Following emancipation Freedmen and Freedwomen did not necessarily "assume" a surname but instead may have taken a name which had been in his or her family for several generations". In my ancestors Walters evolved into to Walton somewhere along the way. It seems in researching Indian Territory that cohabitation was the norm. Men had more than one wife and a family to go with each wife. This holds true with both white and Black men.

[1 Sep 1999]