Greetings Dawn,

Most people who passed thought they did a good job of covering their tracks (at the time) never realizing that decades later some descendant would begin to put the puzzle pieces together.

Don't be disheartened, if you really want to locate your connection to AA kin, it can be done - it just takes a little more leg-work and research.

The most important thing is to be clear about accepting whatever you find. Genealogy research for everyone involves learning family secrets that have been hidden for years - and sometimes decades.

I'm glad to hear you are excited about the prospect of being connected to others of a different complexion, and would be happy to assist you, and others who have posted here, with similar quandaries, in beginning to "dig".

Some folks who have posted in this thread may not want to pursue the research or post results publicly on a forum like this.

Anyone interested in making connections to African descended ancestors can feel free to email me off board if they can't post delicate family information here.

DOlivervelez@hvc.rr.com.

I am very elated that I have recently been connected yet again to my "lost" white family members. They took the step to acknowledge my direct connection to their family, after viewing my website and finding photos of various great, and great-great grandparents of mine - who are also theirs. Some other members will never accept it - but I view that as their problem not mine.

My first step was to include those ancestors as part of my public tree. I left the next part up to anyone who stumbles across my site, and realizes that they are viewing the webpages of a black woman - who is their cousin.

My grandmother was white - and became "black" (and banished) after marrying my grandfather, as far as her family was concerned.

So this issue works both ways.

Sadly, I have been in touch with a woman who refuses to accept that her husband has African ancestors. He never knew it and grew up as white - as did his parents. She has taken refuge in insisting that the ancestors I have documented for her husband were mistakenly listed as mulattos and that they were actually Native American.

If she wants to comfort herself with this and remain in denial it is not my task to correct or even condemn.

As a genealogist - I believe it is our task to uncover the truths - to whatever extent possible about our ancestry. Ultimately we are all part of the same race - homo sapiens sapiens. We just can't always see this, given the historical/political divisions rooted in the construction of racial divisions.

Good luck to all- the search continues.

Denise