For many of us the below article is not shocking. Thought I'd share it with you any way. ~Celeste =============== The following article appeared in yesterdays (Wed. Jan 8th) New York Times......thought it might be of some interest. Selma > Surprises in the Family Tree > > January 8, 2004 > By MITCHELL OWENS > > > JOHN ARCHER first appears in Northampton County, Va., in > the mid-17th century. He started a family that prospered, > fought in the Revolutionary War and built a mansion. > Generations later, Archer's blood trickled down to me. It > mingled in my veins with DNA from a gravedigger in > 17th-century Württemberg, Germany; from an Appalachian clan > with a recessive gene that turns their skins indigo blue; > and from a rich young widow in Jamestown, Va., whose fickle > heart led to America's first breach-of-promise suit, in > 1623. > > I have been researching my past for two decades, since I > was in high school, so finding a new ancestor is hardly > startling. Learning about John Archer three years ago, > however, was startling. He was black, a slave or indentured > servant freed around 1677. I am white. That's what it says > on my birth certificate. Now I know better, thanks to Paul > Heinegg. > > A retired oil-refinery engineer in Collegeville, Pa., Mr. > Heinegg, who is white, has compiled genealogies of 900 > mixed-race families who lived freely in slaveholding states > in "Free African Americans of North Carolina, South > Carolina and Virginia" and "Free African Americans of > Maryland and Delaware." (The information is posted on a Web > site, http://www.freeafricanamericans.com ) > > Mr. Heinegg's research offers evidence that most free > African-American and biracial families resulted not from a > master and his slave, like Thomas Jefferson and Sally > Hemings, but from a white woman and an African man: slave, > freed slave or indentured servant. > > "Most of the workers in colonial America in the 17th and > early 18th centuries were indentured servants, white and > black," said Dr. John B. Boles, a professor of history at > Rice University in Houston and the editor of "The Blackwell > Companion to the American South" (2001). Since there was > not a clear distinction between slavery and servitude at > the time, he said, "biracial camaraderie" often resulted in > children. The idea that blacks were property did not harden > until around 1715 with the rise of the tobacco economy, by > which time there was a small but growing population of free > families of color. Dr. Boles estimated that by 1860 there > were 250,000 free black or mixed-race individuals. > > "Some academics have studied this parallel story of blacks > in America, but it hasn't trickled down to the general > population," Dr. Boles said. "The action is in slavery > studies." Mr. Heinegg is one of the few people to trace the > free black families that lived in slave-owning America: > some of them rich slave owners, most of them poor farmers > and laborers, nearly all of them little known. > > "When I saw what Paul had done, my eyes opened wide," said > Dr. Ira B. Berlin, a professor of American history at the > University of Maryland and the founding director of the > Freedmen and Southern Society Project there. Dr. Berlin met > Mr. Heinegg in November 2000 at a conference in Durham, > N.C., about the mixed-race cabinetmaker Thomas Day, a major > antebellum figure. The documentation Mr. Heinegg had > amassed in five years convinced Dr. Berlin to write a > foreword to his book praising his meticulous work. > > It is incontrovertible that America is a multiracial > society, from the founding father Alexander Hamilton (the > son of a mixed-race woman from the British West Indies) to > Essie Mae Washington-Williams, 78, a retired schoolteacher, > who, the late Senator Strom Thurmond's family acknowledged > last month, is his daughter. And for decades there have > been questions about the possible mixed-race ancestry of > Ida Stover, Dwight D. Eisenhower's mother. > > Since 1997, after it broadcast "Secret Daughter," a > documentary about a mixed-race child given up for adoption > in the 1950's, "Frontline" has been exploring the mixed > ancestry of well-known Americans on its Public Broadcasting > System Web site. One is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, whose > blood lines, according to the historian Mario de Valdes y > Cocom, go back to the van Salees, a Muslim family of > Afro-Dutch origin prominent in Manhattan in the early > 1600's. If any branch of your family has been in America > since the 17th or 18th centuries, Dr. Berlin said, "it's > highly likely you will find an African and an American > Indian." > > That's where Mr. Heinegg, 60, comes in. In 1985, his > mother-in-law, Katherine Kee Phillips, who was black, asked > him to research her family tree. "I had hoped to trace as > many branches of her family back to slavery as possible," > he said. Instead, he found that Mrs. Phillips and his wife, > Rita, had white ancestors who were not slave masters, > including a woman who started a family with John Kecatan, > an African slave freed in 1666. The ladies were intrigued > by his discoveries but not surprised, Mr. Heinegg said. > > Curious about his findings, he began tracing free black > families related to his wife by combing colonial court > records, wills, deeds, free Negro registers, marriage bonds > and military pension files. Many were dauntingly unindexed. > > > "Nobody has done anything like this," said Dr. Virginia > Easley DeMarce, a historian and former president of the > National Genealogical Society who works for the Office of > Federal Acknowledgment, Department of the Interior, which > decides who is an American Indian. "Paul is the first > person to identify families of color on such a broad > scope," gathering material from entire states rather than > just a county or two. > > Dr. Berlin said, "There were communities in 17th- and > 18th-century America where blacks and whites, both free, of > equal rank and shared experiences, were working together, > living together, drinking and partying together, and > inevitably sleeping together." > > Tracing those communities has not been easy. "People of > color are often not identified as such in early records," > Mr. Heinegg said. "For example, an individual might appear > in deeds and court records and leave a will without ever > mentioning his race." Sometimes a person's race can be > discerned only by studying the tax assessed on nonwhites. > If a man paid the tax on his wife but not himself, Mr. > Heinegg said, it meant he was white but she was not. > > An added challenge is that racial identity can mutate from > free black to white in just a few generations. In my Archer > ancestors' case, it was mixed marriages and a cross-country > move: my great-great-grandfather Esquire Collins and his > wife, Roxalana Archer, are listed as mulatto in an 1800's > Tennessee census but show up as white on a later Arkansas > census. "You crossed over as early as you were able to," > said Antonia Cottrell Martin, a genealogist in New York. > Mixed-race families who had difficulty passing sometimes > explained dark complexions as coming from an American > Indian or Mediterranean ancestry. "It's what people in the > South used to call Carolina Portuguese," said Dr. DeMarce, > who comes from a mixed-race background. > > "Free African Americans of North Carolina," self-published > by Mr. Heinegg in 1991, won an award from the North > Carolina Genealogical Society. (The American Society of > Genealogists gave a later edition the Donald Lines Jacobus > Award for best work of genealogical scholarship.) But the > book also stirred controversy. Some white members of the > North Carolina group were upset with his findings and asked > that the award be withdrawn, Mr. Heinegg said. > > Dr. DeMarce said: "He's just publishing the documents. He's > not interpreting them. That's up to anthropologists." > > Mr. Heinegg is familiar with racial prejudice. He and his > wife, who met as members of the Brooklyn outpost of the > Congress on Racial Equality, left the country in 1969, > disgusted by what they saw as a lack of progress. They > raised their three daughters in Tanzania, Liberia and Saudi > Arabia. > > But even when he was abroad, Mr. Heinegg ordered microfilm > records by mail and spent one-month vacations in the United > States to peer at faded records in county courthouses. He > still works on his research, and updates his book and Web > site regularly. A new edition of "Free African Americans" > is published every two years by Clearfield, a division of > the Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., > www.genealogical.com. The latest two-volume paperback costs > $100 and is 1,042 pages long. > > The index to Mr. Heinegg's book lists more than 12,000 > individuals, including ancestors of mine it would be nice > to know more about, like Richard Nickens and his wife, > Chriss, freed in 1690 by the will of John Carter II, a > prominent Virginia planter. Nickens and his wife were given > two cows, six barrels of corn and the right to farm some > Carter land for life. > > Matters like these fascinate me. My brother, Derrick, finds > our black ancestry only mildly interesting, being riveted > instead by our Native American blood. My eldest nephew, > Justin, an elementary school pupil obsessed with islands, > cherishes the knowledge that one ancestor was shipwrecked > on Bermuda in 1609. > > Genealogy is not regarded as an academic discipline, Dr. > DeMarce said, which is why Mr. Heinegg's work is not more > widely known. And his lists are published by a specialty > house, not a university press, she said, "so it's unlikely > to be reviewed by a major publication like The American > Historical Review." > > Mr. Heinegg prefers to let the academics find his work on > their own. Right now, he is busy adding more free black > Virginia families to his list. "My goal," he said, "is to > find the origins of every family that was free in the > Southeast during the colonial period." >