"S. Marc Breedlove" wrote: > I have wondered how her parents came to have that name. There were, of > course, Breedloves in 19th century Louisiana, so it's possible that some > were slave owners. It was not unusual for slave owners to beget children > by their slaves, so the name could have been passed on that way. Or > alternatively, I suppose some slaves might have borrowed their former > owner's name after emancipation. > Anyone out there know more about this? While I have quite a bit of knowledge about both African and Native American Breedlove's, this message is only concerning a bunch that I have studied a lot. Pleasant Ellis Breedlove, son of Richard & Mildred Watts Breedlove, left Pittsylvania Co., VA in the 1840's and moved to Brenham, Texas, bringing many slaves with him. Evidently one of his sons, Charles Richard Breedlove, stopped in Hale Co., Alabama where he married and had some children before he, too, moved to Brenham, where he became an attorney and land speculator. The 1870 census of Brenham, Washington CO., TX shows a few Breedloves that give their race as mulatto, born in Virginia or Alabama, most likely freed slaves from the holdings of Pleasant Ellis or his sons. These Mulatto lines of Breedlove have flourished in Washington County, Texas to this day. Have not found any death certificates in Texas for any of these so it is impossible to say whether they were sired by Caucasian Breedlove's or just assumed the Breedlove name upon emancipation. In other African American Breedlove lines I have found that those slaves who had kindly masters mostly assumed the Breedlove name, while those that had cruel masters took some other name unless there was some great evidence that they had been sired by a white Breedlove. For the most part those that assumed the Breedlove name stayed right in the same area while those that assumed some other name moved away. I would have to believe that those who gave their race as Mulatto would know that they have white blood in them so there is a high probability that they were sired by a white Breedlove. The one way for the question of African or Native American ancestry in the Breedlove line to be answered is to run DNA tests as several other family groups have done. There are hundreds of us that can trace our roots back to Charles Breedlove on many different lines, so the male DNA marker would be fairly easy to find. Any African or Native American Breedlove that tested with this marker would be certain he came from one of the lines. It could be further refined by looking at just one line, for instance, the descendants of Irvin Eldridge Breedlove could compare against other descendants of John Breedlove of North Carolina. This testing would only prove that each person descended from a white male Breedlove so that any African or Indian blood would have to come from the mother's line. If there is no match then there is no Breedlove connection and the name was assumed. Hope this helps. Tom King ---------------------------------------------------- NetZero Platinum Sign Up Today - Only $9.95 per month! http://my.netzero.net/s/signup?r=platinum&refcd=PT97