This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Harper, Smith, Coley Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/VUB.2ACE/688 Message Board Post: Researching Family History - Trying two avenues 1. Abraham Harper, Nancy Harper ex-slaves included in the 1880/1900 census. Stuck on how to trace family during slavery. If you have information please contact, they are my great-great grandparents. Their daughter Fannie was my great grandmother, born free. 2.Searching for Dick Coley,(Fannie's husband) maternal great grandfather(bi-racical?). Son Melvin, from Dick's first marriage listed in 1920 census as mulatto. But daughther Minnie(Smith) with Fannie(my grandmother)listed in 1920 census as black. Oral history states Dick may have been Cherokee or mulatto. Would have come from a large family of brothers some who moved to DC and Detroit. Dick would have past in the late 1890's leaving several daughter's for Fannie to raise. Does any of this sound familiar?