Only in America

[Cairycat]

I haven't ever posted in this group before, and not much else besides the Iowa forum, so I hope you all will bear with me.

About a year and a half ago, my husband and I heard about a free weekend on Ancestry, so we checked it out and got hooked on genealogy.

One thing we found, was that the 1925 Iowa Census had people list their parents' names and other info. My husband found, for the first time, his paternal grandfather's father's name and was able to find his great-grandfather in censuses prior to 1925.

What surprised him was to find that his great-grandfather was listed as mulatto in some censuses and as black in others (my husband is white).

Come to find out, his great-grandfather was the last in a long line of freeborn mixed race people who had gradually migrated from Virginia and North Carolina, to Illinois, and there to Iowa. His last name is one that is often considered as Melungeon, as are many other names in that branch of his family. And all his life, he had no clue at all, that he was anything but Irish and English.

It's been an incredible journey and my husband has contacted a number of people who's he's related to and found some amazing history.

And of course one thing that makes it really, really cool, is that for the first time this year, he and our daughter were able to vote for someone like them - mixed race. Obama's story is one that could only happen in this great country, and so is my husband's.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. I made a similar find on a friend's line.

It was also a Melungeon surname (which was the first hint) and the race was listed as mulatto in census. We were able to trace the line forward to the point where his branch "became white" in all the records. Very interesting stuff, family history. There are always surprises.

[NOLALady]

2. You will also find the reverse.

I've found where they were born white to white parents. Eighty years later they are listed as neg or B. My guess is they meet and marry women (or men)of color. Since mixed race marriage was illegal, they passed over to the other side.

Mixed race history is fascinating.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. What a great story!

DNA is usually a good indicator as well, depending on the type that is done (mitochondrial or regular).

A good book that he might find interesting is "Jefferson's Children." I don't remember an author. There are books about the Hemingses that are super detailed, but this one is mostly a picture book with narrative that discusses the various branches of Jefferson's family.

Branches from his daughter Martha, which begat folks like General Lucian Truscott, are very white, obviously. No intermarrying. Some of them have accepted the Hemingses. Some have not.

But because some of the Hemings family were able to "pass", some of them left the black community and eventually "became" white. And like your husband, some of them reveal no clue of their ancestry other than blood. Other Hemingses remained in their black communities and intermarried, and look how we typically think they might look with centuries of black and white mixed forebears. It really is a fascinating story.

I tried reading the new book "The Hemingses of Monticello" and found it incredibly tedious. Too much detail that I didn't find relevant to the story half the time. The other book is much better- a light read and really interesting.

Congrats on your finds.