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Helping African Americans trace to slaveholding ancestors using DNA By Andre Kearnsandrekearnsdc@ slave master Smyre my ancestor?Good research starts with a good question, and this was mine. My third great grandfather Henry Johnson was born enslaved in North Carolina in the 1840s.? Family oral history identified his father only as “Master Smyre”. Who was this man? Was this true? How could I be sure? African Americans face many challenges in advancing our family histories.? One key challenge is successfully tracing back to slaveholding ancestors. Many African Americans have European ancestry dating back to slavery, the result of offspring between white men and enslaved women. Lack of documentation has traditionally made it nearly impossible to trace these connections. DNA testing offers African Americans new possibilities to discover and validate these relationships. In this session I will teach successful strategies for researching slaveholding ancestors using DNA. I will share how I how I used extensive DNA testing to validate Henry Johnson as a descendant of the slave owning Smyres who emigrated from Germany to North Carolina in the early 18th?century.How have I done it? I will share my approach to genealogy:Start by creating a family tree based on what you know and work your way backTalk with your family. Oral history is an important part in African American genealogy researchExtend your tree with genealogical records research. A key challenge for African American researchers is limited available documentation due to slavery. I will share the short list of records types which I have found useful in extending my family historyResearch with a critical mind. Always examine original documents, expect to encounter inconsistencies, look for clues and patterns and ask what’s likelyDiscover with DNA testing. There’s a record etched in our DNA which can fill in the holes left back lack of documentation. There are different types of DNA tests available. Understanding what results each test type provides you should inform which one you should select.Researching Slaveholding Records. I will apply this approach to my own family tree and share how I researched available documentation to identify Master Smyre.Census records helped me to build a family tree for my ancestor Henry Johnson post-emancipation and to identify the Smyre family of Lincoln County, North CarolinaCensus slave schedules quantified the number of enslaved persons owned by Smyre family members and helped me to deduce who might have owned HenryI examined Probate records to determine whether Henry’s name appeared in Smyre family estate distributionsI reviewed Smyre family Deeds for enslaved persons named Henry who might have been soldLeveraging Extensive DNA testing. I identify my enslaved ancestor Henry Johnson’s father as John Smyre (1785-1877) son of German emigrants to Lincoln County, North Carolina based on:Hundreds of Autosomal DNA matches?shared between?Henry Johnson descendants and Smyre descendantsTriangulated DNA matches?between Henry Johnson descendants and John Smyer descendantsYDNA matches?between a direct paternal descendant of Henry Johnson and John Smyre descendantsLocation research?indicating that Henry Johnson descended from Smyres who lived in Lincolnton, Lincoln County, NC. John Smyre is the only Smyre buried in LincontonReturning to slave census records.??By 1860 John Smyer Jr owned only one slave, a male in the same age range as Henry JohnsonJohn Smyer, Plain Deutsch Pioneer. I will share the family history I uncovered about the Smyres of Lincoln County.Slavery in Lincoln and Catawba County, NCJohn Smyre was the oldest son of Johannes Schimerer and Utilla Bost, lived on the eastern bank of South Fork of Catawba River which is near Lincolnton.?Johannes Schmierer was likely a Palatine, an early 18th century emigrant from the Middle Rhine regionSchmierer was a landowner, farmer, mill operator, logger, woodworker and merchantSlave narratives reveal a difficult life for those enslaved by the Smyres and BostsFamily and Reconciliation. I will share how I have connected with Smyre descendants whom I DNA match. This experience has enriched my life. I will share our experiences getting to know each other and our struggle to reconcile our family’s past.Finding common language with my Smyre cousins to discuss family history and slaveryChallenging them to confront the history of slavery in the familyChallenging myself as an African American to explore my German ancestryMy pilgrimage to Lincoln County, NC to pay tribute to Henry JohnsonReference and Useful Links. DNA test services and toolsAncestryDNA: dna.23adnMe: FamilyTreeDNA: Research ResourcesAncestry: Familysearch: US Federal Census on AncestryUS Census Slave Schedules on AncestryUS Wills and Probates on AncestryLincoln County, NC and Catawba County, NC Deeds on FamilysearchJohn Smyer, Plain Deutsch Pioneer by Ianne SmyerSlave Narratives: ................
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