Genealogy discoveries

As a genealogist, there is an incomparable joy and exhilaration when conclusively finding an ancestor's name. As you delve into their lives to try and get a glimpse of all that encompasses them as a person, they become a living, breathing entity in your mind. You will then make the correlation between the personal characteristics you possess in comparison to theirs, providing you are lucky enough to find a picture. As an African-American woman, I found it particularly hard to connect the dots with my ancestors. Due to ill record keeping and the slavery era sometimes a trail may go cold. However, I want to tell those who are thinking of researching or who have just begun researching and feel a little frustrated, there are avenues that will help you get around those brick walls. Once those walls break,  a wealth of information opens up and you find out all sorts of things which will keep you on the path researching.

Also as a genealogist, I have found out familial connections to the founder of Pennsylvania William Penn, a notable judge and landowner by the name of Pietr Claassen Wyckoff, Indiana-Smith Johnson a beloved principal and member of four negro teacher associations during the early 1900s in Alabama and to the famous Nottingham 25, a group of enslaved Africans who were allowed to buy their freedom from their second owner Samuel Nottingham and given an estate.

 I  have a modest count of over 1,000 people on my maternal family tree; of this I am proud. I have found a few pictures as well.

I have also found names of ancestors such as my third great uncle Mathematics E. Smith and his wife Cornelia Finch. Mathematics was born in Arkansas in 1879. He married his wife in 1906 and they have no known children. He held jobs such as an embalmer and served in the U.S.A. military. Mathematics passed away while residing in Alabama, in 1955 at the age of seventy-five years old. Now that's not all the names I have found. I have found the likes of my first cousin three times removed, Maria Louise Penn – Hendricks. Maria was born on the island of Tortola, the British Virgin Islands in 1910. As an adult, she migrated to The Dominican Republic and later the U.S.A. Maria spoke fluent Spanish like my grandfather Hypolite Rabsatt who had ties to both St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is believed Maria Penn has seven children who reside throughout the United States. I am in contact with one of her great-grandchildren. Maria lived a full life and passed in the year 2005 while residing in Queens, New York at the age of 95 years old. I have also found a couple I’m very proud of. My 2x great grandparents, William and Indiana Johnson (whom I mentioned early in this article). William Hannibal Johnson was born in Alabama in 1878. He was a steel laborer. He married Indiana Smith (Mathematics Smith’s sister whose mother was Sophia Pleasant) in 1901. Indiana was born in 1875 in Alabama. They had one child together named William Mathematics Johnson. He was born in 1905. Indiana was a beloved teacher and principal who held a seat on four Negro teacher associations during the 1900s. They were landowners who passed on the land to my grandmother Claudia Johnson and her four brothers. William passed away in 1938 at the age of 59 years old and Indiana passed away in 1945 at the age of 70 years old. She is also the reason why I have returned to school and have successfully completed two years in the Communications program at DeVry University.

I encourage all to research their Ancestors, especially African-Americans. It instills a sense of pride knowing we come from strength and greatness. If you also are into DNA ethnicity testing it takes you on a journey into learning your ancestors’ migration throughout the globe. It connects you with living relatives from all walks of life, ethnicities and cultures. I have found European, Puerto-Rican, Dominican as well as what I identify as, African-American family. I have met one DNA living match relative face to face and communicate with others in various Facebook genealogy groups, email, and telephone. It’s fun to compare notes and learn about our heritage. You make valuable connections while learning about one’s self as well. I suggest you all give it a try. I’m sure you will find you come from good stock and embody greatness. To me, there is dignity in honoring your ancestors. Black people, please remember you have to do your research in order to know which you came from. 

ASE' my brothers and sistas.