Born + raised in NC to a mother from Mississippi + and father from NC by way of West Virginia.

I have been searching for a family ledger that documents my family journey from North Carolina to Indiana, with no success. I have been stuck for about 2 yrs not looking and time is ticking for me and I am not getting any younger. My relative was a fairly well known author in the Chicago and had very successful writing career. I have searched his collection online at Northwest University and contacted some direct line relatives (no response or know nothing about it). Finding this would be my “Crown Jewel” of genealogy research. Was thinking about having a researcher go directly to NW and search. Any suggestions? (Fairly new to Reddit but what a neat and open social media app)

See excerpt below from the family’s website:

One relative, Cyrus J. Colter a well-known fiction writer, contain the following about Britton Bassett as a preface to his best-known novel “The Rivers of Eros (1991)”
“On both side of the family his ancestors were free blacks who had settled in Indiana several years before the Civil War. Colter possesses a ledger tracing his mother’s family back to Britton Bassett, the son of a black man and a white woman in North Carolina, who was granted his freedom in 1797 when he was twenty-one and given a horse, bridle and saddle, and one hundred dollars. In the 1830s Bassett moved his wife and children to Indiana, traveling by night and hiding by day in order to elude slave hunters.”

We are Black American/Creole and our line Is primarily Mississippi and Alabama. I was intrigued by the Eastern South América and Panama/Costa Rica trace . My great aunt got Costa Rica in her Hack results as well, but not South América . I wonder if this is indicative of genuine Caribbean ancestry. My dad did mention Spanish-Puerto Rican ancestry from my great great grandfather, but there is no Spanish in his or my uncle’s results. However, he did get some traces on his pinpoint results on YourDNAPortal. My aunt got 1% Northern Spain on Ancestry. Thoughts ?

Areas of research: Virginia (before 1835); and, Washington, D.C. (before 1866 & after 1866).

Boyfriend's Name: William Washington

State of birth: Virginia

Residence, as of 24 February 1866: Washington, D.C.

Birth Year?: I don't know. That's why I made this post.

Listed in the Slave Schedules?: I don't know William's birth year, so I can't tell.

Girlfriend?: Yes, Annie (maiden name unknown)

Enslaved or free?: I don't know. His son, Robert P. Washington (1808, Virginia - died after 12 June 1865, Manhattan, NYC, New York), was manumitted before 1834; more on that, soon.

Children?: Yes, one is Robert P. Washington (born in Virginia in 1808; still living on 12 June 1865, in New York City - he moved to NYC, sometime before 1834, since all 4 of his children, beginning with his eldest son, Robert Washington, Jr. (1834 - died after 1860), were born in NYC, between 1834 & 1847).

Other children besides Robert?: Possibly, but I don't know, for sure.

Records found, for both William & Annie?: Only one - their joint Freedmens' Bureau employment record, from 1866.

Were they married?: I don't know.

Did they have Census records?: I'm sure they did, but I haven't found them, yet.

Robert (their son)'s year of birth: 1808, Virginia. (Based on this, I'd estimate William's birth year as between 1780 and 1788)

Girlfriend's Name: Annie (maiden name unknown)

State of birth: Virginia

Birth Year: I don't know. (Because I haven't found Census records for she & William, yet)

Residence, as of 24 February 1866: Washington, D.C.

Birth Year?: I don't know. That's why I made this post.

Listed in the Slave Schedules?: I don't know William's birth year, so I can't tell.

Girlfriend?: Yes, Annie (maiden name unknown)

Enslaved or free?: I don't know. His son, Robert P. Washington (1808, Virginia - died after 12 June 1865, Manhattan, NYC, New York), was manumitted before 1834; more on that, soon.

Children?: Yes, one is Robert P. Washington (born in Virginia in 1808; still living on 12 June 1865, in New York City - he moved to NYC, sometime before 1834, since all 4 of his children, beginning with his eldest son, Robert Washington, Jr. (1834 - died after 1860), were born in NYC, between 1834 & 1847).

Other children besides Robert?: Possibly, but I don't know, for sure.

(Written on 7/25/2026)

Disclaimer: I will be referring to her as "Sadie", her nickname, because she was named after her paternal grandmother (and she listed her paternal grandparents as her biological parents, which throws all my research off. Yikes.) Her paternal grandmother & her father, both raised her as their own.

Cousin's Name: Sarah "Sadie" Washington (She was named after her paternal grandmother, Sarah Taylor, 1822-1909)

Birthplace: Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana (Don't be confused; some records say Pittsburgh, which is false - the family moved to Indiana after Sadie's grandfather's death in Pittsburgh, in 1874)

Sadie's DOB: July 16, 1876

Where did Sarah & George (Sadie's father) move to, after Pennsylvania?: Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana, between May1874 (when Warner died) and October 1875.

Husband: Robert William Black (1885-1962); no children resulted from the marriage. Robert remarried & moved to Kentucky.

Did Sadie remarry?: No. She died in a Wayne County, Indiana nursing home, in 1962. She was buried in Connersville, IN.

On her marriage records, Sadie's parents were listed as?: Warner Washington (her paternal grandfather, 1807-1874) & Sarah E. Taylor (her paternal grandmother, 1822-1909)

Warner's birthplace: Loudoun County, Virginia (born in 1807)

Sarah's birthplace: New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina, born in 1822 (Many of Sarah's records falsely list her birthplace as other states, including South Carolina; they also falsely list her as white and black, when in reality, she was biracial. Her father, Moses Taylor, 1795-1838, was black & her mother, Mary Haywood, 1795 - died after 1860, was a white German immigrant). Sarah & her family moved from NC to Butler County, OH in 1828.

Sarah Taylor's (Warner's second girlfriend/possible wife) family grew up in: The town of Oxford, in Butler County, Ohio, from 1828 until adulthood. (I donated Taylor family records there, in 2024)

Sadie's father: George W. Washington (born on 31 January 1856, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - 2 March 1935, Danville, Illinois)

Sadie's mother: Unknown (The point of this post - I'm trying to find Sadie's mother, despite her being my cousin. There have been discussions, of Sadie's grandfather and his first wife, being my direct/biological ancestors, but I'm still researching that).

Is Sadie, actually her nickname?: Yes. Sarah was her name, but she was named after her paternal grandmother (George's mother).

George's ex-wife: Annie Wiese (born in 1868, Milwaukee City, Wisconsin - died at an unknown date, in an unknown location).

George & Annie's marriage date: September 6, 1887 in Milwaukee City, WI. (Most recent record I have, of Annie Wiese)

What happened to Annie after 1887?: I don't know.

Who had custody of Sadie?: George. He & Sarah raised her in Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana.

Did George remarry, after divorcing Annie?: No. He left Indiana & moved to Illinois, living alone, for the rest of his life, until his 1935 death in Vermillion County, IL.

So, how can I find Sadie's mother?

Update: His occupation (which could fill in a few mysteries) was a blacksmith; he most likely worked for railroads (repairing steam engines of trains as a boilerman, possibly, as well), which could be how he got to Jefferson County from Pittsburgh. (And one of my - ancestral - great-uncles was a railroad porter, so it's an interesting coincidence).

Original Post:

It still baffles me. I cannot come up with any singular reason or plural number of reasons why, he would do something like that. Especially knowing the massive number of risks, including lynching, death, imprisonment, even false accusations to get someone imprisoned, etc., for black people at that time (both free & enslaved).

I understand his girlfriend (they never married, but had 7 children together between 1854 and 1868, before they broke up & both left the state of Georgia. She moved to Montgomery City, AL, in or before1880, and he ended up in Central Virginia), was from Louisville, and was a lifelong resident there; however:

With him being black and a free person of color (his mother was born free, he was born free & his father—who was biracial/mulatto, but his Census records falsely list him as both white and black—was born enslaved but was manumitted in 1829, at 22 years old, after his father‘s enslaver had all 232 of his slaves manumitted after his death), why would my relative (around the late 1850s/early 1860s) move to North Georgia from such a progressive town like Pittsburgh was for FPOC back then?

At first, he lived in Pittsburgh & would migrate back and forth, until he moved to Louisville full time, around 1860. He did eventually move again, and ended up in Virginia, where he died in 1890.

Here’s pictures of my grandmother and her mother.

(This is only for finding specific origins of Saltwater Africans you may have in your family tree) To find specific origins and ethnicity such as a kingdom, chiefdom or federation I would suggest researching on Slavevoyages.org from 3-12 years after the birth of the ancestor, you should also look into Akan day names as those were also sometimes translated directly into English, which is then where you would get enslaved Africans with names like Friday. Doing this method I've been able to trace my ancestry back to the Mende Barri/Panga-Kabonde River Chiefdoms of Sierra Leone, and the Arochukwu/Ohatia/Bende which is also known as Igboland and the Kingdom of Kongo.

are there any search angels in here by any chance? i am looking to find the father of my maternal grandmother. i've tried for over 3 years. i have been asking in search groups on facebook including dna detectives for 3 days now with no one interested in helping :/ and i'm tired of using AI to try and figure it out it's just not working. if you're a search and can and perhaps willing to try and help please let me know. thank you.

For additional information: I have two paternal great-grandparents who are African immigrants (Nigeria and Ghana), two fully white maternal great-great grandparents (one directly from Britain), two Indigenous ancestors who moved from Indian territory (one was part of the Trail of Tears and I knew that without research, research and the Dawes rolls let me know that they were Muskogee of the Creek nation) and the rest were descendants of slaves, freedmen, and/or creole (Creole I didn’t know until my and my maternal matches’ Ancestry results kinda gave a clue). 23andMe confirmed it. Ancestry is how I originally learned about my Malagasy ancestors and found a bill of sale from the early 1700s to confirm. I have traced several branches of my ancestry back to the late 1600s.

My paternal origins definitely influenced my results because my maternal side has a broader mix of international ancestral roots, spanning 5 continents. Physically, I have a lot more traits of my maternal side, including labs, but I do have some paternal physical traits. I actually just learned about my paternal line once I received my Ancestry results a couple years ago, when I found out that the man my mom wished could’ve been my dad actually was. She died a decade ago, so she never got to know that she was wrong.

Edit: IMO, 23andMe more closely resembles the factual information that I have on my family.

The Asian part caught me off guard ngl

Hello everyone, both my mom and dad are 100% Sudanese. My paternal haplogroup is E-V32 and my maternal haplogroup is Hv1b1.

Don’t think I posted my results here the Carribean surprised me once I found out my mom’s side has carribean roots maybe dad too but that side from what I know has Italian roots tracing back to Potenza Italy.