Tracing her roots
Shay of BookerRising talks talks a little bit about her findings as she pieces together her family tree:
“Most importantly, “Roots” was great at emphasizing that black Americans (1) have history and culture before slavery and (2) that we still retain some of it. Since “Roots” aired in 1977, my family has been able to trace our ancestry back seven generations to 1822 in South Carolina on one branch, and back eight generations to 1830 in Mississippi in another branch. Another five branches can also be traced back seven generations, with states like Louisiana, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Alabama in the 1800s mix before my family started leaving the South en masse for Illinois and other Midwestern states beginning in 1923. I am fortunate that — thanks to (1) listings in a family Bible owned by my great-great-grandfather R.W.M., who was our family’s first college graduate and later a college professor and ordained minister beginning in the late 1800s, and (2) a great-great-aunt who recently lived to be 103 as good starts — I can name half of my great-great-great-grandparents. I can also name one great-great-great-great-grandparent. This much information was not known in 1977. I have since learned that Kisie/Kizzy/etc. may be linked to the Kissi tribe in modern-day Sierra Leone and Liberia, so my ancestors may have been doing the sneaky way to maintain African heritage without slaveowners’ knowledge. (more…)
On my last trip to the east coast, my aunt handed me a huge folder of research she and a friend, along with help from family members were able to put together regarding our family tree. My lineage is a combination of both African slaves and Native Americans from the Lumbee nation in the Carolinas. At some point I will take the DNA test to find out more about my African roots.
About the Lumbees…
I was reading through your blog and someone said the Lumbees offered a safe haven for enslaved blacks. I’m certain that’s true in some cases, but the bigger truth is the Lumbees were mixed race. Many Native American tribes ceased being full-blooded by the American Revolution and the Lumbees were one such group. Not until the turn of the 20th century were they even considered by outsiders as Indians; they were considered mulattoes [and sometimes Mustee or Portuguese], terms used to describe anyone who was NON-WHITE and most likely with a splash of African blood. Now as far as the “blacks” who lived among them or married into their families… well… those persons of African-descent were also mixed race and free born. Free born families married other free born families. Certainly there were cases when that wasn’t the case, but for the most part, to ensure their “free status” in generations to come, free people of color married other free people of color.
You many want to be sure that the “black” members of your family weren’t actually free, and Lumbees themselves. By the way, Heather Locklear is a descendent of the Lumbee nation as well. Locklear is a huge Lumbee name.
Comment by Keith Josef | September 19, 2007