If you're an African-American, tracing your roots back to the ancestral continent is hard enough — but tracing them back to the ancestral family? That requires genetic testing, plus family-history scholarship, plus trips to Africa, plus a little bit of faith. William Holland has filled all of those requirements, and to celebrate, he's planning a cross-continental family reunion for Memorial Day weekend in Virginia, where his ancestors were once held as slaves. "Memorial Day is a time for remembering the loved ones you lost, right?" Holland said. "So it's a good time to remember all those … [Read more...]

Slave owner John Little wrote in June 1862 that his young slave Lucy "is perfectly sound and healthy, good tempered, honest, willing and industrious, a good house servant and her children are very promising." He described her as "a bright mulatto tall and good looking." Her fellow slave John, Little wrote, "is sound, strong, & healthy a first rate farm hand" with "no moral mental or bodily defect or infirmity." The two, he estimated, were worth a total of $3,200. Little's frank descriptions are included in a petition he submitted to the U.S. Treasury for payment after his four … [Read more...]

Ever wondered where you get some of your habits, traits or cultural practices from? For instance, what made the girl serving your $5 extra-hot latte place what appear to be “plugs” in her ear lobes? Are you sure what the true meaning of your recent tattoo is, and furthermore what made you decide where to have the design placed on your body? Have you ever thought about why you were so interested in a distinct pattern or design, or why you style your hair in a certain way? According to Rozenia Johnson, founder of the MDUBA Associates, you are practicing “adornment,” which is … [Read more...]

Cory Booker, the Mayor of Newark, today calls New Jersey home. But in the first episode of the new PBS series, "Finding Your Roots," Mr. Booker explores his genealogy with the help of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.  Skip Gates reached out to me and said he'd like to use me as a subject matter—I felt like I'd hit the lottery! Read More … [Read more...]

Thirty-nine lashes “well laid” on her bare back and an extension of her indentured servitude was Elizabeth Banks’s punishment for “fornication & Bastardy with a negroe slave,” according to a stark June 20, 1683, court document from York County, Va. Through the alchemy of celebrity and genealogy, that record and others led to the recent discovery that Banks, a free white woman despite her servitude, was the paternal ninth great-grandmother of Wanda Sykes, the ribald comedian and actress. Read More … [Read more...]

Mary Walker was a former slave who escaped her owner, fled north, and came to owna Cambridge landmark. Recent celebrations at the Blacksmith House have brought generations of Walker’s descendants to the Harvard Square home. It’s the first time they visited with the knowledge that the home is part of their own family heritage. Fifteen of Walker’s descendents have come from as far away as New Jersey and Michigan, as well as right here in Massachusetts. The house is relatively new information for Clare Kenney, of Midland Park, N.J., now 85 years old. She gingerly climbs the stairs … [Read more...]