My great-great grandma has 4 last names!

Most of the time you will read about how hard it is to find a maiden name for your female ancestors. In this case, I didn't have that problem. So what do you do when your great-great grandmother has 4 surnames?

I recently discovered that I made an error in the Gibson branch of my tree on my mother's side of the family. Since most of my ancestors from Orangeburg were not found in the 1870 census I made several assumptions that came out wrong. I did this years ago and unfortunately my mistakes were shared when I had my tree public on ancestry.com. Since I started this blog, it gave me a chance to revisit all my branches and fix my errors.

In June 1880, my great-great grandparents Daniel and Judie Gibson, lived in Union Township, Orangeburg, SC.

As you can see, Daniel and Judie had several children:
Daniel Gibson b. 1869
Henry Gibson b. 1873
William Gibson b. 1873
Florence Gibson b. 1874
Joanna Gibson b. 1875
Lou Anna Gibson b. 1878

My great-grandfather, Moses Gibson Sr., was born shortly thereafter in either 1879 or 1880.  When he died on September 4, 1927 his death certificate named his parents as Daniel Gibson and Judy WALKER.

And there lies my mistake. I assumed that Walker was her maiden name and I didn't need to search any further. I never bothered to find any other death certificates of Moses' siblings to confirm her surname.

Then I found another sibling, Martha Gibson born in 1882. She married Thomas Cleckley b. 1883 and lived near Moses in Cope, Union Township, Orangeburg in the early 1900s. Martha died at the age of 33 of a convulsion while shopping in a store in Cope on November 27, 1915. Martha was buried at Good Hope AME Church cemetery in Cope. Her death certificate read this:

Her mother was named Judy HENDERSON. Where did Henderson come from? The hell if I know!! I ruled out if Martha was the daughter of Daniel Gibson Jr b. 1869. He would have been about 13 when she was born. 

After that I found another sibling's death certificate, Florence Gibson. Florence was born in either 1874 or 1879. She married John Minnigan b. 1879 and lived near Martha and Moses in the early 1900s. Florence died of unknown causes on July 24, 1938 in Bamberg. She was buried at Lodgebridge in possibly Bamberg. Her sister, LouAnne Gibson-Huggins was the witness. Her mother was named Judy SALLY.

LouAnne Gibson b. 1878 married Jerry Huggins. They also lived near her siblings in Cope. LouAnne Huggins died of apoplexy on October 13, 1944 and is also buried at Good Hope. Unfortunately her death certificate named Juddy GIBSON as her mother.

I haven't been able to trace the whereabouts of the sister JoAnna Gibson b. 1875 and brothers, Daniel Gibson Jr. b. 1869, Henry Gibson b. 1873 and William Gibson b. 1873, with absolute certainty in the 1900s. I haven't found any death certificates yet for my great-granduncles.

Tracing Judie Gibson was difficult. A black Judy Gibson b. 1850 lived in Hilton Head, Beaufort, SC during the 1910 census with her niece Laura Hamilton b. 1889 and nephew Peter Hamilton b. 1890. This Judy was a widow and the mother of 4 children that were still alive. However, this may not be my great-great grandmother because Daniel Gibson Sr. died on September 11, 1915 in Cope. Daniel's death certificate said he was still married. His parents were Daniel Gibson and Mariah Gibson. My great-grandfather Moses Gibson was the witness.

 The 1917 death certificate of this Judy Gibson b. 1837 revealed that she was 80 years old when she died making her the wife of Renty Gibson b. 1845. Renty might have been a brother of Daniel. This was not my Judy since Renty and Judy were married in the 1880 Hilton Head, Beaufort census.

A mulatto SC born Judie Gibson b. 1850 lived in 1910 Macon, Alabama with her children Ernest Walker b. 1878 and Jemima Walker b. 1880. Earnest and Jemima were born in Alabama making it very unlikely that they were my relatives. This Judie was a widow and the mother of 6 children that were still alive. This would mean that Judie's actual children were Moses, Florence, LouAnna, Martha, Ernest and Jemima. But Moses and Martha were born in Orangeburg between 1879 and 1882. If this is true then Daniel Jr., Henry, William and JoAnna were probably the children of Daniel Gibson's first wife. I haven't found death certificates on any of these children yet. My Judie's death certificate is also missing. To add to the confusion, the Gibson family lived in an area of Orangeburg that was completely missed when the 1870 census took place. A lot of my ancestors on my mother's side lived there during this time so I couldn't double-check anything against the 1880 Union Township, Orangeburg County, SC census. My Gibsons could have been from Barnwell in 1870. I had to make assumptions that were initially wrong.

When I figure this one out, I will let you know. I am sure there is a logical explanation for all this.

Fatima Rutledge - The Case of Freedom

When you do ancestral research such as this you find a lot of interesting facts about slaves, slave-owners and free persons of color. It is rare when you find a court case that gives you almost everything you need in order to trace your family history.

This month I wanted to focus on a branch of family that I haven't discussed yet, the Rutledge family of Charleston, South Carolina. In certain branches of my family I can go back only a few generations. Some I have found little or no information. This was not the case with the Rutledges. As I discovered in my research, I have found many historical facts and case files dating back to the late 1700s.

Some of you may not be familiar with US history or SC history for that matter. So let's put the entire Rutledge family in perspective.

South Carolina Governor Edward Rutledge (1749-1800) was the youngest (age 26) signer of the Declaration of Independence. The history books paint him as a founding father but neither he nor his brother SC Governor John Rutledge (1739-1800), who eventually became the 2nd Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, were eager to break ties with Great Britain. Both Rutledge brothers were slave-owners and voted to strike down any language in the Constitution that forbade slavery. However, after signing the Declaration of Independence, John and Edward began manumitting their slaves.

SOME were freed. Others were not.

FATIMA wasn't so lucky. She was my 6x great-grandmother on my father's side of the family and she had an extraordinary story to tell.

Fatima was born about 1743 in the kingdom of Morocco. She is the only ancestor that I knew of her life in Africa before being enslaved in the United States.

(A side note: One of my favorite songs is Marrakech by the acid-jazz group Incognito. Sit back and enjoy the video. I've seen them perform live several times when I lived in Atlanta. They put on a great show. Marrakech is a major city in Morocco. It seems like this stuff sticks in your DNA for real. WHO KNEW?)

Fatima didn't come from humble beginnings. She and her husband Francis were Muslim freedom-fighters. They were part of a group of Moors that were loyal subjects of the Sultan of Morocco, Mohammed ben Abdallah, otherwise known as Mohammed III (1710-1790). Interestingly enough, Mohammed's first consort was Lalla Fatima bint Sulaiman of Morocco. I am not sure if my Fatima was her or a descendant of them both. I cannot tell through DNA or documentation yet.

In 1769, Mohammed ordered forces to drive the Portuguese out of the port city of Mazaghan along the Atlantic Coast. The Sultan was able to win back the city but eight Moors were captured during the attack. The prisoners of war were supposed to be delivered to the Moroccan ambassador in England for hostage negotiations. Unfortunately, the Moors were instead shipped to America and sold into slavery in South Carolina.

Fatima and another Moor named Flora were purchased by Edward Rutledge who was an up and coming lawyer in Charleston. Just like his brother John, Edward Rutledge would eventually become the 39th Governor of South Carolina from 1798 to 1800. The future Governor owned up to 60 slaves before the Revolutionary War but after signing the Declaration of Independence, it was rumored that he freed most of his slaves. What really happened was that during the Siege of Charleston in 1780, the city was under attack. All citizens including many slaves fled for their lives. Some runaway slaves were offered asylum by the British forces to relocate to Nova Scotia, Canada as shown in The Book of Negroes. After the Siege was over and the British defeated, Fatima still remained a slave of Edward Rutledge.

Edward "favored" Fatima. That's why he kept her. That is until she got pregnant with his child. Having a mixed child with a slave would have ruined his promising political career. He got rid of her in order to avoid a scandal.

On August 10, 1783 Flora, Fatima and child were purchased by Alexander Oliphant, a family friend, from Edward Rutledge for 155 guineas (155 English gold coins or 162 English pounds & 15 shillings is equivalent to $240.30 US dollars). Thirteen days later Alex freed Flora for 75 guineas (78 English pounds & 15 shillings is equivalent to $116.30 US dollars) and Fatima & child for 80 guineas (84 English pounds is equivalent to $124 US dollars). If this transaction were to happen today, based on 2014 inflation rates, it would have cost Flora $2,584.44 for her freedom and $2,755.56 for Fatima & her child.

Who exactly was this child? He was known as NED RUTLEDGE my 5x great-grandfather. Ned is short for Edward. Ned was a mulatto. Ned would marry DIE SANDERS, relocate to Ladies Island in Beaufort and raise a family. My DNA test matched me with two descendants of John Rutledge Sr (1713-1750) a physician from Ireland who emigrated to SC in the mid 1730s and had 7 children with Sarah Hext from SC. They were the parents of the two governors. Therefore Governor Edward Rutledge was indeed my 6x great-grandfather.

Flora and Fatima eventually reunited with their former husbands. On January 20, 1790 the group of Moors petitioned the South Carolina House of Representatives as "free-born" subjects of Morocco that if they were ever brought to trial for a crime or misdemeanor, they would be treated as citizens of this country and not fall under the 1740 SC Slave Code (The Law for the better Ordering and Governing of Negroes and other Slaves). The petition, now known as The Moors Sundry Act of 1790, was reviewed and approved by a committee led by none other than Edward Rutledge.

(Another side note: My birthday is January 20th. Imagine my surprise when I found a court case from my ancestor that coincides with my birth date!)

The only other thing I knew about Fatima was that she had another son named Henry Rutledge. He was also a mulatto but I couldn't determine if his father was Francis or Edward. Hopefully Fatima lived a better life as a free person of color. It would be the last favor she ever got from Edward. His health started to decline shortly afterwards. He suffered from gout which made it very difficult for him to walk. On January 23, 1800 Edward Rutledge died of a stroke (formerly called apoplexy) in office after serving a little more than a year as Governor. He is buried at Saint Philips Episcopal Church cemetery in Charleston. I plan to visit his grave when I go back to SC this summer on vacation.

To be YOUNG and free

It was a pleasant surprise to find my ancestors as free persons of color in the 1860 Barnwell SC census. The nagging question was HOW?

For almost 10 years, I examined the surroundings, the documents, the relationships and my DNA test results to uncover any clues to who these people were and where did they come from.

In 1860 Barnwell County, SC there were 10 Young households. Of those ten, these four Young families of color were as follows:

Allendale Township
Frank Young b. 1804 a free colored man who was employed as a carpenter. He was known as Francis Young in the 1870 census.
Caroline Young b. 1824 his mulatto wife. Her parents were Titus Irvine and Judy Doe b. 1810. Titus was a slave of the Erwin family of Barnwell. Judy's mother Hester Doe b. 1775 was a free person of color in the 1820 Barnwell census.
David Young b. 1840 their black son. Lived near parents in 1870 Beldoc Township. David had children Frank Young b. 1864, Letitia Young b. 1867 and Emma Young b. 1869. No wife was listed.
Julia Young b. 1851 their mulatto daughter.
Sarah Young b. 1861 their black daughter.

Gabriel Young b. 1815 a free colored man who was also a carpenter. His family lived next door to Frank in 1860 and 1870.
Hannah Young b. 1813 his mulatto wife.
Edward Young b. 1855 their mulatto son.
Louisa Young b. 1856 their mulatto daughter. Named after her aunt.

Four Mile Township
Robert Young b. 1820 a free colored man who was a farm laborer. He was my 2x Great-Grandfather. Robert died between 1880-1890 in Hampton without any death record.
Nancy Young b. 1830 his mulatto wife. She was my 2x Great-Grandmother.
Loreander Young b. 1847 their mulatto daughter.
John Young b. 1852 their mulatto daughter.
Louisa Georgianna Young b. 1856 their mulatto daughter. Named after her aunt. Yes that name is popular!
James Nunnus b. 1841 a free mulatto farm laborer who was a tenant in the Young household. He was actually James Nunez from Burke Co., GA. James married Louisa in 1880.

Lower Three Runs Township
Wiley Young b. 1818 a free colored man who was a farm laborer.
Louisa Young b. 1822 his colored wife.

Over the past few years, I had befriended several people online claiming to be descendants of these families. Once we were able to compare DNA, it was determined that all 4 heads of their respective households: Frank, Gabriel, Wiley and Robert were indeed brothers.

But no one knew anything else. For years we couldn't a single shred of evidence. There were inventories, wills and other documents that were provided by the white Young families of Barnwell during the early to mid 1800s but not a single one had any of our ancestors' names on it. We couldn't verify the parents of those four men either. To add more confusion to the mix, the Y-DNA test results indicated that I am of haplogroup I1, which means I descend from someone of Northern European ancestry. The census records between 1860 to 1880 change the ethnicity of the Young brothers from colored to mulatto and then black.

There were two Young families in nearby Burke County, GA that also needed to be addressed. Burke County was only 4 miles away from Barnwell County and separated by the Savannah River. Burke's county seat is WAYNESBORO (what are the odds of that happening?). Allen Young (1784-1860) and Jesse Young (1777-1872) were free persons of color in the 1830 Company 66, Burke County, GA census. Allen was a mulatto born in GA, with wife Lesia "Lucy" Young had 12 children and they all relocated to Hamilton, TN in 1850. Jesse was also a mulatto born in Kentucky, married to Martha Young and had at least 5 children. There were probably more after 1830. Jesse died in Charleston, SC. It seemed like Jesse was a likely candidate to be my direct ancestor. That was until this weekend.

My 3x great-grandfather was David Young (spelled Yonge) was a free black man who purchased the freedom of his wife Judy and son Frank from William Simmons of St. Paul's Parish, Colleton Co., SC. If the years are correct, Frank was 10 years old when he was freed on July 25, 1814. Judy was subsequently freed on December 6, 1815. That would mean that the rest of Judy's children (hopefully including Gabriel) would have been born free. That is why I never found their names in any wills or slaves' bill of sale.

I did find David Young as a free person of color in the 1820 census. He lived near 2 other FPOC families, Betsy Bass and Sally Bass of Darlington, SC. I do have Bass ancestors but that mixture occurred back in the early 1700s in VA or so I thought. I would have to dig further into that to identify any relationships to the ones in SC. No other records on David were ever found. Was David a mulatto? DNA suggests yes, but who was the father? Aren't children of a mulatto and black still considered mulatto or just referred to as colored? Who knows what they were classified back then. As long as they were free I don't mind.

Doing research in the St. Paul's Parish resulted interesting results. On April 11, 1772 Algernoon Wilson was marking his 280 acre territory. His neighbors included Francis Yonge and his wife Susannah. There goes that name again. My Frank Young was also known as Francis. Could this be my 4x great grandfather? I couldn't find Francis' will or David's emancipation records. But I'm still looking.

I did find the November 6, 1817 will of Susanna Yonge in Barnwell, SC. She was a widow with one surviving daughter, Harriett P. Hagood, wife of Gideon Hagood along with their children. Susanna left a negro wench Patience and her two daughters Rhoda and Louisa, to Harriett. The will was proved on August 2, 1819. I wonder if that is the same Louisa that married Wiley? And who was David's mother? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

After I started writing this I googled Francis Yonge and the floodgates opened wide. I will have to go into detail about the ancient Yonge family of South Carolina at a later date. Apparently, we have our own ISLAND.

Bonus pic: We still kept the naming conventions alive in the 1900s. Left to right my dad William Young, his cousin Frank Young and another cousin Miller Murray at President Kennedy's funeral. No new Davids yet so far. I guess our generation broke that chain, but I will keep your memory alive David in this blog.

They called my ancestors name

My mother received a phone call from her cousin Lillian the other day. She was overjoyed and excited! She said "They called our name in the Book of Negroes!" I didn't catch it the first time but I watched the episode again. During Episode 1, a young Aminata Diallo from Gambia was in the belly of the slave ship and the men in chains were telling her their names so that she would remember them. The last one called out his name as SAMBA. My mouth dropped. I was amazed. My 6x great-grandfather was named Samba too.  He was the patriarch of the Tyler branch of family from Orangeburg, SC.

Samba was born about 1759 in Africa.  Based on my DNA and my research of that branch of family, it was likely that he was from West Africa near Gambia. He was named after a Gambian Obeche tree commonly called the Samba tree.

Samba was enslaved and brought into the US during the late 1700s. Samba was the slave of Charles Milhouse (1790-1830) from the Barnwell District of South Carolina. His name was changed to Sambo. Sambo might have been married to a slave named Poll or Moll. When Charles died in 1830, he left a large number of slaves to his sister Eliza M. (1798-1856), wife of Elisha Tyler (1794-1851). Elisha and Eliza Tyler lived in Orangeburg, SC and attended Willow Swamp Baptist Church. When Elisha died in 1851, he had 51 slaves. Below is a copy of Charles Milhouse's September 28, 1826 will. The will was proved on November 24, 1830. 

This document was very useful but it took me several months to backtrack and figure out who was who. I had to jump between census records and death certificates between several generations to piece the family together. What I found interesting was that my 3x great grandfather was named Sam Tyler. Sam was born about 1830 which meant that Samba was still alive to see his great-grandson's birth. I also knew that Sam's two sons Joseph and William "Landy" Tyler b. 1862 (my 2x great-grandfather) lived with their grandmother Mary Sanders-Tyler in 1870 Rocky Grove, Orangeburg, SC. In the 1880 census, Mary was actually Maria, wife of Patrick Tyler. Patrick was named a mulatto in the census. There was a Mariah found in the 1830 will. Both Maria and Patrick were born about 1815. Also found in the Milhouse will was Bill Sabem, Patrick's father. By reaching out to Milhouse descendants it was discovered that Bill Sabem was really meant to say Bill Samba or Bill, son of Samba. After emancipation Bill was known as William Tyler b. 1797 and lived in Beat 4, Grenada, MS with his mulatto wife Hannah Jones-Tyler b. 1800. That confirmed to me that Patrick was Hannah's son. William's 1880 MS census record mentioned that his father was born in Africa and his mother was born in SC. As you can see, Landy was named after his great-grandfather also. Luckily, it was Landy's July 7, 1916 death certificate that provided me with both his parents' full names including his mother Louisa Gray-McDonald b. 1829.

Since that time, the family has grown and spread out to areas such as MS, NC and PA.

A few years ago, my mother and I went to her cousin Lillian's house in Charlotte, NC for a family BBQ. My mother and Lillian used to play as kids together. Lillian's father, Jerome Tyler and my great grandmother, Tenell Tyler-Gibson (1892-1920) were both Landy's children. Lillian is the Tyler family historian so I gladly volunteered to do an impromptu family tree presentation for the Tyler family. Because everywhere I go, I am always PREPARED to talk about genealogy. I am proud that this is one of my few completed branches of family that go all the way back to Africa. So this blog post is dedicated to Lillian Tyler-Weathers and the whole Tyler branch of family.

Who was Nancy Young?

My direct Young branch has been the hardest to trace accurately. I was lucky enough to discover that my ancestors were free prior to the Civil War. My 2x great-grandparents, Robert and Nancy Young along with their children were free persons of color (FPOC) in the 1860 Four Mile Township of Barnwell County, South Carolina census.

The Young Household of 1860
Robert Young b. 1820 a free mulatto who was a farm laborer.
Nancy Young b. 1830 his mulatto wife.
Loreander Young b. 1847 their mulatto daughter.
John Young b. 1852 their mulatto daughter.
Louisa Georgianna Young b. 1856 their mulatto daughter.
James Nunnus b. 1841 a free mulatto farm laborer who was a tenant in the Young household. He was actually James Nunez from Burke Co., GA. James married Louisa in 1880. Read about him HERE.

Robert and Nancy had two more sons named Robert Young Jr. b. 1845 and Alfred Young b. 1860. I guess Nancy was pregnant during this census period. Alfred was my great-grandfather.

The Young family lived most of their lives in Barnwell but moved to St. Peter's Parish in Beaufort, SC after the Civil War. After the Battle of Port Royal Sound in 1861, most of the white landowners fled Beaufort and never returned after the war. The US Treasury was able to sell the abandoned land at a low price for non-payment of taxes. Former slaves who had struggled all their lives on plantations were now able to own their own land. Beaufort saw an immediate increase in their African-American population. It was far easier for them to purchase land there than anywhere else in the state. By controlling their own land and crops, they avoided getting ripped off by tenant farmers.

I found Robert Young's 1868 voter registration for Beaufort (sorry it's not a clear pic). I found this on the Low Country Africana website. It's things like this that make me get up and vote in November every year even if it is a primary election or not.

In the 1870 census the family lived in Hardeeville, St. Peter's Parish, Beaufort, SC. Robert Young Jr., his wife Elizabeth Young b. 1850 and their daughter Rebecca Young b. 1869 lived a few houses away from Robert Young Sr.

Unfortunately, Nancy died of typhus fever in March 1870 at the age of 40. It was a slow, painful death. The records of that time period were not detailed like the death certificates we have now.

The only death certificate I was able to find of her children was Robert Young Jr. He died on October 6, 1939 in Lee, SC of old age. The death certificate did not include Nancy's maiden name.

For years I tried to find out who her parents were. I had made several assumptions that were eventually proven wrong. Its been very frustrating at times but luckily my AncestryDNA test came through again!

I recently found two 3rd-4th cousins that popped up recently on my DNA Results tab. Of course their trees were not up to date! So after several months of comparing notes and doing the research, I figured out they were descendants of Simon Hankerson b. 1790 and Mary Floyd Hankerson b. 1815. In the 1860 census, the Hankerson family lived seven houses away from my Young family!

So problem solved! Nancy was a Hankerson, right? WRONG. I explored that possibility with a direct descendant of the Hankerson family several years ago. In order to gain his freedom, a black slave named Simon, owned by Richard Hankerson, married Mary Floyd. Mary was a free person of color (FPOC) and a Mulatto. Simon married Mary in 1838. The first of their ten children, Simon Hankerson Jr., was born in 1840.  Simon was previously married to a black female and had several children. None of whom were Mulattos. The Hankerson descendants have kept very detailed records on their family and a lot of documents are available online. I was extremely grateful for their support.

Could Nancy Young and Mary Hankerson be sisters?  This is what I found out about the Floyds of Barnwell.

In the 1830 Barnwell census, John G. Floyd, aged between 30-39, was a white male head of a household of 9. It looks like he had 1 male slave. Was his wife and children passing for white when they were really mulattos?

In the 1840 Barnwell census, Elizabeth Floyd, aged between 55-99 was a FPOC with 3 males in her household (1 aged between 10-24 and 2 aged between 24-36). She lived next door to Alexander Young and his family. Alexander was white and had no slaves in 1840. Two other FPOC families of Sarah Chism (Chisholm) and Sarah Chavous (Chavis) were also neighbors. Since Mary married Simon in 1838 it made sense that she wouldn't show up on the census in the Floyd household. It doesn't explain where Nancy was, if she was actually a Floyd.

In the 1850 Barnwell census, Henry Floyd b. 1804 was a FPOC with his wife Tamar Floyd b. 1815, daughter Patsy Floyd b. 1836 and an unnamed infant girl. Henry lived next door to his brothers Albert Floyd b. 1825 and his wife Sally Floyd b. 1832. Another brother Allen Floyd b. 1819 lived alone next door. Allen married Judith Philpot b. 1825 that same year. Based on those age ranges in the 1840 census, the 3 males must have been Henry, Allen and Albert. These three men were Mulattos. A November 9, 1887 court case also proved the relationship between Henry, Mary and Allen. Albert might have died prior to that date and was not mentioned.

In the 1869 Militia Records for Four Mile Township, Barnwell I found 3 colored men enrolled named Alfred Floyd b. 1824, Captain Floyd b. 1832 and Matthew Floyd b. 1837. These 3 men were black. Of course the name Alfred Floyd made me wonder if Nancy Young named my great-grandfather after him?

It seems like every family in the area was related. The Hankersons and Floyds have a connection to the Bush family. The Bush name also popped up in my DNA cousins' trees. Please Lord don't let me be related to HIM! Luckily, his name did not come up on my list in 23andMe of famous people in my haplogroup, but hey you never know who you might be related to these days.

I also found an Alfred Walker b.1832 in Four Mile 1870-80 censuses that was also named in my DNA cousins' trees. There goes that name Alfred again! What is interesting is that Alfred Walker was a mulatto. He was employed as a carpenter too. My ancestors on the Young side had carpenters in the family during this same time period. Alfred was married to Margaret Rebecca Clary and had 7 children together. Alfred died in Barnwell about 1907 at the age of 75.

The surname Walker appears on my mother's side from Charleston. That is a coincidence since they were FPOCs from Virginia that moved to SC. I couldn't find a connection based on the records I have for those set of Walkers. Not to worry, I will blog about them very soon!

My last theory is the one I thought was most plausible. Nancy could have been the daughter of Nero and Nancy Hancock. Nero Hancock was born in 1780 at George Galphin's Silver Bluff Plantation, Aiken, SC. Nero and his brother Prince were sold away from their parents in 1781. Nero received his freedom after 1800 and relocated to Burke County, Georgia approximately 10 to 12 miles from Silver Bluff Plantation. 

Nero took the surname of Hancock. Nero was head of a Waynesboro, Burke Co., GA (30 miles outside of Augusta) household of 4 in the 1820 census. Nero Hancock and wife Nancy were listed as planter and housewife in the April 30, 1820 Augusta Chronicle article registering Free Persons of Color. Nero and his wife Nancy Byng were in the 1830 District 66 census with an unnamed child (possibly my Nancy). The couple were listed in the 1850 (the maiden name of Byng was recorded for Nancy that year) and 1860 censuses (They were named Nescoe and Nancy Hancock residing in 1860 Gordon’s District, Burke Co., GA). The Hancock family lived next door to the FPOC Nunez family. And as you can see in the 1830 census, the Hancocks also lived next to the FPOC households of Allen Young and Jesse Young. As you can see, these Youngs are another mystery to crack when I discuss Robert again.

I do have a DNA match to a Bing descendant who's ancestors were William Bing b. 1818 and Frances Galphin b. 1820 also from Barnwell. I haven't found anyone with Hancock or Galphin/Golfin surnames in my DNA matches either. 
So there you have it, so many possibilities but no clear winner. If DNA doesn't lie, then it sure isn't making it easy to find out the truth. I hope someone can show me the right path.

Because I have NO CLUE! 

The Curious Case of James Nunez

The 1860 census has always vexed me. I was happy to see that my ancestors were free prior to the Civil War. On the other hand, the census left me with more questions than answers.

This snapshot was taken from the September 1, 1860 census for the Four Mile township of Barnwell, SC. My 2x great-grandfather Robert Young aged 40 was a free person of color (mulatto) with a personal wealth of $150 (That equaled $4,285.71 in 2014). We also have my 2x great-grandmother Nancy Young aged 30 with three of their children Loreander age 13, John age 8 and Louisa age 4. My great-grandfather Alfred wasn't born until later that year. In addition to the family there was another lodger, James Nunnus, a mulatto aged 19.

Who is this guy? I played the Bill Withers tune in my head, "Who is he and what is he to you?" Was he a brother-in-law, cousin or just a tenant? The census provided no clues.

What is challenging for me is that I am having the most trouble identifying my ancestors of the Young branch. I can not confirm Nancy's maiden name and I do not know the names of Robert's parents. I have few matching relatives with the surname Young from all of three my DNA tests. I will blog about that later.

James Nunnus, born about 1839, was actually James Eunice in the 1869 Militia Roll, James Nun in the 1870 census and James Nunis in the 1880 census. He married Georgianna Young b. 1853 and had 4 children named Anna May Nunez b. 1872, James Joseph Nunez b. 1874, Louisa Nunez b. 1876 and Joanna Nunez b. 1880. Notice that James and Georgianna name a daughter Louisa. I think that Georgianna might be my great-grandaunt Louisa Young from the 1860 census.

I never found a record of James' death but there was an interesting court case about his life.

Bryan vs Walton

James was one of five children of Joseph Nunez, a mulatto himself, and Patience, his negro slave that he married. They lived in Burke County, Georgia which was 4 miles west of Barnwell, SC across the Savannah River.

Joseph Nunez descended from Dr. Samuel Nunez, a Portuguese physician of Jewish descent, who fled that country to escape religious persecution in 1733 and opened the first apothecary (retail drug store) in Georgia. Samuel's son, Moses Nunez had several mixed race children with Mulatto Rose, a Native American Indian. Moses and Rose had a son named James Nunez who married a white woman named Lucy Anderson. They were Joseph's parents. Joseph's father James owned Patience's mother, her and her siblings.

In 1846, Joseph Nunez transferred ownership of several slaves he had inherited to a neighbor, Alexander Urquhart. A year later, Urquhart sold the slaves to Seaborn C. Bryan. After Nunez's death in 1846, the administrator of his estate, Hugh Walton, sued Bryan to recover the slaves. Walton's strategy was to have the Georgia courts declare that Nunez was a free person of color rather than a white man. State law at that time prohibited anyone who was at least one-eighth black from selling or giving away property. If the courts agreed Nunez had an eighth or more black ancestry, he could not have sold the slaves to Urquhart, who could not then have sold them to Bryan. The matter came to the Georgia Supreme Court three times between 1853 and 1864 before the parties finally accepted the court's decisions that Nunez was not a person of color.

During the trial the defendant testified that Patience died in 1851 and he didn't know the whereabouts of Nunez' children. Somehow one of them, James found his way to Barnwell and lived in my great-great grandparents house as a free man. He had no fear of extradition and used his name openly.

I did find a living descendant of James Nunez a few years ago so his legacy lives on. In fact, I have kept in contact with several of Dr. Samuel Nunez' descendants throughout the years.  These wonderful people really helped me discover more about my ancestry as well even though I am not a Nunez descendant myself. You can read more about the Nunez family in a large variety of books, Facebook groups and websites. They have so many interesting stories that spans centuries.

The Missing Livingston Child

Once again DNA answered an age old question lost throughout the decades.

Let's start with the records first.

The June 1900 census for Cope, Union Township, Orangeburg County, South Carolina had my 3x great-grandmother, Idella Livingston b. 1830 in the household of her grandson Samuel Livingston b. 1870. At this time Sam was married for 5 years to his wife Frances Brown-Livingston b. 1877. They had three children Verna (Vernell) b. 1896, Annie b. 1897 and little 3 month old Jasper b. 1900. I mentioned how Sam's eldest daughters married into the Wilkinson family in an earlier blog post. As you can see in the picture below circled in red, Sam and Frances had 3 children who were all alive in 1900. Unfortunately, all 3 of Idella's children were dead.

During this time period it was rare to find someone with so few children. Idella must have been heartbroken to bury her husband and all of her children. At this time, I still don't know how any of the children died. Official death records are scarce for the time period between 1880 and 1900. I can only assume the worst: by accident, incident or disease. Within those two decades I was able to uncover the names of my 3x great-grandparents and two of their children. So here is the question:

WHO WAS THE THIRD CHILD?

No records of my family were found in 1870. I can only guess that the census taker skipped their part of town. YOU HAD ONE JOB TO DO!!!! 

In April 1880 Willow Township, Orangeburg, SC my 3x great-grandfather, Boston Livingston b. 1810, died by accident in a gravel pit.

In June 1880 Liberty Township, Orangeburg, SC my 2x great-grandfather Jace Livingston b. 1856 lived with his wife Dorcas Hawkins-Livingston b. 1854 and the first six of their nine children. It is when I researched the children where it all started to make sense. 

Their children were:

• Grant Livingston b. 1870 was named after his uncle Grant Livingston b. 1859.  I made an earlier blog entry about when this Grant and his brother Sam attended Claflin University. Grant later married Janie.
• Samuel Livingston b. 1872 would be the one who had his grandmother Idella live with him in 1900. 
• Harriet Livingston b. 1874. 
• Adaline Livingston b. 1876 was the twin sister of Emeline. Adaline was named after her aunt Adaline Jones-Hawkins, wife of Dorcas' brother Jacob Hawkins. Adaline married into the Curry family.
• Emeline Livingston b. 1876 was the twin sister of Adaline. 
• Doctor Livingston b. 1879 was named after his father's cousin, Doctor Jennings b. 1855. Jennings was Idella's maiden name. 
• William A. Livingston Sr. b. 1890 was my great-grandfather. He married Maud Easterling b. 1893 and had 5 children including my grandfather William A. Livingston Jr. b. 1916. My actual grandfather was never married to my grandmother. They had two kids together including my mother.
• Idella Livingston II b. 1893 was named after her grandmother. She married into the Williams family.
• George Livingston b. 1895 was my step-grandfather. He actually married my grandmother Izora Gibson b. 1914. They had two kids together. I told that whole story in an earlier blog.

There might have been more children born in the 1800s but I haven't identified all of them yet. Jace probably died between 1895 and 1900 since George was the last child born. I do not know where he was buried. Dorcas died in 1913 and was buried at Mt. Zion cemetery in Cope, SC. 

The reason I never found Jace's brother Grant Livingston in any earlier censuses was that he was employed as a longshoreman which kept him out at sea for an extended period of time. He did manage to return and live in Charleston, SC before he died in mid-1900. His sudden death might have been at sea. He was married to Lula Aiken b. 1880 for 4 years and had 3 kids. Only two children Willie b. 1897 and Viola b. 1899 survived past childbirth.

Several weeks ago I was checking my updates in AncestryDNA and came across a gentleman who was a 4th to 6th cousin. I reviewed his tree and discovered something new. His great-grandparents were January Hart b. 1850 and Louvenia Livingston b. 1852. 

January Hart was the son of Abraham and Annie Hart. January and Louvenia were married around 1872 in Orangeburg, SC. The couple had at least 6 children together. Louvenia died between 1895 and 1900. The 1900 Elizabeth, Orangeburg, SC census listed January Hart as widowed. He died there of dropsy (pulmonary edema) on May 1, 1915. 

Their children were:

• Peter Hart b. 1872 was married to Charlotte Dickson b. 1862 with children Sam Hart b. 1896, Pearlie Hart b. 1897, Lou J. Hart b. 1898, Arebel Hart b. 1898 and Lilly Hart in 1900.
• Ella Hart b. 1877. 
• Pinkie Hart b. 1883.
• Gilbert Hart b. 1886. 
• Ollie Hart b. 1889.  She married David Johnson b. 1886 in 1907. My DNA cousin descends from them. She died on July 30, 1959 in Winston-Salem, NC. Her death certificate listed her parents as January Hart and Louvania Livingston.
• Dennis Hart b. July 4, 1890. He married Roxie Northey b. 1906 and they relocated to Jacksonville, Florida. He died in 1985. His birth certificate below named his parents as January Hart and Louvania Livingston.

Of course I had to verify if this was the correct Louvenia Livingston. There were two other Louvenia's that would fit the time frame. In 1880 Orangeburg, March and Mary Livingston had a 1 year old Lavinia Livingston. This couldn't be the right person if her first child was born in 1872. The only other Luvenia Livingston b. 1846 from Orangeburg was white. 

So therefore Luvenia Livingston-Hart and Jace Livingston were brother and sister. She was the first born, Jace was the middle child and Grant was the baby. All of Boston and Idella's children were back together again. DNA solves yet another mystery.