Last week over at Genenotes cousin Anne mentioned that Carol, Anne & myself had been chatting about slaves. More specifically about the names of slaves. Both Anne & Carol stated that they had no luck finding slave names.
So I thought I would do some digging in my files and I actually came up with some interesting places I have found slave names in my research. I want to share those places with you. Tomorrow I will be sharing an article involving a great uncle of Mark's and the story behind his freeing of his slaves in his will. You'll want to check back on this one!
So I thought I would do some digging in my files and I actually came up with some interesting places I have found slave names in my research. I want to share those places with you. Tomorrow I will be sharing an article involving a great uncle of Mark's and the story behind his freeing of his slaves in his will. You'll want to check back on this one!
First the places I have found slave names:
1. Wills - Here the will of Jane Pleasants, ca1726 makes mention of her negro slave, "Doll". The Pleasant family was in Virginia and owned many slaves, and many of them were found named in wills.
2. Estate Inventory - The estate inventory of Thomas Pleasants, ca 1745 names many of his slaves including children.
3. Deeds - Yep, deeds are another great place to locate slave names. In the early days of American history slaves were considered property so deeds were sometimes exchanged when slaves changed hands. The following deed is dated ca1741.
Hopefully if your ancestor searching includes slaves this helps give you some alternative places to look.
Happy researching!
Karen
2 comments:
OOOOH, nice examples. Making me come back, holding me in suspense for that article. AHHH, OK.
Great! I forgot about those inventories. Will have to look again.
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