Blog Posts
As I sift through the old records of Liberty County, Georgia, looking for documents that name enslaved and free African Americans, sometimes stories, important details, research tips, etc, jump out at me. This is a place to document those. Even if you are not researching Liberty County, these may give you ideas that apply to your own research elsewhere.
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What’s Happening at They Had Names (week of July 16, 2023)
I finally finished paging through the Liberty County Superior Court Minutes for 1804-1821! The exclamation point is because it was one of the more tedious projects. Those Liberty County planters spent an awful lot of time suing each other or being sued for debt. There were 653 images, with two pages each, in the record set, and I was only able to find 35 cases that named enslaved people but every little bit helps. The
What’s Happening at They Had Names (week of July 9, 2023)
I’ve added a “Recent Additions” item to the website menu for people who dip in now and again to check on their ancestors. Court Cases Naming Enslaved People I’m continuing to read the Liberty County Superior Court “Minutes” and “Proceedings” page by page, looking for mentions of enslaved people. The ratio of “pages read” to “cases found” is a little depressing, but when I find them, they tend to be very interesting. Have you heard
Finding Elisha James’ Great-Grandparents in Slavery
Using the knowledge that most freed people in Liberty County did not take the surname of their last enslaver, and that many adopted a surname that may have come from an early enslaver of their family, it was possible to find the enslaved great-grandparents of Elisha James, who lived in Liberty County in the latter part of the 19th century. His great-grandparents Will and Nancy, and his grandfather Shuel Holmes, were held in slavery by
Why That Surname?
More and more, I have been realizing that there are many freed people in the Liberty County 1870 census whose surnames almost certainly come from early enslavers of their families who left Liberty County or died by the 1830s. I am working on a comprehensive list of Liberty County slaveowners over time that will allow descendants of enslaved people to easily “hook” their post-1870 family research into pre-Emancipation slavery documentation, but in the meantime, I’m
Midway Church’s African American Members
This was at one time the “slave gallery” of the historic Midway Congregational Church in Liberty County. The Midway Church & Society was active from 1754 until 1867, when it rented the Church building to the African American members, who had chosen to start their own church as soon as they were able to do so. During that 100+ years before 1867, more than 1100 named African Americans, enslaved and free, were members of the
Stealing Moses’ horse, 1826
County court records are a gold mine of unexpected stories. In this case, Liberty County Superior Court minutes from 1826 reveal that two white men were charged, prosecuted and convicted for stealing a horse belonging to an enslaved man, Moses belonging to “Mr. Screven.” U.S. Southern Claim Commission testimonies tell us that enslaved people in Liberty County owned small amounts of property, and this is a further verification of that from an earlier period. See
An 1818 Interracial Marriage in Liberty County, Georgia
By Stacy Ashmore Cole (5/16/2022) Edited on 5/18/2022: Changed the paragraph on manumissions to show that it was still possible to manumit enslaved people by application to the Legislature (thanks to Elizabeth Olson). An interracial marriage recorded in 1818 in Liberty County, Georgia, helps illustrate the social environment of the time. This and other records demonstrate white planters and slaveowners attempting to provide for their mixed-race children, while denying the humanity of the people they
Beware the Altered Image – Part 3
I’ve posted previously about a church record and an estate inventory I found in a book that were created by combining parts of historical documents from Liberty County, Georgia. These illustrate the need to verify any document you plan to use in your family history research. It may be easier now than it ever has been to create fraudulent documents to “prove” a family line, but it’s always been possible to do and there have always been people who
Beware the Altered Image – Part 1
If you find an image of a historical document that supports your family research in a book or posted online, do you ever think about whether it might have been altered from the original? I recently found an image in a book that perfectly illustrates why we should all thoroughly investigate any such images before using them for our family trees even if there is a citation or source listed…but especially if there isn’t. Why?
Beware the Altered Image – Part 2
I posted previously about an image I found in a book that had been created by combining parts of several historical documents. I posted about it to illustrate the need for all of us to research thoroughly any such documents we find outside the original sources. That same source had another example: an altered estate inventory. I am not naming the book or author because I don’t know the source of these documents and don’t want to