Hello,   Anyone went to school hopefully learned the entire story about the "Civil War" in our country should remember the reason the war started.    And hopefully the story about the "Underground Railroad" was part of the lessons to be learned.   But, anyone who researchers their family-tree and had an ancestor who lived in the southern part of the U.S.  between 1600's and 1800's probably had a slave living on the property of the ancestor.      But, if you have watched the 2 sets of  genealogy shows on TV,   you know that Prof. Henry Gates of Harvard University quite often discusses slaves on his shows.     And at least several of his "black" guests have found out on the show that  one of their female ancestors got pregnant by their "white" owner.    So, that child .was.  part of the family.    And a show just recently had the same type of story,  but the .black. girl got pregnant by a .white.  doctor in the town !   And the popular show, "Murder, She Wrote," usually goes not have a genealogy-type theme.      But there have been several  "Murder, She Wrote" movies.     Last weekend I caught one of the movies, and  the 2nd part of the title was:  "The Last Free Man."        It started out with a .black professor. giving a history talk which "Jessica" was attending.    It came to light that "Jessica" and the female professor had a connection  through their ancestors in a town in mid-1800's Virginia.      Jessica's ancestor was a widow who had a male slave - who she treated like family, and she didn't know that he was part of the Underground Railroad.     Unbeknownster to her, he had a wife who was pregnant.     All of a sudden the slave got unjustifiably charged with murder, and eventually got killed by "bad whites."    A friend of the slave took his pregnant wife on the U.R.  and took her to PA.    The movie went back and forth between present time and 1800's.    The professor present time was a descendant of that baby born in PA.    So, she and "Jessica"  went on a genealogy-search to find out this whole story !   I believe that both of the genealogy TV shows  (now in 3rd season) currently being shown can be viewed - on-line.    In my opinion -  well worth watching.   Betty                   (near Lowell, MA)     (Underground Railroad included travel to Canada)   List and Board for   CAN-USA-Migration

Kudos for all the shows you mentioned Betty! I saw the Angela Lansbury movie too, several times in fact and love it. marilyn d. ________________________________ From: Ms Betty Fredericks <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2012 12:18 AM Subject: [NORCAL] Slaves as part of Family Hello,   Anyone went to school hopefully learned the entire story about the "Civil War" in our country should remember the reason the war started.    And hopefully the story about the "Underground Railroad" was part of the lessons to be learned.   But, anyone who researchers their family-tree and had an ancestor who lived in the southern part of the U.S.  between 1600's and 1800's probably had a slave living on the property of the ancestor.      But, if you have watched the 2 sets of  genealogy shows on TV,   you know that Prof. Henry Gates of Harvard University quite often discusses slaves on his shows.     And at least several of his "black" guests have found out on the show that  one of their female ancestors got pregnant by their "white" owner.    So, that child .was.  part of the family.    And a show just recently had the same type of story,  but the .black. girl got pregnant by a .white.  doctor in the town !   And the popular show, "Murder, She Wrote," usually goes not have a genealogy-type theme.      But there have been several  "Murder, She Wrote" movies.     Last weekend I caught one of the movies, and  the 2nd part of the title was:  "The Last Free Man."        It started out with a .black professor. giving a history talk which "Jessica" was attending.    It came to light that "Jessica" and the female professor had a connection  through their ancestors in a town in mid-1800's Virginia.      Jessica's ancestor was a widow who had a male slave - who she treated like family, and she didn't know that he was part of the Underground Railroad.     Unbeknownster to her, he had a wife who was pregnant.     All of a sudden the slave got unjustifiably charged with murder, and eventually got killed by "bad whites."    A friend of the slave took his pregnant wife on the U.R.  and took her to PA.    The movie went back and forth between present time and 1800's.    The professor present time was a descendant of that baby born in PA.    So, she and "Jessica"  went on a genealogy-search to find out this whole story !   I believe that both of the genealogy TV shows  (now in 3rd season) currently being shown can be viewed - on-line.    In my opinion -  well worth watching.   Betty                   (near Lowell, MA)     (Underground Railroad included travel to Canada)   List and Board for   CAN-USA-Migration ----------------------------------------- NORCAL ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ Enter NORCAL.  Browse by month. Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. ----------------------------------------- To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message