Dear Henry:
 
Obtaining specific information on country/region/tribe from Africa a black person's ancestor comes from is possible though it would be more hit or miss information than anything that was recorded on a routine basis in public records.  One would have to have some personal notation/description of the person in question in the plantation record and the likelihood of you finding that is greater in the 17th and 18th century than in the 19th century.  You would have to see if one could connect the person in question to a specific slave ship and establish a timeline and date of sale from the specific slave auction/owner.  Unfortunately, the probability of you finding this info is infrequent in a lot of cases.  I have been researching my family geneaology and the oldest black ancestor I can document is my maternal GGgrandfather Robert Eggleston (1822-1910) who was the mulatto slave offspring of William Eggleston (1794-1847) his white owner and an unidentified female slave.  To date, I have not been successful in identifying Robert's mother from the Eggleston plantation records which I have access to, thanks to my white cousin Dr. Robert Eggleston and Bryan Baine. I have slave lists that go back to the late 18th century but they do not list relationships or country of origin if African.  They are first cousins, 3rd removed.  Our common ancestor is William and their ancestor William Eggleston, Jr. (1842-1906) was my GGgrandfather's half brother.  I consider myself quite fortunate that I have been able to track back this much as most black folks can't cross that 1870 census barrier.  I  also have contact with the white side of the family that are geneaology and CW buffs like I am and who have been generous with sharing their private documents with me.  Most black people tracing their geneaology don't have access to plantation records which frequently are still in family hands.
 
Anita L. Henderson
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, 9 Mar 2007 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: African American Genealogy


Through searching plantation and court records it is possible to identify
the ancestor who was brought from Africa, though I am not aware of any
examples. I wouldn't be surprised if someone has done it. Ed Ball and the
people working with him may have done this. Newly arrived young slaves were
taken into court to have their ages established for tax purposes, and their
names were recorded. 

Henry Wiencek
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