That is the
question everyone interested in genealogy ask. It is my desire to go back as
far as Africa. I probably need a genie in a bottle to complete that quest. As a Black
American, my ancestry is hidden from me in a way that is not hidden from other Americans. Since my ancestors were slaves, their names were not on the
census before 1870. It is not impossible to go back farther if I can
identify the slave owners but that is difficult too. Many slaves wanted to distance
themselves from their lives as property. They changed their names. They didn’t
talk much about that time with their innocent descendants. White descendants
of slave owners are also unwilling to share that part of their family
history.
However,
once the slave owners are identified, it is possible to find records on file
because slaves were part of a financial transaction, as heinous as that is. I
have the receipt of the purchase of my great-great-great grandfather Solomon
Koonce who was sold to Isaac Koonce of Haywood County, Tennessee in January
1840.. I have also deducted that Solomon
was owned for a period of time by Francis Nunn who died intestate in Lauderdale
County, Tennessee around 1837.
I may be in
the minority but I am also interested in my White ancestors. I am the sum of
all of my parts. In looking for those ancestors I am learning more about my
country’s history and psyche. That is also part of my history—slavery, the
Civil War, the American Revolutionary War, the making of a nation. I plan on
studying that too, to put my history into the larger context.
I can go
back much farther on some of my white ancestors. So far I am able to go back at
least 12 generations. I have found the link between me and one of my favorite
writers, Jane Austen and even closer, the link between my family and Reba
McEntire. This is exciting to me. I am not ashamed at embracing all my of heritage
because I do not deny my ancestry regardless of color or nationality.
This is what
I attempt to do in updating my family history. The surnames that I will
be following are Koonce, Warren, Featherston, Cotten, Alexander, Brassfield, Tarpley, Elmore, Alexander, Saunders, and
Wright. There may be more as I learn more. I will also research the locations where they lived--Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and maybe others as I learn of them. Hopefully, one of those locations will be somewhere specific on the continent of Africa.
