Slave Ancestral Research: It’s Something Else, is the documented research for author Mary L. Jackson Fears’ 7th-generation slave grandmother, Luveser McCrary. This search, this story, begins with finding Fears’ great-grandmother Emma’s brother, Peter, in the 1900 Taylor County Census. This is not a how-to book. In the author’s own words, “The are other publications…which serve that purpose. My purpose is to narrate the details of my roots search in a manner to inspire others.
Fears’ search is a fourteen year labor with its own rewards. These are the rewards she hopes to inspire in others searching their own slave ancestors. Oswals Perry Bronson, Sr., Ph.D., President, Bethune-Cookman College had this to say about Mary Jackson Fears and this book:
“Her work is informational and inspirational, systematic and persuasive, factual and enlightening, logical and deeply personal. The entire Bethune-Cookman College family is immeasurably proud and grateful to this alumna for illuminating the pages of history with her persistence and a publication that will reach into endless eternity as a role model.”
Throughout here research, Fears literally worked through thousands of documents. Often the author was forced to examine the family history of the slave owners in order to find connections to records and her family. Step by step Mary leads the reader through her research. Step by step the reader finds comfort knowing, despite the needed effort, there may be success in the end. The book is definitely a learn by example experience.
Contents
List of Charts
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
List of Abbreviations
1. My Discovery of Grandpa Simon and Grandma Tildy McCants
2. Slave Ancestral Research
3. Taylor County Court Records
4. A Discovery
5. Are These My Folks: Abram, Emily, and Mary on Catharine Daniel’s Inventory and Sale of Perishable Property?
6. He’s the One, John McCrary
7. Talbot County Returns
8. A Light at the End of the Tunnel
Beneath Taylor County Sod
On to Talbot county
On to Atlanta and the Georgia Archives
A Rude Awakening
Questions, Questions, Questions
9. From Pillar to Post
10. Baldwind County Probate Records
Record Group No. 1 Barley McCrary
Jenny Poindexter
“Oh Lord, How Come We Here?”
Records Group No. 2 John McCrary, Sr.
Warren County Records
Record Group No. 3 Jonathan McCrary
Record Group No. 4 Isaac McCrary
Record Group No. 5 Robert McCrary
Record Group No. 6 William McCrary
Hiring Day
Matthew McCrary
Record Group No. 7 John McCrary (d.1854)
11. A Name, A Name, What Name Shall I Take?
12. Where to Go From Here
July 7, 1993, A Day Remembered
13. The Day I Found My Folks
14. John McCarary, 1789-1854, Estate Records
The Division and Whereabouts of “Old Visues”
15. Revelations from Revolutionary War Records
16. The Transfer Chart
17. “All Things Work Together For Good”
The Metamorphosis of a Name
18. Missing Links, Divine Guidance and John McCrary
19. So Little to Go On, Reflections
20. The Descendants of Luveser McCrary
Notes
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Slave Ancestral Research: It’s Something Else is available at Family Root Publishing; Price: $36.26.