Researching Slave Ancestry

A forum to discuss the nuances specific to researching Slave Ancestry in the Americas. Share experiences, questions, tips and resource information as it relates to making our efforts researching African Ancestry more successful.

Tags: African-American, Ancestry, Genealogy, Slaves

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Permalink Reply by Michael Hait on July 13, 2009 at 9:23am

Luckie -

In the deeds, what is the consideration stated for the transfer of the slaves. Deeds of gift would say, "for the love & affection I bear," or something along those lines. Bills of sale would have an actual dollar amount, but if it was significantly lower than normal, less than the average "value" of slaves of that age/physical condition, then it was just a way to basically distribute the estate before death. This was usually done to save the executor the cost and trouble of doing it later. Are there similar deeds for the lands he owned?

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Permalink Reply by Luckie Daniels on July 13, 2009 at 9:37am

Awhhh... YES - they are Deeds of Gift! I've never found any additional deeds for his land but will admit, finding these two stopped me dead in my track! These were a shock.

James Nelson Wingfield was the Postmaster in Wilkes & I remember one historian commenting that he had a penchant for being sued & could have used this as a legal tactic to protect his assets.

I've included the links to the actual Indenture document below, if that helps. Not the easiest to read by far!

Thanks for the input nonetheless!:-)

Luckie.

Indenture - James Nelson Wingfield
- http://picasaweb.google.com/mechie77/AncestorDocuments#523029034772...
- http://picasaweb.google.com/mechie77/AncestorDocuments#523029036259...
- http://picasaweb.google.com/mechie77/AncestorDocuments#523029037053...

Michael Hait said:

Luckie -

In the deeds, what is the consideration stated for the transfer of the slaves. Deeds of gift would say, "for the love & affection I bear," or something along those lines. Bills of sale would have an actual dollar amount, but if it was significantly lower than normal, less than the average "value" of slaves of that age/physical condition, then it was just a way to basically distribute the estate before death. This was usually done to save the executor the cost and trouble of doing it later. Are there similar deeds for the lands he owned?

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Permalink Reply by Donna Atkinson on July 16, 2009 at 2:37pm

In Missouri, transfer of land was done prior to death by some to avoid long probates of 10-20 years. Usually it ws done about 1-2 years prior; when the person began to feel "not well". When they died, there was no real estate listed in the inventories and sometimes only the will (if made) was available. The assets had been transferred already so nothing went into a court or was taxed.

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Permalink Reply by Luckie Daniels on July 17, 2009 at 12:23am

Thanks Donna for the Indenture insight - it certainly helps!:-)

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Permalink Reply by Luckie Daniels on July 16, 2009 at 2:21pm

Donna, as someone who couldn't find 4 - 4th Grandparents until 1880, that would be my DREAM! That was a gift from the Ancestors for sure!:-)

Luckie.

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Permalink Reply by Luckie Daniels on July 20, 2009 at 6:25am

LowCountry Africana has prepared a great Resource Guide for Researching African-American Ancestry.

Please check it out & pass it on to others researching Slave Ancestry - http://lowcountryafricana.net/african-american-heritage-rese.asp

Luckie.

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Permalink Reply by Toni Carrier on July 27, 2009 at 11:03pm

Hi Everyone,
We have added 50 new documents to our Drayton research database in the last two days. All are for South Carolina. You can view them here:

http://www.werelate.org/dlib/handle/6

Peace,
Toni

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Permalink Reply by Lowcountry Africana on July 29, 2009 at 1:39pm

Hi Karen,
We have a lot of SC inventories on microfilm here and will check for the names you are researching if you like. Or do the inventories not survive at all?

Toni

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Permalink Reply by Lowcountry Africana on July 29, 2009 at 8:34pm

Hi Karen,
I do see Raiford in Colonial estate inventories. I will check to see if there are later inventories for the Raiford family. Have you had a look at SC death certificates on Ancestry.com?

Toni

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Permalink Reply by Susan M CURD on July 31, 2009 at 2:54am

I'm on the look-out for descendants with surname CURD originally from Virginia who might like to take a Y-DNA to see which family they belong to. Only men can test in order to follow a surname (generally). Contact me at the CURD family Group for details. Susan M CURD

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Permalink Reply by Luckie Daniels on August 1, 2009 at 9:14am

Susan - are you on Twitter as well? It may not hurt to *tweet* your interest in CURD DNA testing. Have you already posted this to the tried n' true forums? - Ancestry, GenForum & AfriGeneas?

Luckie.

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Daniel Jansons on August 25, 2009 at 6:12am

I have copies of the estate papers of my 3rd g-grandfather, Benjamin Tiller, of Madison County, Alabama. He died prior to the Civil War ending, so the slaves that he owned were listed in with his property. It consisted of their names, ages and sex.

I do know that after the Civil War, with the 1870 Census, when the black families were finally listed, I have found at least one of the men that had been a slave, still living close to the Tiller family. He had taken their last name. This man's name was Richard Tiller and he is pretty much where all of the black line of Tiller's in Madison County, Alabama come from.

If there is anyone out there that needs the information that I have on this family, please just let me know. I will be more than happy to share anything that I have on them in an effort to help you.