In a message dated 7/24/2006 11:00:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time, MSWILKIN-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: Problem with lynchings is that many were not recorded as such and many African Americans just ended up "missing." If there was not some type of publicity or other reason for the information to surface, then many lynchings went unnoticed. Many families, fearing for their lives, would not even discuss these situations even if they had information that would substantiate that a lynching had taken place. Fortunately I have the record from the U.S. Mortality Census, so the family did talk about what happened, plus the newspaper article. I'm still surprised that it was so easy to research. I think I held off for years because I only knew about lynchings from TV and thought they would be kept secret. My grandfather told me the story of his grandfather's death, so it was handed down in the family. Why he didn't tell my mom and her siblings about it I don't know. Strange, because he told us about it when we told him we were researching the family. He was open about it when asked, said his father told him what happened. Other older family members knew about it too. Glad we interviewed him or we may have never found out about it. Kberry