This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Franklin, Thurmond, Wilburn Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/HKB.2ACI/1587.1.1 Message Board Post: What you say is true. However, slaves often show up with their former owners' surnames on the 1880 census. Whether they took these surnames depends a lot on what their relationship with the family of their masters was like. House slaves (like the ones I listed) were closer to these families than field slaves, and perhaps more likely to stay near the old plantation locations.