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Africana, p. 1294).  Other sources note that in the latter 18th century, mill slaves in Mexico were phased out and replaced by indigenous labor. Slaves were nearly non-existent in the late colonial census of 1792.  Therefore, if Kamel and I share common ancestry, probably having the same 4th-great-grandparents, what scenarios could have occurred that caused us to be this closely related? Here are several possibilities that I thought of:

Scenario 1:  Kamel had an African ancestor who was indeed a “late import” into Mexico from West Africa and/or the Caribbean and may have been a sibling to one of my third or fourth-great-grandparents, who was transported to the United States. If that’s the case, then one of my third or fourth-great-grandparents was directly from West Africa or the Caribbean.

Scenario 2:  The connection might be on my maternal grandmother’s father’s side. Interestingly, I bear a strong resemblance to my great-grandfather, John Hector Davis (1870-1935). His father, my great-great-grandfather, was named Hector Davis, who was born in 1842 in the Saluda area of Abbeville District, South Carolina.  Grandpa Hector’s parents were Jack & Flora Davis, my great-great-great-grandparents, who were both born around 1815 in South Carolina, according to the censuses. They were all enslaved by John Burnett, who brought them to Panola County, Mississippi in 1861, shortly before the Civil War started.  Hector and Flora are names of Spanish origins. What if Flora wasn’t really born in South Carolina?  Or perhaps one or both of Flora’s parents had been born and enslaved in the Caribbean or Mexico and somehow was later sold and shipped to South Carolina, leaving children behind, and perhaps one of those separated children was Kamel’s third-great-grandparent who settled in Mexico.  Interestingly, I also share DNA with a Jamaican, and 23andMe noted the following:

Scenario 3:  Not much is said about it, but Mexico was a sanctuary to many enslaved African Americans during the 19th century.  During the summer of 1850, the Mascogos, composed of runaway slaves and free African Americans from Florida, along with the Seminoles and Kikapus, fled south to the Mexican border state of Coahuila. The three groups eventually settled the Mexican town of El Nacimiento, Coahuila, and a number of descendants are in Mexico today.  Perhaps, one of my third or fourth great-grandparents or a sibling was sold away to Florida, was with that group out of Florida who escaped to Mexico, and that was Kamel’s third or fourth-great-grandparent.  Kamel hasn’t accepted my invitation on 23andme to communicate. However, if he does, and if I learn that part of his family is from Coahuila, then this possible scenario becomes more of a reality.

Scenario 4:  Perhaps, the connection is through my Mom’s paternal lineage?  As part of our family reunion project in 2004, my uncle John “Sonny” Reed, Sr. took African Ancestry’s PatriClan test to reveal the paternal African lineage of my Mom’s paternal grandfather, William “Bill” Reed (1846–1937), and his father, Pleasant “Pleas” Barr (1814–1889), my great-great-grandfather.  Uncle Sonny was a perfect match to the Mbundu people of Angola. Sources note that approximately two-thirds of the Africans who were shipped to Mexico were from the Angola/Congo region of West-Central Africa. Indeed, the majority of Angola/Congo captives were transported to Central and South America, particularly Brazil. My mom's direct paternal line has been traced to my third-great-grandfather, Lewis Barr (father of Pleas), who was born around 1780. Generational lengths on this side of my family are longer due to my forefathers having children at a later age, hence why Lewis is only my third-great-grandfather. He was enslaved on Rev. William H. Barr’s farm in Abbeville County, So. Carolina, where he died in September, 1846. I don’t have any documentation about where exactly Lewis was born – likely in S.C. or maybe in Africa?  Perhaps, his name was really “Luis”, the Spanish form, but was later Americanized to be and sound like “Lewis”?  If indeed Kamel and I share a fourth-great-grandparent(s) who were born during the later part of the 18th century, perhaps Lewis’ father or paternal grandfather was from Angola, shipped to Mexico where he fathered several children, and was later shipped to South Carolina? 

Help Us Find Christopher’s Birth Mother: DNA Provides Clues

 

Dr. Christopher Harris of Toronto, Ontario

On May 10, 2013, I received the following message on Facebook from Raquel Tomlinson. She stated, “My husband is one of your cousins on 23andMe. His name is Christopher Harris.”  I checked my 23andMe account, browsed my Relative Finder database, and found his name among my 400+ “DNA cousins”.  However, what was most interesting is that he is a Black Canadian!  How am I related to a Black Canadian?  Dr. Christopher Harris resides in Toronto, Ontario. He recently received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Toronto.

In helping her husband find his birth mother, Raquel shared more information, and I soon spoke with Cousin Christopher on the phone.  He was born on November 1, 1978 in Canada in Windsor, Ontario.  He does not know his birth mother’s first name, but her last name is Harris.  He knows that his birth mother’s mother is a Black Canadian who descends from former slaves who migrated to Canada via the Underground Railroad.  He also knows that his birth mother’s father is an African American from Detroit, Michigan.  Christopher knows that his biological father is from Tanzania, a country in East Africa.  His birth parents met while his biological father was a foreign engineering student at the University of Windsor. His Harris birth mother was a teenager, possibly around 16, and was in the custody of child services when she got pregnant with him. Christopher suspects that she was deemed an unfit mother and was forced to give him up due to her young age.  Coincidentally, his adopted family’s last name is also Harris (no relation); they are from Barbados and thus his last name remained Harris.  Unfortunately, the adoption was a closed adoption, and he hasn’t been able to access his record to get his birth parents’ names.

But how is Christopher related to me? Is he on my Mom’s side or my Dad’s side?  Utilizing the family inheritance tool in 23andMe, I compared him to other known cousins in my database. Low and behold, my findings raised eyebrows and helped to determine more!  Christopher also shares DNA with Lenro Morgan and NeNise Smith, my cousins on my Dad’s side.  As explained in my previous blog post entitled “DNA Continues to Amaze Me,” Lenro, NeNise, and I are all double third cousins and direct descendants of Robert “Big Bob” & Jane Ealy, as well as Lucy Kennedy, from Leake County, Mississippi.  Additionally, NeNise shares a segment of DNA on Christopher’s X chromosome. If my understanding of DNA is accurate, this verifies that the connection is on his mother’s side. The following chart shows the DNA matching results:

The sharing of DNA over multiple chromosome segments with another person implies that the two likely share a common ancestor(s) that is not so distant. For example, NeNise and I share 43 cM over 4 segments. Our common ancestors are Robert & Jane Ealy and Lucy Kennedy; they were my great-great-grandparents and her great-great-great-grandparents.  Lenro and I share 155 cM over 7 segments. Robert & Jane Ealy and Lucy Kennedy are also Lenro’s great-great-grandparents. To add, Lenro and NeNise share 63 cM over 5 segments. Since Christopher shares DNA over multiple segments with both Lenro and NeNise, and even shares DNA with me, I feel strongly that his Harris birth mother and her father are direct descendants of Robert & Jane Ealy and/or Lucy Kennedy – possibly her father is a great-grandson. I believe that they fit in the Ealy family tree somewhere and her father may actually be my Dad’s second cousin. Interestingly, many people in the Ealy Family migrated to Detroit. 

To all of my Ealy and/or Kennedy family members, especially those in Detroit who read this post, please share this blog post with other family members. Someone may know something about Christopher’s birth mother and can connect him with her and her family. He suspects that his maternal grandfather may still be living in Detroit.  He would love to connect with his biological family.

If anyone has additional advice to help Christopher locate his birth family, feel free to post a comment here or e-mail me at melvinjcollier@ yahoo.com or Dr. Christopher Harris at wasun67@hotmail.com. 

Me (far left) with cousins at the 2010 Ealy Family Reunion in Detroit, Michigan

DNA Continues to Amaze Me!

This week, my cousin NeNise Smith’s DNA results were calculated by 23andMe. She told me several weeks ago that she had taken their DNA test.  As predicted, she appears in my Relative Finder database! Recap: 23andMe asserts that their “relative finder finds relatives by comparing your DNA with that of other 23andMe users. When two people share identical segments of DNA, this indicates that they share a recent common ancestor. Relative finder uses the length and number of these identical segments to predict the relationship between people.” (Source: 23andMe.com)

I am especially excited about NeNise’s results because now I can compare our results to a mutual cousin, Lenro Morgan, who took 23andMe’s DNA test last year. NeNise, Lenro, and I all share two sets of ancestors – Robert Ealy & Jane Parrott Ealy and Lucy Kennedy Cherry and the father of Lucy’s oldest children. (See this post This is Frustrating! for an explanation concerning that father).  Three children of Robert & Jane Ealy of Leake County, Mississippi married three of Grandma Lucy’s children. 

Robert Ealy, Jr. – Mattie Kennedy = Lenro Morgan’s great-grandparents

Martha Ealy – Albert Kennedy = Melvin Collier’s great-grandparents

Paul Ealy – Adaline Kennedy = NeNise Smith’s great-great-grandparents

This is how our DNA results compare:

The average DNA sharing between third cousins is: 0.78% (See chart.)

The average DNA sharing between third cousins once removed is: 0.39% (See chart.)

But, what is particularly interesting is to see on which of my 22 chromosomes I am related to NeNise and Lenro:

DNA enthusiasts, feel free to share other observations from this DNA comparison. I love gaining additional knowledge and thoughts from others.

Part 2 of “This is Frustrating!”

Please read Part 1 before reading this one to get a full understanding of this genealogical puzzle and longtime mystery. See http://rootsrevealed.blogspot.com/2013/05/this-is-frustrating.html.

Well, after 20 years, I think I have a strong candidate for who may have been the father of my great-grandfather, Albert Kennedy (1857-1928), and his sisters.  I never believed the father was the slave-owner, Stephen Kennedy. It took me moving to Washington, DC, talking with Cousin Mavis, and listening to the clues she had heard from her father and uncles to renew my interest in determining this “sperm donor’s” name. Turns out, the white father may have been a man named Theophilus M. Rodgers of Scott County, Mississippi.  However, I still desire more documental and genetic proof to say with complete certainty that this man was my great-great-grandfather. The clues are pretty strong, though.  This is how he was discovered:

(1) Cousin Mavis had shared with me that the family owned a chicken poultry and a dealership in Morton, Mississippi, as well as a lot of land and a cotton gin. I remembered that my grandmother, Willie Ealy Collier, always purchased her cars in Morton. Never knew why Grandma bypassed dealerships in Carthage and Canton and chose the dealership in Morton.  (Note: Grandma was Dad’s adopted mother whose mother, Adaline Kennedy Ealy, was Grandpa Albert Kennedy’s sister.)  I vividly remember when she bought her last car in 1981 in Morton. I was with her when she drove it back to Canton. It was a brand new blue Chevy Impala, and Grandma had paid cash for it. Yes, my grandparents were balling! LOL Well, I called my Dad and asked him who owned the dealership in Morton they got their cars from. He said it was the Rogers Family. I googled for more information and learned that a man named B.C. Rogers opened the first chicken poultry in Morton in the early 1930s. The dealership was called Freddy B. Rogers. So, where will the Rogers/Rodgers surname lead me?

(2) I got on Ancestry.com and found white Rodgers/Rogers families in Scott County in 1850 and 1860. This was the time frame when Grandma Lucy gave birth to Grandpa Albert and his sisters (1851-1861). They lived in the Hillsboro district, the same district where the slave-owner Stephen Kennedy resided. One was named Theophilus Rodgers. That odd name leaped out at me because both Grandpa Albert Kennedy, and his sister, Mattie Kennedy Ealy, named a son Theophilus! Grandpa Albert’s son, Theophilus “Uncle Fay-op” Kennedy, was by Miss Alice Hill, who had at least six children by him. In 1860, "Theofilus" Rodgers, age 27, was living with his older brother, William Rodgers, age 29. They both were born in Alabama. Grandpa Albert answered several times in the censuses that his father was born in Alabama. In 1850, those Rodgers brothers were in the household of their father, Jesse Rodgers. Interestingly, Aunt Mattie named a son Jessie. This is the 1850 census report of those Rodgers:

 1850 Scott County, Mississippi Census – household of Jesse Rodgers, age 52

(3) My father mentioned this week that he remembered my Grandma and her siblings talk about their white grandfather and how he visited them sometimes.  I did not know this!  That’s why I had always referred to him simply as the “sperm donor”.  Growing up, Grandma indeed had shared with us that her maternal grandmother’s children was fathered by a white man, but at that time, I didn’t ask, “Well, who was he?” Frankly, I didn’t care. I was young. I just wanted to go outside and ride my bike.  Therefore, since my grandmother actually laid eyes on her grandfather, this man had to live passed 1904, since my grandmother was born in 1904. Well, Theophilus Rodgers was still living in 1910 in Scott County, age 77, and he was living with his son, John T. Rodgers. Therefore, this Rogers man was a strong possibility. This is the 1910 census report:

1910 Scott County, Mississippi – Theophilus Rodgers, age 77, living with his son

(4) Well, I called Cousin Mavis back after discovering Theophilus Rodgers. I asked her one simple question, "Was the father's last name Rogers?" She responded quickly, "Yes, that's it! The father was a Rogers!"

(5) Here’s where things get confusing again. Bennie Clyde “B.C.” Rogers, who opened the first chicken poultry in Morton, Mississippi, and his family were not descendants of Theophilus Rodgers. Those Rogers appear to be a different set. They moved to Scott County, Mississippi from Ouachita County, Arkansas after 1910. This Rogers Family’s ancestral tree was found on ancestry.com, and they don't seem to be connected to Theophilus Rogers. So now I don’t know what to believe……

This is Frustrating!

 

Albert Kennedy

(1857 – 1928)

The picture above is that of my Dad’s biological father’s father, Albert Kennedy, of Leake County (Lena), Mississippi. He was born into slavery around 1857 near the Leake/Scott County line in Mississippi on Stephen Decatur Kennedy’s small farm.  As you may have noticed, Grandpa Albert is obviously of mixed heritage. He was born to an enslaved mulatto mother named Lucy and a white father. For nearly 20 years, I have not been able to identify his father. I have only referred to this unknown man – who is technically my great-great-grandfather – as the “sperm donor”. Admittedly, I felt no connection to this unknown man because I speculated that my great-great-grandmother Lucy, who was born in Alabama c. 1828, was used as a concubine.  Of course, my speculation could be inaccurate. According to renowned geneticist Rick Kittles, I am among the approximately 35% of African-American men whose Y-chromosome originated out of Europe because of miscegenation during slavery.  Indeed, 23andMe DNA company determined that my haplogroup is R1b1b2a1a1, a subgroup of R1b1b2. It is the most common haplogroup in Western Europe.

According to family lore, Grandpa Albert Kennedy was often mistaken for a white man. However, my great-grandfather was Black, according to society. Discriminatory societal rules proclaimed that anyone with a drop of African blood is Black. However, he was able to fool people whenever he took the train to Louisiana to visit his sisters, according to an elderly relative. Pullman porters allowed him to sit in the front of the train. Also, family lore claimed that his sisters had to wear bandanas or hats over their heads whenever they went to town so that folk wouldn’t confuse them for white women. However, my great-grandfather and his sisters chose not to pass, and he and two of his sisters, Mattie and Adaline, actually married dark-skinned people from the Ealy Family of Leake County, Mississippi. Grandpa Albert married my great-grandmother, Martha Ealy, in 1881.

I ascertained early in my research, after interviews with family elders, that the father’s identity was a well-guarded secret. So much so that no one today remembered a name!  Also, I found the death certificates for Grandpa Albert and three of his sisters. On all four death certificates, “Don’t Know” were the words written for the father’s name. Even Grandpa Albert was the informant for his oldest sister Elvina “Viney” Kennedy’s 1917 death certificate. Yet, he too chose not to disclose her father’s name.  It was common for many formerly enslaved African Americans of mixed parentage to keep their white father’s name a secret.

Although it didn’t help me to determine the paternity, I found the enslaver, Stephen Kennedy, in the 1860 Scott County, Mississippi slave schedule. Some family members speculated that he was the father, but that was only based on the fact that Albert and his sisters chose to take the Kennedy surname. In genealogy research and historical interpretation, it is a fallacy to assume that the slave-owner was the father.  However, I never felt that Stephen, who owned only 9 slaves in 1860, was the father.  Nonetheless, the ages reported for Grandma Lucy and her children were fairly accurate, and all of them were noted as “M”, which meant “mulatto”.  The following is that census report:

1860 Scott County, Mississippi Slave Schedule – Stephen Kennedy

(Note: Lucy, age 31, was pregnant with her sixth child, Adaline Kennedy, at the time.)

Recently, I moved to the Washington, DC area (hence the lapse in blog postings).  Upon arrival, I was informed by a cousin that my Dad’s first cousin, Mavis Kennedy Currie, would like for me to call her. She and her husband, the late Dr. Julius Currie, have been living in DC for decades. I had only met her once, and that was back in 1988 at her father’s funeral. Her father, Uncle Wilson Kennedy (1891-1988), and my Dad’s biological father, Hulen Kennedy (1888-1970), were two of five children born to Grandpa Albert Kennedy and Martha Ealy Kennedy.  Cousin Mavis wanted to share some family history with me, including what she had heard about Grandpa Albert’s father from listening to her father and uncles.  Yet, like everyone in the family to date, she didn't remember his name and the secret continues, which is rather frustrating.  This is what she recalled about his identity:

1.     He as an educated man whose roots were from Massachusetts.

2.     He owned thousands of acres of land near the town of Morton, Mississippi (Scott County). She further stated, “He practically owned the town of Morton.”

3.     He was not a white Kennedy.

4.     He owned the cotton gin in Morton, as well as other businesses.

5.     He acknowledged Grandma Lucy’s children, but they kept quiet about his identity because he was very well-known throughout the county.

Although this is much more information that I had ever heard about this man, I am still left frustrated because I don’t have a name. Perhaps, these clues will one day lead me to the truth. I will remain hopeful…..and frustrated.

There's a Part 2 to this genealogical mystery! See http://rootsrevealed.blogspot.com/2013/05/part-2-of-this-is-frustrating.html.

Part 2: When the Ancestors Just Leap Off the Page!

Note: Part 1 of this research story can be read here.

Just when I think that tracing an African-American family couldn’t get any easier for some people just from sitting at the computer conducting online research, more information surfaces!  If only it had been this easy to break down that "1870 Brick Wall" when tracing some of my own enslaved ancestors! Nevertheless, the same excitement as if these were my blood people is still experienced. More has been found concerning Anthony’s roots in Upson County, Georgia, specifically his enslaved Kendall ancestors!

While researching the Kendalls of Upson County, I knew I had heard of this particular county before, but I just could not remember how.  Then, my mental light bulb came on!  Upson County was one of the focus counties of historian and genealogist David Patterson, who also moderates the Slave Research Forum board on AfriGeneas. He had gathered much data on enslaved African Americans in Upson County.  David wrote, “My project to examine Upson County society through slavery and Reconstruction began in 1994 as a simplistic response to the anonymity of the 1850 and 1860 Census Schedules 2 (Slave Inhabitants); I wanted to demonstrate the extent to which someone could construct a surrogate for the censuses, naming every slave who had ever lived in Upson County” (source).  Therefore, I was eager to send David the link to my blog post about the Kendall Family to see if he was familiar with Dr. David Lane Kendall Sr., who owned 61 slaves in Upson County shortly before he died on July 28, 1860.

Now, this is where it gets even “gooder”. How many people are fortunate to have information about their enslaved ancestors handed to them on a “silver platter,” so to speak? Not many! David excitedly responded to my e-mail with the following, “A few years ago I spent a day at Emory combing through all the relevant Kendall family papers. I can send you my findings after I get home….”  My excitement level elevated a few more notches after reading his e-mail!  Well, after waiting about 7 hours, David’s response appeared in my inbox. He provided the following concerning Anthony’s enslaved Kendall ancestors:

Betty Kendall Prater (Anthony’s 3rd-great-grandmother, born around 1846):

(1)   Betty inventoried and appraised at $900 on November 30, 1860. (Source: Upson County Record of Accounts Book E, p. 201) 

(2)   Betty distributed to Thomas R. Kendall, January 7, 1862 (Source: Upson County Record of Accounts Book E, p. 329)

(3)   My note: Betty was legally "owned" by Dr. Kendall's 17-year-old son Thomas when she gave birth to Wesley Kendall in/around 1863 (Anthony’s great-great-grandfather).

Harrison Kendall (Anthony’s 4th-great-grandfather; father of Betty; born around 1825):

(1)   Note: "Harrison, bought 1838" (Source: Chestnut Grove Farm Journal, 1834-1843; Loula Kendall Rogers Collection, Emory University; p. 5)  

(2)   Harrison in list of "Field Hands... Boys", 1840 (p. 32)

(3)   Harrison on Chestnut Grove "home place" for 1841 (p. 37)

(4)   Harrison listed in "Numbers and Names of Negroes, 1842" (p. 48)

Dorcas (Darcus / Darkess) Kendall (Anthony’s 4th-great-grandmother; mother of Betty; born 1830):

(1)   Note: "Dorcas, daughter of Cheener [born] 19 Decr. 1830"  (Source: Chestnut Grove Farm Journal, 1834-1843, p. 6)

(2)   Note: "Attached to Chestnut Grove Farm, 1834" (p. 5)

(3)   2 dresses made [for her] in May, 1836 (unnumbered page)

(4)   Listed as child of Cheener in 1842 (p. 48)

(5)   Probate of Dr. David Kendall's estate: Darkis & 3 children [not named here, but see next entry], inventoried and appraised at $2,000 on November 30, 1860  (Source: Upson County Record of Accounts Book E, p. 201)

(6)   "Dorcas & children, Nora, Tilday & Emeline" distributed to Mrs. Louisa Kendall (widow) on January 7, 1862 (Source: Upson County Record of Accounts Book E, p. 329)

Cheener / Cheena / Chena (Anthony’s 5th-great-grandmother; mother of Dorcas; possibly born around 1800):

(1)   Cheener first mentioned: “Attached to Chestnut Grove Farm 1834” (Source: Chestnut Grove Farm Journal, 1834-1843; Loula Kendall Rogers Collection, Emory University; p. 5)

(2)   Note: “Wiley, son of Cheener, born 19 Jan. 1833”  (Source: Chestnut Grove Farm Journal, 1834-1843; Loula Kendall Rogers Collection, Emory University; p. 6)

(3)   Two aprons made for Cheena in 1836 (unnumbered page dating to 1836, list of clothes made) [would have been made by or under the supervision of Kendall’s wife, Louisa (Steele) Kendall]

(4)   Cheener listed among “Numbers and Names of Negroes 1842” (p. 48)

(5)   Dr. David Kendall’s daughter Loula Kendall Rogers wrote a list: “Old characters known in my childhood . . . Aunt Chena.  Cooked for the field hands.” (source: unnumbered, undated page from Loula W. Kendall Journal 1855-59, written in pencil in her adult or old age hand)

(6)   David noted the following: “Safe to assume Cheener died prior to Nov. 30, 1860 because she is not listed in Dr. Kendall’s estate.”

I still remain in awe about all of these findings – gathered just from sitting and researching at my computer! A special thanks to David Patterson for the additional information!

Provided by David Paterson.  Inscribed on the back: "Bellwood, Upson Co. Ga. The old Kendall Home.  A true type of the old Southern Plantation house.  The fence was only put up until a new one was built, and the carriage drive improved, like the pastel picture." [Added underneath in the shakier handwriting of old age:] - "This picture was taken when I was a child. Loula Kendall. 1850."