Someone asked on G2G if there were any connections back to plantations and beyond. I'm here to tell you a huge YES. Recently in the challenge to record African-American's on the 1880 census I began to record a new family, Wade Brownlee. When I was finished creating profiles for this family and his children forward, I decided to try to work my way backwards. I was able to find my subject on the 1870 census with his parents. That census noted his grandfather was from Africa. But on that 1870 census the enumerator had only listed his parents with initials, so I had little to go on to continue research on this family. However that's just the kind of challenge I really like. I did finally find the parents, and what their names were, in 1880 on the census in another county, their birth county? As I looked around trying to decide which way to research for more information I had the idea that maybe I could look at slave owners who had their last name. Low and behold I found a guy who died in 1834. I looked up his probate information and guess what, my subject's father was in this guy's probate inventory! Not only was his father was listed there, but his mother was listed there as well. His name was uncommon so I was sure I had the same people. I found that my subjects parents may not have been married at the time of this probate inventory because his mother was called a girl, and was sold with her parents to a different owner and plantation. And yep, I found her parents names as well! My subjects mother had 2 more owners before emancipation, while his father seemed to stay with the person who purchased him in 1836. Everybody's got a story, and I was able to tell the story of this family and their parents, grandparents, children, and grandchildren just by recording a family from the 1880 census. This is what the USBH 1880 census project is about, making and recording connections!
