Wow! That is WONDERFUL that your 9-year-old son is taking an interest in his family history at such a young age!! Super!!

Check the 1850 and 1860 Neshoba County slave schedules just to be sure if there were any white Backstroms who had slaves. Also, check the 1850 and 1860 census to see if there were any white Backstroms. If they exist, then they would be the likely candidates. However, remember that a lot of former slaves did not take the last enslaver's surname. If you are not able to locate any white Backstroms in the area, then there's a good chance that your Backstroms ancestors were not last enslaved by a white family who carried the Backstrom name themselves but could have been connected to a Backstrom line (married daughters). I would then consider their white neighbors in 1870 as possibilities.

Melvin

: zena,
: thanks so much. My nine year old son has been doing the research on
: the Backstroms. He was looking through the 1870 census and had
: gotten so tired that he wanted a break. When i went to turn off
: his machine I saw Peter Backstrom. He had given up too soon.
: When we saw Mandy was born in Africa he was so excited. I can't
: wait to tell him this.
: Is Peter related to your family? I have not gone back and
: researched the siblings yet. I have only been doing the
: grandparents.
: Shell