Very interesting posting, Mildred. I've never posted before, but I have done a great deal of research in Census Records, etc. I know you're very thorough in your research as a lot of us are, but just because they were listed as "Mulatto" does NOT always truly mean they were part of the black race. A lot of the time it was the Census Enumerators that decided what color they were and terribly misjudged as to what race they really were. However in saying that, the Enumerators were only allowed basically 3 choices of what to enter for race... White, Black or Mulatto. There were white slaves as well with various shades of skin color that were listed as "Mulatto". And when slaves were allowed their freedom, a lot of them took on their former Masters surname since they didn't have one. This really does need further research. I just thought I'd point out this little tidbit of information for others to know about while researching. I have a long list of colors that have been entered into court records and mostly because of the Enumerators first and we all know about their erroneous errors in spelling alone. Now actually proving if they were of two different races is another story all together. I hope I have helped some of you. Have a Good Day Researchers, Betty Donahoe ----- Original Message ----- From: <M6907SPENCER@aol.com> To: <WILBURN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 5:37 AM Subject: Re: [WILBURN-L] Re: Surname Short - in Delaware While researching Wilburns I have run across several black researchers on the message boards. You might try contacting them for information. They might know who their owners were. Carroll Co. AR lists slave owners and gives ages, gender, but no first names. Wm. W. Wilburn had nine slaves listed and all were Mulatto. So, we must have some black relatives out there. Try typing Slaves in AR or Slaves in NC or Slaves in VA. Mildred Wilburn Spencer ==== WILBURN Mailing List ==== To post a message to the list, address it to Wilburn-L@rootsweb.com

You are quite right - also Mulungeons and Indians were listed as Mulatto sometimes in our census. It was only a person traveling along doing the census enumerations - it wasn't a perfectionist - our census records are a secondary proof. And how about the "Dark Irish" families? Happy Holidays, Jeanette. 11/28/02 -0600, you wrote: >Very interesting posting, Mildred. I've never posted before, but I have done >a great deal of research in Census Records, etc. I know you're very thorough >in your research as a lot of us are, but just because they were listed as >"Mulatto" does NOT always truly mean they were part of the black race. A lot >of the time it was the Census Enumerators that decided what color they were >and terribly misjudged as to what race they really were. However in saying >that, the Enumerators were only allowed basically 3 choices of what to enter >for race... White, Black or Mulatto. > >There were white slaves as well with various shades of skin color that were >listed as "Mulatto". And when slaves were allowed their freedom, a lot of >them took on their former Masters surname since they didn't have one. This >really does need further research. > >I just thought I'd point out this little tidbit of information for others to >know about while researching. I have a long list of colors that have been >entered into court records and mostly because of the Enumerators first and >we all know about their erroneous errors in spelling alone. Now actually >proving if they were of two different races is another story all together. I >hope I have helped some of you. > >Have a Good Day Researchers, > Betty Donahoe > >----- Original Message ----- >From: <M6907SPENCER@aol.com> >To: <WILBURN-L@rootsweb.com> >Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 5:37 AM >Subject: Re: [WILBURN-L] Re: Surname Short - in Delaware > > >While researching Wilburns I have run across several black researchers on >the message boards. You might try contacting them for information. They >might know who their owners were. > >Carroll Co. AR lists slave owners and gives ages, gender, but no first >names. Wm. W. Wilburn had nine slaves listed and all were Mulatto. So, we >must have some black relatives out there. > >Try typing Slaves in AR or Slaves in NC or Slaves in VA. > Mildred Wilburn Spencer > > >==== WILBURN Mailing List ==== > To post a message to the list, address it to Wilburn-L@rootsweb.com > > > > > >==== WILBURN Mailing List ==== > To search the Wilburn-L archives, go to > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl